Out and About for the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine May 10-16

Out and About for the Mid Coast Lakes Region of Maine May 10-16
May 9, 2018
Out and About for the York/Sanford Lakes Region of Maine May 10-16
May 9, 2018

Out and About for the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine May 10-16

“Schooner Fare, the Fourteenth Annual Remembering Tom Rowe: A Celebration in Song concert,” First Universalist Church, Auburn

May 10-13, Thursday-Sunday, 7:30pm/Thurs, Fri. and Sat, 3pm/Sat, 2pm/Sun, “The Midvale High School 50th Reunion,” Revisiting the past changes the future when a high school reunion unexpectedly turns an old classmate into a new love. Don’t miss the Maine premiere of this charming and thought-provoking romantic comedy that reminds us it’s never too late to find the love we’ve only imagined. Special Events: Opening Night BREWHaHa – Friday, May 4 – lobby opens for beer sampling at 6:30. Curtain at 7:30 (courtesy of Baxter Brewing Co.); Post Show Talkback with actors – Sunday, May 6 – Download the free Study Guide. (when available), $20/adult, $17/group, $5/18 and under, The Public Theatre, 31 Maple Street, Lewiston. FMI: 207-782-3200, www.thepublictheatre.org.
May 11, Friday, 7pm, “Improv Comedy Mud Bowl,” Mud season arrived late this year and western Maine is ready to face it with a laugh. On Friday, May 11th, performers from all over Maine and as far away as Rhode Island will come together for one epic night of here’s-mud-in-your-eye comedy as the annual Improv Comedy Mud Bowl returns to the Mt. Blue Campus in Farmington. The performance begins with an hour of showcase performances followed by the Mud Bowl, a series of competitive comedy games where the audience chooses the comedy champions of western Maine. Members of Providence Improv Guild and improv team Boom Scones have lent their comedic talents to support high school improvisation in western Maine for nearly ten years. New England comedy veterans, PIG not only entertain the crowd with their customized comedy, they spend the day coaching high school comedy teams in character development, scene work, and the art of making things up as you go. They feel confident that despite helping their future opponents, their finely honed skills, forged on the streets of Providence, will bring them final victory. Taking the stage alongside members of PIG will be Farmington’s Mt. Blue Curtain Raisers, a team of high school improvisers who will have home stage advantage going into the evening’s head to head to head to head to we lost count improv battle. Mountain Valley’s Room for Improv-Ment, a perennial favorite from Rumford, bring serious funny to every Mud Bowl. Falmouth High School’s comedy crew, Nothing, are full of something else. And appearing for the first time at Mud Bowl will be the University of Maine’s Improv In Sanity, featuring former Curtain Raiser, Casey Rogers. She knows the score, but how well she’s prepared her teammates will be up for the audience to decide. Also appearing will be western Maine’s Teachers Lounge Mafia, who are both old and perform regularly throughout the state and beyond, most recently as part of New Hampshire’s Great Northern Improv Festival. Again, they are old. Okay, just Dan and Jeff are old. The others are in their thirties as that’s perfectly respectable. The show begins promptly at 7 p.m. with a series of showcases from each improv team, to be followed by the no-holds-barred comic lunacy of the Mud Bowl. Between events, concessions will be available for purchase, $5, Mt. Blue High School, 129 Seamon Road, Farmington. FMI: www.facebook.com/MtBlueCurtainRaisers.
May 11 and 12, Friday and Saturday, 7:30pm, “Slaid Cleaves,” Now twenty-five years into his storied career, Cleaves’ songwriting has never been more potent than on his new album Ghost on the Car Radio, out June 23. The characters in Slaid Cleaves’ songs live in unglamorous reality. They work dead-end jobs, they run out of money, they grow old, they hold on to each other (or not), and they die. With an eye for the beauty in everyday life, he tells their stories, bringing a bit of empathy to their uncaring world, $28, Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, 280 Water Street, Gardiner. FMI: 207-582-7144, www.johnsonhall.org.
May 12, Saturday, 7pm, “The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra: ‘Old Favorites with a Twist’,” This performance opens with “Three Dance Episodes” from the musical “On the Town” by Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein is well known for his jazz-inflected, highly rhythmic style and his most famous score for “West Side Story.” Bernstein who would have been 100 this year is being celebrated by thousands of musical events over six continents. Next we are excited to have pianist Lise de la Salle return to our stage to perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto op. 54. Ms. de la Salle has performed with leading orchestras all over the world. In 2014 she performed Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the MSO to great acclaim from both the audiences and the orchestra members alike. As a Washington Post critic once wrote following one of her performances, “For much of the concert the audience had to remember to breath…the exhilaration didn’t let up for a second until her hands came off the keyboard.” It will be a special and rare treat to hear this wonderful pianist perform this beautiful and powerful concerto by Robert Schumann. The program concludes with Beethoven’s exciting and emotional Symphony No. 5. This work is a mainstay of the classical repertoire and has influenced many composers over the years. If there is a bit of classical music everyone knows, it is the first four notes of this symphony. It is so emblematic of great music that the first movement of this symphony was featured in the “Music of Earth” on the Golden Records sent into space on the two Voyager spacecraft, $20, free/18 and under and college students with ID, Gendron Franco Center, 46 Cedar Street, Lewiston. FMI: 207-846-5378, www.midcoastsymphony.org/concerts.
