Theater at Monmouth Announces Upcoming Season

Theater at Monmouth is proud to announce its 44th season: A Season for Lovers,

running from July 5 through August 18, 2013.

Every Friday in July, Theater at Monmouth will open a new production filled with the ups and downs of love and marriage. The season's four Mainstage plays include Elizabethan playwright Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle; William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew; Thornton Wilder's Our Town; and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. Opening June 22, the Family Show is a world premiere adaptation of Margery William's heartwarming tale The Velveteen Rabbit. The Fall Musical, opening September 20, is Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan. Whether for personal gain, money, or enduring passion, the characters in each of these plays pursue their desires with an unrivaled tenacity.

SUMMER REPERTORY SEASON

TAM's summer season is a true ensemble of more than 50 theatre artists from all over the country. We rehearse and perform in repertory in Cumston Hall, a 250-seat Victorian opera house designed by Harry Cochrane. Since its founding the Theater has rehearsed and performed in rotating repertory, allowing audiences to see the actors in different roles in four different shows in one weekend. Each of this season's six productions features newcomers as well as TAM favorites including Mark S. Cartier, Bill Van Horn, Janis Stevens, and Mike Anthony.

The Knight of the Burning Pestle | July 5 - August 19
by Francis Beaumont | directed by Patrick Flick
Imagine Homer and Marge Simpson buying tickets to a play and then climbing on stage to redirect the show with Bart as the star, and you have some idea of the fun unleashed in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Loaded with laughter and song, this play is a celebration of the way Elizabethan audiences expected to be a part of the action with superlatively silly results.

Patrick Flick makes his TAM debut as director on Pestle. Flick has worked as a director and actor at theatres across the country, and is the newly appointed General Manager of the Shakespeare Theatre Association. A four-time Emmy winner, Flick also serves on the Executive Committee of the National New Play Network. Directing credits at include Red by John Logan, Charm by Kathleen Cahill, The Comedy of Errors, Into the Woods, Twelfth Night, A Little Night Music, Private Lives, and Kiss Me Kate.

The Taming of the Shrew | July 12 - August 18
by William Shakespeare | directed by Sally Wood
In Shrew, Shakespeare gives us the improbable courtship of the fiery-tongued Kate by the arrogant Petruchio. Unlike Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play doesn't stop with the wedding. Shakespeare considers the institution of marriage, the rifts between men and women, and the rough and tumble journey toward enduring love. The play bursts with disguise, deception, and devilment as well as the taming of not one but two shrewish lovers fighting to maintain control and independence.

Sally Wood, former TAM artistic director and an audience favorite both on and offstage, returns this summer to direct ShreW. Wood is an actor, fight choreographer, teaching artist, and director who has

worked both regionally and abroad. At Portland Stage, Wood appeared as Portia in Julius Caesar, Claire in Augusta, Solveig in Peer Gynt, and in the Studio Series in Daniel Noel's world premiere of Longfellow: A Life in Words. Other favorite roles include Rosalind in As You Like It, the Landlady in Two and Eurydice in Metamorphosis.

Our Town | July 19 - August 17
by Thornton Wilder | directed by Davis Robinson
Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, presents a timeless tale of the universal experience of being human. Teenagers George and Emily meet, fall in love, and marry; enduring both the joys and sorrows of everyday life. Wilder transforms their ordinary story into a poignant and captivating exploration of mortality and the wonder of living. Mark S. Cartier plays the Stage Manager who invites us to the mythical Grover's Corners in celebration of the play's 75th anniversary.

Davis Robinson returns for his fourth season at TAM to direct Our Town. He has worked professionally as an actor and director for more than twenty years in film, television, and on stage, and is best known for his work as founder and artistic director of the award-winning Beau Jest Moving Theater. Previous directing credits at TAM include Blithe Spirit, A Little Hotel on the Side, and Arsenic and Old Lace.

The Year of Magical Thinking | July 26 - August 18
by Joan Didion | directed by Dawn McAndrews
In this adaptation of her best-selling memoir, Joan Didion presents a life-affirming approach to the grief experienced after the death of a loved one. This one-woman play paints a beautiful and insightful portrait of love and loss. Having performed the role to rave reviews at Montpelier's Lost Nation Theater and Sacramento's Wilkerson Stage, TAM favorite Janis Stevens portrays Joan Didion in this emotional journey to acceptance.

Producing Artistic Director Dawn McAndrews directs Magical Thinking in her fourth season with TAM. Appointed by Theater at Monmouth's Board of Trustees in October 2011, McAndrews looks forward to furthering TAM's mission of producing innovative approaches to Shakespeare and other classic playwrights for the people of Maine. An accomplished director, producer, and educator McAndrews has worked at theatres across the country including Shakespeare Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Portland Stage Company, and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. She directed TAM's 2012 productions of Henry IV, Part 1, Fall Musical Of Thee I Sing, education tour of Hamlet, and Holiday Show This Wonderful Life.

