Maine stages are packed with fall theater, dance and classical productions
Maine fall performing arts season to include new plays, touring musicals and classical programs
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s fall performing arts calendar spans theater, music and dance, with productions and concerts scheduled from Sept. 10 through Dec. 20. The season includes world premieres, regional productions, national touring musicals, orchestral programs and ballet performances across the state.
Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor will open its fall schedule with “On Golden Pond,” running Sept. 10-Oct. 4, followed by “Broomstick” from Oct. 22-Nov. 8. In South Portland, The Portland Players will stage “Jesus Christ Superstar” Sept. 11-27, while Lyric Music Theater will present “Finding Wonderland” during the same dates and return Nov. 6-15 with “You Can’t Take It With You.”
Portland Stage will begin its 53rd season with Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” running Sept. 30-Oct. 25. Deborah Zoe Laufer’s “Rooted” follows Nov. 4-22. Mad Horse Theatre has scheduled “Eureka Day,” a play about challenges in education, for Oct. 1-25, followed by “The Humans” Dec. 3-20.
Good Theater will present “Little Shop of Horrors,” the musical based on the film, Oct. 1-18. “Conversations with Mother” follows Nov. 5-22.
Dramatic Repertory Company will stage the world premiere of Lynne Connor’s “Seven Sisters” Oct. 2-11. The company describes the play as addressing “sisterhood, love, loss and aging.”
Portland playwright Kevin O’Leary’s “Alice’s Threshold” is also set to premiere, running Sept. 30-Oct. 10 at Coffee by Design, 1 Diamond St. in Portland. The play centers on a young mother experiencing homelessness and is for audiences 16 and older.
The Footlights at Falmouth has three productions scheduled: “Between the Covers,” Sept. 17-Oct. 3; an adaptation of “Miss Marple: Murder at the Vicarage,” Oct. 15-31; and “The Porch,” Nov. 5-21.
Portland Ovations will present national touring productions of “Mystic Pizza: A New Musical” Oct. 28-29 and “Hadestown” Nov. 17-19.
Other Maine theater productions include Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” at City Theater in Biddeford, Oct. 2-18; “Mean Girls: The Musical” at Schoolhouse Arts Center in Standish, Oct. 9-18; and “Playhouse Creatures” by The Originals at Saco River Theatre in Buxton, Oct. 16-25.
The Public Theatre in Lewiston will stage “Steel Magnolias” Oct. 23-Nov. 8. The University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre will present Stoppard’s “The Real Inspector Hound” at Russell Hall on the university’s Gorham campus Oct. 23-Nov. 1.
On the classical music side, the Portland Conservatory of Music will host pianist Diane Walsh on Sept. 20 for a program featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Schubert.
The Portland Symphony Orchestra will open its 102nd season with “Resurgam” on Sept. 27 and 29. The program includes a work about Portland’s Great Fire of 1866, Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and Choral Art Masterworks, in a program devoted to “the spirit of community.” Violinist Midori is scheduled to perform with the PSO on Nov. 10.
The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will feature guest cellist Zuill Bailey in its “Force of Nature” program Oct. 18. Pianist Henry Kramer is scheduled to perform Beethoven Nov. 22 as part of the BSO’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis” program.
Portland Ovations, the USM School of Music and the Maine Jewish Museum will present “Twin Keys: A Love Story” on Nov. 7 at the Crewe Center for the Arts at USM. The performance uses music, photographs and narration to tell the “musical love story” of a duo-piano team.
VentiCordi, a chamber music group combining wind and string instruments, has performances planned in October and November at Portland Conservatory of Music and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Brunswick.
Fall dance offerings include Maine State Ballet’s “The Little Mermaid,” Oct. 9-17 at the company’s theater in Falmouth; the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company on Nov. 5 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland; and Portland Ballet’s “Dracula,” Oct. 23-24 at Westbrook Performing Arts Center.
Information is available through the participating organizations.
