Penobscot Theatre Company

Penobscot Theatre Company, America's Northeastern-most professional theatre company, started in 1973 by George Vafiadis and Lou Collier as the Acadia Repertory. Penobscot Theatre Company was incorporated as a 501(c) 3 on March 17, 1983. "The School For Wives" was the first play officially produced by the PTC - before that, Acadia Repertory Theatre was responsible for presenting 97 productions in Bangor. Acadia Rep still operates on Mount Desert Island as a separate entity.

George Vafiadis remained Producing Director from 1983 through 1990. Kenneth Stack, currentlywhen the Artistic Director of Acadia Rep, was PTC's Artistic Director from 1983 to 1989.

In 1986 the greater Bangor community helped Penobscot Theatre raise $160,000 for the purchase and initial renovation of the beautiful historic parish house (built in 1888 at 183 Main Street) that it had been renting from the church next door. The Theatre sold the parish house to Merrill Bank in 2004.

Joe Turner Cantu became Artistic Director in 1990 and remained in that position through 1992 when Mark Torres was named Producing Artistic Director and stayed in that position for the next 13 seasons. Under Torres' leadership, the theatre reorganized to operate with paid professionals, tripled the budget and increased attendance to over 15,000 annually. Torres also increased the theatre's activity to include the annual Maine Shakespeare Festival, which performed on the banks of the Penobscot River for 7 summers.

In 1997, Penobscot Theatre acquired the Bangor Opera House, which now serves as the company's base of operations. The Bangor Opera House, located at 131 Main Street, is the last remaining theatre in downtown Bangor, a community which supported 7 such venues in the first part of the 20th Century. The Opera House was built in 1920 and is an early example of Art Deco/Egyptian Revival architecture.

In 2005, current Producing Artistic Director Scott R.C. Levy was hired to lead the theatre into its fourth decade. Since Levy's arrival, Penobscot Theatre has toured productions throughout the state of Maine, initiated a new play development program which includes a 2-week long New Play Festival, and begun the restoration of the Bangor Opera House, while presenting the two biggest box-office successes in the theatre's history.

Beyond the theatre's mainstage season, Penobscot Theatre's educational and outreach programming is the largest in the state, serving thousands of Maine students in schools with workshops. The theatre also offers post-show discussions, student matinees and summer theatre workshops.

eason history

2006-2007
Falsettos
Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie
A Christmas Carol
The Santaland Diaries
Communicating Doors
I Am My Own Wife
The Ruby Sunrise
Northern Writes: 1st Annual New Play Festival

2005-2006
Picasso At The Lapin Agile
The Laramie Project
A Christmas Carol
Spinning Into Butter
Uncle Vanya
Almost, Maine
Movie Geek
Carousel: A Staged Concert

2004-2005

*"Dracula"
*"The Crucible"
*"A Christmas Carol"
*"The Smell of the Kill"
*"A Long Day's Journey Into Night"
*"Noises Off"

2003-2004
Love Letters
The Miracle Worker
A Christmas Carol
Edward Albee’s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Art
Dead Certain

2002-2003
Jack and Jill: A Modern Romance
The Diary of Anne Frank
A Christmas Carol
Blithe Spirit
Angel Street
I Hate Hamlet
The Fantasticks

2001-2002
The Mystery of Irma Vep
Collected Stories
Tartuffe
Betrayal
The Odd Couple

2002 Maine Shakespeare Festival
The Tempest
Richard III
The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)
Anne of Green Gables

2000-2001
Lend Me a Tenor
The Turn of the Screw
A Christmas Carol
The Importance of Being Earnest
Skylight
Coastal Disturbances

2001 Educational Tour
Macbeth

2001 Maine Shakespeare Festival
King Lear
Twelfth Night
The Servant of Two Masters
The Little Prince

1999-2000
The School for Wives
How I Learned to Drive
A Christmas Carol
Pride's Crossing
The Children's Hour
Over the Tavern
Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women

2000 Maine Shakespeare Festival
Hamlet
The Comedy of Errors
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Charlotte's Web

1998-1999
Wait Until Dark
Inspecting Carol
A Christmas Carol
Hedda Gabler
The Nerd
Sunday in the Park with George
Angels In America: Perestroika

1999 Educational Tour
The Merchant of Venice

1999 Maine Shakespeare Festival
Cymbeline

Henry IV, Part One
The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)
Six Women With Brain Death....or Expiring Minds Want To Know

1997-1998
Harvey
Glengarry Glen Ross
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Christmas Carol

East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Our Town
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches

1998 Maine Shakespeare Festival
Romeo and Juliet
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Nights Dream

1996-1997
The Heiress
Sweeney Todd
A Flea in Her Ear
Blue Window
The Philadelphia Story

1997 Maine Shakespeare Festival
Julius Caesar
Twelfth Night
Much Ado About Nothing

1995-1996
The Illusion
Traveler in the Dark
The Gifts of the Magi
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
"The Foreigner"
Dial M for Murder