FAMILY SHOW

In past seasons, TAM has presented its Family Show (formerly "Children's Show") only in August. Based on the success of an extended run of last season's The Little Prince, the Theater is pleased to announce that The Velveteen Rabbit will enjoy a longer run from June 22 - August 15.

The Velveteen Rabbit | June 22 - August 15
adapted by Dawn McAndrews from the classic by Margery Williams | directed by Brooke Edwards "When a child loves you for a long, long time...then you become real." So says the Rocking-Horse to the Velveteen Rabbit in Margery Williams' much-loved literary classic. A toy rabbit, given as a gift to a young boy, yearns for the day the boy will choose him so that he can become real. Through love, devotion, and a little bit of magic his dream comes true in this heart-warming tale for the whole family.

FALL MUSICAL

The annual Fall Musical is a much-loved collaboration of professional actors and community members.

Patience | September 19 - 30
music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W.S. Gilbert | directed by Bill Van Horn
All the society ladies in the village are in love with two aesthetic poets but the poets are in love with

Patience, the village milkmaid, who cares nothing for poetry. The young ladies' military suitors see no point to aesthetics but give it a try to win their hearts. Things are touch and go for a while but in the end everyone lands a suitable partner, even if it is only a tulip or lily.

Associate Artistic Director Bill Van Horn returns for his twelfth season to direct the Fall Musical and perform in the summer season. Van Horn also frequently acts, directs, and writes for the acclaimed Walnut Street Theater. In 2012, he directed TAM's The Glass Menagerie and appeared as Pernelle in Tartuffe, Panthino and Outlaw in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1.

SPECIAL EVENTS
14th Annual Black Fly Follies | June 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Theater at Monmouth's annual variety show returns featuring the talents of our summer company. Part improv, part cabaret, part hijinks but all fun-join us for an evening of entertainment for everyone.

Beatles: The Studio Years 1967-70 with Mark S. Cartier | July 30 at 7:30 p.m.
TAM favorite Mark S. Cartier recounts the second half of the Fab Four's career, in this follow-up presentation to last season's The Beatlemania Years. From their growth as singer-songwriters to their multiple innovations in the studio and the diverging interests which lead to the inevitable break-up of the group, leaving in their wake one of the greatest legacies in recording history

Write On! Student Playwright Festival | August 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Finalists from TAM's Write On! Student Playwright Project bring new plays to the stage, working with professional directors and members from The Acting Company. Made possible in part by the support form the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

MONMOUTH, MAINE

Monmouth is located along Route 202 in the Winthrop Lakes region of central Maine. By car, the Theater is approximately 25 minutes from Augusta, 25 minutes from Lewiston, 45 minutes from the Mid-Coast region, 60 minutes from Portland, and 90 minutes from Bangor. Monmouth and neighboring towns Winthrop, Hallowell, Augusta, and Lewiston offer a variety of attractions suitable for the whole family, including the Monmouth Museum, Cobbossee Colony Golf Course, Mount Pisgah Hiking Trail, Children's Discovery Museum, Maine State Museum, Viles Arboretum, Bates College Museum of Art, Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary, and more. You can enjoy your stay in Monmouth at one of the several bed and breakfasts or nearby hotels, including Annabessacook Farm B&B, Maple Hill Farm B&B, A Rise and Sine B&B, the Hilton Garden Inn, and The Senator Inn & Spa.

CUMSTON HALL

All performances take place in historic Cumston Hall, which towers dramatically over Monmouth's Main Street. While Dr. Charles M. Cumston donated the funds for the building to the Town of Monmouth in 1899, it has always been a gift shared with the community at large. A registered National Historic Building since 1976, the building's architecture is a mix of Romanesque-style asymmetrical columns and towers and varying external textures of the Queen Anne period. The building is decorated throughout with plaster ornamentation, beautifully crafted exterior and interior wood trim, and hand stenciled ceilings. The 250-seat opera hall features elaborate plaster carvings, and a fresco mural ceiling. More than 100 staiNed Glass windows adorn the Hall.

SUBSCRIPTIONS, SINGLE TICKETS, AND GROUP SALES

Tickets for Summer Repertory shows and the Fall Musical are $30 for opening night, $28 for adults, $25 for senior citizens, and $20 for students. The Velveteen Rabbit tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children. To reserve single tickets, subscriptions, or arrange group sales, please visit our website, www.theateratmonmouth.org, or call the box office at 207.933.9999. You can find us on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/TAMonmouth, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TAMonmouth, and stay current on all of our latest updates via our blog at http://theateratmonmouth.wordpress.com.