1923: The Junior League of Portland founds the Children’s Theatre of Portland with performances at venues around the city.
1944: The Children’s Trailer Theatre spends the summer traveling to the city’s playgrounds and parks. In 1947, the Lewiston Journal Magazine ran a story with the headline “Portland’s Children Theatre is Filling Great Educational Need.” The story said the traveling trailer was the only one in the country and “an instant success.” “The children are treated just as respectfully as any adult audience. Furthermore, just before curtain time they get a short pep talk on audience manners that would do many adult audiences well to hear.”
1949: The Children’s Theatre performs “Johnny Appleseed” in Central Park in New York City at the Fourth Annual Children’s Theatre Conference.
1974: The Children’s Theatre of Portland is renamed the Children’s Theatre of Maine.
Now-famous actor Tony Shalhoub paints a child’s face in 1977. A graduate of the University of Southern Maine, Shalhoub was involved with the Children’s Theatre when he lived in Portland. Photo courtesy of Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine
2008: The theater merges with the Children’s Museum of Maine, forming the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.
2017: The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine buys a 1-acre site at Thompson’s Point and announces plans for a three-story museum that would double its space.
The Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine sold its building at 142 Free St. in Portland, its home for 25 years, to the Portland Museum of Art. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
2020: The 142 Free St. location closes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021: The $15 million museum and theater open in their new home on Thompson’s Point. The approximately 30,000-square-foot building includes interactive exhibits, an outdoor play area and the state-of-the-art Maddy’s Theatre. Julie Butcher Pezzino, executive director, said: “We want this to be a place where everybody feels they belong, regardless of age, physical ability, socioeconomic status, regardless of race or gender. It’s designed, built and programmed for everyone.”
2023: The Children’s Museum and Theatre now welcomes more than 200,000 guests each year in its new home.
Maddy’s Theatre, at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine, holds an audience of about 100. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
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