Ogunquit Performing Arts

Porgy and Bess

Wednesday February 8th

7pm

Dunaway Center

Join Ogunquit Performing Arts at the Dunaway Center

Saturday March 10th @ 6:30pm

for an evening of Irish Step Dancing followed by the Movie “An Invitation to Dance”

This annual event is one of OPA’s most celebrated nights.

Price is $5/per person Only $2.00 per student

The Classic Film Series on Wednesday January 11, 2012 at 7 pm

with the showing of Sweeney Todd

The successful Classic Film Series sponsored by Ogunquit Performing Arts, continues its 11th season with the presentation of Sweeney Todd, at Great Hall of the Dunaway Center in Ogunquit at 7 pm on Wednesday evening January 11, 2012. Admission is free. As in previous years, there will be discussion about the film before the showing by Ogunquit Performing Arts chairman, Stuart Nudelman.

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is the 2007 drama-horror-musical film based on the Broadway production of the same name. It is the infamous story of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a. Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop down in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. The film is directed by Tim Burton, screenplay written by John Logan, and music by Stephen Sondheim and stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman.

In Victorian London, the barber Benjamin Barker is married to the gorgeous Lucy and they have a lovely child, Johanna. The beauty of Lucy attracts the attention of corrupt Judge Turpin who falsely accuses the barber of a crime that he did not commit and abuses Lucy later after gaining custody of her. After 15 years in exile, Benjamin returns to London under the new identity of Sweeney Todd, seeking revenge against Turpin. He meets the widow Mrs. Lovett who is the owner of a meat pie shop who tells him that Lucy committed suicide with arsenic many years ago and that Turpin assigned himself tutor of Johanna. To avenge these wrongs, Benjamin (Sweeney Todd) opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s store and sets out on a crime rampage against those who made him suffer and lose his beloved family.

According to New York Magazine, “Depp’s spellbinding performance as Sweeney brilliantly elevates Burton’s dark vision of a wronged man obsessed with revenge.” And the New York Post claims that, “Sweeney Todd is mighty entertainment that will win your heart with a vengeance.” For his performance, Johnny Depp won the Best Actor Golden Globe Award and the film won in the Best Picture category.

Prepare for a suspenseful and entertaining evening with Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Wednesday January 11, 2012 at 7 pm at the Dunaway Center. The film will be shown on a full wall-size screen with quality projection equipment provided to Ogunquit Performing Arts by Kennebunk Savings Bank. Mark your calendars for the second Wednesday of each month, September through May, for the showing of a classic film at the Dunaway Center, 23 School Street in at 7 pm. Admission is free and there’s plenty of free parking.

Mark your calendars so you don’t miss the upcoming classic films:

Porgy & Bess—February 8, 2012

Lost Horizon—March 14, 2012

Paths of Glory—April 11, 2012

Driving Miss Daisy—May 9, 2012

The Moose in ME, The Moose in You!

presented by Ogunquit Performing Arts

Saturday January 14, 2012

7 pm at the Dunaway Center

Tickets $12 adults $6 for Students

Susan Poulin (aka Ida: Woman Who Runs With The Moose!) returns to Ogunquit with her latest theatrical piece, The Moose in ME, The Moose in You! on Saturday evening January 14, 2012 at 7 pm at the Dunaway Center on School Street in Ogunquit, Maine. Ida has morphed from running with the moose to bring her incredible wit to the realm of motivational speaking. Wait until you see how she reveals helpful hints from A to Zumba and shares the wisdom of Maine’s inscrutable Moose. “As I see it,” says Ida, “we can learn a lot about life from the moose. After all, they were smart enough to have a law passed to protect ‘em?”

Susan Poulin and Gordon Carlisle have entertained audiences from Maine to Florida and have received enthusiastic reviews all along the way.  They have performed several of their theatre creations in Ogunquit. Gordon Carlisle is a visual artist, songwriter, actor, and set designer whose talents enhance the wit and humor of Susan Poulin to present a total theatrical environment. Move over Oprah! Maine’s funniest woman, Ida LeClair has found her inner moose and become a Certified Maine Life Guide.

Suan Poulin was selected by Portland Magazine (Nov. 2003) as one of the “Ten Most Intriguing People in Maine.”  She is a Maine native and has been a featured performer at the Women’s Performance Festival at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and The Maine Festival and the Minneapolis Fringe Theater Festival. She was voted Contemporary Story Champion at the First Annual Yankee Yams Contest in Keene, NH and has twice been selected as a New Hampshire State Council of the Arts Individual Artistic Fellowship Finalist.  In 2005, Poulin received NH Council on the Arts Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant to study Traditional Franco-American Music with master artist Lucie Therrien.  Her essays have been heard on Maine and New Hampshire Public Radio.  Ida’s Havin’ A Yard Sale received the Portsmouth Herald’s 2005 Spotlight on the Arts Award for Best Original Script, and Poulin was voted Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Ida.

