2019 – 2020 Season

The 2019-20 Season started out strong with the laugh-out-loud comedy Women in Jeopardy.  In November, we presented Theater at Monmouth’s production of Murder for Two, a zany blend of musical comedy and madcap murder mystery.  December featured our annual production of A Christmas Carol which was seen by over 1500 students.  In January, Sexy Laundry went on to break our box office record with 2486 patrons attending.  Sexy Laundry will return for an encore engagement.  We were all ready to open I and You on March 13, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to cancel all performances for the rest of the season.

Fun Fact:  Maura O’Brien was in both Sexy Laundry and our previous best selling show, Ripcord, in 2017.

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2019 – 2020 Season

Middletown

Middletown

MIDDLETOWN will be presented as part of our 2020-21 Season.  PLEASE VISIT THE PAGE FOR THE NEW PRODUCTION HERE https://thepublictheatre.org/middletown-2/ If you have tickets they will be transferred to the new performances automatically.

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I and You

I and You

Cancelled on opening night by COVID-19 pandemic: High school seniors Caroline and Anthony have more in common than they know. She’s a smart, cynical teenager. He’s an easy-going athlete with a love of waffle fries. This unlikely duo discovers a shocking secret that will unite them forever.

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Sexy Laundry

Sexy Laundry

Our Best Selling Show! After many years of marriage, three kids, the addition of love handles and receding hairlines, Alice and Henry have hit a wall. Armed with a library copy of Sex for Dummies, they check into a fancy hotel to rekindle their romance.

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A Christmas Carol – 2019

A Christmas Carol – 2019

A modern and traditional tale in one! Six actors and a fiddler perform the Dickens out of this beloved holiday classic – in a way you’ve never imagined and will never forget.

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Murder for Two

Murder for Two

It’s a hilarious musical murder mystery with a twist. One actor investigates the crime, the other plays all the suspects, and they both play the piano!

read more
Women in Jeopardy

Women in Jeopardy

It’s Sex and the City meets I Love Lucy when middle-aged single moms start dating! Longtime friends Liz, Mary and Jo do everything together, until Liz starts dating a creepy guy who may or may not be a serial killer.

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2019 – 2020 Season

Middletown

Middletown

MIDDLETOWN will be presented as part of our 2020-21 Season.  PLEASE VISIT THE PAGE FOR THE NEW PRODUCTION HERE https://thepublictheatre.org/middletown-2/ If you have tickets they will be transferred to the new performances automatically.

read more
I and You

I and You

Cancelled on opening night by COVID-19 pandemic: High school seniors Caroline and Anthony have more in common than they know. She’s a smart, cynical teenager. He’s an easy-going athlete with a love of waffle fries. This unlikely duo discovers a shocking secret that will unite them forever.

read more
Sexy Laundry

Sexy Laundry

Our Best Selling Show! After many years of marriage, three kids, the addition of love handles and receding hairlines, Alice and Henry have hit a wall. Armed with a library copy of Sex for Dummies, they check into a fancy hotel to rekindle their romance.

read more
A Christmas Carol – 2019

A Christmas Carol – 2019

A modern and traditional tale in one! Six actors and a fiddler perform the Dickens out of this beloved holiday classic – in a way you’ve never imagined and will never forget.

read more
Murder for Two

Murder for Two

It’s a hilarious musical murder mystery with a twist. One actor investigates the crime, the other plays all the suspects, and they both play the piano!

read more
Women in Jeopardy

Women in Jeopardy

It’s Sex and the City meets I Love Lucy when middle-aged single moms start dating! Longtime friends Liz, Mary and Jo do everything together, until Liz starts dating a creepy guy who may or may not be a serial killer.

read more

1991-1992 Season

Did you know that The Public Theatre’ first show, That Championship Season, was produced in a borrowed space in the Auburn mall?

1992-1993 Season

The Public Theatre rents the Ritz theatre and volunteers from the entire community individually reupholster every seat in the house in time for the theatre’s opening performance of Scapin. The paint was still drying on the walls as the lights went down.

1993-1994 Season

Christopher is hired as the Artistic Director. He pays his own way from New York to Maine to interview for the job and becomes the only full-time paid staff position along with a part-time technical director who designs, and builds sets and lights for every show.

