Harbor Light kicks off its Main Stage series with “The Pavilion”

Artifacts scattered around the old barn on Madeline Gavin’s property illustrate its nearly 150-year history. In a former horse stall hang several leather harnesses, horseshoes and grain bins. In an adjacent cow cobble, chains that once tethered bovines still dangle from the wall, alongside worn rakes, brooms and cooking pots from generations past. Another room is filled with ancient, rusted tools, including hammers, ax handles and broken yokes, as well as a wooden box containing a gift left by one of the barn’s last inhabitants—a large, petrified cow flap.

When Gavin acquired the Kittery Point property known as Brave Boat Harbor Farm 15 years ago, the barn had undergone few alterations since its construction in the mid-19th century. The building had not housed a cow since the 1940s, and nature had slowly taken over the cavernous interior. Swallows built nests of mud and straw on the roof beams, and a 20-foot pine tree grew out of one corner. Raccoons occasionally napped inside, and porcupines inhabited the dirt basement. Mountains of hay filled a good half of the barn, piled nearly to the roof, and much of the remaining space was covered with hundreds of old canning jars, bottles, newspapers and magazines. On the exterior, the shingles had been weathered by decades of rain, wind and sunshine, as well as ocean spray from a nearby salt marsh.
“It was absolutely beautiful in its decay,” Gavin said.

Gavin spent several years cleaning up the barn, hauling away scrap metal, hay and rubbish in a 1978 flatbed Toyota truck she bought specifically for the purpose. She replaced the roof, trim and shingles and made repairs to the crumbling stone foundation. Once she had cleared out enough clutter to reach the floor of the barn, she replaced the wooden floorboards.

Today, the barn’s center drive is mostly cleared. By Friday, May 9, it will be ready to host live performances of “The Pavilion,” the first production of Harbor Light Stage’s Main Stage series. The three-person play will run at Brave Boat Harbor Farm on weekends through May 25.

Founded in Kittery in 2006, Harbor Light Stage has been building up to this production for the last 18 months. Founding artistic director Kent Stephens initiated the Bold Face Play Reading Series, featuring live script readings at the Kittery Art Association Gallery. The first two seasons of the program were highly successful, attracting crowds that filled the gallery.
“Bold Face was set up to do a number of things,” Stephens said. “It was set up to establish a brand identity, it was set up to start to build a core audience, it was set up to test drive some scripts for possible full stage production, and it was set up to allow me to get to know the regional talent pool.”

Now, Stephens is ready to move on to the next phase of the Harbor Light vision. From the beginning, he planned to incorporate full theater productions for adult audiences in southern Maine and the Seacoast, focusing on plays by top modern playwrights that don’t usually make it to the Seacoast. As a delivery system for those productions, he decided to run each play at a different venue in the area.

“I think the heart of any theater is full production. So, for us, it was a matter of, how are we going to structure getting there?” Stephens said.

Gavin helped provide the answer. After attending nearly every Bold Face reading, she heard that Stephens was searching for a location to launch the Main Stage series. About five years ago, she hosted a barn dance for the Kittery Art Association, and many residents still talk about the event to this day.

“Barns are great for dances—and for plays,” Gavin said.

To Stephens, the idea of staging “The Pavilion” in an old barn made perfect sense. Written by Craig Wright, the play takes place in a lakeside dance pavilion in Pine City, Minn., where a group of 1980s high school graduates gather to celebrate their 20th reunion. According to Stephens, the pavilion is Wright’s metaphor for the world. With its first Seacoast production, Gavin’s barn becomes a metaphor for the pavilion.

“The barn really takes on that role very well,” said production and stage manager Zhana Morris. “There isn’t as much of a sense of trying to convince people that they are actually in a pavilion.”

The play will star Chris Curtis and Kristan Raymond Robinson as a pair of high school sweethearts who have long since parted ways, and Susan Poulin as narrator and, well, everyone else.

Stephens, a theater veteran who has directed more than 150 productions around the country, is directing. He describes the play as an acute social satire about people in their late 30s reconsidering their lives, with a philosophical narrative and spare theatrical design. “I consider it one of the best plays of the last 10 years,” Stephens said, noting it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2000. “It works on a number of different levels.”

