Penobscot Theatre Company is thrilled to announce its 50th anniversary season! Under Artistic Director Jonathan Berry, the season features a fantastic mix of beloved plays from PTC’s past and brand-new productions never-before seen on the PTC stage. The season includes Maine premieres, new work by local writers, summer musicals, and our first ever Mainstage collaboration with our remarkable Dramatic Academy program.
Subscriptions are on sale now with packages starting at $185, with a very exciting first-time subscriber offer of $100 for the 5 play fixed series. Subscriptions are flexible and affordable! Subscriber benefits include: see-it-again-for-free, bring a friend for 50% off; waived ticket fees on first ticket exchange, exclusive content for subscribers only, and priority access to add-on shows.
Artistic Director Jonathan Berry says, “For 50 years, audiences have been discovering connections here at PTC as we’ve asked challenging questions, provoked laughter and tears, sparked joy and provided a window into someone else’s world. I am so excited to share this season of plays that both honors our past while offering exciting avenues to the future. You won’t want to miss a single production of this thrilling anniversary season.”
Subscription series shows include:
CRIMES OF THE HEART by Beth Henley
The three McGrath sisters are having a really bad day. Meg’s career is a wreck, Lenny is celebrating her birthday alone, and Babe has just been accused of shooting her husband. While they’ve always made waves in their small Mississippi town, they must now come together to face their troubling past in order to embrace their future. With equal parts heartache and hilarity, this Pulitzer Prize winning play celebrates the importance of being true to yourself and the love and support that can only come from your family.
First produced at PTC in 1986 as part of our founder’s last season as Artistic Director. We’re thrilled to bring this play back in a brand new production.
September 7th – September 24th 2023
DIRTY DEEDS DOWNEAST by Brent Askari *World Premiere!
Beneath the seemingly still waters of a coastal island lies a hotbed of infighting and intrigue. When the only officer is a hapless laughingstock, the colorful residents run roughshod over any law and order. For Gerard, the officer in question, respect is hard to come by – but when a cantankerous lobsterman goes missing, Gerard leaves no stone unturned in his investigative pursuit. No one could’ve predicted the dark island underbelly he’d expose, or that it would lead him to question everything he knows. A comic caper with unexpected depth, we are thrilled to present this world premiere by Maine’s own Askari.
October 19th – November 5th, 2023
CONSTELLATIONS by Nick Payne
Roland (a bee-keeper) and Marianne (a theoretical physicist) meet at a barbecue. There’s a spark, but where might it lead? Across a universe of possibilities, these two connect or fracture, deal with a tragic illness or live happily ever after – each potential outcome explored alongside parallel planes. In this smart and moving story, Roland and Marianne’s romance plums the beauty and wonder of what’s possible when two people come together, capturing the extraordinary richness of being alive in the universe.
January 25th – February 11th, 2024
MY STORY IS GLUSKABE adapted by Carol Dana and other story-keepers of the Penobscot Nation – a collaboration with our Dramatic Academy program
In the earliest days, a boy called Gluskabe ventures into the world. With the wisdom and guidance of his Grandmother Woodchuck, the young Gluskabe discovers and shapes the Wabanaki landscape and brings balance to all elements that affect human life: the land, water and sky – the animals and the environment. Through a series of remarkable adventures Gluskabe grows into the Penobscot Nation’s cultural hero, still remembered and revered today. With music, dance and theatrical spectacle we reimagine a production first produced in our DA program as Transformer Tales. We are thrilled to bring these stories to our mainstage series, partnering with the remarkable young people from our DA program and citizens of the Wabanaki nations to bring these stories to brilliant theatrical life.
February 29th – March 17th, 2024
MR BURNS: A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY by Anne Washburn
The electric grid has failed, society has crumbled, and, to stave off the darkness, a group of survivors gathers around a fire and recreate their fallen world through the brave act of storytelling. Out of the darkness, they find connection and, with that, light as they piece together a new society from the memories of what’s been lost. A testament to human resilience and a love letter to live theater with music, spectacle and an unlikely hero (named Bart.) MR BURNS is a bold, touching, innovative theatrical spectacle that celebrates the human spirit and the necessity of telling stories in the dark.
April 18th – May 5th, 2024
Two of our Add-on shows include:
A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, adapted by Lavina Jadhwani
The beloved holiday classic returns to the PTC stage! Ebeneezer Scrooge lives a solitary, miserly life collecting debts and shunning his fellow men. One cold Christmas Eve, he is visited by four remarkable spirits who reveal his past, present, and future in the hopes of reigniting some love for his fellow man. With music, dance and theatrical spectacle, this holiday treat will delight the entire family and warm the heart of us all.
November 30th – December 24th, 2023
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS by Howard Ashman & Alan Menken
When you live on Skid Row nothing comes easy. Your job is drudgery, your love life’s a joke, and your bills are all overdue. But for meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn all of that is about to change when he discovers a strange and unusual plant that he names Audrey 2. Suddenly business is booming, the boss is making Seymour a partner, and even his co-worker crush Audrey 1 is looking at him differently. If only the plant’s appetite wasn’t so insatiable, and its food of choice so frighteningly disagreeable.
A gleefully gruesome tribute to sci-fi/horror B movies, with a toe-tapping Do-Wap score from the composers of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, this Off-Broadway hit comes back to PTC in a production that’s sure to be a scream.
June 13th – July 14th, 2024