FIRESIDE Comes to Cumston Hall Next Month

NYC's Royal Family Productions, a theatre company known for its innovative productions and development of new original work, continues to bring quality family theatre to Maine. Chris Henry has adapted the literary classics The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs, The Interlopers by Saki, Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service, and The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe into an eerie Halloween treat. This show is adapted and directed by Chris Henry with choreography by Lorna Ventura. This production will take place at Cumston Hall, located at 796 Main Street in Monmouth, ME. Tickets are $20 for general admission with $35 preferred seating and $250 VIP tickets. Tickets need to be purchased in advance by visiting www.RoyalFamilyProductions.org.

These spooky classics are given new life as chilling theatrical stories. Though told with some humor, this production might be too intense and scary for very young audiences.

Henry is a native of Winthrop, Maine, and is thrilled that Royal Family is able to continue to produce top-quality theatre in her home state.

Following COVID Protection guidelines, the audience is required to wear masks throughout the performance.

Fireside will star Maggie Langhorne, Kay Renee, Danny Gay, Paulo Figueira, Maria Groover, and Julia Groover with Erica Misilo. The creative team includes original music by Lars Jacobsen; original lighting design by Ashley Braga with sound design by Andrew Davis and assistant direction by Flávio Ferrão. The Maine Production Team includes Danny Gay and Ann Fairchild.

ROYAL FAMILY's mission is to galvanize the Times Square community by cultivating raw talent, collaborating with seasoned artists, and inspiring audiences with a diversity of lion-hearted theatre. To us, everyone in the theatre community is not only royalty but family. Our programs and productions give artists space at all stages of their careers. We don't want to tell just any story: we want to best serve artists in telling their own stories. In today's political and social climate, it is also more important than ever to celebrate all voices-especially those underrepresented in the traditional theatre space. At Royal Family, we celebrate the work of female artists, playwrights of color, works with LGBTQIA themes, and artists of all ages and body types.

Royal Family has been a creative incubator of original, humanistic plays for over a decade. Bravery and fearlessness are imperative to our process. Artists and audiences alike are challenged in a creative safe space to explore the humor and the tangled truths of the human condition. As actor and first-time playwright Anthony Rapp (Rent, Dazed and Confused, Star Trek: Discovery) observes, "Royal Family is committed to truthful, heartfelt, alive, theatrical storytelling. It's vital to the human experience and hard to come by."

Royal Family was established in 2007 by Katie Avebe, Mary Bernardi, Chris Henry and Andy Theodorou as a home for artists wishing to challenge and transform the traditional theatre canon. Since its launch, Royal Family has developed lasting relationships with highly regarded theatre professionals such as Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Tony-Nominee Wit) and Anthony Rapp (Rent, If/Then, Dazed and Confused); and has partnered with artists including John Cariani (Tony Nominee Fiddler on the Roof, The Band's Visit, Something Rotten), Adriane Lenox (Tony Winner Doubt, Tony Nominee After Midnight), Mary Testa (Tony Nominee On the Town, Tony Nominee 42nd Street, Tony Nominee Oklahoma), Stephanie J. Block (Tony Winner The Cher Show, Tony Nominee The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Tony Nominee Falsettos), Andréa Burns (In The Heights, On Your Feet), Maddie Corman (Accidentally Brave, Some Kind of Wonderful, Next Fall), Adrienne C. Moore (Orange is the New Black, For Colored Girls...), Constance Shulman (Orange is the New Black, The Rose Tattoo), Penny Fuller (Tony Nominee Applause, Tony Nominee The Dinner Party), and Taye Diggs (Rent, Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Our productions have been reviewed by The New York Times, Time Out, The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, Time Out London, The London Times, and The Irish Times and featured three years in a row in the esteemed Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Recent highlights include the first annual Female+ Forward Festival, featuring new work by Queen Esther, Rosa Arredondo, and Iman Shuk, curated and directed by Lorna Ventura Women on Fire: Stories from the Frontlines and Women on Fire: Scorching the Dividing Lines which featured a rotating cast of more than 40 women, including Kathleen Chalfant, Maddie Corman, Catherine Curtin, Pamela Dunlap, Penny Fuller, Laura Gomez, Cady Huffman, Adriane Lenox, Cynthia Mace, Adrienne C. Moore, Laila Robins, Constance Shulman, Mary Testa, Tonye Patano, Maryann Plunkett, Alysia Reiner, Lianah Sta. Ana, Ashley Williams and more, the World Premiere of Anne of Green Gables: Part 1 starring Ali Ewoldt, a workshop of Anne of Green Gables: Part 2 starring Doreen Montalvo, and a world premiere workshop, Diary of a Tap Dancer Vol. 4 conceived and choreographed by Ayodele Casel and directed by Torya Beard that kicked off Royal Family's 10th anniversary season. In 2017, thoughts of a COLORED MAN on a day when the sun set too early by playwright Keenan Scott II was a collaboration between stage and television star-turned-choreographer Taye Diggs, choreographer Jenny Parsinen, and Royal Family's Emerging Artist Program. This play is making its Broadway debut next month. In 2016, Royal Family premiered Rock and Roll Refugee, a biographical musical about Genya Ravan, who also wrote the music and lyrics. The Polish World War II refugee and Holocaust survivor broke into the rock scene at a time when it was a predominantly male field, forming the first all-girl band and becoming the first female music producer. The New York Times' Laura Collins-Hughes praised the production as "exciting" and lauded its "strikingly female gaze." Other Royal Family highlights include premiering Tony Award nominee John Cariani

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