Area Arts

Portland String Quartet to play at Shaker Village: The Portland String Quartet's annual summer concert at Shaker Village will be Saturday, July 17 beginning at 7 pm in the 1794 Shaker Meetinghouse. The cost is $10 per person and reservations are required (call 207-926-4597). Concert sponsors are the LARK Society, Cook's Hardware, Androscoggin Bank, Curry Printing, the Hart Ford Agency, and Downeast Energy. Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village is located on Route 26 in New Gloucester, ME.

The BackStage Gallery
Deertrees Theatre & Cultural Center, Deertrees Road, Harrison, Maine

The BackStage Gallery is open from 10 AM until 5 PM Tuesday through Saturday, one hour before performances and during intermission. Deertrees Theatre is handicap accessible. Free parking on the grounds
Exhibits through Tuesday July 20.

KAREN FELD: "Literally/Figuratively" (sculptures)
An award-winning Washington D.C. print and broadcast journalist who specializes in capturing the personalities behind the news, Karen strives to enmesh in her sculptures the essence of the individual that she reveals in her written and spoken word.

TIM GAYDOS: "Recent Works" (watercolors & pastels)
Recipient of more than one hundred awards including the American Watercolor Society Silver Medal of Honor in 2002, and top awards at the Pastel Society of America. The raw realism of Tim's paintings evokes emotion through color and composition.

DENTON RIDGE: "The Shaker Series" (watercolors).
The "Shaker Series" is Denton Ridge's individual response to the architecture and objects in the Shaker communities of Sabbath Day Lake, Maine and Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.
Thursday, July 22 through Saturday, August 14
Opening reception on Friday, July 23 at 6 PM

"ON THEIR OWN" Carman Martin, curator
ANDERSEN STONEWARE: (Ceramics)
Widely renowned for the elegantly simple pottery and line of animal and bird sculptures, this is the first exhibit of the Studio's one-of-a-kind decorative works.

GINA BILANDER: (Photographs)
In Ms Bilander's magnificently composed photographs one see the same spirituality and homage to nature that van Gogh embraced; the same essence of light and shadow of Rembrandt.

BRIAN BLOCK: (Images)
The mark of the hand has not lost its relevance in painting, but rather increased in relevance, as it, along with the human voice, remains a defining expression of the human.

WILLIAM IRVINE: (Oil on Canvas & paper)
Mr. Irvine is the heir to a century of modernist painters who have celebrated the land and the sea, employing it as a metaphor for personal placement and truth through their works.

SHARON MCCARTNEY: (Mixed Media Collages, Acrylic on Canvas)
The works in this series are about collecting and a life long passion for objects found in the natural world, they are about Ms. McCartney's relationship to this world as a source of sanctuary, wonder and personal rhythm.

Deertrees Backstage Gallery Telephone: 207 583 6747, E-mail: deertrees@usa.net, Web Site: www.deertreestheatre.org. Contact: c. randolph parker (207-583-4939).

2005 Portland Museum Of Art Biennial Call For Entries
The Portland Museum of Art is now accepting submissions from artists for the 2005 Portland Museum of Art Biennial exhibition, which will be on view from April 6 through June 5, 2005. A juried exhibition of works in all media, the Biennial will showcase new work by living artists associated with the state of Maine, celebrating the richness and variety of the visual arts in our state.

All artists who spend part or all of the year working in Maine are encouraged to submit slides for review by the jurors: John Cheim, owner of Cheim and Read Gallery in New York; Yvonne Jacquette, nationally recognized Maine artist; and Judith Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. All entries must be postmarked by August 2, 2004. For an application form with instructions, visit the Museum's website at www.portlandmuseumofart.org,or call the Museum at (207) 775-6148 x 3240 to receive one in the mail.

The Portland Museum of Art Biennial is supported by the William E. and Helen E. Thon Endowment for American Art.

Maine State Ballet

Maine State Ballet's Summer Gala Performance featuring Can Can Parisian and the Maine premiere of George Balanchine's Serenade. Saturday, August 14 at 7pm, Merrill Auditorium.

