October Highlights
Autumn kicks into gear with performances, exhibits, and free-for-alls.
MuseumsPortland Museum Of Art
You have until October 16 to get your Rockwell Kent fix before the Portland Museum of Art's seasonal supershow, Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern, ends. ? Neil Welliver: Water and Sky pulls together approximately twenty works from the major periods of his career, drawing upon the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art as well as several private collections. Through November. ? Murray Hantman's life spanned almost the whole of the twentieth century -- 1904-1999 -- and for half that time the New Yorker spent his summers on Monhegan and in New Harbor, compelled by the unique lighting and expansive vistas of the Maine coast. This retrospective exhibition charts Hantman's evolution from his early training at New York's progressive Art Students League to his assistance on major public mural projects during the Depression to his arrival at an abstract painting style in the years after World War II. October 22 through January 29, 2006. 7 Congress Square, Portland. 207-775-6148. www.portlandmuseum.org
Farnsworth Art Museum
American painter, sculptor, printmaker, and Colby College icon, Alex Katz is one of the most important American artists of his time, and his impressive body of work constitutes a unique take on modern realism. Through October 16. ? Maine Women -- Living on the Land: A Photographic Installation by Lauren Shaw profiles ten Mainers who live close to the earth. Through November 13. ? A highly respected artist and a revered teacher, Frederick Lynch [Down East, August 2003], has lived and worked in Maine for more than thirty years, building a reputation as one of the leading abstract painters in the region. Not everyone can paint in a style that incorporates elements of Cubism, hard-edge Abstraction, Pop Art, and Minimalism. October 30 through February 15, 2006. Rockland. 207-596-6457. www.farnsworthmuseum.org
Ogunquit Museum of Art
Memories of World War II: Photographs from the Associated Press Archives. Among the photographs are the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Marines raising an American flag on Mount Suribachi; the attack on Pearl Harbor; the D-Day landing; and a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on VJ Day. Through October 15. 543 Shore Road, Ogunquit. 207-646-4909. www.ogunquitmuseum.org
Bates Museum of Art
Robert Indiana is a great admirer of Marsden Hartley, the Lewiston native and famed American modernist, and in the early 1990s he created an homage to him: the Hartley Elegies. In his distinctive style, Indiana unites military insignia and geometric forms with references to Maine, America, war, and historical events to create a series of symbolic portraits. October 1 through December 17. ? Off the Coast: A Landscape Chronology explores innovations in contemporary Maine landscape art. Through May 30, 2006. 75 Russell Street, Lewiston. 207-786-6158. www.bates.edu/museum.xml
Colby College Museum of Art
Terry Winters: Prints & Sequences. Colby is home to the entire archive of Terry Winters' prints, and the museum is rolling them out for the first time. Winters has continually explored issues of series and continuity in his art, evidenced in his early prints to his most recent works in print media. Through November 6. 5600 Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville. 207-872-3228. www.colby.edu/museum
University of Maine Museum of Art
More than one hundred images by Ansel Adams comprise this exhibition, including his lush early photographs of Yosemite, many of his most famous images, portraits, still lifes, and abstracts, as well as a portfolio of rarely seen parmalien prints. Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius was organized by the George Eastman House from the 200 Ansel Adams works in its collection. Norumbega Hall 40 Harlow Street, Bangor. Through October 8. 207-561-3350. www.umma.umaine.edu
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
More than fifty Maine artisans were invited to participate in the Rockport gallery's sixteenth annual Work of the Hand exhibition, and their beautiful, functional works in fiber, clay, wood, glass, and metal are presented for sale, order, or commission. October 8 through 16. 162 Russell Avenue, Rockport. 207-236-2875. www.artsmaine.org
Theater
Oliver
September 23 through October 9. Please, sir, can we have some more? Another helping of this Tony Award-winning musical. The Portland Players. 207-799-7337. www.portlandplayers.org
