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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!
Apr
20

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!

October through April, 2023 - 2024 

Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series

What’s "Out of the Hat!?” It’s a fresh, compact production with a rehearsal time of one day, 7 hours, performed that same night. The play, the director, the cast are all picked "out of the hat" so to speak -- this makes it fresh and exciting.

It goes like so ... we gather at noon to read the chosen play -- many of us for the first time. After a first read, the director for the play retires to cast the show. Once done, the group works to put the play on its feet with the result being an outstanding and very fresh performance at 7pm.

Come to read and play at noon or come to watch it that evening. Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.

Interested in reading? We would love to have you! To read, you will need yourself, writing utensils, dark clothes, a potluck, energy and a penchant for fun.

Please message Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com if you would like to be a part of the day's production.

This popular retelling of the beloved children's classic never strays far from Twain's original text. Huck Finn is an outcast. He has no mother and his father is a hopeless drunkard. The Widow Douglas takes him in but he rejects her "civilized" world and runs away. On his epic journey down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim, Huck finds acceptance for the first time in his life. He also learns responsibility, an awareness of equality, and the meaning of true friendship.



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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!
Mar
16

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!

October through April, 2023 - 2024 

Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series

What’s "Out of the Hat!?” It’s a fresh, compact production with a rehearsal time of one day, 7 hours, performed that same night. The play, the director, the cast are all picked "out of the hat" so to speak -- this makes it fresh and exciting.

It goes like so ... we gather at noon to read the chosen play -- many of us for the first time. After a first read, the director for the play retires to cast the show. Once done, the group works to put the play on its feet with the result being an outstanding and very fresh performance at 7pm.

Come to read and play at noon or come to watch it that evening. Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.

Interested in reading? We would love to have you! To read, you will need yourself, writing utensils, dark clothes, a potluck, energy and a penchant for fun.

Please message Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com if you would like to be a part of the day's production.

This month - short plays by local playwrights!



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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!
Feb
17

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!

October through April, 2023 - 2024 

Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series

What’s "Out of the Hat!?” It’s a fresh, compact production with a rehearsal time of one day, 7 hours, performed that same night. The play, the director, the cast are all picked "out of the hat" so to speak -- this makes it fresh and exciting.

It goes like so ... we gather at noon to read the chosen play -- many of us for the first time. After a first read, the director for the play retires to cast the show. Once done, the group works to put the play on its feet with the result being an outstanding and very fresh performance at 7pm.

Come to read and play at noon or come to watch it that evening. Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.

Interested in reading? We would love to have you! To read, you will need yourself, writing utensils, dark clothes, a potluck, energy and a penchant for fun.

Please message Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com if you would like to be a part of the day's production.

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."



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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Maine Playwright Contest Winning Play - In McClintock’s Corn by Carolyn Gage: A Staged Reading
Jan
20

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Maine Playwright Contest Winning Play - In McClintock’s Corn by Carolyn Gage: A Staged Reading

Carolyn Gage of Southwest Harbor, Maine, has been awarded the 2023 Schoodic Arts for All Meetinghouse Theatre Lab playwright competition prize for her play, In McClintock’s Corn.

Ms. Gage will receive a $100 award and her play will be presented in a staged reading by the Theatre Lab on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7pm at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor.

About the Play The play features gender-non-conforming, neurodivergent geneticist Barbara McClintock and her companion/partner Harriet Creighton, and McClintock’s revolutionary quest to understand diversity in nature through her study of corn. Every scene is set in a cornfield as the play traces the friendship between the women from the Depression, to World War II, to the Civil Rights Movement, to McClintock’s long-overdue winning of the Nobel Prize in 1983. Last year, In McClintock’s Corn was named National Runner-Up for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, the top feminist play award in the US, given by the Women and Theatre Program of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

About the Author Carolyn Gage is an autistic playwright, performer, director, and activist. The author of nine anthologies of plays and eighty-eight musicals, dramas, and one-woman shows, she specializes in non-traditional roles for women, especially reclaiming famous lesbians whose stories have been distorted or erased from history. She has lived in Southwest Harbor since 2016. Gage will attend the MHTL reading of In McClintock’s Corn and participate in a Q and A at the end of the performance. Because of the small number of roles, this reading will be precast. There is no admission charge, although donations are always appreciated. If you have any questions, please email Cathy Johnson at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com for more information. www.carolyngage.com

