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I Hate Shakespeare
We hate Shakespeare! At least that’s what the audience thinks until they get a rip-roaring rundown of Shakespeare’s classics. With zombies, talking cows, and an appearance by Jerry Springer, I Hate Shakespeare! is a hilarious and fast-paced introduction to Shakespeare — with a modern twist.
Plus, someone gets a pie in the face.
“I Hate Shakespeare” by Steph DeFerie is a comedy presenting Shakespearean vignettes from a modern (and sometimes silly) point of view. This summer Gaslight Theater proudly presents six performances of “I Hate Shakespeare” directed by Margaret Matheson assisted by Richard Bostwick.
The second weekend in July the Augusta Downtown Alliance will sponsor three performances of Gaslight Theater production of “I Hate Shakespeare” at Waterfront Park in Augusta, Friday and Saturday, July 8 and 9 at 6:00 PM and a matinee performance on Sunday, July 10 at 2:00 PM.
The following week, during Old Hallowell Day weekend, Vaughan Historic Homestead will be hosting shows on Friday and Saturday, July 15 and 16 at 6:00 PM and a matinee performance on Sunday, July 17 at 2:00 PM. Parking at Vaughan Homestead is strictly limited to showtimes only.
Choose your date and venue and bring a chair, blanket or maybe even a snack and make it an event! For more information call 207-626-3698. Donations will be accepted at the show or anytime online to support the nonprofit Gaslight Theater.
If you go:
What: Gaslight Theater presents “I Hate Shakespeare”
Cost: Free with donations accepted.
When and where in Augusta:
Friday and Saturday July 8 and 9 at 6:00 PM, Sunday July 10 at 2:00pm
Waterfront Park in Downtown Augusta
Front St, Augusta, ME 04330When and where in Hallowell:
Friday and Saturday July 15 and 16* at 6:00 PM, Sunday July 17 at 2:00 PM
Vaughan Historic Homestead Outdoor Pavilion
2 Litchfield Rd, Hallowell* The Saturday show is on Old Hallowell Day. Parking at Vaughan Homestead is strictly limited to the duration of the show only.
This is an outdoor event. However, to ensure the health and safety of our audience and performers, we are asking everyone in attendance to wear a mask if they are not current on their vaccinations. The actors will not be masked when onstage during performances. These are difficult times, and we ask that everyone remain considerate and respectful of others.
Founded in 1937 as the Augusta Players, and since doing business as Gaslight Theater, we are the oldest continuously operating community theater in Maine. Productions have taken place in Hallowell City Hall since the late 1970s (until COVID intervened). We hope to return to our regular schedule in 2023 which is normally four shows a year, usually in late winter, early summer, late summer, and the fall, featuring a balance among musicals, mysteries, comedies, classics and new or experimental plays. For each show, we have at least six performances over two weekends, including Sunday matinees.
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Auditions! Auditions for Summer Show
The Gaslight Theater is holding auditions for I Hate Shakespeare, by Steph DeFerie, and directed by Meg Matheson.
Auditions will be held Sunday, April 24 and Monday, April 25 at 5:30 at the Vaughn Homestead Pavilion in Hallowell. Show consists of comedic vignettes with doubling. Roles can be done by any gender; number and ages of cast can vary. Auditions are cold readings.
Show dates are July 8, 9 and 10 in Augusta and July 15, 16 and 17 in Hallowell. If you are unable to make one of the audition dates, but wish to audition, please contact us.
Please bring proof of Covid-19 vaccination to auditions.
Auditions are at 5:30pm on Sunday, April 24 and Monday, April 25 at the:
Vaughan Homestead Pavilion
2 Litchfield Rd, Hallowell.I Hate Shakespeare
I Hate Shakespeare by Steph DeFerie, directed by Meg Matheson will be presented on July 8, 9 and 10 in Augusta and July 15, 16 and 17 in Hallowell.
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Save the Dates
August 20, 21, and 22 for
A Review of Old Time Radio
This play showcases radio comedies, dramas, and songs that were popular on radio in the 1930’s. 1940’s and 1950’s. The show will be presented August 20, 21 and 22.
