Belfast Maskers announce 2025 season
BELFAST — Belfast Maskers' new Artistic Director Tucker Atwood unveiled the 2025 season of productions during Maskers' annual meeting, November 14, 2024. Atwood announced the shows, and their respective directors, to an audience of Belfast Maskers volunteers and Board members in the Basil Burwell Community Theater. The company will produce four full-length plays, a musical comedy, and a festival of one-act plays.
The season will open with a play by Steven Dietz, a playwright sometimes described as "the most ubiquitous American playwright whose name you may never have heard." "Becky's New Car" will be directed by seasoned Midcoast director Erik Perkins and will open March 7, 2025.
"It's essentially a farce, reimagined; it breaks the mold in more ways than one," said Perkins, in a Belfast Maskers news release. "Dietz is among the best living playwrights and he really shows off his prowess with this piece—it's not only hilarious, it's profound and a little mind blowing."
Auditions for the show will be on December 7, at 10 a.m., and December 9, at 5:30 p.m. Parts are available for four adult men and three adult women of varying ages; further information is available on the auditions page of the Maskers website.
Following "Becky's New Car" will be the multiple award-winning, genre-defying, and mind-bending mystery "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," a play by Simon Stephens based on the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon. Stephanie Natale Frus, who helmed the Maskers' 2024 production of "Proof," will direct.
"This is a play I've wanted to direct since I saw the original production," said Frus, "I have lots of cool ideas for the piece and I'll be looking for a very diverse group of players that are agile—in mind, body, or both."
One Acts will return and features Maine playwrights in 2025.
"I want to help people who are in my shoes, Maine playwrights looking to get their work out there, because I know there is incredible talent right here in our beautiful state," said Atwood.
The directors will be Cassidy Small, Zafra Whitcomb, Angelina Nichols, and Olivia West. The inaugural Maine Playwrights One Act Festival will span two weekends, with the first weekend being presented cabaret style with food and libations served at tables and the second weekend in their standard raked theater seating.
A summer musical, directed by Atwood, will be "Twisted".
"Created by Starkid, a ragtag crew of funny musical theater folks, 'Twisted' is a hilarious but also poignant and romantic retelling of the tale of Aladdin—from the viewpoint of Aladdin's misunderstood antagonist Jafar," said Atwood.
It parodies many Disney films while also poking fun at the storytelling techniques of 'Wicked,' telling a well-known story from the villain's point of view.
Director Meg Nickerson met with playwright Travis Baker to discuss his play "One Blue Tarp", a story of a man, his tarp, and people "from away" trying to take it away. Belfast was an inspiration for the fictional town of Clara where the action unfolds, according to Nickerson.
"This play has some great opportunities for older actors, as well as parts for younger folks—including a child, and maybe even a dog," said Nickerson.
The final show of the 2025 season is another twist on a familiar property, the irreverent and unsanctioned "Puffs (or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic)." Directed by Gwyneth Sauvage, the play for "anyone who has never been destined to save the world" follows students in an overlooked house in a famous fictional wizarding world. Sauvage was visibly hyped to make the announcement and started actively recruiting her cast for the play that will open a year from now.
This is a big show and Maskers is looking for all ages (18 and up), any gender, to take on multiple roles.
"This is a show where you might be playing five different roles—and there's a lot of improv too," said Maskers.
Atwood also revealed plans, in their formative stages, for opportunities for younger actors to learn and perform with the Maskers in 2025, as well as developmental opportunities for current and future Maskers volunteers.
All Belfast Maskers productions will be presented at the Basil Burwell Community Theater, 17 Court Street in Belfast. The building, a renovated church, is also available for others to rent for meetings, performances, and other events.
More information about the new season, volunteer opportunities, renting the theater, and tickets for Belfast Maskers' current production, "Scapino!" can be found at http://www.belfastmaskers.com.