Acorn Productions, a company dedicated to nurturing and developing the next generation of performing artists and audiences, announces plans for April events designed to introduce new voices into the Greater Portland theater community. The month begins with a performance on April 6th of Romeo and Juliet by seven teenage students enrolled in Naked Shakespeare's Young Actors Shakespeare Conservatory. This production is the culmination of a six-month training program that began in the fall and offers area audiences a chance to see an environmentally-staged version of Shakespeare's classic tragedy at SPACE Gallery. Two new local playwrights from Acorn's Playwrights Lab class will have their full-length works read as part of the Friday Night Reading Series in the Acorn Studio Theater on April 9th. Finally, the ninth annual Maine Playwrights Festival (MPF), which runs at the St. Lawrence Arts Center from April 15 to May 2, features 6 students from the Acorn Acting Academy ,4 local high school and one USM student making their professional stage debut in this seminal event. In keeping with Acorn's policy of making the company's events accessible to all members of the community, both Romeo and Juliet and the Friday Night Readings are free with $5 suggested donations, while tickets to the MPF are a very affordable $15 for adults and $12 students and seniors, with discounted 3-play passes also available.
Since September of 2009, Naked Shakespeare company members Michael Levine and Karen Ball have been working with a group of teen actors to teach them some of the techniques used by Acorn's Shakespeare Ensemble to breathe life in to the words of the world's greatest playwright. Since January, the group has shifted their focus from training exercises to rehearsing a 90-minute version of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's examination of the heartbreak of teenage love. Acorn's production is directed by Karen Ball and features the following student actors: Nora Daly, Acy Jackson, Alexandra Neudek, Grania Power, Benedetto Robinson, and Olivia Ruhlin. All of these young thespians have been seen on local professional stages in addition to their work with their school drama groups, including stints by Nora in Portland Stage's A Christmas Carol, Alexandra's recent appearance in Children's Theater of Maine's Cinderella, and Olivia's 2 different roles in previous Maine Playwrights Festivals.
Two years ago, Acorn expanded the company's ongoing relationship with playwrights with the creation of a class at the Acorn Acting Academy specifically focused on new script development. The winter session of this class, currently titled "Playwrights Lab," just concluded and Acorn is pleased to be able to offer local audiences the chance to hear two of the plays developed in this ongoing collaboration. Jay Bourbon's The PottySoft Corporation, a farcical look at company politics, will share a bill with The Wooer, by Chalmers Hardenbergh, in which a middle-aged man seeks relationships with both romantic and business partners. The dramatic readings of these plays will be presented as part of Acorn's Friday Night Readings, a monthly series of readings during which new scripts are presented for audience feedback.
Acorn has finished casting the 12 plays selected as a part of this year's Maine Playwrights Festival, and as the company always seeks to do, the event will feature the talents of 11 actors who have not been often seen on Maine stages. Since Acorn first began offering acting classes in 1998, many students have "graduated" from the program and become regular performers in the Portland theater community. In fact, it is rare to see a local production that does not include at least one actor with Acorn roots. Besides training and casting acting students, Acorn also provides local actors with the opportunity to audition for local producers at June's Southern Maine Casting Call, as well as providing access to audition s and opportunities through a regular electronic newsletter. Local residents making their professional stage debut in this year's MPF are adults Jay Bourbon, Jordan Handren-Seavey, Christine Leach, Eric Lindgren, MK Spain, and Kip Weeks, along with high school students Molly Donlan, Lulama Hawkes, Momia Mukiza, and Viola Ogak and USM student Mike Johnson.
Who: Acorn Productions Young Actors Shakespeare Conservatory
What: Romeo and Juliet
When: Tuesday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland
How Much: Free, suggested donation $5
FMI: www.nakedshakespeare.org or 854-0065
Who: Acorn Productions Friday Night Reading Series
What: The PottySoft Corporation, by Jay Bourbon, and The Wooer, by Chalmers Hardenberg
When: Friday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Acorn Studio Theater, 90 Bridge St., Westbrook
How Much: Free, suggested donation $5
FMI: www.acorn-productions.org or 854-0065
