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Acadia Repertory Turns 30
By Allyson Brehm
A weathered,
driftwood sign on Route 102 marks the Acadia Repertory Theatre’s
summer home.
The original sign,
painted 30 years ago by the wife of the theater’s founder at her
kitchen table, now hangs in the box office.
Island resident and artistic
director of the Acadia Repertory Theatre.
Staff Photo by Allyson Brehm |
The original sign,
painted 30 years ago by the wife of the theater’s founder at her
kitchen table, now hangs in the box office.
For three decades
the summer stock theater company has been bringing professional
actors and plays to Somesville.
“The town has been
incredibly supportive over the years,” said Acadia Repertory Theatre
Artistic Director Ken Stack. “There is a kinship and ownership with
the theater.”
Stack said the
theater’s following in Somesville is a loyal one.
“Somesville has
taken us into their hearts,” he said.
Since its opening
in 1973, Stack estimates that the theater company has done more than
500 plays and employed 1,000 people or more.
The actors are all
professionals from throughout the country, said Stack. Auditions are
held each year in
Maine
and Boston, and the artists are in residence for the entire summer.
The night before a
play opens the town is invited in for the dress rehearsal.
“They are very
supportive,” he said. “It is a great shakedown for the show to get
it in front of an audience.”
Five plays are
produced each summer (including one for children) during the
nine-week season that lasts from July Fourth through Labor Day.
Stack said the focus is on family entertainment.
The theater was
started by George Vafiadis, a professional actor from New York, and
Louis Collier of Town Hill.
Vafiadis had fallen
for the area after marrying his wife, who was from the island, Stack
said.
The 148-seat
theater has an intimate feel with mismatched chairs that are only 10
rows deep. The Masonic Hall in Somesville has been the home of the
theater for its entire 30-year existence. Its host is the Mount
Desert Lodge No. 140, said Stack.
The Penobscot
Theatre Company in Bangor is an offshoot of the Acadia Repertory. It
began in 1983 as a place to bring the summer plays in the winter and
has grown from there, Stack said.
Stack has been the
artistic director for the Somesville theater since 1988. His
involvement began as an actor there in the summer of 1974.
“We love it here,”
he said. |
