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The Islesford Theater Project takes its name from the community of Islesford as a way of identifying its basic nature - it is small, but reaches far; it is deceptively simple; it likes to have fun.


Based on Little Cranberry Island, Maine (aka Islesford), the Project was established in 2007 by director Sonja Moser as a way to experiment with heightened physicality and classic theater texts while sharing professional theater with island residents, and sharing the unique island community with professional theater artists. In 2009, the Project expanded its scope to undertaking the dramatization of non-theatrical texts. Babbitt: A Mythic Tale of Epic Banality - Part One, based on the novel Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, was written, designed, staged and performed during the Project's annual three-week production period in July/August. ITP looks forward to a future of incubating new work.

Every Islesford Theater Project production builds itself around space, movement and community.

Re-visioning Space The host venue of ITP is the Islesford Neighborhood House. The main hall of the INH was built in 1913, the addition of the proscenium was made in 1920. Every islander who attends a performance has a personal relationship with the hall, which lends a richness and familiarity to the space that is rarely experienced by an audience. The opportunity to both take advantage of and challenge this familiarity is ardently pursued in the conception of each production. Orientation is never taken for granted, and architectural elements serve as set, are staged, framed or otherwise exploited - with the end goal that the familiar becomes strange, and the strange becomes familiar.

Kinetic Staging While the Islesford Theater Project begins every process with a close scrutiny of the text, a love of movement infuses each moment of the work, and the end goal is a production that might be watched with the sound tuned down. The story - its characters, themes, and motifs - are ingested and rewritten in bodies through space.

Community Integration The work of the Islesford Theater Project requires the skill of trained performers, yet special roles for islanders are created for each production. Seeing one's neighbors on stage provides particular delight, creates a sense of ownership on the part of the community, underscores relevance and enhances meaning. Additionally, the collaboration of islanders with professional actors provides each a glimpse of the other's world that might otherwise never be gained.

The Islesford Theater Project is a not-for-profit organization and receives foundational support from the Maine Community Foundation, the Davis Family Foundation and the Island Institute. ITP is sponsored by the Islesford Dock Restaurant and Gallery and receives additional funding from private donors. Join our list of contributors!

 

View our past productions

2007

2008

2009

 

2010

2011

 

 

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