OHA's 2008 SEASON: our 9th!
This is a preliminary schedule and subject to change!
Dates for major shows (OHA's Annual Benefit Gala; Jazz Festival; Shakespeare)
will remain fixed. For a printer-friendly version CLICK HERE
Click HERE for MOVIE schedule.
Check out the Community Rental Schedule for more great eventsThe following Opera House Arts performances and related workshops will take place at the Stonington Opera House, located on School St. in Stonington, Maine. All show times are 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. This is a preliminary schedule and subject to change without notice. To confirm movie titles, performances, or for further information, call 367-2788.
March 2: PERFORMANCE: “A Fire As Bright as Heaven,” a solo show by comedian Tim Collins.
March 3-14: WORKSHOP: Jeffrey Frace, director of 2008’s Shakespeare in Stonington production of Macbeth, in a middle school residency at Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School.
March 21: KENNEDY CENTER TEACHER WORKSHOP: “Getting Started with Drama Integration, Part I,” with Karen Erickson
April 9: OUR OWN COMMUNITY PLAYREADING SERIES, Judith Jerome directs.
April 14-15: KENNEDY CENTER TEACHER WORKSHOP: “Drama, the Missing Link in Teaching Literacy,” with Karen Erickson
May 21: OUR OWN COMMUNITY PLAYREADING SERIES. Peter Richards directs “Men’s Lives,” a dramatic adaptation of Peter Matthiessen’s book Men’s Lives: The Surfmen and Baymen of the South Fork, “a finely written . . . observation of a passing culture . . . the independent, tough, skilled members of a few large families who have fished those coastal waters for generations, but who no longer can make a living in the face of regulations, political restrictions, economic pressures . . . a somewhat melancholy portrait of frontier characters bowing to modernism, but it is also a masterful celebration of craft, of pride in one's work, of community, of endurance.” (Library Journal)
June 2-6: READING: Facilitator-led group reading of Macbeth, with discussion, dates to be confirmed
June 11: OUR OWN COMMUNITY PLAYREADING SERIES, title tba
June 21: PERFORMANCE: Bud Carter Memorial Music Scholarship Concert and Lupine Festival Variety Show.
July 2 (Gala), 3 and 5, 6: PERFORMANCE: “As It Is In Heaven,” by Arlene Hutton, directed by Carol Estey. An historical portrayal of the Shakers, complete with accurate reconstructions of original Shaker songs and dances by music director Mary Ann Haagen, a resident scholar at Dartmouth.
July 7 – 11: WORKSHOP: Island Arts Camp, with Mike Miclon, Guest Artist.
July 9: PERFORMANCE: Live for $5: Michael Miclon has brought his high energy antics, including comedy and juggling, to some of the finest theaters and special events across the United States and Europe, with such highlights as the Kennedy Center and the White House in Washington D.C., The Keller Theater in Germany, The Victoria Jungfrau Hotel in Switzerland and the Festa Americana in Italy.
July 16: PERFORMANCE: Live for $5: Brother Blue dresses in blue, from his socks to his beret to the butterflies painted on his palms. Brother Blue is also known as Hugh Morgan Hill, Ph.D. For the past 30 years, he's been telling his stories in public, particularly on street corners and in prisons. Brother Blue is the official storyteller of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. "I bring Homer to the streets. I bring Sophocles," Brother Blue says. "To tell stories, you should know Chaucer. You should know Shakespeare. You should know Keats. You have to be constantly reading. You read, you think, you create. You have to know the new moves: You must be able to rap and be able to sing the blues!"
July 19- 23: WORKSHOP: Summerstage. Opera House arts’ annual free workshop for teens with David Neufeld. Described as "a cross between Mark Twain and Gary Larson (The Far Side)", David Neufeld's original stories mix the tradition of voice and character acting with modern, often comic situations. He has performed for over a million people of all ages throughout the U.S. and abroad since 1980. His physical style of acting, incorporating illusion, stagecraft, and character voice provides a depth to his performances that engages even large groups of high school students. His work is carried into workshops on personal story-making and writing. A published journalist and author, he has led groups in exploring the central quality of story in all art forms. He has appeared at festivals from Germany to Canada and he is founder of the New England Modern Storytelling Festival.
Wednesday, July 23: PERFORMANCE: Live for $5, Summerstage! Students perform their own favorite stories led by Storyteller David Neufeld. Expect the unexpected!
July 24-27: PERFORMANCE, FILM, LECTURE, MASTER CLASS, EXHIBIT: The 8 th Annual Deer Isle Jazz Festival, expanded edition: “ New Orleans: Culture and Crisis.”
