Laura Houck News

Good Theater's Executive/Artistic Director Brian P. Allen has a remarkable sixth sense about choosing plays whose situations and characters resonate with originality and empathy. The latest production, Molly Smith Metzler's The May Queen, is an engaging portrait of five small town characters who all work in the local insurance agency and whose lives and paths remain interconnected because of their shared high school past. Metzler's comedy explores the surface banality of these characters, as it slowly and skillfully makes its way toward revealing some deeper poetic truths.

Good Theater the professional company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland, will open its next main stage production, THE MAY QUEEN on January 25.  In addition the company will present three performances per week of A.R. Gurney's LOVE LETTERS.  From January 25-February 26, the company will offer 33 days of continuous theater giving nine performances per week.

Portland's Good Theater performs its annual musical revue, Broadway at the Good Theater this weekend bringing warmth, cheer, and an array of musical treats to mark the holiday season. Conceived, written, and directed by Brian P. Allen, this year's two hours of song and dance was devoted to the musicals of the 1970s.

The thirteenth edition of the Broadway at Good Theater concerts will be presented November 30 - December 4 for six performances.  This year will be a tribute to Broadway of the 1970s.   

During the first act of Christopher Durang's Tony award-winning 2013 play, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, the characters muse that 'if everyone were on anti-depressants, there would be no Chekhov.' Happily for Portland theatre goers, it seems that none of the six colorful, endearing, eccentric personages in Durang's contemporary comedy appears to be on any medication. Rather they squabble and moan and rant about their lives in absurdly clever and humorous dialogue as they struggle to find some happiness in the human bonds which connect them.

Good Theater, the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, will kick off its 15th Anniversary Season with the Portland premiere of the 2013 Tony Award winning Best Play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang and directed by Good Theater's Artistic Director, Brian P. Allen  The show will begin on Wednesday October 19 and play for five weeks through Sunday November 20 for a total of 30 performances.

Another chapter in the thirty-seven year history of Paul Portner's interactive comedy, Shear Madness, has opened on the stage of Portland's Good Theater, and the side-splittingly funny, quick-paced murder mystery which Brian P. Allen and his excellent cast serve up is not to be missed!

Good Theater presents SHEAR MADNESS by Paul Portner, directed by Brian P. Allen (original director Bruce Jordan). The show plays at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland starting January 27 and going for eight weeks through March 20. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

Still not over Jimmy Fallon performing at #Ham4Ham? Have you been too anxious for BroadwayCon this weekend? Didn't have time to check in on your favorite Broadway stars? Well don't worry BroadwayWorld has rounded up some of the biggest stories from this week from Broadway and beyond with BroadwayWorld's 'This Week in Pictures.'

Good Theater presents SHEAR MADNESS by Paul Portner, directed by Brian P. Allen (original director Bruce Jordan). The show plays at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland starting January 27 and going for eight weeks through March 20. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

SHEAR MADNESS, the longest running play in the United States, makes it Maine debut this winter presented by Good Theater.  The show opens January 27 and runs for eight weeks through March 20, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.  Good Theater is the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence.

The annual Christmastime musical revue which the Good Theater presents has grown incrementally bigger, more complex, more sparkling, and more striking each season. This year's two-hour songfest, written and directed by Brian P. Allen, is dedicated to the musicals of the 1930s and with some dozen performers and an excellent musical combo, the evening proves a delightful tribute to the great American songwriters and a cheerful way to ring in the holidays.

Good Theater has announced the annual presentation of its Broadway at Good Theater concerts December 2-6.  These fundraising events feature two special guests, Broadway star Kenita R. Miller, singing sensation Nicolas Callaway Foster and a dozen Good Theater performers. 

Portland Stage opened its 2015-2016 season with a thought-provoking production of Irish playwright Brian Friel's award-winning drama Dancing at Lughnasa, a wistful memory play about a matriarchal family in County Donegal in 1936. Commonly considered Friel's masterpiece, the drama examines the narrow, restricted lives of the Mundy sisters, constrained by poverty, unfulfilled dreams, and the conventions of Catholicism, as recounted by Michael, the 'love child' of one of the sisters, Christina, who tells the story from the dual perspective of a seven-year-old child and a grown man three decades later.

Good Theater, the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, kicks off its 14th season tonight, September 23, with the original musical revue, NO BIZ LIKE SHOW BIZ. This show is a tribute to Mary Martin and Ethel Merman starring three singers: Marie Dittmer, Lynne McGhee and Jen Means.

Good Theater, the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, kicks off its 14th season on September 23 with the original musical revue, NO BIZ LIKE SHOW BIZ.  This show is a tribute to Mary Martin and Ethel Merman starring three singers:  Marie Dittmer, Lynne McGhee and Jen Means.

Good Theater, the professional company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland, will present the Maine premiere of Paul Rudnick's REGRETS ONLY. The show opens tonight, January 28 and plays through February 22.

Good Theater, the professional company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland, will present the Maine premiere of Paul Rudnick's REGRETS ONLY. The show opens January 28 and plays through February 22.

Good Theater kicks off the second half of its season with the Portland premiere of the hilarious hit comedy BECKY'S NEW CAR by Steven Dietz. BECKY'S NEW CAR plays January 29 through February 23 at Good Theater's home the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

A girl with fish-scale skin, a boy who cannot touch, a friend who sees only shadows...The Freaks Club is the funny, touching new musical where 'fish' turns to 'dish,' dreams become nightmares, and what is lost is the key to finding what really matters.