About Meetinghouse Theatre Lab The Meetinghouse Theatre Lab is dedicated to creating an ensemble of performance artists who come together to excite the senses, push the limits, and transform the definition of create with the aim of growing as performers and enriching the humanity of all involved. Since 2003 the Theatre Lab has presented readings, staged readings, and full productions, both classic and contemporary, that challenge accepted social norms and values, question reality, break down the “fourth wall”, explore the notion of “truth”. Join us in the audience and spread the word to your friends, too! Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted. Our “Out of the Hat!” readings are on the 3rd Saturday of each month from October through April, so be sure to save the dates on your calendar.



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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!
Dec
9

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!

October through April, 2023 - 2024 

Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series  

Holiday Readings – and more!

Please join the Meetinghouse Theatre Lab for family friendly/child friendly dramatic fun for the Holidays with readings from favorites such as “T’was the Night Before Christmas”, “The Grinch”, and more!   

If you would like to participate, come to read and rehearse with us at 1 PM, or if you prefer just to watch and enjoy, come see the performance at 5:30 PM. Come in your pajamas if you want. Cookies and cocoa will be served.

Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.

To be a part of the day's production, please message: Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com  



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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!
Nov
18

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!

October through April, 2023 - 2024 

Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series  

What’s "Out of the Hat!?” It’s a fresh, compact production with a rehearsal time of one day, 7 hours, performed that same night. The play, the director, the cast are all picked "out of the hat" so to speak -- this makes it fresh and exciting.

It goes like so ... we gather at noon to read the chosen play -- many of us for the first time. After a first read, the director for the play retires to cast the show. Once done, the group works to put the play on its feet with the result being an outstanding and very fresh performance at 7pm.

Come to read and play at noon or come to watch it that evening. Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.

Interested in reading? We would love to have you! To read, you will need yourself, writing utensils, dark clothes, a potluck, energy and a penchant for fun. Please message Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com if you would like to be a part of the day's production.

Angel Street tells the story of the Manninghams, who live on Angel Street in 19th century London. As the curtain rises, all appears to be the essence of Victorian tranquility. It is soon apparent, however, that Mr. Manningham, a suavely handsome man, is slowly driving his gentle, devoted wife, Bella, to the brink of insanity with an insinuating kindness that masks more sinister motives.



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Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!
Oct
21

Meetinghouse Theatre Lab - Out of the Hat!

October through April, 2023 - 2024 

Out of the Hat! Readers' Theatre Series

What’s "Out of the Hat!?” It’s a fresh, compact production with a rehearsal time of one day, 7 hours, performed that same night. The play, the director, the cast are all picked "out of the hat" so to speak -- this makes it fresh and exciting.

It goes like so ... we gather at noon to read the chosen play -- many of us for the first time. After a first read, the director for the play retires to cast the show. Once done, the group works to put the play on its feet with the result being an outstanding and very fresh performance at 6 or 7pm.

Come to read and play at noon or come to watch it that evening. Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.

Interested in reading? We would love to have you! To read, you will need yourself, writing utensils, dark clothes, a potluck, energy and a penchant for fun.

Please message Meetinghouse Theatre Lab on Facebook or e-mail Cathy at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com if you would like to be a part of the day's production.

Better Off Dead? is Nikolai Erdman’s witty satire of lobbyists seeking political control. Semyon is just an ordinary man who, when arguing with his wife about a sausage, accuses her of wishing he was dead. This sets in motion a disastrous chain of misunderstandings in which Moscow’s shadiest characters try to recruit him for various causes. Semyon survives their lottery of death only by means of a tuba, a drinking error, and a love for life so effervescent that he rebels against duty. Better Off Dead? was written in 1928 but its performance was forbidden during the Stalinist era and was only produced in Russia several years after Erdman's death. Today it is regarded as one of the finest plays to have come out of Communist Russia.



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