Based on the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, the fast-paced stage whodunit features four actors playing all of the roles.
The plot closely follows the film. A Gaslight Theater release describes it as follows:
Canadian Richard Hannay (Tom Dix) is leading a boring life in London. Out for amusement at a London music hall, he meets a woman with a mysterious accent (Juli Brooks). When shots are fired and he takes her home for safety, she is murdered.
Soon, a shadowy organization called “The 39 Steps” is hot on Hannay’s trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale.
In Hannay’s travels he meets a plucky young Englishwoman (again Juli Brooks) and a sweet Scottish farm wife (also Brooks).
Two actors (Mike Clements and Chris Cart) play all the rest of the enemies and allies Hannay meets along the way. Clements and Cart jump in and out of costumes (male and female), hats and accents with lightning speed, sometimes in mid-conversation.
As if this is not enough, “The 39 Steps” also features an escape from a moving train, an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, bagpipes and romance. Gaslight’s production of “The 39 Steps” is directed by Lynette Miller.
Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today, Saturday and May 24 to 26. A matinee starts at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets cost $12 for adults or $10 for students and people age 60 and older. For reservations, call 626-3698.
Botanical gardens offer Saturday classes
BOOTHBAY — The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens will offer classes for gardeners on Saturday. One is about growing herbs, and the other takes a more general approach.
One class, “How Does Your Garden Grow? Garden Preparation and Maintenance,” is taught by horticulturist Justin Nichols. The price is $35 for members and $42 for non-members.
The other class, “Cultivating Herbs: Selecting and Growing for Many Uses,” will be taught by Irene Brady Barber. The price is $30 for members and $37 for non-members.
Both session will run from 9 a.m. to noon in the Bosarge Family Education Center, and each will feature time out in the gardens.
To sign up or for more information, call 633-4333, extension 101 or visit www.MaineGardens.org.
Castlebay brings Celtic flair to Johnson Hall
GARDINER — Castlebay will present a concert of Celtic and New England traditional music at 7:30 p.m. today at Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, 280 Water St.
Admission costs $13 for Johnson Hall members or $16 for nonmembers. For those younger than 22, admission costs $6.
For more information, call 582-7144.
‘Anansi’ spins tales for kids at Public Theatre
LEWISTON — The Public Theatre will stage Crabgrass Puppet Theatre’s award-winning production “Anansi: Spiderman of Africa” at 2 p.m. Sunday at 31 Maple St.
Appropriate for children as young as 4, the production includes a selection of famous folk tales from Africa.
“Anansi is one of the classic trickster characters in world folklore,” a Public Theatre release states. “These comical folk tales feature a dynamic blend of African design, infectious music and fabulous puppetry.”
Admission costs $5 for children 18 and younger or $10 for adults. For tickets or more information, call 782-3200 or visit www.thepublictheatre.org.
Women’s film series resumes Sunday
PORTLAND — The Bluestocking Film Series, featuring works by women, returns to the St. Lawrence Arts Center at 4 p.m. Sunday to screen several new short films by an international roster of women directors.
The series debuted in October.
“Our spring lineup will include a group of exceptional films from Australia along with those by American filmmakers,” Kate Kaminski, founder of the series, said in a release. “We’re excited to bring these works to a Maine audience.”
The festival not only requires that all submissions be directed by a woman, it also asks that films “pass” The Bechdel Test, a measure of gender bias in films, according to the release.
“The test is deceptively simple, but the most important thing to us is that women’s stories are front and center,” Kaminski said.
Guest judge Anita Sarkeesian helped determine whether each submission “passed.” Sarkeesian is a feminist pop culture media critic who produces video commentaries on her website — www.feministfrequency.com — and on YouTube.
Tickets cost $8 and are available at the door or at stlawrencearts.org.
St. Lawrence Arts Center is located at 76 Congress St.
