'How To Bring History To Life Onstage' Community Arts Workshop Comes to Strawbery Banke Museum

October 2 - 11, Pontine Theatre, a resident compnay at Strawbery Banke Museum, presents a Community Arts Workshop, HOW TO BRING HISTORY TO LIFE ONSTAGE. Worshops will be offered from 5:30 to 7pm on Tuesdays & Thursdays at Strawbery Banke Museum's Tyco Visitors' Center located at 14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth NH. All adult community members are welcome, no experience necessary.

The project is based on Thomas Bailey Aldrich's 1869 novel, The Story of a Bad Boy. Aldrich's childhood home is located on the grounds of Strawbery Banke and the novel is drawn from the author's memories of growing up in Portsmouth. This community arts project will explore scenes from Pontine Theatre's original stage adaptation of the book which was performed at Strawbery Banke in 2017.

The first three sessions will each focus on a different scene of the play: "The Adventures of a Fourth," "The Snow Fort on Slatter's Hill," and "How we Astonished the Rivermouthians." Pontine's Co-Artistic Directors, Greg Gathers and Marguerite Mathews, will introduce the process and techniques used to bring the historic text to life onstage using storytelling, puppetry and toy theatre. Participants will experience the process by working with the text and acting out the various scenes which will be shared with friends and family at the fourth and final workshop on Thursday October 11.
Tuition is by donation, all adults are welcome to participate regardless of ability to pay. Those under eighteen must be accompanied by an adult. For further information please attend the first workshop scheduled for 5:30pm on Tuesday October 2nd. Pontine Theatre: info@pontine.org / 603-436-6660.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pontine Co-Directors, Greg Gathers and Marguerite Mathews performing in their original stage adaptation of Thomas Bailey Aldrich's The Story of a Bad Boy. October 2-11, Gathers & Mathews will lead a community arts workshop on How to Bring History to Life Onstage at Strawbery Banke Museum. Photo: Andrew Edgar