Perhaps not since Swamp Thing has the world seen such an entity. He stalks the Seacoast’s estuaries like a water-dwelling cryptid, the slick sheen of his wetsuit cutting through the water’s surface. You can spot him from riverbanks during every season, navigating the currents of the Piscataqua or Lamprey. He toils vigilantly to guard the region’s aquatic treasures against pollution and development. He is Creek Man.

But unlike Swamp Thing, this hero was not the result of some kind of biological lab accident. Creek Man is the alter ego of Gary Sredzienski, who, despite his predilection for taking dips in ice-encrusted rivers, is really just an ordinary guy. He lives in Kittery with his cat.

“Everybody thinks I’ve gotta be some genetically altered kind of guy,” Sredzienski said. “I’m not. I’m really not.”

Sredzienski is the writer and performer behind the new one-man show “Creek Man: The Unbelievable True Story of the Accordion-Playing Merman.” Produced by Harbor Light Stage, the play premieres on Thursday, May 7, and will run for two weeks at the York Harbor Reading Room in York, Maine.

The play represents the third installment of Harbor Light’s Main Stage series, a program that stages plays in unusual Seacoast venues. The theater company launched Main Stage in May 2008 with a production of Craig Wright’s “The Pavilion” at a restored barn in Kittery Point and continued in October with Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Three Viewings” at a Masonic lodge in York. 

“Creek Man” is the first original play in the Main Stage series. It’s also Sredzienski’s first venture into the world of theater. The accordionist has been practicing fervently to memorize his lines, but he admits that he has a few butterflies.

“I’ve never even been in a play in elementary school,” he said. “I love being onstage, but Jesus, there’s so much to remember.”

But live performance is nothing new for Sredzienksi. He grew up in northern Connecticut and started playing accordion in 1970, when he was eight years old. By the time he was 10, he was performing with a vaudeville act known as the Hog Hollow Hooters. Most of the other performers in the troupe were in their 70s, and they gave Sredzienski an unconventional education in professional stage life.

“They really taught him show business,” said Kent Stephens, founder and artistic director of Harbor Light. “This is in his blood. It’s not a stretch for him.”

Sredzienski moved to the area when he was 18 to attend the University of New Hampshire, where he acquired a degree in forestry. During his time at UNH, he often went swimming in the Lamprey River. When the water temperature dipped in autumn, he began investing in wet suits so that he could swim year-round. “I think that’s pretty much where the experiment began,” he said.

Over the years, Sredzienski has benefited from advancements in wetsuit technology. He uses a combination of surfing and scuba diving gear to keep warm during winter swims. He typically explores various estuaries in southern Maine and New Hampshire five or six days per week. “I’ve just kind of made it my lifestyle,” he said.

Sredzienski has managed to turn his hobby into a successful fundraising technique for various causes. In January 2008, he embarked on a seven-mile charity swim to the Isles of Shoals in 9-degree weather, raising $15,000 for Krempels Brain Injury Foundation. This past January, he completed a three-mile swim across Portsmouth Harbor to raise money for Seacoast Hospice. He plans to do another charity swim through York River and out to Nubble Lighthouse in December.

The mere thought of plunging into a river with water temperatures in the 30s is enough to make most people shiver. But Sredzienski insists that it’s not that bad. His body heat quickly warms the frigid water that fills his wetsuit, and as long as he keeps moving, he’s comfortable.

“It’s very warm, believe it or not,” he said. “Somebody watching me on the bank is colder than I am.” 

In addition to raising money for charities, Sredzienski makes it a mission to clean up the area’s coastal estuaries. A self-proclaimed environmentalist and former forester, he has cleared all manners of litter from the water. Not too long ago, he said, sewage canals ran into the estuaries, and residents dumped everything from pesticides to broken glass in the creeks.
“Our estuaries were pretty much treated like dumps for the town. People used to throw trash in there,” Sredzienski said. “It’s just amazing all the junk they threw in there.”

Some of that trash features prominently in “Creek Man.” During one segment of the play, Sredzienksi displays many of the peculiar artifacts he has discovered in the rivers, including medicine bottles, license plates and even animal bones.

It was Sredzienski’s environmentalism that first brought him to Harbor Light’s attention. He was a guest speaker at a meeting held by the Kittery Land Trust, which was trying to acquire property on Chauncey Creek for protection. Among the guests were Kent Stephens and his wife, Music Hall executive director Patricia Lynch. Until then, Stephens had never met Sredzienksi.

“There was a guy talking and he had a voice built for radio and he was playing compositions that he had written on the accordion about the creeks,” Stephens recalled. “I realized that this was the famous Gary Sredzienski that I had heard so much about but had never seen.”

Stephens and Lynch quickly recognized a unique theater opportunity. “Gary was sort of the regional storyteller that we had been looking for, even if we didn’t know that at the time,” Stephens said.

Sredzienski wrote the entire play, dividing it into chapters chronicling his experiences. It initially presents the author as a “merboy” who suffers discrimination at the hands of mermaids. Then the play delves into Sredzienski’s vaudeville upbringing and the accordion culture. This background segues into his creek swimming habits and the artifacts he’s found, which transitions into a section on the science of the wetsuit. The play culminates with Creek Man’s amazing swim to the Isles of Shoals.
“It’s really a variety show,” Sredzienski said.

He also wrote several new songs for the play. He has been working full-time as a musician in the area for close to 20 years, recording as a solo artist or performing as a member of The Serfs. He specializes in the ethnic folk music of eastern Europe and America, and he has long hosted the popular WUNH radio show “Polka Party.” His 2006 record “Just Plain Folks” received Grammy nominations in the categories of Best Surf Rock Album and Best Surf Instrumental.

As a member of the N.H. Council on the Arts, Sredzienski has traveled to places like Romania and Quebec, and he represented New Hampshire at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1999. He was introduced at the festival as the “Accordion Warrior,” and the nickname stuck. Curiously, Sredzienksi said he “absolutely hates” polka bands and is not fond of his nickname.

“I hate that ‘Accordion Warrior’ thing,” he said. “I’m not a warrior, I’m a lover.”

Despite his extensive professional music career, the play will force Sredzienksi to try his hand at two things he’s never done publicly before: acting and singing. But Stephens is confident in Sredzienski’s resume.

“He pulls off both wonderfully. His learning curve is just astonishing,” Stephens said. “He’s a born performer.”

Stephens is also excited about the play’s venue. The private club is situated on cliffs overlooking York Harbor and offers wraparound views of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s another unique location for Harbor Light, which will also continue its History Theatre series at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth with a production of “Lamplight Dialogues” in October.

Adding to the scenery in York, muralist Gordon Carlisle painted a background map of the Piscataqua River with a dotted line tracing Sredzienski’s route to the Isles of Shoals. Stephens said the play will illustrate the Seacoast’s beautiful waterways with accounts from a man who knows them intimately.

“(Sredzienksi) probably knows the creeks and the estuaries better than anyone alive,” Stephens said.

Sredzienski confirmed that his play will provide a snapshot of the area’s ecological history and convey an environmental message.

“It does highlight how we’ve viewed our estuaries in the past and, actually, not long ago. It wasn’t even all that long ago when our sewers were going into the creek,” Sredzienksi said. The public’s perception of estuaries has changed dramatically in recent years, he added. “They’re living, breathing creatures.”

“Creek Man” will run from May 7 to 17 at the York Harbor Reading Room, 491 York St., York Harbor, Maine. Show times are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 1 and 5 p.m. A dinner and theater package is available for $63.50; or a drink and theater matinee package for $34. For tickets, call 207-439-5769 ext. 4, or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it For more information, visit www.harborlightstage.org.