1994-1995 Season

During a TV interview, the host of the show publicly laughs when we tell him the theatre has gone Equity, scoffing at the feasibility of a professional theatre surviving in Lewiston.

1995-1996 Season

Janet discovers she is pregnant the day before rehearsals begin for the opening show of the season “Dancing at Lughnasa.”

1996-1997 Season

Talented thirteen-year-old local actor Seth Schlotterbeck is cast as the younger brother in “Lost in Yonkers.”

1997-1998 Season

That summer we audition David Harbour for the role of Evans in Terra Nova.

1998-1999 Season

In June, Ellen Crawford, Nurse Lydia Wright on the NBC hit E.R., returns to perform The Belle of Amherst, a one-woman show about American poet Emily Dickinson.

1999-2000 Season

Dracula sells like wildfire. Multiple audience members showed up in capes and fangs. Are they really vampires? Who knows?

2000-2001 Season

We open with The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged). The Portland Phoenix Reader’s Poll votes The Public Theatre “Best Theatre Company”.

2001-2002 Season

When 9/11 happens we realize an actress we hired for the upcoming show Blithe Spirit lives in the World Trade Center neighborhood. It took us almost a week to locate her and find out she was okay.

2002-2003 Season

We opened our season with Art. One day during a design meeting we were discussing the various shades of gray the set might be. “Like the gray in Bart’s shirt” said someone at the table.

2003-2004 Season

The 1950’s Cold War spoof Red Herring had one of our all-time favorite jokes: “How do you make a stiff drink? Feed him salty snacks.” . . .

2004-2005 Season

After the final preview of The Woman in Black, we didn’t think the show was scary enough, so the next day we went back into rehearsal and added several new tricks.

2005-2006 Season

Deathtrap was set in the study of a mystery writer and the set required a wall filled with unusual weapons that he collected.

2006-2007 Season

The entire first act of Enchanted April was played in front of a curtain painted to look like the black and white newspaper ad. What was behind it?

2007-2008 Season

We perform Almost, Maine, the first of three productions of Maine playwright John Cariani’s plays that we will produce. John flies in to see it and quickly becomes our friend.

2008-2009 Season

Preparing for Secrets of a Soccer Mom, we went in search of an artificial grass lawn to put onstage.

2009-2010 Season

For Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde we went on a hunt for “scientific equipment” to fill Dr. Jekyll’s lab.

2010-2011 Season

Producing the Off-Broadway hit, Animals out of Paper, we needed to fill our set with the highest level of origami possible, as two of the characters were an origami prodigy and his teacher.

2011-2012 Season

Joel Leffert stars as the artist Mark Rothko in Red. He returns as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol the next season, and in Outside Mullingar in 2015.

2012-2013 Season

Janet directs The Hound of the Baskervilles and “silly” becomes her plan of action.

2013-2014 Season

In Moonlight and Magnolias the three characters were trapped in a room until they finished writing the script for Gone with the Wind with nothing to eat but . . .

2014 – 2015 Season

The Cocktail Hour brings real life couple Ellen Crawford and husband Mike Genovese from NBC’s E.R. back to our stage.

2015 – 2016 Season

Two-time Tony Award winning actress, Judith Ivey, directs the runaway box office smash, The Ladies Foursome.

2016 – 2017 Season

Playwright John Cariani joins us to rehearse Last Gas and offers final tweaks to the soon to be published script.

2017-2018 Season

Costumer designer Anne Collins designs and builds by herself four stunning period costumes for The Revolutionists.

2018 – 2019 Season

It’s a season for partnerships as Janet is reunited with old friend and scene partner, Paul Schoeffler, for A Doll’s House, Part 2 and we co-produce Grease with Maine State Music Theatre.

2020-21 30th Season - Loading . . .

2020 – 2021 Season

You’re probably wondering what’s happening at the theatre and when you’ll be able to see a play again. And the truth is, we are still figuring that out. Our ability to produce live on stage will depend upon the cost of meeting CDC guidelines, gaining permission from...
Craig Bockhorn, Joych Cohen, Allison Briner Dardenne, Douglas Rees in Middletown

2021 – 2022 Season

A lot has changed in our world since we all sat together in the theatre. Thank you for your patience and support as we resume producing under these new conditions.

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The Public Theatre

31 Maple Street
Lewiston, ME 04240

Business: (207) 782-2211
Tickets: (207) 782-3200