July 24: FILM: Spike Lee’s “When the Levee’s Broke”
July 25: PERFORMANCE: Donald Harrison Quartet. Harrison, saxophonist and Mardi Gras Indian Chief, will be in residence at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from July 13 – August 1, and the festival will include an exhibit of his Mardi Gras Indian costumes at the Haystack Community Gallery, opening date tba.
July 26: WORKSHOP: Master class with Hot 8; LECTURE/PANEL: Larry Blumenfeld with Harrison and guests; PERFORMANCE: concert with Hot 8
July 27: PERFORMANCE: Second Line Parade w/ Hot 8 and Harrison, beginning at Church Street, Proceeding down Main Street
Wednesday, July 30: PERFORMANCE: Live for $5, Lorraine Chapman, touted by Dance Magazine as “One of the top 25 choreographers to watch in 2008,” comes to the island for an evening of dance w/ Special Guests (including Stonington’s own Wendee Rogerson)
Friday, August 1: PERFORMANCE: Joel Chadabe and friends, Electronic Music
Saturday, August 2: PERFORMANCE: An Evening with Sam Lardner & Barcelona with Special Guest with Juanito Pascual. Sam Lardner & Barcelona is everything that a cross-cultural musical experience should be: artists from different traditions meeting in a place where everyone shines brighter, the kind of eclectic collaboration the world needs now more than ever. Don’t miss this!
Wednesday, August 6 PERFORMANCE: Live for $5, Gender Wayang, with Christine Southworth and Evan Ziporyn. Balinese shadow puppet music. A two person gamelan from the Gamelan Galak Tika group. From Lincoln Center to Balinese temples, from loft spaces to international festivals, composer/performer Evan Ziporyn has traveled the globe in search of new musical possibilities. His work is informed by his 25-year involvement with Balinese gamelan, which has ranged from intensive study of traditional music to the creation of a series of groundbreaking works for gamelan and western instruments. Most recently, he led his 30-member ensemble, Gamelan Galak Tika, in a triumphant debut performance in New York's Zankel Hall, hailed by the New York Times as 'an exuberant blast of metal fireworks.' This was followed in summer 2005 by a multi-city tour of Bali, where the group performed his cross-cultural works in collaboration with top Balinese gamelans and choreographers. Christine Southworth, through her work with robots and automated music systems as co-founder and Director of Ensemble Robot, makes groundbreaking music based on the interaction between technology and creativity. Compared to Laurie Anderson, The Boston Phoenix called her most recent show “truly electrifying.” Southworth received a B.S. from MIT in 2002 in mathematics and music and M.A. in Computer Music & Multimedia Composition from Brown University in 2006. She composes for Western ensembles, Balinese gamelan, and mixed ensembles of gamelan, western instruments, electronics, and robots. Her compositions have been played by Gamelan Galak Tika, Ethel, Bang on a Can, Arnold Dreyblatt’s Orchestra of Excited Strings, Alarm Will Sound, the NEC Wind Ensemble, and Ensemble Robot, at venues including the Boston Museum of Science, Mass MoCA, Jordan Hall, MIT, Wesleyan University, and in Bali, Indonesia.
Thursday, August 7: READING: Daniel Hoffman, Poet Laureate, crosses the bridge from Harborside to read from his own, and his late wife Elizabeth McFarland’s, poetry.
August 14-17: PERFORMANCE: Shakespeare in Stonington, “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, directed by Jeffrey Frace. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7 p.m.; Sunday Aug. 17 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday, August 20: PERFORMANCE: Live for $5, Tzena! Tzena!, the warm and witty Klezmer Band, was born in Bangor, Maine when an interfaith collection of local musicians was called together to play for an ecumenical Thanksgiving service. Their repertoire is Eastern European dance music and Yiddish theatre vocals and instrumentals, as well as some Israeli, Chassidic and Hebrew songs, and an occasional original creation. The backgrounds of the members are rich and varied, combining many musical styles, but they stick to the ethnic sound.
Wednesday, August 30: PERFORMANCE: Our Own Playreading Series, Carol Estey directs a large cast play, title TBA.
Wednesday, October 1: PERFORMANCE: Our Own Playreading Series, One Acts chosen from our recent One Act Play call.
Donald Harrison
Big Mardi Gras Indian Chief
8th Annual Deer Isle Jazz Festival,
expanded edition:
"New Orleans: Culture and Crisis"
July 24-27, 2008.
Mr. Harrison will also be the Opera House Guest Musician-in-Residence at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
July 20-August 1.