photos by Dan Rajter
The Threadbare Team
Kate
Kate Russell, a theatremaker + poet, believes storytelling is at the heart of who we are. As Threadbare’s Founding Artistic Director, she has adapted + directed or, The Whale, The Waste Land, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mackerel Sky, and Macbeth; and co-created The Royal Tar and where the river widens. Inspired by theatre as collaborative craft, she was invited as a Visiting Artist to Haystack in 2018– soon after, she made her home on the coast of what we now call Maine. Kate holds a BFA in Theatre from Rutgers, and spent her most formative year in residence at Shakespeare’s Globe. She hopes Threadbare can offer time + space for one’s light to shine while bearing witness to others’.
Joshua
Joshua McCarey is a multidisciplinary artist based in Sedgwick, Maine. He came to the Eggemoggin Reach in 2013 to explore his family heritage and decided to make a home here. Joshua specializes in the art of movement and has a degree in Theatre Arts from Emerson College. He has worked as a dancer for theatre companies + an actor for dance companies in Spain, Germany + the United States. For Threadbare, he has choreographed The Royal Tar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mackerel Sky, and where the river widens. At the age of 8, Joshua began a daily poetry + performance practice with his Uncle Robert in his family living room; believing early on in art-making as an affirming personal + social practice, and a way to orient oneself in the world.
Esther
Esther Adams grew up on Deer Isle with a deep sense of place, thanks largely in part to participating in community theatre. After some years away studying Ethnomusicology in New York and teaching in Austria, the artistry and intention with which people live their lives drew her back to Deer Isle, where she now works in the high school. Esther came to Threadbare as part of The Royal Tar’s community ensemble, and has since served as Music Director for its Wonder On summer season. She is particularly fond of spending her time musicking, gardening, biking, and swimming in the ocean. Esther believes in the power of participatory music + theatremaking to cultivate joy, connection + a sense of belonging for everyone.
Bess
Bess Turner is a sewer and craftsperson based in Stonington. She has a deep love of working with cloth, and is captured by the way it interacts with the body. She currently designs and drafts patterns for clothing and lingerie that she sews in her Deer Isle studio. She has worked for many years in costume design, and has collaborated with brands developing patterns and doing clothing production, alongside innovating her own pieces. Bess has worked in wardrobe for Threadbare’s The Royal Tar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mackerel Sky, as well as costume design for Macbeth and where the river widens.
Caroline
Caroline Fernandes is a former-farmer-turned-gardener, artist, teacher and learner. She dabbled in community theater as a teenager, enjoying the thrill of stepping outside of her shy nature. One summer, she and a group of friends wrote, crafted, and performed in a full-length play about a gaggle of strangers that get stranded together in the desert. When she found Threadbare, she felt she had come home to kindred friends who shared a love of storytelling, poetry, color and dance. Caroline has a BA in Creative Arts + the Environment from Middlebury College. She is the Stage Manager for where the river widens, and lives in Portland with her dog Noni.
Heather
Heather Lyon is a performance, video + installation artist, educator and mother from what is now called Blue Hill, Maine. Her work is a visual and movement-based inquiry into the miraculous. She uses site-responsive performance, video + installation work to investigate the inter-weaving of relationships through gestures of coded communication and embodiment practices. She holds both a BFA + MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Selected exhibitions + performances include deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland; SPACE Gallery, Portland; IMRC Center, University of Maine Orono.
“There is a Providence that brought us here and gave us to each other at this time. In and through us, a greater tapestry of creativity is being woven. It is difficult for us to envisage this. We live such separate and often quite removed lives. Yet behind all the seeming separation a deeper unity anchors everything. The great traditions tell us that community somehow already exists. When we come together in compassion and generosity, this hidden belonging begins to come alive between us.”
— John O’Donohue
photo by Dan Rajter
photo by Dan Rajter
photo by Dan Rajter
photo by Dan Rajter
Our Partners
Threadbare’s work has been supported by the Maine Community Foundation, Maine Humanities Council, Maine Arts Commission through the National Endowment of the Arts, the Onion Foundation, and SPACE. We are grateful to these organizations for seeing us through, and to individuals like you– evermore thanks.