Director Al D’Andrea talks with the cast as the Snowlion Repertory Company rehearses “The Christmas Bride” at Portland Ballet. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor hosts concerts by nationally touring musical acts, the Carousel Music Theater offers dinner and a show, and the Maine State Music Theatre is nearby in Brunswick.
But there is nowhere in Boothbay Harbor to see a professional play.
A new theater company in town hopes to change that and finally find a permanent home of its own. Snowlion Repertory Company, which launched in Portland in 2011, has started fundraising to build a summer theater in the Midcoast. A concert at the Opera House on Tuesday will be its introduction and biggest step yet.
Margit Ahlin is the producing director of Snowlion Repertory, and her husband Al D’Andrea is the artistic director. They recently moved to Boothbay Harbor from Portland, and Ahlin said she thought they could fill what they see as a gap since the Boothbay Playhouse reopened as a wedding venue this spring.
“We thought this is a good opportunity to offer this to the community,” Ahlin said.
Ahlin and D’Andrea founded Snowlion Repertory Company in Maine to focus on developing new work, such as a play about panhandling in Portland that debuted in 2017. They previously lived in New York and California. For years, Snowlion performed in the Portland Ballet Studio Theater, which is now closed. Since the pandemic, they have found a temporary home at Meetinghouse Arts in Freeport.
Mary Letellier, Emily Bartley, and Kelly Caufield sing during rehearsal for “The Christmas Bride” at Portland Ballet. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Now, the company is not just saying “hello” to a new town. They’re also saying, “Merry Christmas.” The upcoming concert, which will also be staged in Portland and Freeport, will showcase songs from the musical “The Christmas Bride.” The original show is based on a lesser-known story by Charles Dickens. It follows a young woman who is engaged to the boy next door but falls in love with a handsome stranger. Ahlin wrote the book years ago under her pen name, MK Wolfe. A friend, Noel Katz, composed the music and lyrics. It premiered in New York in 1988.
“The Christmas Bride” was Snowlion’s first performance in Maine in 2011.
“It put us on the map in Portland,” she said, and is hoping for the same in Boothbay Harbor.
Building a new theater would be a major undertaking, and Ahlin expects the effort to take more than five years. The first phase of their plan focuses on meeting people in the community and building support for the project. They’ll be giving out brochures about the project at the concert to spread the word and create a basic website at boothbaysummertheater.com. They are open to new construction or a renovation project, and they have secured an architect to help them assess any options. The ideal space would probably accommodate 120 to 150 seats, but they do not have a cost estimate or firm plans yet.
Still, Ahlin said the company already has raised $15,000 with a grant and individual donations.
“This is our first step,” she said.
Betsey de Groff lives in Boothbay and works as a voice teacher. Ahlin and D’Andrea connected with her when they moved to town, and now she will sing the parts of three characters in “A Christmas Bride in Concert.” She is excited about new opportunities to perform at a professional level, which she said are rare in the region.
“When you’re working with them, you’re not wasting any time,” she said. “Working with other professionals, I’m looking forward to it.”
The Boothbay Playhouse on Route 27 dates to 1937. The summer theater operated until the 1970s and then underwent a series of ownership changes and uses. In 2005, the property went up for sale again, and Dean and Susan Domeyer decided to buy it. Susan Domeyer had been volunteering with a youth theater program that used the space, and her husband had been looking for land to build an animal hospital. It was “a two-for-one deal,” she said.
The theater continued to run for a decade until the Domeyers decided it was time to sell as well. The latest owners bought the building in 2020 and opened Boothbay Playhouse Weddings in 2023. Susan Domeyer said she has more time to relax in the summer at their home on Southport Island but does miss the theater, and she feels there would be enough demand to sustain another local performing arts venue.
“I would be thrilled if a new theater company was based here,” she said.
Paulette Carter is the producer and soon-to-be owner of Carousel Music Theater. The venue offers a meal and musical performances to audiences in the summer and will present two original shows this year. They bring on young actors who are coming out of university and looking for their first jobs.
Carter said there are fewer opportunities to see live performances in the area than when she moved to Maine in 1990.
“We can do as much as we want to in Boothbay Harbor,” she said. “I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to having another theater in the town because I love to see theater. It’s another performance venue in our community. I want to see those things around.”
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