As our normal theater is still unavailable, the play will be presented at:
Vaughan Homestead Pavilion
2 Litchfield Rd, HallowellMore details to follow.
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Upcoming 2021 Season
Prose, Roses, and Woes
After much deliberation and soul searching, we have elected to postpone these performances from our original Valentines weekend date. We will reschedule when more vaccines has been administered and we are confident new cases are moving in the right direction.
POSTPONED
Hallowell’s Gaslight Theater is planning an outdoor themed poetry event in downtown Hallowell for a TO BE DETERMINED weekend.
This outdoor walking tour featuring live poetry readings, will take place on a future date TO BE DETERMINED at up to 6 locations in downtown Hallowell.
Small audience groups will be revolved among all the venues, while adhering to social distancing and masking protocols to keep everyone safe.
We have three ways you can participate, as a poet, as a reader or as part of the audience.
Poets
Submit a poem for us to consider, dealing with any aspect of the theme of “love”: true love, new love, old love, or even lost love. It should be your own original work. We are not looking for an epic work but an original poem you would agree to have read by an actor or you can audition to read it yourself. Our esteemed selection committee will choose favorites for the event.
We will accept new submissions once we have a date specified.
Readers
You can audition to read poems at the event. Readers and audience at each outdoor venue will be socially distanced and we will not be using microphones so a good strong voice and the ability to project is required.
We will accept new submissions once we have a date specified.
Audience
Reservations will be opened when we have a new date.
Stay tuned for More Info
Our home venue, Hallowell City Hall, is still not available at this time. It is not yet known when it may be. Social distancing for the safety of our cast, crew, and patrons is a priority and will reduce the size of audiences and will guide us as we look forward to presenting and acting again.
207-626-3698
Gaslighttheater@Gaslighttheater.org -
Current Season 2020
This is our Mid-year Update
After we cut the run of “Last Gas’ short early on in the year, the path of the pandemic remained unknown and we had been waiting for some idea of what the future possibilities are. We still don’t know what the future looks like.
We have postponed our entire 2020 season and will be moving “The Whales of August” and “Almost Maine” to the second half of next year.
Between now and then, we are looking at some plays with a single actor and a small tech crew.
Stay tuned.
We are also looking at reader’s theater. Our home venue, Hallowell City Hall, is not available at this time. It is not yet known when it may be. Social distancing for the safety of our cast, crew, and patrons is a priority and will reduce the size of audiences and will guide us as we look forward to presenting and acting again.
Fear not, we will return because.
We Miss You.
We Miss working the Boards.
We Miss the Social fun that is Theater.
207-626-3698
gaslighttheater@yahoo.comWhales of August by David Berry – Postponed until 2021 season.
Almost Maine By John Cariani – Postponed until 2021 season. -
Last Gas
SYNOPSIS
“Last Gas” is the land of last chances. It takes place in very Northern Maine at “Paradis’ Last Convenience Store. Last Gas, Last Food, Last Phone for Forty One Miles”. GAS is a gently unpredictable love story, with a quiet tension under the surface.Cariani says “This play is not about the Red Sox. It’s about the quiet things that kill people, the internal what-ifs that we all experience, and the everyday choices that we make without thinking about the consequences that reach far beyond our imaginations or expectations.”
Nat Paradis is a Red Sox-loving part-time dad who manages Paradis’ Last Convenient Store, the last convenient place to get gas—or anything—before the Canadian border to the north and the North Maine Woods to the west.
When an old flame returns to town, Nat gets a chance to rekindle a romance he gave up on years ago. But sparks fly as he’s forced to choose between new love and old. LAST GAS takes a hilarious and heartbreakingly hard look at love lost and found, and at what it means to “get back to happy.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Cariani is an American playwright, best known for his first play, Almost, Maine, which premiered at the Portland Stage Company in 2004. It has become one of the most frequently produced plays in the world. -
Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web
“Suspense, anyone? The old fashioned kind? Who’s for good, clean fun? One is Agatha Christle’s 1954 puzzler, The Spider’s Web.” – Howard Thompson, The New York Times
Agatha Christie’sSpider’s Web
At Hallowell City Hall
Show dates November 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24Synopsis from SamuelFrench.com
Clarissa, wife of a diplomat, is adept at spinning tales of adventure, but when a murder takes place in her drawing room she finds live drama much harder to cope with. Desperate to dispose of the body before her husband arrives with an important politician, she enlists the help of her guests. Hilarity ensues when they are interrupted by the arrival of wry detective Inspector Lord.
