Bill George
Kingfisher Theatre
WALDEN
OCTOBER 2 - 4
Bill George is the founder of Touchstone Theatre and Kingfisher Theatre. He received the coveted Fringe First Award for outstanding new works at Scotlan's Edinburgh Fringe FestivalHis original production features Henry David Thoreau’s text mounted in a frame of gestural simplicity and direct address.
It is the story of an innocent soul, troubled by his times, who retreats to the woods to understand the full meaning of life and to test the validity of the many assumptions about living that society takes for granted. While there he has many adventures and natural encounters, and slowly comes to understand the ultimate frustration, joy and necessity of the individual's quest for meaning.
Pontine Theatre
A NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS
NOVEMBER 27 - 29 (additional performances Dec. 4-6 & Dec. 11-13.)
This season’s edition of Pontine’s annual holiday celebration features an original staging of Alice Brown’s short story, “Honey and Myrrh.” Published in 1899, in her collection “Tiverton Tales,” the story is set on Christmas Eve. A whimsical conversation between a spinster and the schoolmaster who boards with her leads to the rekindling of an old romance. Also on the program is a warmly fantastical tale by Mary Wilkins Freeman, “Jimmy Scarecrow’s Christmas.”
In a now annual tradition, live music will be provided by members of the New England Fiddle Ensemble: Ellen Carson, Melissa Caron and Todd Jones. The show ends with an on-stage Christmas party complete with homemade Christmas cookies.
Melissa Caron, Ellen Carlson & Friends
WHY IS IT THAT THE FIDDLE IS SO INSPIRING?
FEBRUARY 19 - 21
Melissa Caron and Ellen Carlson, directors of the New England Fiddle Ensemble, have delighted Pontine’s audiences as musicians for “A New England Christmas."
Now they offer their own afternoon of song, demonstrating a little about fiddling styles, fiddling with singer/songwriters, playing everything from bluegrass to swing to rock and perhaps a short, guided jam.
Pontine Theatre • GREEN ISLAND STORIES
MARCH 5 – 7 (addditional performances March 12-14 & March 19-21.)
Sarah Orne Jewett, born and raised in South Berwick, Maine, first introduced the Blackett family–Almira, her brother William and their widowed mother–in a chapter of her masterpiece, “The Country of the Pointed Firs,” published in 1896. Readers fell in love with this island family, with their country wisdom, their sweetness and their fortitude, and demanded more stories.
Jewett obliged by following up with “A Dunnet Shepherdess” in 1899 and “William’s Wedding” in 1910. Marguerite Mathews and Greg Gathers brings this trilogy to the stage in an original adaptation featuring a blend of storytelling, puppetry and Victorian toy theatre, performed in tribute to the 50th anniversary of Pontine’s founding in 1977.