1996 Maine Shakespeare Festival
The Comedy of Errors
As You Like It

1994-1995
Noises Off
Autumn Elegy
A Christmas Carol
The Crucifer of Blood
Amadeus
Steel Magnolias

1995 Shakespeare on the River
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Macbeth

1993-1994
The Glass Menagerie
Willi, an Evening of Wilderness and Spirit and Billy Bishop Goes to War
A Christmas Carol
Night Must Fall
Nebraska
The Bug

1994 Shakespeare on the River
(inaugural summer production)
A Midsummer Nights Dream

1992-1993
The Front Page
Charity's Children
A Christmas Carol
Tales of the Lost Formicans
Starting Here, Starting Now
Alone at the Beach

1991-1992
The Importance of Being Earnest
Rock and Betty Dance
The Heidi Chronicles
Bonjour, La, Bonjour
Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons
The Gifts of the Magi
Much Ado About Nothing

1990-1991
The Cocktail Hour
Reckless
A Christmas Carol
Little Murders
Tobacco Road
Steiglitz Loves O'Keefe
Sunday in New York

1989-1990
Crimes of the Heart
Broadway Bound
Androcles and the Lion
The Subject Was Roses
The Gin Game
A Walk in the Woods
Barefoot in the Park
The Emperor's New Clothes

1988-1989
Fallen Angels
The Doctor in Spite of Himself
A Christmas Carol
Sherlock's Last Case
Vinegar Tom
Absent Friends
Murder at the Howard Johnsons
Two Swallows

1987-1988
Guys and Dolls
Cyrano de Bergerac
Private View
A Christmas Carol
The Mousetrap
Desert Fire
Play It Again Sam
One Inch Fellow and One Inch Fellow Grows Up

1986-1987
Candida
Otherwise Engaged
One Inch Fellow
A Christmas Carol
LUV
The Actor's Nightmare

Don Juan in Hell
K 2
Same Time, Next Year
Clarence Darrow
The Fourposter

1985-1986
Stage Struck
On Golden Pond
The Shadow of a Gunman
A Christmas Carol
The Guardsman
The Glass Menagerie
Educating Rita
Relatively Speaking
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
Champagne Complex

1984-1985
The Music Man
Deathtrap
Misalliance
The Three Musketeers
Peter Pan
Stage Struck
Sabrina Fair
Talley's Folly
How the Other Half Loves
Public Eye
A Need for Brussels Sprouts

1983-1984
The School for Wives
Robin Hood
Wait Until Dark
A Christmas Carol
Deathtrap
The Lion in Winter
LUV
A Thousand Clowns

1982-1983
Scapino
Peter Pan
Old Times
The Fantasticks
Butterflies Are Free
Anastasia
The Little Foxes
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Whose Life Is It, Anyway
Murder at the Howard Johnsons

1981-1982
The Seahorse
Hobson's Choice
Dial M for Murder
The Women of Troy
Vanities
Wings
The Fantasticks
The Voice of the Turtle
Round and Round the Garden
Butterflies are Free

1980-1981
Same Time, Next Year
A Shot in the Dark
The Miser
Round and Round the Garden
Sherlock Holmes
The Good Doctor
The Killing of Sister George
In Praise of Love
A Life in the Theatre
A Christmas Carol

1979-1980
Two for the Seesaw
California Suite
Private Lives
The Star-Spangled Girl
American Buffalo
The Real Inspector Hound
Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Taming of the Shrew
Five Finger Exercise
Same Time, Next Year

1978-1979
Sleuth
The Royal Family
The Lady's Not for Burning
Absurd Person Singular
The Importance of Being Earnest
King Lear
The Country Girl
Endgame
Two for the Seesaw
Dear Liar

1977-1978
That Championship Season
Clarence Darrow
The Lion in Winter
The Prisoner of 2nd Avenue
Cyrano de Bergerac
The Indian Wants the Bronx
Cowboys #2
Julius Caesar
Design for Living
The Seahorse
Sleuth

1976-1977Ruckus at Machias
Born Yesterday
A Streetcar Named Desir
Waiting for Godot
Hayfever
Romeo and Juliet
A Moon for the Misbegotten
That Championship Season
The Interview
The Boor

1975-1976
Hedda Gabler
Barefoot in the Park
Hamlet
Finishing Touches
The Constant Wife
The Caretaker
A Phoenix Too Frequent
The Price
Ruckus at Machias
Othello
The Importance of Being Earnest

1974-1975
Arms and the Man
A Doll's House
Private Lives
Mary, Mary
Barefoot in the Park
The Lion in Winter
LUV
Bus Stop
Hamlet
The Seagull
Electra

1973

*"The Subject Was Roses"
*"A Doll's House"
*"Mary, Mary"
*"Private Lives"

External links

* [http://www.penobscottheatre.org/ PenobscotTheatre.org]