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Sunday, November 17: Beautiful Blackbird

Greg Mooney with Beautiful Blackbird Live on Tour
Jordia Benjamin
Jordia Benjamin
René Goddess
René Goddess
Beautiful Blackbird at Maddy's Theatre

Beautiful Blackbird is a children’s book by Ashley Bryan that has inspired a whole suite of live events and programs across the autumn here in Maine. Among them - a children’s book festival, a stage play for young audiences and a concert adaptation for family audiences, called Beautiful Blackbird Live, coming up on November 23 in Westbrook.

This week, two guests walk us through all these Beautiful Blackbird activities – Jordia Benjamin, Executive Director of the Indigo Arts Alliance and René Goddess, a Portland-based theater artist who is Artistic Director of The Theater Ensemble of Color as well as the director of the stage play edition of Beautiful Blackbird.

The family-friendly concert adaptation, Beautiful Blackbird Live, presented by Portland Ovations and produced by the Alliance Theater of Atlanta, takes place on November 23 at 11am at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center. For tickets and full details, go to portlandovations.org.

The companion production for young audiences of the stage play, Beautiful Blackbird, presented by the Children’s Museum & Theater of Maine, is touring around Maine through November. Details at kitetails.org.

More about the annual Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival, at beautifulblackbird.com.

Heather McDougall has enjoyed a varied international career, with more than two decades working across classical radio and music management. With roots as a performing and teaching cellist, she got her start in public media at Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s national public broadcaster, in classical radio production and later as artistic administrator for their two radio orchestras. Other production, music direction, and project management roles at West Cork Music, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, WFMT Radio Network (Chicago) and WRTI (Philadelphia) have rounded out her versatility across these fields and reflect her lifelong passion for radio and music-making.