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AUGUSTA, Maine - Visitors come to Maine in the summer to experience natural attractions, recreation opportunities, and unique dining and shopping. But, none of those destinations draw standing ovations quite like performing arts venues around the state. Summer is a hot time for live theater, music and dance performances, along with annual festivals that take place inside unique and historic performance spaces
Ogunquit Playhouse, Ogunquit: Ogunquit Playhouse has thrilled audiences with Broadway musicals since 1933. The 750-seat theater places emphasis on creating productions with all the glitz, glamour and intensity of their New York originals. From its beginnings, Ogunquit Playhouse and its nearby white sand beaches have attracted the best New York and Hollywood talent including Lloyd Bridges, Jessica Tandy, Steve Allen, Bette Davis, and Sally Struthers.
The theater offers a series of five Main Stage shows each summer, and a children's theater program. In July of 2005, USA Today named the Playhouse "one of 10 great places to see the lights way off Broadway." The playhouse is located on Route 1 just south of the town center.
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The performance stage, step dancing stage and piper's perch at the Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in Carthage, Maine. Credit: Jamie Corriveau
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Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center, Carthage: This is the only venue in New England built specifically for Celtic music. The 250-seat concert hall has a warm maple and oak wood interior with a Celtic cross made of timbers built into the wall behind the performance stage. There is also a step dance stage and a piper's perch for bagpipers. World class and emerging artists from Ireland, Scotland, the Canadian provinces and the U.S. play, sing and dance at Skye, which is also the home of New England Celtic Arts. Skye will be one of 19 western Maine venues hosting a performance during the inaugural Crossroads International Celtic Festival happening Sept. 11-15.
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The Romanesque and Queen Anne-style architecture of Cumston Hall, home to the Theater at Monmouth, is a striking sight in rural Monmouth, Maine. Credit: Anthony Arnista.
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Theater at Monmouth, Monmouth: Cumston Hall is a striking sight when driving down Main Street in the rural town of Monmouth. The cream-colored building, built in 1900, mixes Romanesque and Queen Anne-style architecture and is dominated by a soaring tower on its right front corner. The staircase up the tower leads to the theater, originally an opera hall that features elaborate plaster carvings and a fresco mural ceiling.
Plays are performed in rotating repertory from early July through September by a cast of professional and local actors. In 1975 the Theater at Monmouth was designated by the Maine Legislature as "The Shakespearean Theater of Maine," and at least one work of William Shakespeare is performed each summer.
Deertrees Theatre and Cultural Center, Harrison: New York City opera director Enrica Clay Dillon gave Harrison a city-sized performance venue when she built Deertrees in 1936. The rustic, Adirondack-style theater was built of rose hemlock harvested from the property and f
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