“This ‘choose your own adventure’ mindset may have come from a pandemic that limited choice in our lives, but as with the artists of Threadbare, it has grown into a flexible process that puts the land and its people first.”
— Amelia Merrill, Can’t Have People in the Theatre? Bring Theatre to the People
American Theatre Magazine | The Great Outdoors
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where the river widens
An original, community-devised play by, for, and with Wabanaki people that centers Wabanakik + the Maine Indian land claims. A collaboration with Wabanaki REACH. Pαnawάhpskek. Summer 2023.
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Macbeth
Our Shakes School’s first Wooden O Festival brought together thirty students across six area schools to perform Macbeth. Reversing Falls Sanctuary. Wabanakik. Spring 2023.
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Mackerel Sky
The premiere of an original play by local timberframer Jon Ellsworth at Carding Brook Farm in Brooklin, Maine. Wabanakik. Wonder On season. Summer 2021.
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare’s iconic comedy set in Acadia across the rolling hills of Carding Brook Farm. Wabanakik. Wonder On season. Summer 2021.
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The Royal Tar
An original, community-devised play inspired by the historic shipwreck at Burnt Cove Church on Deer Isle. Wabanakik. Summer 2018.
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The Waste Land
An original adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s epic poem at Smiling Hogshead Ranch— an old railway turned urban farm in the heart of Queens. Lenapehoking. Fall 2016.
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or, The Whale
An original adaptation of Melville’s epic aboard the Lehigh Valley Barge #79, Waterfront Museum. New York Harbor. Lenapehoking. Fall 2015.
“I was so moved by the experience, and it was truly magical in so many ways. There are rare moments when a piece is truly transformative, and this was certainly one of them. From the sound that emanated from the balcony to the elephant whose sensitivity and pathos were well beyond the years of the young actor, to the simplest means of two pieces of fabric that somehow felt more real than water itself– it was extraordinary.”
— Paul Sacaridiz | The Royal Tar
What Audiences Are Saying
“What a total superb work of art!”
— Jill Hoy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Innovative, fresh, dynamic. The movement– forward and backward in time, until time itself and the forces of power, corrupt and natural, bloomed in tragedy. And beauty.”
— Bea Gates, The Royal Tar
“Fantastic and fabulous. We were at the Saturday matinee– me and very, very picky book publisher, blasé 7th grader– all captivated. Magical, immersive, spectacular performances, and the perfect setting.”
— Kate Sekules, or, The Whale
“…spare, eloquent, tragic, beautiful.”
— Robin Cust, The Royal Tar
“Sophisticated. Intelligent. Moving.”
— Kirsten Rickert, where the river widens
“The show was magical. Long live Threadbare.”
— Jenny Mayher, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Combining the gravity of Moby-Dick with the accessibility of a live small-ensemble play, and, well, the fact that it all takes place aboard the National Registry listed Lehigh Valley Barge #79, or, The Whale takes a wholly different approach to Melville’s epic... the eight person play’s soliloquies are reminiscent of Shakespeare and blend his influence into the story and the writing. The acting is commanding and open, the writing sharp and clear. All this supported by subtle and masterful sound and lighting design, creates an immersive and powerful theatre experience.”
— The Creators Project
Wooden O Festival
Our youth education program, Shakes School, celebrated spring with its first Wooden O Festival– a collaboration with six local schools to create a singular Macbeth.
Our vision for the festival brought together students of different ages + different towns to tell the same story in the same "wooden O". We chose Macbeth for the humanity that its magic + mayhem reveals in ordinary people living extraordinary moments. But also for the heft + heave of Shakespeare's language, which demands so much of us in the playing of it that we not only transform– we transcend the poetry in ourselves.