In preparation for the play, the Harbor Light crew installed two sets of tiered 32-foot platforms in the barn, with enough room to seat 60 people. Crews also added theatrical lighting, sound equipment, chemical toilets and concession tents.
“It was an intellectual challenge to figure out exactly how we wanted to make it happen,” Morris said. 

Another challenge was parking. Guests are asked to park three miles away at Cap’n Simeon’s Galley’s overflow lot at 88 Pepperrell Road. The Seacoast Trolley Company will shuttle guests to and from the farm before and after each show. On-site parking is limited to handicapped guests and should be reserved in advance.

Once they arrive at the farm, guests can soak up the property’s visual history. Located on Route 103 in Kittery Point, just south of the York town line, the barn is settled on a grassy hill overlooking salt marshes. According to Gavin, Brave Boat Harbor was first settled in 1645. The Mitchell family operated the farm where Gavin now resides for several generations, and the barn was built sometime shortly after the Civil War. The Philbrook family took over in 1910 and retained ownership until Gavin acquired the property in the 1990s. The farm once consisted of 70 acres, plus a 10-acre wooded lot and seven acres of salt marsh.

“All of this land was necessary to sustain a family, its farm animals and crops to sell,” said Gavin, who has found meticulous records of the farm’s operations. “In one year, 1948, over 2,220 eggs were sold.”

The property maintains much of its historic feel. There is a wooden garage that was constructed in 1930, which Gavin refers to as “the wagon shed.” An old privy and chicken coup are partially shaded by a majestic ash tree. Behind the barn, encased in a layer of crimson rust, a 1938 Chevy rests in a grave of thorn bushes. An even older 1917 Chevy with wooden spokes is half buried beside the barn’s rear doors, and a 1956 Ford truck is visible in the woods—time capsules of the rising auto industry.

The barn represents the type of unorthodox venue that Harbor Light will seek out for future Main Stage productions. Stephens said he was close to finalizing the location of the next play, which will run in the fall.

Faith Harrington, president of the Harbor Light Board of Directors, said she views the fact that Harbor Light does not have its own stage as a strength rather than a weakness. Harbor Light can suit each play to its venue, creating a uniquely appropriate atmosphere for every production.

“The advantage of not having a home is that you can find a home for the production,” Harrington said.
Although there are several theater venues in the area, Harbor Light aims to fill a gap in production of plays by established, contemporary writers between Boston and Portland, Maine.

Harrington thinks audiences in Kittery are hungry for professional theater. She noted that the Bold Face readings got a huge response from residents, and Harbor Light will now offer those same residents full theatrical productions. What makes Harbor Light special, she said, “is a real focus on the craft of writing and the craft of acting, and we really are dedicated to a professional production.”

In August, Harbor Light will dive into its third program: History Theatre at Strawbery Banke. The organization will stage Stephens’ original play, “Pirates or Patriots? The Private Wars of Captain John Paul Jones and Colonel John Langdon,” at Tyco Visitor Center at Strawbery Banke Museum. The 30-minute play unfolds a Revolutionary War-era drama between two prominent figures in Portsmouth history.

“History museums across the county are struggling with the challenge of diminishing audiences, and a lot of them are turning to theater as a solution,” Stephens said.

In the past six months, Harbor Light has received grants from the N.H. Charitable Foundation, the Maine Theater Fund and the Davis Family Foundation. But it has also collected $18,000 from private donors, and corporate sponsors have begun lending their support, Stephens said.

Harrington believes Gavin’s barn is the perfect place to get the Main Stage series rolling. “It’s unique, it’s enchanting, it’s very antique feeling and it’s situated above the salt marsh, right on the dividing line between York and Kittery,” she said. “The barn itself has so much character.”

“The Pavilion” will run from Friday, May 9, to Sunday, May 25, at Brave Boat Harbor Farm on Route 103 in Kittery Point. Performances are Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on May 18 and 25. Tickets are $15 to $30. For more information, call 207-439-5769 or visit www.harborlightstage.org.