News from Stonington Opera House

Press Releases
Learn more about Opera House Arts performers,
performances,and commissioned work.
Contact: Linda Nelson, Executive Director
lnelson@operahousearts.org or 207.367.2788

“OUR OWN” COMMUNITY PLAYREADING AUDITIONS:
ONE ACT PLAYS BY TENNESEE WILLIAMS

STONINGTON – Auditions will be held Saturday, April 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. for the next “Our Own” Community Playreading at the Stonington Opera House. The playreading will be presented on Wednesday, April 23, and will consist of three of American playwright Tennessee Williams’ one act plays from the 1940s—27 Wagons Full of Cotton, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, and Portrait of a Madonna—guest directed by Jean Wilhelm of Eastport. Everyone, regardless of experience, is encouraged to participate in the “Our Own” playreadings, which require only 15 hours of rehearsal time and no memorization. The series presents an excellent opportunity to read new and classic plays; and to explore drama, direction, and performance through scripts and while working with guest directors.

The selected plays are of interesting historical and literary merit. Madonna is an early sketch for Williams’ classic A Streetcar Named Desire. Additionally, after seeing famed actress Jessica Tandy’s performance in a 1947 production of Madonna, Williams decided to cast her in the starring role in Streetcar’s premiere. He later wrote, “It was instantly apparent to me that Jessica was Blanche [DuBois].” Williams referred to 27 Barrels Full of Cotton as “a Mississippi Delta comedy.” In 1956, director Elia Kazan adapted this play into a controversial movie, Baby Doll.

Guest director Dr. Jean Wilhelm directed and taught theater around the world, from Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater to Australia and back, before allegedly “retiring” to Eastport, ME, where she was most recently Vice President of Development for the Eastport Arts Center. Wilhelm began her career as assistant to theater legend Tyrone Guthrie, and spent 12 years at the University of South Wales, Australia. She is known as “the visionary founder and former director” of the Master of Arts in Arts Administration program at Goucher College in Maryland, at which there are two academic awards offered in her honor. In early 2005, Wilhelm was instrumental to the Eastport Arts Center’s efforts to purchase the 1837 Washington Street Baptist Church as its permanent home. Its 9,200 square feet houses six of the nine constituent arts organizations, and provides space for community use.

The “Our Own” Community Playreading Series is in its eighth year, and throughout 2008 will focus on One Act Plays by Maine writers and others. For more information please go to www.operahousearts.org.

STONINGTON--Nationally touring performance artist Tim Collins brings his unique brand of political and comedic solo theater to the Stonington Opera House in a one-night only performance: A FIRE AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, The Work In Progress, on Sunday, March 2nd, at 7:00 p.m.

“We’re delighted to bring Tim back,” said Opera House Arts’ Co-Artistic Director Judith Jerome. “We’ve worked with him previously, and his work delights and fires up our audiences.”

A FIRE AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, The Work In Progress, will feature Gun Shy, a theater-as-reportage solo piece about the National Rifle Association’s National Convention held in St. Louis in April 2007. Gun Shy, hailed as “Superb,” by the Portland Phoenix, features 13 characters in 15 minutes and grapples with the issues of guns, religion, terrorism, and terror--America-style. The performance will also feature other multi-character, comedic and political theater pieces of a journalistic bent, tackling the Iraq War, American media, and the struggles and inconsistencies of left and right wing political opinion.

Collins has created and toured his own one-man shows since 2001, performing in cities as far-flung as Los Angeles, Orlando, Florida, and Caribou, Maine. Collins' multi-character, fast-paced solo shows have been widely praised.

“Collins as an actor has energy to spare,” wrote David Noble in a review in the St. Louis Vital Voice. “His stage presence is more Jim Carey than Spalding Gray. He contorts his face, body and voice into such sharp physical characterizations that there is no question when he’s switching from one character to another...(Collins) has created something fresh and thought provoking. Oh yeah, and more than a bit funny.”

Collins recently relocated to St. Louis from New England, and since that move has worked with a number of St. Louis acting and performance organizations, namely:

Jest Entertainment, with whom he tours nationally; COCA; Project Improv; and the 2006 St. Louis Slam Poetry Team, a team Collins, as elected team captain, led to compete in the National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas.

