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Harbor Light Stage Announces Web Site & Details for May Production of The Pavilion

KITTERY POINT, ME: Harbor Light Stage, southern Maine’s professional theater company bringing provocative, contemporary American theater to the Seacoast, announces the launch of its Web site, www.harborlightstage.org. There, details can be found for the company’s first full-production in its new Maine Stage series: “The Pavilion” by Craig Wright, coming to Kittery for a three-week run May 9-25.

With or without high school reunion scars of their own, audiences will not want to miss the Seacoast premiere of this Pulitzer-nominated poignant comedy, set at a high school reunion in a small Minnesota town and hailed by critics as “an ‘Our Town’ for our time.”

The enchanting 19th century barn at the Brave Boat Harbor Farm in Kittery, Maine, will host the 20th reunion of Pine City’s Class of 1988. Special seating is being constructed for the occasion, and “The Pavilion” is the only theatre production to take place at the farm.

Class members (ie: the audience) will be transported to “The Pavilion” by a complimentary six-minute ride on the Seacoast Trolley from Cap’n Simeon’s overflow parking lot across from Frisbee’s Market, 88 Pepperell Ave., Kittery Point. (On-site parking at the barn is restricted to handicapped audience members only, and should be requested when ticket reservations are made.) Upon arrival, by the gilded marsh of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the audience will be greeted by reunion organizers and ushered into the imaginary lakeside pavilion, where they will become part of “a simple story with cosmic underpinnings.”

Three Seacoast actors, directed by Harbor Light Stage’s Founding Artistic Director Kent Stephens, will then unfold a tender and incisive comic gem about love, forgiveness, and the tyranny of time. Peter (Chris Curtis) is intent on winning back his sweetheart, Kari (Kristan Raymond Robinson), but Kari now has a husband – and a long, bitter memory.

As the sounds of Cyndi Lauper and U2 echo across the water under the revolving stars, Peter and Kari arrive at a most unusual reconciliation – helped by a compassionate, virtuosic narrator (Susan Poulin) who, in a rare female performance of the role, also plays all their other classmates.

The reunion closes under the sparkling mirror ball, where cast and audience members alike will take the stage for the play’s signature “sweetheart dance.” The trolley will then provide complimentary return service to the parking lot.

On Friday evenings, the bistro-style restaurant Anneke Jans, at 60 Wallingford Square in Kittery Foreside, will offer a special dinner-theater package.

For reservations, email harborlight@bitstream.net or call (207) 439-5769, extension 1. Seating is general admission. Maine Stage tickets are $25 for Friday evenings and Sunday matinees; $30 Saturday and Sunday evenings. Students with school-issued I.D. can buy a ticket for any performance for $15, but should be sure to reserve in advance. For more information, visit www.harborlightstage.org.