AUGUSTA — The Everyman Repertory Theatre has been touring Hold onto Your Hat!, an original one-woman show, written and performed by Andrea Itkin and directed by Scott Anthony Smith, since September 1st. You can catch it during its final weekend at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center on the UMA campus in Augusta this Saturday, October 27 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, October 28th at 2 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in advance at everymanrep.org or by calling (207) 236-0173.  

Hold Onto Your Hat! takes you on a wild ride: part memoir, part social commentary, written from the perspective of youth through old age, delivered all in rhyme and a bit of song with more than a splash of humor and a dash of wisdom. Audience members have been responding with deep enthusiasm. For instance, Lucinda Ziesing wrote:

“Your deeply original and mined one woman show has me so impressed. Your creativity, bravery, honesty, and fire are inspiring. You kept that audience with you for well over an hour spinning the tale of your life. Your use of simple rhyme telling sometimes brutal tales was powerful.”

Itkin, speaking of writing the show, said: “Although I had written some plays and monologues, short stories and poems, I had never attempted rhymes or songs before I started working on this show. It was initially inspired by Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, which got me thinking about that time of my life and experimenting with expressing experience in a new way.”

The show is a multimedia experience featuring photographs by Cig Harvey and Scott Anthony Smith, collages by Tammam Azzam, paintings by Natasha Mayers, and a short film by Dylan Itkin. Original recordings by Mary Anne Driscoll and Curran Reynolds of Body Stuff. It is directed by Scott Anthony Smith.

Andrea Itkin has been writing and performing in Maine theaters for over 35 years. Most recently she was in the reading of Lost and Guided by Irene Kapustina, and has been in many productions with ERT, including playing Givola in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Nat in Rabbit Hole, and Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful.