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Once again 2014 was a year to revel in the diversity and accomplishments of the theatrical scene in Maine. The summer and winter seasons yielded a nice balance between adventurous programming and classics. Here is my personal list for 2014, grouped by theatre company and show.
1. MAINE STATE MUSIC THEATRE once again receives my vote for the finest company in the region. Their 2014 season offered four dazzling main stage productions, including the remarkable revival of Chamberlain: A Civil War Romance, a daring and moving music theatre piece, beautifully realized by director-choreographer Marc Robin together with stars James Patterson and Kathy Voytko.
South Portland's Mad Horse Theatre Company opened its 2024-2015 season with a riveting revival of Arthur Miller's 1955 tragedy, A View from the Bridge, which in the hands of this talented ensemble proves as relevant and wrenching as it was almost sixty years ago.
Miller's family drama about an Italian-American longshoreman struggling to make not only a living in the shadowy world of the Brooklyn waterfront, but also to make some sense of his life, which has been turned upside down by the arrival of his wife's cousins. As in all of Miller's plays, Eddie Carbone's tragedy is both an intimate, personal one and one with the monumental repercussions of a Greek drama,. Thus, brilliantly and idiomatically captured as it is by this brave little theatre company, situated on the rocky seaport coast of Maine some four hundred miles north of Brooklyn's docks. the fall of this 'little man' still resonates with mighty pathos and universal meaning.
South Portland's Mad Horse Theatre Company ended its season with a poignant and ambitious production of the Tony-award-winning musical, Grey Gardens. A musical is a bit of a departure for the small theatre company and its tiny black box space, but they acquitted themselves with both substance and aplomb.
Premiered in New York in 2006 with music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie, and book by Douglas Wright, the play tells the heartbreaking story of Jacqueline Kennedy's reclusive aunt and cousin, whose eccentric lives descend into disarray and squalor. With a script that is part Long Day's Journey into Night and a score that is part Stephen Sondheim, Grey Gardens is laden with pathos and a bittersweet humor. The lyrics are mordant; the music through composed as an extension of the dialogue, it is a theatre piece which calls for sensitive singing-actors and a director who can plumb its depths. Fortunately, the Mad Horse Theatre has both!
Two brothers live hand-to-mouth in an old home in North Philly. Phillip, sensitive and reclusive, never ventures out into the world. He relies on his older brother, Treat, for survival. But Treat, a violent pickpocket and thief, kidnaps a mysteriously wealthy businessman - who turns the tables on the two brothers and in a strange, hilarious and moving way, becomes their long lost father figure.
Mad Horse Theatre Company continues its new play reading series, BY LOCAL, with two new works by Maine playwrights: Sin Don't Enter Into It by Cullen McGough, and Ghosts of Ocean House by Michael Kimball. Both plays will receive two performances; all are held at All performances are held at the Mad Horse Theater in the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher Street, South Portland. Sin Don't Enter Into It, directed by Christine Louise Marshall, will be performed today, February 6 and Saturday February 8 at 7:30 pm. Ghosts of Ocean House, directed by Kat Moraros, will be performed Friday 2/7, 7:30 pm and Sunday February 9 at 2:00 pm. Pay-what-you-can tickets (a suggested $10 donation) are available at the door, cash and check only.
Mad Horse Theatre Company continues its new play reading series, BY LOCAL, with two new works by Maine playwrights: Sin Don't Enter Into It by Cullen McGough, and Ghosts of Ocean House by Michael Kimball. Both plays will receive two performances; all are held at All performances are held at the Mad Horse Theater in the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher Street, South Portland. Sin Don't Enter Into It, directed by Christine Louise Marshall, will be performed Thursday 2/6 and Saturday 2/8 at 7:30 pm. Ghosts of Ocean House, directed by Kat Moraros, will be performed Friday 2/7, 7:30 pm and Sunday 2/9 at 2:00 pm. Pay-what-you-can tickets (a suggested $10 donation) are available at the door, cash and check only.
Mad Horse Theatre Company is proud to open their 28th season with the Maine Premiere of David Ives' smart, sparkling THE SCHOOL FOR LIES - inspired by Moliere's THE MISANTHROPE.
The brutality and barbarism of Shakespeare's early 'revenge' play, Titus Andronicus, make it difficult fare for modern audiences. And yet, as director Stacey Koloski says about her staging at South Portland's Mad Horse Theatre Company: 'Titus Andronicus shows the human cost to the cycle of war and violence.' That the tragedy with all its on-stage atrocities may be 'frighteningly relevant today' does not make the experience any less painful for the spectators. Yet despite its assault on our emotions and senses, the audience at the Mad Horse Theatre cannot help but be gripped and moved by what it witnesses.
I am here to tell you that not only can Shakespeare's work be truly life changing, but it IS accessible, and topical in our present world climate. And a production like the Mad Horse Theatre's stellar presentation of Titus Andronicus proves that to a tee.
Mad Horse closes its 27th Season on a grand scale with one of Shakespeare's most sweeping and controversial plays. In this depiction of an aging warrior's return home, TITUS ANDRONICUS is a masterful examination of power, corruption, loyalty to family and to country, and the lengths to which one man will go to right a horrifying wrong.
Mad Horse closes its 27th Season on a grand scale with one of Shakespeare's most sweeping and controversial plays. In this depiction of an aging warrior's return home, TITUS ANDRONICUS is a masterful examination of power, corruption, loyalty to family and to country, and the lengths to which one man will go to right a horrifying wrong. Click below to watch a promo for the show!
Mad Horse closes its 27th Season on a grand scale with one of Shakespeare's most sweeping and controversial plays. In this depiction of an aging warrior's return home, TITUS ANDRONICUS is a masterful examination of power, corruption, loyalty to family and to country, and the lengths to which one man will go to right a horrifying wrong.
Mad Horse Theatre Company pays tribute to one of America's greatest playwrights, while recognizing many of Maine's premier performing artists, with A SIX PACK OF MILLER, running tonight, April 2-14 at the Mad Horse Theater at The Hutchins Schoolhouse, 24 Mosher Street, South Portland.
Mad Horse Theatre Company pays tribute to one of America's greatest playwrights, while recognizing many of Maine's premier performing artists, with A SIX PACK OF MILLER, running April 2-14 at the Mad Horse Theater at The Hutchins Schoolhouse, 24 Mosher Street, South Portland.
Mad Horse Theatre Company has announced that it will open its 27th season in its brand new theatre at the Hutchins School in South Portland. And with election season in full swing, nothing could be more perfect than starting the season with David Mamet's side-splitting comedy, November. With Mamet's characteristic no-holds-barred style, November is a relentlessly hysterical take on the state of American politics today--and a delicious antidote to this political season.
Mad Horse Theatre Company has announced that it will open its 27th season in its brand new theatre at the Hutchins School in South Portland. And with election season in full swing, nothing could be more perfect than starting the season with David Mamet's side-splitting comedy, November. With Mamet's characteristic no-holds-barred style, November is a relentlessly hysterical take on the state of American politics today--and a delicious antidote to this political season.