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. We can’t wait to see you again.

Here is what we have planned for you:

  • Middletown by Dan Clancy – rescheduled from May 2020, when it was postponed due to COVID.
  • A Very Ida Christmas  by Susan Poulin
  • Dancing Lessons by Mark St. Germain
  • Screwball Comedy by Norm Foster
  • Be Here Now by Deborah Zoe Laufer – rescheduled to June

2021 – 2022 Season

Be Here Now

Be Here Now

An Intriguing Comedy About Happiness
A pessimistic professor of nihilism develops a dangerous medical condition with a side effect that turns her into a happy, hopeful, believer in love. But what if curing her condition will return her to misery? This wise and quirky comedy asks – is happiness a choice or a pre-existing condition?

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Screwball Comedy

Screwball Comedy

Imagine His Girl Friday meets The Carol Burnett Show in this fast-paced, hilarious nod to the Hollywood comedies of the ’30s and ’40s. Filled with classic characters and snappy banter, this zany comedy will keep you laughing from start to finish.

read more
Dancing Lessons

Dancing Lessons

Two mis-matched souls engage in a series of dance lessons that lead them both of out of their comfort zone. Charming, touching, funny and life-affirming, don’t miss this delightfully unpredictable romantic comedy.

read more
A Very Ida Christmas

A Very Ida Christmas

Get ready for the funniest holiday show in Maine! It’s Christmas in Mahoosuc Mills, and Ida’s holiday spirit is so bright it could light up a Christmas tree.

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Middletown

Middletown

Middletown by Dan Clancy. Presented by Special License from GFour Productions. This joyful, funny and heartfelt new play tells the story of two couples who’ve been friends since their children’s first day of kindergarten. Thirty-three years later they reminisce about the highs, lows and in-betweens of their shared experiences.

read more
Manhattan Short Film Festival

Manhattan Short Film Festival

Attention all film lovers and film makers:
The Public Theatre will be hosting the extraordinary global MANHATTAN SHORT film festival. Ten short films selected from around the world will screen in over 500 cities on six continents over a one-week period. As an audience member YOU get to cast your vote for the winner.

read more

2021 – 2022 Season

Be Here Now

Be Here Now

An Intriguing Comedy About Happiness
A pessimistic professor of nihilism develops a dangerous medical condition with a side effect that turns her into a happy, hopeful, believer in love. But what if curing her condition will return her to misery? This wise and quirky comedy asks – is happiness a choice or a pre-existing condition?

read more
Screwball Comedy

Screwball Comedy

Imagine His Girl Friday meets The Carol Burnett Show in this fast-paced, hilarious nod to the Hollywood comedies of the ’30s and ’40s. Filled with classic characters and snappy banter, this zany comedy will keep you laughing from start to finish.

read more
Dancing Lessons

Dancing Lessons

Two mis-matched souls engage in a series of dance lessons that lead them both of out of their comfort zone. Charming, touching, funny and life-affirming, don’t miss this delightfully unpredictable romantic comedy.

read more
A Very Ida Christmas

A Very Ida Christmas

Get ready for the funniest holiday show in Maine! It’s Christmas in Mahoosuc Mills, and Ida’s holiday spirit is so bright it could light up a Christmas tree.

read more
Middletown

Middletown

Middletown by Dan Clancy. Presented by Special License from GFour Productions. This joyful, funny and heartfelt new play tells the story of two couples who’ve been friends since their children’s first day of kindergarten. Thirty-three years later they reminisce about the highs, lows and in-betweens of their shared experiences.

read more
Manhattan Short Film Festival

Manhattan Short Film Festival

Attention all film lovers and film makers:
The Public Theatre will be hosting the extraordinary global MANHATTAN SHORT film festival. Ten short films selected from around the world will screen in over 500 cities on six continents over a one-week period. As an audience member YOU get to cast your vote for the winner.

read more
The Public Theatre

2024 – 25 Season

We kick off another great season of professional theatre with a special presentation of Late and Alone: An Intimate Portrait of Johnny Cash, in July. September brings American Idol Finalist, Julia Gagnon in her JULIA: Here in Maine Tour and our annual presentation of the Manhattan Short Film Festival.  Our Subscription series starts in October with an extended run of the hilarious Off-Broadway comedy Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. Every Brilliant Thing will be a unique theatrical experience for all, and we celebrate the bonds of female friendship in Halfway There. We wrap up the series with the inventive romantic comedy, Now and Then. The holiday tradition of  A Christmas Carol continues, and we’re sure to find a few more surprises for you along the way.

23-24 Season Photos

2023 – 24 Season

We had a great lineup of shows in 2023-24. From the World Premiere of “Paint Night” by Carey Crim to the American Premiere of “Lunenburg” by Canada’s most prolific playwright, Norm Foster. We were excited to bring back our unique version of A Christmas Carol for the first time since the pandemic and welcomed over 3,600 students and educators to Student Matiness for “A Christmas Carol” and “Cinderella”.

2022 – 2023 Season

Our 2022-23 Season ran from September 2022 - May 2023. Finally returning to our four-show subscription series, we produced a full season of shows and a family-friendly musical. Over 2,900 students, educators and families attended our production of Polkadots: The Cool...
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...

2019 – 2020 Season

“Women in Jeopardy” and “Sexy Laundry” get our season off to a terrific start and we break our previous box office set by “Ripcord” with the hit “Sexy Laundry.”

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.

2017-2018 Season

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

2016 – 2017 Season

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

2015 – 2016 Season

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

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.

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 . . .

2012-2013 Season

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

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.

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.

2009-2010 Season

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

2008-2009 Season

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.” . . .

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.

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.

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”.

1999-2000 Season

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

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.

1997-1998 Season

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

1996-1997 Season

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

1995-1996 Season

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

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.

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.

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.

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?