Harbor Light Stage adds more play readings

Last year, Harbor Light Stage launched a full production Maine Stage Series, and the Kittery Point-based professional theater. is expanding again in 2009.

The not-for-profit organization has expanded its winter Bold Face Play Reading Series to include two performances of each reading. All readings will still be held on Monday nights at the Kittery Art Association, but weekly Tuesday night performances have been added at the Pearl in Portsmouth. Readings begin at 7:30 p.m.

The Bold Face season opens on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 9 and 10, with “Under Yelena,” by Buffy Sedlachek, a real-life mystery from Soviet-era Russia by the author of “Tamarack.” After the Chernobyl disaster, scientist Ruta Zemlyan is dispatched to the contaminated site, where she is forced to partner with the caustic and anti-Soviet Antonas Zerbitska. Their mission is to solve the mystery of the missing nuclear fuel. The reading will feature Joel Colodner and Kristan Raymond Robinson.

Three other Bold Face plays will be read this winter before the Maine Stage season commences in May. “My Name is Rachel Corrie” runs on March 2 and 3. Edited by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner from the writings of Rachel Corrie, the play tells the true story of a 23-year-old American killed in Gaza by an Israeli Army bulldozer in 2003.

The appropriately titled “Third” by Wendy Wasserstein runs on March 23 and 24. This final comedy by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer tells the story of Woodson Bull III, known as Third, and a professor who can’t stand him.

Finally, “The Mystery Plays” by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, will be read on April 13 and 14. These two murder mysteries and two ghost stories combine for a haunting play about faith and forgiveness.

This spring, Harbor Light also will present the world premiere of “The Creek Man” as part of its ongoing Maine Stage series. Based on the life of living local legend and accordion player Gary Sredzienski, the play will offer an evening of storytelling and music with an environmental message. Harbor Light Stage received a $14,500 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for script development and production. The full stage production will launch in May.

A former Grammy nominee and long-time host of WUNH’s weekly radio show “Polka Party,” Sredzienski has the reputation of eco-activist. He earned the nickname “Creek Man” for his four-season swims through the tidal creeks of the Piscataqua River. Last winter, he swam seven miles to the Isles of Shoals, requiring months of training, a full support staff, and a custom blend of high-tech swim gear. He raised $15,000 for the Krempels Brain Injury Foundation. More recently, Sredzienski embarked on a three-mile charity swim to benefit Seacoast Hospice in Exeter on Jan. 31.

For more information or to reserve tickets for Bold Face readings, call 207-439-5769 or visit www.harborlightstage.org. —CJ

get into the act with interactive theater in Newburyport  

Kids can get into the act with innovative theater from children’s theater producer Stacey April Fix at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, Mass.

The new production of “Into the Act with Aesop’s Fables” brings the classic morality tales to life for a new generation with multi-media and fast paced action. It features costumed vignettes, dances, videos and humor performed at the Firehouse Center from Friday through Sunday, Feb. 6 through 8, with early evening and matinee shows.  

Fix visited area schools and filmed students answering questions about Aesop, such as “Do you know what the expression ‘don’t count your chickens before they hatch’ means?” These clips will be shown on a large screen throughout the performances.

With this technology, Fix aims to bridge the gap between contemporary culture and theater to help develop children’s interest in live performance and expose them to the universal truths of Aesop. Roles like the hungry wolf and the racing tortoise will be performed by area students, as well as professional adult actors.   

Fix has produced children’s theater for more than 20 years with her production company Theater Workshop. She teaches and directs children’s theater at Newbury Elementary School.

The 195-seat theater is located at One Market Square on the waterfront in Newburyport, Mass. Show times are Friday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 7 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 8 at 1 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and can be purchased online at www.firehouse.org or by calling 978-462-7336.