Tickets for the March 2 performance at the Stonington Opera House are $10, available at the box office the evening of the show. No reservations are necessary.

Opera House Arts at the 1912 Stonington Opera House (OHA), on the National Register of Historic Places, is a nonprofit small professional theater acclaimed for its original productions and artist commissions, including, in 2007, Quarryography at the Settlement Granite Quarry; the documentary film, Tire Tracks; and The Singing Bridge: A Downeast Chamber Opera. The Opera House presents a full, year-round schedule of first run and independent films; professional and community theater; and community events. Please go to www.operahousearts.org for more information.

MAINE PLAYWRIGHT JOHN CARIANI LAUNCHES WINTER SERIES
Workshops at the Stonington Opera House to feature Master TeachersSTONINGTON – Award-winning playwright John Cariani, author of Almost, Maine as well as a Tony Award-nominated actor, will launch Opera House Arts’ new series of winter master classes at the Stonington Opera House January 7-9, 2008. Cariani will teach a three-day playwriting intensive titled “Story is Where the Art Is.”

“ ‘Play’ is defined as ‘ recreational activity; especially : the spontaneous activity of children. For short—fun,” Cariani wrote, in introducing the course description. “‘Wright’ is defined as ‘a worker skilled in the manufacture especially of wooden objects.’ Hmm. I am not a woodworker, so, for our purposes—let’s just say a ‘wright’ is a…maker of things. A playwright, then, could be defined as a maker of fun. And, in this workshop, we will make fun. Even if the fun you want to make is deep, dark, dramatic, polarizing, political, issue-driven and sad.”

In this workshop, participants will focus on how story helps you write. Plays exist to transport audiences from this world, and into another one. And what transports people isn’t the hilarious dialogue or the talented actors or the beautiful set. It’s the story. Story is the key to good playwriting. It’s where the art is. The workshop will include the transformation of structurally sound stories (fiction and non-fiction) into short plays; as well as various exercises that will encourage disciplined storytelling. Participants will constantly be encouraged to try to solve the riddle of what happens next?, and will come away from the workshop having written some short plays and having discussed what comes next—once the play is written. “That,” says Cariani, “is the really fun part.”

John Cariani's first play, Almost, Maine, premiered at Portland Stage Company in 2004, and opened Off Broadway in the winter of 2005. The play was named one of the ten best of the 2004/2005 regional theater season by the Wall Street Journal and is featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006. John's short plays have been produced in New York by the Barrow Group; he was a contributing writer for Transport Group’s Drama Desk-nominated The Audience; and his newest play is being developed by the Cape Cod Theatre Project. As an actor, John is an Outer Critics Circle Award recipient and a Tony Award nominee. He has appeared on and off Broadway, and in several films and television shows. Many know him as Beck, the very eager forensics technician on Law & Order. Originally from Presque Isle, Maine, John is a graduate of Amherst College. He currently lives in New York City.

Opera House Arts at the 1912 Stonington Opera House (OHA), on the National Register of Historic Places, is a nonprofit small professional theater acclaimed for its original productions and artist commissions, including, in 2007, Quarryography at the Settlement Granite Quarry; the documentary film, Tire Tracks; and The Singing Bridge: A Downeast Chamber Opera. The residential winter workshop series is designed to offer professional and serious non-professional performers and writers periods of focused study with some of the masters of these crafts. The series is also intended to add winter dollars and vitality to OHA’s island community.

Registration is limited and is available online at www.operahousearts.org or by calling the Opera House box office, 207-367-2788. The registration deadline is December 20, 2007. Workshop fees begin at $350 for double occupancy accommodations. A flat, discounted fee is available for island residents, and two slots in the workshop are reserved for high school scholarship students. For more information on the workshop; accommodation options; and travel please go to www.operahousearts.org.

Opera House Arts at the 1912 Stonington Opera House (OHA), on the National Register of Historic Places, is seeking original, one act plays for staged readings.

All New England playwrights are encouraged to submit a one act play or plays, with a cover letter and brief synopsis, to:

One Acts
Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House
PO Box 56
Stonington, ME 04681

No electronic submissions, please! Deadline for submissions to be considered for the coming production season is January 1, 2008. Readings of selected plays will take place in Spring 2008 as part of OHA’s acclaimed “Our Own” Community Playreading Series.