According to Stuart Nudelman, chairman of Ogunquit Performing Arts, “It’s always a delight to bring Susan Poulin with her special brand of humor back to Ogunquit for an evening of hilarious theatre.” Mark January 14, 2012 at 7 pm calendar as a very special must-do evening, at the Dunaway Center, 23 School Street in Ogunquit Maine. Tickets are $12 per person and students are admitted for $6.00. Tickets are available at the Dunaway Center, The Ogunquit Welcome Center, and at the door the evening of the performance. Free parking available is available behind the Dunaway Center.

Caption for photo 1:  Ida’s looking for a Moose as she prepares for her performance in her latest production: The Moose in ME, The Moose in You! at the Dunaway Center in Ogunquit Saturday January 14, 2012 at 7 pm.

Caption for photo 2:  Ida, in her role as Certified Maine Life Guide, has found her Moose and will share her hilarious insights about this crafty animal as a motivational speaker in The Moose in ME, The Moose in You! at the Dunaway Center, 23 School Street in Ogunquit on Saturday January 14, 2012 at 7 pm.

The successful Classic Film Series sponsored by Ogunquit Performing Arts, continues its 11th season with the presentation of Hello Dolly, at Great Hall of the Dunaway Center in Ogunquit at 7 pm on Wednesday evening December 14, 2011. Admission is free. As in previous years, there will be discussion about the film before the showing by Ogunquit Performing Arts chairman, Stuart Nudelman.

Hello Dolly is the 1969 romantic comedy musical film based on the Broadway production of the same name. The film follows the story of Dolly Levi (Barbra Streisand), a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York in an attempt to find a match for the miserly “well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire,” Horace Vendergelder (Walter Matthau in his only movie musical). As she tries to win his heart, the audience is treated on one of the most musically entertaining and hilariously underhanded plots in film history.

Louis Armstrong recorded the title song that became a #1 hit in the mid-1960s. Gene Kelly directed Ernest Lehman’s screenplay. Garrison, New York was the filming site of scenes in “Yonkers”. The railroad car used in “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” was restored specifically for the film. And the New York City scenes were filmed on the 20th Century Fox lot in California. Hello Dolly received a “Best Picture Academy Award”   nomination in 1969.

Prepare for a delightful evening with Barbra Streisand at the Dunaway Center Wednesday December 14, 2011 at 7 pm as she performs her classic role as Dolly Levi in the film, Hello Dolly. The film will be shown on a full wall-size screen with quality projection equipment provided to Ogunquit Performing Arts by Kennebunk Savings Bank. Mark your calendars for the second Wednesday of each month, September through May, for the showing of a classic film at the Dunaway Center, 23 School Street in at 7 pm.. Admission is free and there’s plenty of free parking.

As a result of a chance encounter and gift given to Ogunquit Performing Arts vice-chairman, Pat Mason, by an anonymous donor of a beloved violin that was part of a family’s heritage. A new program to help needy music students was established. This 80+ year old violin was presented to the virtuosic violinist Ferdinand Liva of the DaPonte String Quartet at the Quartet’s “Leaf-Peeper” concert in Ogunquit on October 9, 2010. Mr. Liva is also a renowned teacher of violin and was enthusiastic upon receipt and examination of this instrument. He indicated that many of his students in youth orchestras in mid-coast Maine could not afford to purchase instruments and were often obliged to rent them at costs that taxed family budgets and he wished that more people would donate instruments, especially violins that are no longer being used. As a result of realizing how desperately instruments are needed for these students, Ogunquit Performing Arts agreed that this was an endeavor worth pursuing and that they would like to become involved in collecting no-longer-used instruments so that a new generation of musicians and music appreciators could benefit from this pleasure. At this point in time. Mr. Liva is involved with three youth orchestras, from beginners to older students, in mid-coast Maine, all of which specialize in stringed instruments. But he can find appreciative homes for other instruments as well. Vice-Chairman Mason has been designated as the liaison and collector or these instruments. Those desiring to make a donation of an instrument can contact her at: 207-646-7236  or  masonpat03907@yahoo.com.

According to Stuart Nudelman, Chairman of OPA, “Maine is privileged to have the DaPonte String Quartet here in Maine performing and teaching our youth and starting them on a life of perhaps performing professionally, but at most instilling in them a love and appreciation of music that will be with them for life.”

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