Recitation from Memory of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets
Thursday, February 15 @ 7:00 pm
Yarmouth, Maine
John Farrell memorized T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets –all eight hundred and ninety-one lines of it– in 2011 and now recites this poetic masterwork from memory. The performance, which lasts one hour and twenty minutes without intermission, affords the audience the opportunity to immerse themselves in Eliot’s language for a truly unique, meditative experience.
With special guest Carl Dimow, playing the flute interludes he composed for the recitation.
The performance is free and open to all.
FST is currently scheduling additional dates for a performing tour to Maine Libraries in 2018, with dates already scheduled in Waldo, Hancock, York, Lincoln & Cumberland counties. Librarians from around the state received a sneak preview when Farrell recited Little Gidding, one of Eliot’s Four Quartets, at the Annual Maine Librarians Association Conference.
The tour of Four Quartets is generously supported with support from private foundations as well as a Maine Theater Fund Grant from the Maine Community Foundation, in addition to an Arts & Humanities Grant awarded this summer by the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional dates are available and we encourage interested libraries to call us at 207-865-6355.
This weekend, we’re joining 7 other puppet artists on stage at Mayo Street Arts’ annual King Friday’s Dungeon Puppet Slam!
FST Ian Bannon will be sharing an early shadow experiment in first-person point-of-view immersion, Are You Here|Here You Are.
This year’s performance is expanded to two performances to accommodate the sell-out crowds. Don’t get left out in the cold!
For more information, visit Mayo Street Art’s Facebook event page.
Not Your Kukla, Fran, and Ollie
Tuesday, October 31 from 9:30-11:30 AM
FST Co-Founders, John and Carol, will demolish your preconceptions about the puppet theater and share their evolution from childhood buddies to international touring artists. Hear their story and experience their unique performance, which melds puppetry with dance, sculpture, poetry, and music in a theatrical form that defies categorization and celebrates the metaphorical power of puppets.
Each fall and spring, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine presents SAGE, a series of Tuesday morning lectures that cover a wide array of topics of current interest. The speakers are recognized experts from the arts, government, non-profit, education, business, and civic communities in Maine.
The Wishcamper Center, Room 102
University of Southern Maine, Portland
$10 admission; $25 OLLI Membership required
We are thrilled to announce that the Maine Arts Commission has awarded FST two grants for the coming year. (We’re also thrilled to announce that they still have enough funding to give grants!)
An Arts and Humanities Grant, issued jointly by the MAC and the Maine Humanities Council, will be used to support a tour of free performances of Four Quartets to libraries in Maine’s mid-coast region in 2018. There is still room for partnering libraries to join this tour. Please contact us if you would like more information.
MAC’s Arts Learning Grant will be used to support a community-wide educational residency in Eastport, Maine this winter in partnership with the Eastport Arts Center. FST artists will spend an intensive week with 7th & 8th grade students, adapting local tales into live shadow plays in the latest iteration of The Art of Memory: Stories from Eastport. During the week, our artists will spend two additional hours with every K-6 student in the district and offer a master class for adults. Stories from Eastport will be performed live for the entire community on Friday!
Please join us in thanking the Maine Arts Commission and Maine Humanities Council for generously supporting our work this season.
Four Quartets
Friday, November 3 at 7:00 PM
Saturday, November 4 at 4:00 PM
Sunday, November 5 at 2:00 PM
ATTENTION POETRY LOVERS! Come see, hear, and feel the entirety of T.S. Eliot’s poetic masterpiece, Four Quartets, nearly a thousand lines of rapturous (and devilishly hard to memorize) poetry, recited live by FST’s Artistic Director John Farrell.
Presented by Pontine Theatre in collaboration with Newington Historical Society.
Newington Old Town Hall
336 Nimble Hill Road
Newington, NH 03801
Purchase Tickets Online
NIGHTINGALE
Wednesday, July 26 at 7:00pm
Stonington, Maine
We’re thrilled to bring our performance of Nightingale to Stonington as part of Opera House Arts’ annual Live! for $5 series. Live for $5 consists of 6 hour-long, live performances held on Wednesdays throughout the summer designed so everyone, regardless of age, can enjoy live theatre.
Nightingale is an exotic, musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story of the Emperor who is moved by the song of a plain gray bird, until he receives the gift of a jeweled mechanical bird with which he becomes obsessed. The production gently stresses the importance of connection with Nature, and with the true essences of life.
The Stonington Opera House
1 Opera House Lane
Stonington ME 04681
$5 – Box Office opens at 6:30pm
This winter, our entire team of affiliate puppeteers and designers were called upon when FST was contracted to create puppets and sets for Holly Star, a feature-length film being produced in Maine.
The project was the primary focus of our creative and administrative time for four months, and included the challenge of pioneering the common ground between the film and puppet worlds, ensuring that both FST and the film team could achieve our goals, and integrating the two forms’ strengths and aesthetics. In the end, we were able to bring into the fold three new puppeteers and a new set designer while participating in a creative project that opens us up to a massive new audience.
We have attached some behind-the-scenes photos from the film set in case you’re curious, and will be sure to pass along information about the final film when it is released.
Enjoy!
John Farrell
Artistic Director
John Farrell on the set of Holly Star
Laura Collard puppeteers Santa, watched by Dylan Rohman and Vanessa Romanoff
Puppet Set Designer John Sundling puts the final touches on Santa’s Workshop
Ian Bannon puppeteers Sloan
Andy puppet moves a Christmas tree
FST has been commissioned to create a series of puppets and sets for Holly Star, a feature-length film being produced in Maine this winter. The romantic comedy follows frustrated NYC puppeteer Sloan home to Maine for the holidays for some soul searching and a touch of love.
Pictured above is Santa, one of the eight characters featured in a series of puppet sequences.
Writer/Director Michael Nickles had originally written the role of Sloan as a stop-motion animator, but after seeing a demonstration of our Little Match Girl puppet, he re-worked the screenplay to make Sloan a puppeteer. Her childhood memories will be created in FST’s signature puppet style, with set elements shot separately and added with post-production magic. We can’t wait to start filming!
Videographer Derek Kimball just cut a trailer of the little match girl passion drawing on rehearsal footage from our January premiere at Bates College. Contact us today to inquire about this touring production!