The reading series features the development of new plays, alongside the playwrights and with experienced professional directors, by community readers. Plays are put into a 15 hour rehearsal cycle; no memorization is required. For playwrights, the series presents a structured and informed manner, including highly engaged participants and audience members, to develop work. For community readers and aspiring actors, the series presents an excellent opportunity to read new plays with their writers present; and to explore drama, direction, and performance through scripts. The series, launched in 2001, has included issue-oriented plays such as “The Vagina Monologues” and “The Exonerated;” classics such as Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town;” and, in 2007, with support the Maine Community Foundation’s Theater Fund, new work by Maine playwrights Clare Melley Smith and Lee Rose.

The schedule of “Our Own” Community Playreadings is available on the Opera House Arts’ website, www.operahousearts.org. Tickets are $5, available only at the door the evening of the show.

NORTH COUNTRY COUNTRY BENEFIT; THE SANTALAND DIARIES; MOVIES!

STONINGTON – Do you like to dance or to listen to old-time country music? The kind you or your neighbors might play in your kitchen, with spoons, mandolins, and fiddles? Do you know the words to “Golden Slippers” by heart? Gospel? Then North Country Country, an evening of music and dance with northern Maine’s finest traditional musicians, is for you at the Stonington Opera House at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 8. This event is an annual fundraiser co-sponsored by Opera House Arts and the Island Clergy. A church supper at the Community of Christ Church, also in Stonington, will precede the music from 5 to 7 p.m. Admission to both the supper and the concert is by free will donation, and all proceeds will benefit the Island Food Pantry. On Sunday, December 9 th, at 6 p.m. Opera House Arts is pleased to present Penobscot Theatre’s production of bestselling author and National Public Radio personality David Sedaris’ outrageously funny The Santaland Diaries. This is a special sneak preview of the hilarious tale of a Yuletide elf, employed at Macy’s Department Store in New York City, before it plays the Bangor Opera House. The Santaland Diaries will be performed by Nathan Halvorson, beloved to island students as an instructor at the annual, summer Island Arts Camp (a co-production of Opera House Arts, the Reach Performing Arts Center, and Seamark Community Arts) and to Bangor area residents as a guest director and actor at Penobscot Theatre, Bangor’s professional theatre. It is a delightfully thorny account of a washed-up, out-of-work actor who lands temporary employment as Crumpet the Elf at a major department store. Reserve your tickets for The Santaland Diaries by calling our box office: 367-2788. All tickets are $15. Island high school students are free; this show is intended for mature audiences.On Wednesday, December 19, the Opera House will host a holiday community playreading directed by Judith Jerome. Title to be announced!

And in our annual tradition, the Opera House will run matinees and evening shows of two different movies the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Stay tuned to our website or movie line (367-2788) for details!

OPERA HOUSE TO SCREEN ROUGH CUT OF “LIFE BY LOBSTER,”
A NEW VIDEO DOCUMENTARY OF YOUNG FISHERMEN

STONINGTON – Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House (OHA) will screen a preliminary rough cut of “Life by Lobster,” with discussion, Saturday and Sunday, October 6 - 7 at 6 p.m. The 20-minute screening is free and open to the public. “Life by Lobster” is a video documentary by Iain McCray Martin, who will be in attendance at the screenings. The video is the newest project from OHA’s community-access digital media studio, the Imagination Project. OHA commissioned “Life by Lobster,” which explores, in their own voices, the choices and experiences of a generation of young Maine lobster fishermen on Deer Isle, with funding from the Maine Community Foundation’s Hancock County Fund.

“The main purpose of our public digital media studio is to leverage our skills and resources to assist community members in telling their stories--as well as those of their families, peers, and of the island in general,” said Linda Nelson, OHA’s Executive Director and the project’s sponsor. “Iain’s film is a great example of this, and we look forward to the public discussion at this free preliminary screening.”

“Life by Lobster,” scheduled for completion in summer 2008, is a documentary film, made by a 20-year old community member, which examines the continuation of commercial lobster fishing as a vocational option for the current generation. Martin, a 2005 graduate of Deer Isle-Stonington High School and an independent filmmaker pursing an undergraduate degree as a film major at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, was inspired by his home town and the lives of his high school classmates to document their choices and challenges. He has shot compelling footage with his friends, both on and off the water, as they discuss the economics and regulations and environmental realities of their profession—as well as their love of it.