May 12, Saturday, 7pm, “The Gawler Family Welcomes Summer,” The Union Coffeehouse will start its 2018 summer season with a terrific Welcome To Summer Concert by The Gawler Family! How’s that for a fun way to kick the winter doldrums goodbye and welcome the warm weather back into our lives, if you’re not familiar with their music, the Gawlers accompany interweaving family harmonies with fiddles, banjo, wooden banjo, cello, guitar, ukulele and piano as well as a few surprises, whether they are crooning a poignant ballad or delivering a rollicking fiddle tune, their unique arrangements are especially engaging and often go along with anecdotes of historical or humorous content, with their infectious spirit and sparkling musicianship, they have earned a beloved place in the delighted hearts of varied audiences across the Northeast, following The Gawler Family, there will be an Open Mic Hour that attracts some fine local talent and, of course, we’ll have awesome baked goods courtesy of the “Union Church Bakers Corps” as well as coffee, tea and lemonade, $5 donation requested, Union Coffeehouse, 67 Main St., Belgrade Lakes. FMI: 207-435-3599, www.unionchurchmaine.org.
May 12, Saturday, 7:30pm, “Schooner Fare,” the Fourteenth Annual Remembering Tom Rowe: A Celebration in Song concert, Tom Rowe was a founding member of Schooner Fare. He passed away in 2004 due to complications in the treatment of throat cancer. Tom’s passion was playing music. His journey started as a grammar school student playing clarinet in the school band. He took up the saxophone and started playing dances with his father, “Bud” at grange halls as a teen. In high school he formed a folk group with classmates including Dave Rowe’s mom, Joanne Demers Fuller, Denny Breau, and Kathy Redmun Haley called the Chord Majority that developed a very loyal local following. In subsequent years, Tom joined forces with many local musicians of note playing rock and roll in watering holes around central Maine. In 1975, while still playing rock almost every night of the week, Tom formed Schooner Fare with two brothers, Steve and Chuck Romanoff. Schooner Fare brought him to the pinnacle of his career, playing the Kennedy Center, the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, the Birchmere in Washington D.C., and many other notable concert venues around the U.S. and Canada. In the early 1990s, Tom joined his son, Dave, to form Rowe by Rowe, a father-son duo that toured extensively for several years during times when Schooner Fare wasn’t busy. In 1998, Denny Breau joined the Rowe men to form Turkey Hollow. Tom continued playing with both Schooner Fare and Turkey Hollow until his passing. Every year at this concert, Tom’s bandmates gather with other musical friends to pay tribute to a wonderful musician-friend-father to raise money for the Jack McPhillips Memorial Fund. The bill for this year’s concert will include sets by Schooner Fare, Dave Rowe, and Denny Breau, all of whom perform every year, as well as special guests Don Campbell as well as Ti Acadie. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the group of musicians we have coming together for the show this year,” said Dave Rowe, Tom’s son. “Don Campbell was kind enough to adjust his schedule when some mutual friends had to drop out of the lineup, and I’m so glad he did. Don and I have been friends ever since my dad recorded Don’s first CD in his studio here in Auburn. Ultimately, Don and I played music together for a few years, so it’s always great getting together with such a good friend. Ti Acadie is a local folk group led by fiddler, Pam Weeks. Pam is an old family friend as well as a fantastic fiddler and musician. I can’t wait to hear what wonderful music both acts will bring to this year’s concert!” Remembering Tom Rowe: A Celebration in Song began as a benefit for the Maine Cancer Foundation, but changes at the foundation led Dave Rowe to seek out a new beneficiary several years ago. Dave reached out the board of the Jack McPhillips Memorial Fund, a charity started by friends of Schooner Fare and Devonsquare, dedicated to helping people with immediate, fundamental financial needs who would otherwise fall through the cracks. The JMMF has been happy to align with and help organize the concert since 2009. The fund raises money exclusively through the Remembering Tom Rowe concert and the Schooner Fare/Devonsquare and Friends Reunion Concert which happens yearly in the late winter, $22/advance, $25/door, First Universalist Church of Auburn, 169 Pleasant Street, Auburn. FMI: 207-619-FOLK, jmmf.org.
May 14, Monday, 7:30pm, “Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s Acadia Brass Ensemble,” The Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s Acadia Brass Ensemble will be in the Kingflied area this spring through the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s Meet the Music Makers program, because of a generous donation from Machias Savings Bank and Stanley Freeman. On Monday, May 14, the group will present two school performances for staff and students and an evening performance for the community. The free concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Nordica Auditorium on the University of Maine at Farmington campus and is hosted by ArtsFarmington. The Acadia Brass Ensemble features four members of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s brass section: Bill Whitener, trumpet; Curt Brossmer, trumpet; Wanda Whitener, french horn; and Anita-Ann Jerosch, trombone. They will visit local area schools to perform and work with students during the day. Their evening performance for the community will be an enjoyable, family-friendly concert featuring American Music, many of the tunes familiar to the ear, free, Nordica Auditorium, Merrill Hall, UMF, 224 Main Street, Farmington. FMI: 207-942-5555, www.bangorsymphony.org.

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