Husband-wife poets plan Sunday reading
DAMARISCOTTA — Maine poets Ann Arbor and John Rosenwald will read from their works at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at River Arts gallery, 170 Main St.
Arbor is a photographer, novelist and poet who grew up in Mexico, Maine. She worked in a paper mill and attended college in Massachusetts. She has taught English to students from pre-kindergarten to graduate school, coached the Beloit College women’s basketball team, and served as foreign expert in China at Fudan, Nankai, and Zhejiang Universities. Since 1975, she has been a participant at Robert Bly’s Annual Conference on the Great Mother and the New Father.
Rosenwald lives in Farmington, where he serves as coeditor of the Beloit Poetry Journal and president of the Beloit Poetry Journal Foundation. Before his retirement in 2010, he was professor of English for 34 years at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
As Fulbright Professor of American Culture and Literature, he has taught in China at Fudan, Nankai, and Zhejiang universities. His recent work involves collaborative translation of contemporary Chinese poets and organization of exhibitions of Chinese peasant artists.
His poems and translations from German and Chinese have appeared in numerous journals. With his wife, Ann Arbor, he has been a frequent participant since its creation in 1975 at Robert Bly’s Annual Conference on the Great Mother and the New Father, for which he is the official historian.
For more information, www.riverartsme.org or call 563-1507.
Women’s chorus swirls ‘Winds of Change’
PORTLAND — Women in Harmony, Portland’s 60-member women’s community chorus, presents its spring concert, “Winds of Change,” Saturday and Sunday at Portland High School. The concert will feature guests from Portland Ballet’s CORPS dancers.
“‘Winds of Change’ addresses the theme of change as it is effected by various forces, including time, love, learning, and activism,” a chorus release states. “The program title comes from Holly Near’s “I am Willing.”
Members of the Portland Ballet CORPS will dance to “Sky Dances” by Roy Brown and Carrie Newcomer’s “Three Women” in the first half of the concert.
The program also includes “Fruits of the Selfless Heart,” with words from Mother Teresa, Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and several pieces from Women in Harmony’s recently released CD “A Voice Upon the Mountain.”
Performances will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Portland High School auditorium at 284 Cumberland Ave. Advance tickets cost $12 and are available in advance at Longfellow Books and Starbird Music in Portland, and Nonesuch Books in South Portland or via Women in Harmony’s website, www.wihmaine.org. General admission is $15 at the door.
Prose, poetry workshops center on mothers
PORTLAND — The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance will host two mother themed writing workshops on Saturday.
“Discovering Our Mother’s Stories” will be a prose workshop with Patricia Taub, and “Mothering the Word,” led by Elizabeth Kirschner, will focus on poetry.
“Women writers may or may not bear children or mother others — either literally or symbolically — but the instinct ‘to mother’ is a profound, primal, and powerful force,” Kirschner, who has taught at Boston College and was the 2011 Maine Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellow, said in a release. “When we focus that force fully upon mothering the word, then and only then, can we fully inhabit and empower not just language but our highest literary selves.”
“As adult daughters, many of us struggle with our relationships to our mothers,” said Taub, a family therapist, journalist, author, former National Public Radio host, and author of the motherdaughter memoir “The Mother of My Invention.”
The two writing workshops will run concurrently from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Family Library.
For more information, contact the MWPA at info@mainewriters.org or 228-8263.
Register online at www.mainewriters.org.
Rossini Club lines up Sunday concert
PORTLAND — The Rossini Club will sponsor a concert from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Luke’s Cathedral, 143 State St.
The program includes pianist Nicole Trifaro playing “Gottschalk;” soprano Olivia Casey with pianist Richard Roberts performing songs of Francis Poulenc; viola player Eleanor Lehmann and pianist Steven Blumenthal performing works of Glazunov and Holst; and guest soprano Molly Harmon, accompanied by hornist Seth Blank and pianist Mark Braun; and Jane Hunt and Carol Downs performing Bach’s “Keyboard Concerto in D Minor” in a transcription for two pianos.