Martin also serves as an officer with EmoryVision, the university's student-run television and film production network. A member of the Student Program Council, Martin assists in bringing big-name musical acts to Emory alongside several events meant to enrich and improve the experience of Emory’s student body. Martin is a contributing writer and photographer for the Emory Wheel, Emory’s student-run news publication; and a member of the Emory Police Cadets, a student division of the Emory Police Department. His current film projects, in addition to Life by Lobster, include Sean Costello - On the Road, a documentary that follows award winning blues musician Sean Costello as he records tracks for his latest album and rests on the cusp of widespread fame.

During the creation of the rough cut, J. Miller Tobin, a respected and accomplished film and television director and summer resident of Deer Isle, signed on to produce the final version of “Life by Lobster” with Opera House Arts. Tobin is most currently directing episodes of the TV drama “Numb3rs,” and has worked on dramatic series from “CSI” to “The Agency.” His 1999 short dramatic comedy, 4 a.m.: Open All Night, which details the interactions of three characters in an all-night diner at 4 a.m., was awarded the Special Prize in Memoriam R.W. Fassbinder.

The Imagination Project, which was originally established by Lois and Jerry Kirschenbaum of Little Deer Isle in memory of Jerry’s mother, Leah Kirschenbaum, provides public access to digital video and still cameras; on location lighting and sound equipment; and digital editing, animation, graphics, website production, and media conversion hardware and software in a two-person studio in the Stonington Opera House’s Main Street office. The Imagination Project offers the public the ability to borrow professional level equipment; book studio time; and participate in ongoing training opportunities in interviewing, reporting, and documentary technique; camera work; and recording and editing techniques with iMovie and FinalCut Pro.

KENNEDY CENTER PARTNERS INVITE ARTISTS TO LEARN OF
TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES
Deer Isle-Stonington CSD and Opera House Arts one of 14 new Kennedy Center Partners in Education

For more information and for the 2008 Workshop Schedule, click here

Issued August 24, 2007 STONINGTON – Regional arts organizations and artists are invited to a meeting on Wednesday, September 19 at 6 p.m. at the Stonington Opera House to learn about teaching opportunities via the new Kennedy Center Partners in Education program offered by Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House (OHA) and the Deer Isle-Stonington school district. All interested artists are encouraged to attend.“The Kennedy Center program is the tops in the country for supporting teachers and for integrating arts techniques into the full curricula,” said Judith Jerome, OHA’s Co-Artistic Director. “Additionally, we are always looking for ways to provide paid work for local artists; to integrate the arts into everyday education; and to leverage the assets of the Opera House to enhance local education.”At the meeting, local artists will learn of new, structured opportunities to develop and integrate their artistic practices into the school curricula, with the goal of helping teachers to increase student performance in literacy; math, and across the board. The meeting is part of a year of professional development events scheduled by the local partners, which will include professional development in-service workshops for teachers in January, March, and April 2008. The first year of events will be taught by certified members of the Kennedy Center’s teaching-artist roster, employing curricula developed in partnership with the Kennedy Center. In future years, local artists will be encouraged and trained to develop the curricula necessary to teach these sessions.

“Research clearly shows that students who learn in and through the arts perform better across the board,” said Catherine Ring, principal of the Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School and Kennedy Center partner. “This program creates opportunities for teachers to access highly successful techniques for improving students’ literacy; and for giving their students a 21st century education.”The Deer Isle-Stonington schools and Opera House Arts were named one of 14 new Kennedy Center partnership teams earlier this year. The Kennedy Center Partners in Education program was established in 1991 to assist arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation develop and/or expand educational partnerships with their local school systems. There are now more than 100 teams in almost every state in the nation participating in the 16-year-old program. The purpose of the partnerships is the establishment or expansion of professional development programs, focused on integrating the arts into standard curricula, for all teachers. The Kennedy Center's extensive experience with its local professional development program for teachers provides the basis for this national program. Partnership teams consist of a member of an arts organization and a senior level administrator of a neighboring school system. The team participates in an institute that provides models and planning strategies for establishing or expanding professional development programs in the arts for all teachers, follow-up consultation, and annual meetings to assist teams in their continued development.

