May 16 Thursday
Join in the fun and register your team for a 2024 News & Brews Trivia night!
Team check-in starts at 5:30pm. Trivia starts at 6:00pm!
*Note that we can’t accept teams with more than 5 players.
Click HERE to see the full 2024 News & Brews schedule!
May 22 Wednesday
Gillian Burnes will discuss the book Soft Features with host Bill Nemitz on Wednesday, May 22nd at 7:00 PM.
Click HERE to join the virtual meeting
Do you love books? Are you interested in hearing from the author and looking behind the curtain at what the author was thinking while writing? Perhaps have the author respond to a question or two that has been on your mind about a particular scene or character. Look no further than the Maine Public Book Club!
Click HERE to join the book club and receive information about book club news & events!
May 30 Thursday
May 05 Sunday
Written by David KayeDirected by Lauren Rose (based on original direction by David Kaye)
Molly McFolly tends to act before she thinks. She also often thinks she knows more than she does. This leads to a series of follies, including the folly caused by a bit of stereotyping (as it turns out, about Leprechauns). Featuring Celtic Music and puppets, this show is about learning lessons the hard way and making unlikely friends.
Two singers at the height of their powers—radiant soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor sensation Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Bartlett Sher’s towering staging also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.
Adult $25 | Senior $20 | Student $10 | All fees included
Please note that this production was originally scheduled for March 24, 2024, but has been rescheduled to May 5 due to technical issues related to the snowstorm.
May 07 Tuesday
The JCA is pleased to present “25044”, a one-act by Russell Kaback, for Yom HaShoah. 25044 is a solo musical story, written and performed by Russell Kaback, based on the life of his grandfather Szyjek Magier, a Polish Jewish teenager who spent four years in the Nazi labor and concentration camps.
Presented in Russell’s theatrical storytelling style that weaves together original songs on guitar, characters, sound effects and gestures, the piece incorporates personal interviews, testimonies, in-depth research and imagination, reminding us that life and hope can endure. The performance debuted in Turner, Maine in March 2023. It will be a featured offering as part of Portland Ovations’ 2024-25 in-school performances season. The show runs 75 minutes and is intended for audiences ages 13 and up.
Russell Kaback (writer, composer, lyricist, performer) is a musician and educator based in South Portland, Maine. He teaches in K-12 classrooms, and writes, produces and performs original music. He received the 2016 Joel and Linda Abromson Award and the 2018 Maine Arts Commission Project Grant in support of bringing his musical story, based on his grandfather’s experience during the Holocaust, into schools in Maine. This work has been performed in various venues in Maine and Massachusetts since 2014, at the PortFringe festival in Portland, and in his grandfather’s hometown of Bendzin, Poland in 2018. In 2022 he began collaboration with master storyteller Antonio Rocha to create the one-man musical storytelling version of the show, titled “25044”. The performance debuted in Turner, Maine in March 2023.
This program is made possible by generous support from the Cantor Kurt L. Messerschmidt Memorial Fund.
May 09 Thursday
What happens when the biggest teen heartthrob visits a small town in Ohio to very publicly kiss one lucky fan "farewell"? Chaos of course!
Come join the Midcoast Youth Theater community actors for this hilarious send-up of life in middle America in the 1950's, as the harried talent manager Albert and his fed-up secretary Rose concoct a brilliant plan to capitalize on their biggest client, Conrad Birdie, being drafted into the army: take him to Sweet Apple, Ohio, to bestow a symbolic goodbye kiss a randomly selected fan, Kim MacAfee, on national television! Watch as they navigate a troubled star, hoards of screaming teenage (and adult!) Birdie fans, Kim's jealous boyfriend, and Albert's outrageously interfering mother - what could possibly go wrong?
Show dates/times:Thursday May 9 - 7:00pmFriday May 10 - 7:00pmSaturday, May 11 - 2:00pm and 7:00pmSunday, May 12 - 2:00pm
Acclaimed author, comic storyteller, innkeeper, Cindy Pierce will perform in Portland in Kittery in May. Pierce’s latest solo show is called Keeping It Inn – an intimate, rousing portrayal of her functioning, dysfunctional family. Cindy Pierce wrote, produced, and stars in the show. She plays the role of her mother, Nancy Pierce, through six decades of raising seven kids and running an inn. Critics call the show “funny, absorbing, and honest.”
Eliza Ruth Watson stars as “Mama” Cass Elliot, the iconic Grammy Award winning singer who died at age 32 in 1974. Best known for being a member of the 1960’s folk rock band The Mamas & The Papas, Elliot also released five solo albums, which included songs “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “Make Your Own Kind of Music”, and “I’m Coming to The Best Part Of My Life”. Elliot was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022. This multimedia tribute is told through actual TV, radio, and print interviews with Elliot, and includes many of her musical hits.
May 10 Friday
Mainer comedian Chip Leighton, who has 1 million followers on social media, performs stand-up comedy benefit performance featuring his deadpan observations about marriage, parenting, and the ridiculous texts teens and college students send their parents. Proceeds benefit non-profit MCC.
May 11 Saturday