Admission costs $10 for adults or $5 for seniors. Students will be admitted free.
For more information, call 797-8318 or www.rossiniclub.org.
Show highlights Jewish music
AUGUSTA — The Casco Bay Tummlers will present “History of Jewish Music,” a concert with commentary, at 2 p.m. Sunday in Jewett Auditorium at the University of Maine at Augusta.
The Casco Bay Tummlers, based in Portland, have been performing klezmer music since 1988.
They have released three recordings. In 1999, they created and performed the music for the world premiere of “Manifest” at Portland Stage Company.
Tickets cost $10 for adults or $5 for students. Children age 12 and younger get in free. Advance tickets are available at Pat’s Pizza in August and Apple Valley Books in Winthrop.
For more information, call 621-3551 or email umasc@maine.edu. To order tickets, visit concertsatjewett.com.
Franco-Celtic music links highlighted
LEWISTON — Noted French-Canadian folk musician and dancer Benoit Bourque will be joined by both family and friends in a pair of concerts today and Sunday at Bates College.
Making his first U.S. appearance with his dad will be Benoit’s son, Antoine, 22, who is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree in music at the University of Montreal. Although he played piano for many years, his major instrument is now accordion.
Father and son will perform in concert titled “Franco Celtic Connections” at 8 p.m. today in the Olin Arts Center. They will share the stage with two of America’s leading practitioners of Irish and Scottish music, Frank Ferrel, who lives in Maine, and Portland resident Ed Pearlman.
At 3 p.m. Sunday in Schaeffer Theatre, 300 College St., Benoit Bourque and Antoine Bourque will headline a program inspired by the old-time kitchen parties that were a common occurrence among Franco-American families in Lewiston until a couple of generations ago.
Storyteller Michael Parent, a Lewiston native, will act as host.
Admission to either of the above events is $10, with a reduced price of $5 for children and students.
These events are part of a three-day community residency organized by the Maine Folque Co-op, with additional support from the Franco- American Collection at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College, the Lewiston Public Library, the Lewiston chapter of the Association Canado- Amèricaine/Royal Arcanum, and the Farwell School PTA.
Other activities — all with a French-Canadian theme — include a song workshop, a family dance, a step dance workshop and dance party for teens and young adults.
For more information, call 782-0386 or visit www.mainefolqueco op.com.
Cornils, kids team for organ celebration
PORTLAND — The Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ will present a program that introduces students in third through sixth grade to the organ at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St.
“This educational concert is an opportunity for students to experience the many sounds of Portland’s historic Kotzschmar symphonic pipe organ and to explore how it works,” a release from the organization states.
Ray Cornils, Portland’s municipal organist, will perform and explain the workings of the instrument, assisted by children who have been part of the Kotzschmar 4 Kids education program.
Admission for adults costs $5 at the door. For more information, call 553-4363 or visit www.foko.org.
Good Theater schedules auditions
PORTLAND — Good Theater, the professional theater in residence at St. Lawrence Arts, plans to hold auditions by appointment only from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. To secure an audition slot, call 885-5883.
At the audition actors will be asked to read from the scripts. To audition for a musical role, bring sheet music and a pianist will be provided.
All roles are paid.
Lincoln Theater plans Gospel documentary
DAMARISCOTTA — The Lincoln Theater will screen “Rejoice and Shout,” a documentary that covers 200 years of musical history of African-American Christianity, at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Featured artists in the film include Gospel performers The Staple Singers, The Clara Ward Singers, The Dixie Hummingbirds and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Tickets cost $9 for adults or $7 for seniors and children younger than 12.
For more information, call 563-3424 or visit www.lcct.org.
Photography exhibit focuses on ‘Old West’
SOUTH PORTLAND — An ongoing photography exhibit by members of the Portland Camera Club at the South Portland Library now features images by Douglas Coleman of Kennebunk.
The exhibit, titled “The Old West,” will run through June 18.
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