The mission of the Deer Isle-Stonington School District is to launch lifelong learners and responsible citizens able to keep our island vital. The school district has pursued the Kennedy Center Partners in Education program as an integral component of its five year strategic plan and goals.

Back to top

ARCTIC RESEARCH SCIENTISTS TO SPEAK AFTER NEW MOVIE
National Geographic’s new “Arctic Tale” in early screening at Stonington Opera House

STONINGTON – California-based Arctic research scientists Gail Osherenko and Oran Young will speak, lead a discussion, and show footage from their short research film, “Arctic Expedition,” Saturday, September 1 after the opening night screening of the newly-released National Geographic feature film, “Arctic Tale,” at the Stonington Opera House.

“Arctic Tale” was released August 17. Produced by National Geographic, who made the popular “March of the Penguins,” and distributed by Paramount Vantage, home of “An Inconvenient Truth,” this film, which follows a young polar bear and a young walrus through maturity and parenthood, is acclaimed by critics as a cross between those two films. It is compiled from footage shot over almost 10 years, and shows the young mammals maturing as the polar ice increasing melts, significantly altering their unique and already-difficult environment. It screens September 1 through 3 at 7 p.m. at the Opera House.

Oran Young, Ph.D., is a Professor of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He is the co-director of the Bren Program on Governance for Sustainable Development, and is an expert in international relations, particularly on international cooperation in the Arctic and on climate change. Photo of Gail Osherenko courtesy www.filmsfromthenorth.com

Gail Osherenko recently finished shooting her first short film “Arctic Expedition.” She is a research scientist in law and policy at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute. She has taught regime formation, natural resource management, and indigenous rights in the Arctic. Ms. Osherenko is also an environmental lawyer.

The Opera House does not sell advance tickets for movies. Tickets, $6 for adults and $5 for those under 17 years of age, go on sale at 6:30 p.m. at the theater box office.

Back to top

NORTH HAVEN’S THE TOUGHCATS IN CONCERT/DANCE AT OPERA HOUSE

Issued August 17, 2007

STONINGTON – One of Maine’s hottest new bands, The Toughcats of North Haven, will appear at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle Friday, August 31 in a concert/dance starting at 7 p.m. The three-piece indie band features Jake Greenlaw, 21, on drums, percussion, and vocals; Colin Gulley, 27, on banjo, mandolin, and vocals; and Joseph Robert Nelson on guitar, ukulele, and lead vocals to create a unique and quirky mix of original folk, rock, ragtime and bluegrass tunes.

“Live, The Toughcats bring in film clips and a bit of acting to keep the crowd engaged — expect to see some onstage antics,” writes Emily Burnham in The Bangor Daily News.

The band, which tours nationally, has opened for legendary rock group The Mammals, as well as for The Red Stick Ramblers. Most recently they have appeared in Portland with singer-songwriter Emilia Dahlin, an Opera House favorite. The Toughcats, whose single “043” off their 2006 album Piñata was featured on National Public Radio’s All Songs Considered, originally formed to raise money for a local scholarship fund.

The Toughcats of North Haven, above, while on national tour in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The band will be at the Stonington Opera House Friday, August 31, beginning at 7 p.m.
Photo courtesy of The Toughcats.

The Toughcats self-recorded Piñata at a local community center, but it was mastered by Kramer: former Butthole Surfers bassist, past producer for Sonic Youth and Urge Overkill, and owner of the label Second-Shimmy.

Like all of our island residents, The Toughcats spend most of their days in lobster fishing, carpentry, emergency medicine and other jobs. They have played live film scores for Bird Dog Productions and written music for Cecily Pingree's documentary film about designer Angela Adams. In 2006, the band members collaborated with Courtney Naliboff, the North Haven Community School’s music teacher, for a ballet she conceptualized around the band Deerhoof’s album “Milkman.” A DVD from that event is forthcoming.

Tickets for The Toughcats are $10, available only at the door the evening of the show. For more information on The Toughcats visit their website, www.toughcats.com; or call the Opera House at 367-2788.

Back to top