Tickets $25, available through PortTix, 842-0800. Details: 856-1662 or see www.mainestateballet.org

L/A Arts Music in the Parks

Sara Cox and Boreal Tordu
L/A Arts has a fabulous set of music planned as the ongoing Music in the Park series continues. These free concerts are held on Tuesday at noon in Festival Plaza on Main Street in Auburn, and every Thursday at noon in Courthouse Plaza on Lisbon Street in Lewiston. On July 27th, L/A Arts and HRH (formerly the Dunlap Corp.) welcomes Sara Cox of Portland; a singer/songwriter with the roots rock group, The Coming Grass.

Later in the week, at Courthouse Plaza in Lewiston, on July 29th, Boreal Tordu, a Franco-American style band which brings back to Maine the Cajun music which originated here but made Louisiana famous. Rain dates are always the following day at the same time and location.

For more information about Music in the Parks and other L/A Arts events contact L/A Arts at 782-7228 (1-800-639-2919) or see the website at www.laarts.org.

Camp Encore/Coda Chamber Orchestra Benefit Concert For Bridgton Hospital

Despite scores of Chamber Music Recitals being presented throughout Maine this summer, rare is the opportunity to hear a full orchestra and rarer still for the venue to have been described as "a music venue to die for" by one of the state's leading music critics.

On Monday, July 19th at 8 p.m., Harrison's historic Deertrees Theatre and the forty-piece Camp Encore/Coda Chamber Orchestra will present a very special concert entitled " A Guided Tour of the Classics" to benefit the Bridgton Hospital.

Before the concert, at 7 p.m., a wine and cheese reception will be held at the Deertrees' BackStage Gallery. Tickets are $15 for the reception and
concert, $ 12 for the concert alone. Tickets are available at the Cool Moose in Bridgton, Fare Share Co-Op in Norway, Books & Things in Bethel and at the Box Office. For reservations and further information please call Deertrees at 207-583-6747.

Vist Deertrees On The Web at www.deertreestheatre.org

Bob Marley, Don Campbell to perform at Deertrees
Comedian Bob Marley was named one of the "Ten Comics to Watch," long before he signed to do a show with ABC Television, long before he became a regular on Leno, Letterman and O'Brien, long before he made films with Willem Dafoe, long before he headlined such venues as Caesar's Palace and The Trump Palace, even before he was a hit at Boston's Comedy Connection, Bob's home state of Maine was his number one fan base.
Performances are Thursday, July 22nd at 7 (sold out) but tickets are still available for the 9:30 performance.

Don Campbell, who was recently named "Maine's Best Singer Songwriter" in the Maine Sunday Telegram and "Country Artist of the Year" by Jam Music Magazine, will be performing at Deertrees on Friday, July 23rd at 8 p.m. Left, Campbell.

Tickets for all shows are available at the Cool Moose in Bridgton, Fare Share Co-Op in Norway, Books & Things in Bethel and at the Box Office. For reservations and further information please call Deertrees at 207-583-6747.

The Scarlet Pimpernel, CLT announces cast
Community Little Theatre Director Richard Martin confers with his Producer, Karen Mayo, on fine-tuning the musical production for "The Scarlet Pimpernel," The August 20-29 musical production willo be staged at air-conditioned Lewiston Middle School, Central Avenue.


The story of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baroness Emma Orczy, the Hungarian-British novelist, begins in 1792 in France.

The Revolution has turned unbelievably bloody. Madame Guillotine feeds upon hundreds of French men and women, too many of whom are innocent of any crime. Out of this chaos, one man emerges to right the wrong. With his small band of men, he defies all odds, saving the doomed French in one ingenious rescue after another. He is known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Supporting roles include New Gloucester's Phil Vampatella playing the role of butler and also the role of the Executioner.

Martin has chosen Karen Mayo, producer, to assist in production; Colin Britt, musical director; Phil Vampatella and Jay Fisher, guillotine construction; and many others in this substantial and eagerly anticipated production.

Tickets are $13 and $11 for seniors and full time students. Curtain is at 8 pm and 2 pm for Sunday matinees. Reservations may be made by calling the box office at 783-0958 or accessing the theatre's website at laclt.com.
Rachel Morin photo