A conscious parody of the detective thriller, Christie delivers a unique blend of suspense and humour. There is tension and laughter in equal parts in an intricate plot of murder, police, drug addicts, invisible ink, hidden doorways and secret drawers.
3 women 8 men
Here is a description of characters:
“Spider’s Web” Characters
Clarissa Hailsham-Brown: Age 25-35. The second wife of Henry Hailsham-Brown, charming and inventive, her imagination tends to work overtime, with some unexpected consequences.Jeremy Warrender: Age 25-30. An elegant young man and guest at the Hailsham-Brown’s house, the private secretary for a man much wealthier than he.
Oliver Costello: Age 40s. He is suspected of shady dealings. None of the other characters like him and neither should the audience – even though he is killed in the first act, his body gets to hang around in the second act.
Pipa Hailsham-Brown: Clarissa’s young stepdaughter: Age about 12 years old, she exhibits the strong emotional swings of a pre-teen, made worse by a previous family problems, will need to look much younger than Clarissa but strong enough for Clarissa (and the audience) to believe that she could have clobbered Oliver.
Mildred Peake: She is a big, jolly-looking woman of forty odd, in tweeds and gum boots. The gardener with a hale and hearty attitude, some suspect that she isn’t all there.
Mr. Elgin: The butler – middle aged. Nothing escapes his attention.
Henry Hailsham-Brown: Age 40-50s. Clarissa’s husband. A good-looking man of about forty with a rather expressionless face who works in the foreign office, a strong, solid type.
Constable Jones: Age 20-40s. He and the Inspector have been working together long enough that they understand each other well.
Sir Rowland Delahaye: Age 50-60. A distinguished gentleman with very definite charm. Clarissa’s guardian, friend, and adviser, he likes to think that he can guide her, but would never admit that she has him wrapped around her little finger.
Hugo Birch: Age 50-60. The local Justice of the Peace. A rather irascible type who shouldn’t be involved in business like a murder.
Inspector Lord: Age 40-50s. The wheels are always turning in his brain. Although he doesn’t let on, he doesn’t miss a thing.
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare in the Park with the Augusta Downtown Alliance
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Augusta 16, 17 in Waterfront Park in AugustaA Midsummer Night’s Dream Summary
Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.
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A Little Murder Never Hurt Anyone
by Ron Bernas
At Hallowell City Hall
Show dates June 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23“A delightful surprise…an evening of fun just on the proper side of slapstick.” – Lansing State Journal
Synopsis from stageplays.com
It’s New Year’s Eve at the Perry mansion, and Julia and Matthew Perry seem to have it all.
But Matthew wants something more – to be rid of his wife Julia so he can have some real fun!
He resolves to murder Julia by the new year’s end, and tells her so
She vows to stay alive, and tells him so
And so the game begins – an hilarious year-long match of wits and the witless
But while Julia cleverly dodges Matthew’s devious murder attempts, the Perry friends and staff are dying off mysteriously – it seems Matthew is successful in murdering everyone but Julia!
As the bodies are falling, dim-witted daughter Bunny contemplates calling off her wedding to unwitting Donald since all the intended gift-bearing guests are dying
Enter Detective Plotnik – a Sam Spade reincarnation who suspects everyone, but hasn’t a clue
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All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play
By Werner Trieschmann.Synopsis from dramaticpublishing.com
Based on several disastrous theatrical experiences, Bad Play peels back a tattered curtain to examine the process of putting on a show that is less than good. A stuffy narrator (what bad play is complete without a stuffy narrator?) guides the audience through the whole sorry process. We go from the audition—where the director is more worried about roast beef than paying attention to the warm-up exercise, and the neurotic cast pretends to be bacon—to rehearsals—where a passive-aggressive stage manager gives everyone grief. There’s also a special meeting of the Small Part Support Group and a production of Romeo and Juliet set in a Starbucks with costumes of potato sacks and bowler hats. This bad play within a play won’t win any awards, but All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play will keep audiences in stitches.
The oldest continuously operating theater in Maine