Into the Woods
Through October 9. An ambivalent Cinderella? A blood-thirsty Little Red Riding Hood? Prince Charming with a roving eye? A witch . . . who raps? Fractured fairy tales by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim at the Waterville Opera House. 207-873-7000. www.operahouse.com
Lettice and Lovage
Through October 23. "Enlarge, enliven, enlighten!" is the battle cry of the brazenly unique tour guide, Lettice, whose embellishments of the historical tour's text brings her to the attention of her superior Lotte Shoen. From the sparks there emerges a strange and fascinating friendship. Portland Stage Company. 207-774-0465. www.portlandstage.com
Miss Saigon
October 7 at 8 p.m. & October 8 at 2 and 8 p.m. Days before the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, an American GI falls in love with a stripper. Now what? One of the longest-running shows in Broadway history comes to Portland thanks to PCA Great Performances. Portland's Merrill Auditorium. 207-842-0800. www.pcagreatperf.com
Deathtrap
October 14 to 23. Sidney Bruhl is a celebrated writer of Broadway thrillers suffering through writer's block. When a student mails him a script to die for, he gets the killer idea to claim it as his own. Broadway's longest-running mystery-thriller is filled with razor-sharp wit and hair-raising twists. Lewiston-Auburn's Public Theatre. 207-782-3200. www.thepublictheatre.org
Special Events
Living History Days
October 1 & 2. Enjoy life in a 1790s Colonial village. Take a bateau or wagon ride, make homemade cedar shakes, and drink some fresh pressed cider. Leonard's Mills, Bradley. 207-581-2871. www.leonardsmills.com
Fryeburg Fair
October 2 to 9. This is the largest fair in the state, and it couldn't come at a better time -- at the peak of foliage season in Maine's White Mountains. A Maine tradition as colorful as the leaves, the fair dominates the town of Fryeburg with a Ferris wheel, racetrack, and agricultural displays so extensive that fairgoers can spend days touring the exhibits without seeing them all. Fryeburg. 207-935-3268. www.fryeburgfair.com
Bob Marley
October 7 & 8. Portland's hometown comedian has quite the resume: he's appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Late Show with David Letterman, and more. Now you can catch him at the Camden Opera House. 207-236-7963 www.camdenoperahouse.com
Peninsula Potters Sale and Studio-Gallery Tour
October 7 to 10. Welcome to the epicenter of pottery and crafts in Maine. This four day self-guided tour of nineteen studios and galleries in Blue Hill, Brooksville, Deer Isle, Sedgwick, Stonington, and Sunset will show you just what sort of impact the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle has had on the area. 207-348-2267.
Punkinfiddle
October 8. (Rain date October 9.) The entertainment -- that would be fiddlers, of course -- at this Wells Reserve family festival has been tuneful in the past, and the music is just the start. Pumpkin carving, traditional crafts, animals, games, and food are all part of the fun. The Wells Reserve, Laudholm Farm. Wells. 207-646-1555. www.wellsreserve.org
North American Wife Carrying Championships
October 8 & 9. Part of the Fall Festival Weekend in Bethel, this now-notorious contest pits couple against couple on an obstacle course complete with water hazards. 207-824-3000. www.sundayriver.com
Bus and Trackless Trolley Days
October 8 & 9. The Seashore Trolley Museum, in Kennebunkport, trots out trolleys from its impressive collection for two days of rides. Did we mention it's in Kennebunkport? 207-967-2712. www.trolleymuseum.org
PopTech!
October 20 to 24. PopTech! brings some of the world's most interesting minds to Camden to explore some of the greatest challenges confronting humanity -- and especially the role that new ideas and new technologies will play in responding to these problems in the future. Camden Opera House. 207-236-7963. www.camdenoperahouse.com
Fright at the Fort VII
October 21 to 29. Anyone who's ever visited Fort Knox in Prospect knows that the dark passageways in the old fortification can be cold and creepy on a fine summer day. So it makes perfect sense to host a haunted house there. Last year more than 10,000 people turned out, making it likely Maine's biggest Halloween event. Fort Knox, Prospect. 207-469-6553. www.fortknox.maineguide.com
Tommyknockers and More Bus Tour
October 30 at 2 p.m. See the scary settings of several of Stephen King's best-known novels. Sponsored by the Bangor Convention and Visitors Bureau. 800-916-6673.
