2019 – 2020 Season

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.” . . .

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 . . .

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

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

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

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

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.

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.