Music and Dance
Bangor Symphony Orchestra
October 2. The Essence of Romanticism features Dvorak's Carnival Overture, op. 92; Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Pagaini, op. 43; Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 4, op. 36, F minor. Maine Center for the Arts, Orono. 207-942-5555 or 800-639-3221. www.bangorsymphony.com
Portland Symphony Orchestra
October 11 at 7:30 p.m. From grandmothers to Goth kids, you'll be able to talk the whole family into attending performances by the Portland Symphony Orchestra this autumn. The symphony's Classical Tuesdays gets under way with Sallinen's Solemn Overture, Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 1, and Strauss' Ein Heldenleben. ? Then on October 23 at 2:30 p.m., the Classical Planets features Haydn's Symphony no. 43, "Mercury," Brahms' Clarinet Sonata op. 120, and Mozart's Symphony no. 41, "Jupiter." ? Your niece with the black lipstick will want to attend Halloween Pops on October 29 at 8 p.m. and October 30 at 2:30 p.m. when the PSO plays some of the more ghoulish works for orchestra that includes Saint-Sa?ns' Danse Macabre and Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain. Merrill Auditorium, Portland. 207-773-6128. www.portlandsymphony.com
Noreen and Phillip Silver
October 16 at 2 p.m. Celebrated cello/piano duo in a benefit concert for the Michael Klahr Holocaust Education Resource Center to be built at UMA. Phillip's been called "an international collaborative pianist of the first rank," by the Boston Globe. His wife, Noreen, has received similar accolades. The concert features Beethoven's Sonata no. 2 in G Minor op. 5 no. 2; Sibelius' Malinconia op. 20; Bloch's Three Scenes from Jewish Life; and Shostakovich's Sonata op. 40. UMA Jewett Hall Auditorium, Augusta. 207-621-3551.
Martha Graham Dance Company
October 17 at 7:30 p.m. The Martha Graham Dance Company has leapt and twirled its way across the globe since its founding in 1926. Pyramids of Egypt? Yep, done that. Acropolis in Athens? Check. Paris Opera House? Indeed. Carnegie Hall? But of course. The oldest and most celebrated contemporary dance company in America stops by Merrill Auditorium thanks to PCA Great Performances. Portland. 207-842-0800. www.pcagreatperf.com
Rusted Root
October 21 at 6:30 p.m. The infectious grooves of this neo-hippie sextet, known for their hit "Send Me on My Way," will make you want to get those Birkenstocks moving. State Theatre, Portland. 207-775-3331. www.liveatthestate.com
Gordon Lightfoot
October 21 at 8 p.m. Most people know Canadian folkie Gordon Lightfoot for his epic "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," but he had so many hits ("Sundown," "Early Morning Rain," "If You Could Read My Mind") that he practically owned the early seventies. Portland's Merrill Auditorium. 207-842-0800, or 207-842-0812. www.portlandevents.com/Merrill.htm
Yuri Yunakov with Ivo Papasov
October 23 at 7:30 p.m. What exactly is Bulgarian bebop? Show up for the Balkan folk dance workshop in the afternoon and at the concert later that night you'll be able to bop till you drop. Center for Cultural Exchange, Portland. 207-761-1545. www.centerforculturalexchange.org
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
October 26 at 7:30 p.m. The New York Times called this combo: "One of the best-blended, most sensitive and intelligent piano trios in the world today." PCA Great Performances, Portland's Merrill Auditorium. 207-842-0800. www.pcagreatperf.com
Wynton Marsalis
October 26 at 7:30 p.m. What more to say about Wynton Marsalis? The nine-time Grammy Award-winning jazz legend and his seven-piece ensemble will perform works from Marsalis' latest album, "The Magic Hour," at the Camden Opera House. Bay Chamber Concerts. 207-236-2823 or 888-707-2770. www.baychamberconcerts.org
Halloween Silent Film Night
October 28 at 7:30 p.m. Join the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ's silent film night and costume party for a bit of a fright. Merrill Auditorium, Portland. 207-883-9525. www.foko.org
Susan Tedeschi
October 29 at 7 p.m. This Boston-bred blueswoman earned a Best New Artist Grammy nomination in 2000. She's won legions of fans -- critics, celebs, and the CD-buying public -- for her scorching guitar playing. State Theater, Portland. 207-775-3331. www.liveatthestate.com
