Theater
The Show Must Go On

"Write what you know," they say. So it's no wonder that British playwright Michael Frayn dreamed up Noises Off, the classic tale of an inept theater troupe's struggle to finish its tour amidst the havoc of lovers' quarrels, eccentric actors, and stray sardines. Jan. 23 - Feb. 18. $19-$33. Portland Stage Company, 25A Forest Ave. 207-774-0465. www.portlandstage.com

Dance
Ancient History

If the only thing you know about India is that Ben Kingsley played Ghandi, then Exploration India is your chance to learn more. Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy of Minneapolis-based Ragamala Music and Dance Theater will be in Rockport for two days of instruction and performance of a two-thousand-year-old classical dance form from southern India. On Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. study the basic dance vocabulary of Bharatanayam — with an opportunity to participate — and make a Kolam, a folk-art floor design. Then on Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. sit back and enjoy From Temple to Theater, a performance of music, dance, and poetry. Strom Auditorium, Camden Hills Regional High School, Rte. 90, Rockport. $10-$20.

207-236-2823 or 888-707-2770. www.baychamberconcerts.org

Outdoors
Good Sledding

Give in to winter with the Rangeley Snodeo, three days of food and fun put on by the Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club. One of the largest gatherings of snowmobilers in western Maine, the Snodeo includes races, kids' activities, and a popular casino night for the grownups. Jan. 18 - 20. 207-864-9047. www.rangeleysnowmobile.com

Before making plans to attend any of these events, call ahead to confirm, since dates and times may be subject to change. To submit event listings to Down East, send an e-mail to editorial@downeast.com

MUSIC AND DANCE

Bangor Symphony Orchestra

The third showcase in the symphony's Classical Series includes Edvard Grieg's Norwegian dances, op. 35, Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky's Variations on a rococo theme, op. 33, and Jean Sibelius' Symphony no. 2, op. 43, D Major. Jan. 28 at 3 p.m. Maine Center for the Arts, Hutchins Concert Hall, UMaine campus, Orono. $11-$32. 207-942-5555. www.bangorsymphony.com

Diavolo

Leaping from tall structures, flying through open spaces, balancing the impossible, and tumbling from various objects: Diavolo, a Los Angeles-based dance company, is sure to give you vertigo. Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. $18-$32. Maine Center for the Arts, UMaine campus, Orono. 207-581-1755. www.ume.maine.edu/~mca

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Betrayal and hardship, prophecy and forgiveness for the prodigal son, who stops at the Maine Center for the Arts as part of the Broadway national tour. Jan. 13 at 2 & 8 p.m. $37-$47. UMaine campus, Orono. 207-581-1755. www.ume.maine.edu/~mca

Lord of the Dance

The successful hoofer brings his American-Irish dance to Maine. Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. $42-$56. Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St., Portland. 207-842-0800.

Portland Symphony Orchestra

Tonight: A Tribute to Leonard Bernstein highlights songs from early productions and culminates in the spectacular Symphonic Suites from West Side Story. Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. & Jan. 21 at 2:30 p.m. $8-$54. u Later, the PSO performs Barber's Essay no. 2, Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 5, Emperor, and Prokofiev's Symphony no. 5. Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. $12-$57. Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St., Portland. 207-842-0800. www.portlandsymphony.com

Schooner Fare

Schooner Fare plays traditional maritime ballads and original Down East folk, offering rich harmonies and distinctive musical arrangements. Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m. $19-$26. The Chocolate Church, 798 Washington St., Bath. 207-442-8455. www.chocolatechurch.com

THEATER

Hay Fever

Star of the London stage Judith Bliss, her author husband, and two children are all hopelessly self-absorbed. When each of them invites a guest for the weekend without telling anyone else in the family, madness ensues. Jan. 18 - Feb. 8. All performances at 7:30 p.m. $15-$20. St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St., Portland. 207-885-5883. www.stlawrencearts.org

The Old Setter

You're never too old to fall in love — until your relatives and friends tell you that you are. Romance is kindled amidst the tenements of Harlem in 1943 when two middle-aged sisters bring a young male roomer into their lives to help pay the rent. Jan. 26, 27, 28 and Feb. 1, 2, 3, 4. Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., and Thursday at 7 p.m. $10-$16. The Public Theater, 31 Maple St., Lewiston. 207-782-3200. www.thepublictheatre.org

The Wizard of Oz

Is the Cowardly Lion emasculated nobility? The Scarecrow a na?ve peasant? The Tin Man the dehumanized proletariat? Better not ask if Dorothy Gale has any chance of ever making it home. Jan. 12 - 28, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. $15-$20. The Portland Players, 420 Cottage Rd., South Portland. 207-799-7337. www.portlandplayers.org

ART MUSEUMS

Bates college Museum of Art

Scrape, Cut, Gouge, Bite, Print. . . The Graphic Work of Charlie Hewitt 1976-2006. Born in Lewiston in 1946, Hewitt grew up in Auburn and Brunswick. A student of Philip Guston, David Hare, and Elaine DeKooning at the New York Studio School, Hewitt has played a significant role in printmaking in Maine since 1984, when he returned to the state to work at the Vinalhaven Press. As the repository for Hewitt's graphic work, the Bates College Museum of Art has an extensive collection that will provide the material for this retrospective exhibition, including woodcuts, drypoints, etchings, and digital prints. Through March 18. Free. 75 Russell St., Lewiston. 207-786-6158. www.bates.edu/museum.xml

Colby College Museum of Art

Alex Katz: Woodcuts and Linocuts. Alex Katz has been a regular summer resident in Maine since he first attended the Skowhegan School in the early 1950s, and the landscapes of Maine, along with his figural subjects, have been a prominent feature of his work. Linoleum cuts and woodcuts have constituted an important part of his artistic activity, noteworthy because of Katz's direct hand in the carving of the blocks, as well as the complex interrelationship played out between these prints and his painting. Through Jan. 28. u Currents 3: Lihua Lei. Lei's work explores the sense of bounty and loss inherent in our bodily condition. Working in the gap between the figurative and the abstract, Lei uses diverse materials to allude to the body: a pool of carnelian colored thread suggests blood; a tube of cloth winds through the landscape like an esophagus or a birth canal. Through Feb. 4.

-Whistler as Printmaker. While James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) achieved fame as a painter, he was also a serious and innovative printmaker, producing some 450 etchings and about 180 lithographs. His imagery and the technical means he developed for etching and for printing plates influenced not only his fellow printmakers in Europe and America but also many others who followed. This selection of prints is drawn from a collection on loan to the Colby museum consisting of almost two hundred impressions representing the highest quality and range of Whistler's printmaking. Through Feb. 25. Free. 5600 Mayflower Hill Dr., Waterville. 207-872-3228. www.colby.edu/museum

Farnsworth Art Museum & Wyeth Center

Jonathan Fisher: Pioneer Painter and Printmaker. While serving as a pastor of the First Congregational Church in Blue Hill, Fisher also carved woodblocks to print a series of more than a hundred insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals, all published in the 1834 book Scripture Animals. Through March 11. u Imprints of Maine: 1900-1950. Selected from the museum's permanent collection, the pieces include modernist works by Rockwell Kent, Carroll Thayer Berry, and Leo Meissner, as well as more traditional artists. Through March 24. u Elizabeth B. Noyce Bequest Anniversary. Art collector and Maine philanthropist Elizabeth B. Noyce's bequeathed works of American art. Through June 17. $8-$10. 16 Museum St., Rockland. 207-596-6457. www.farnsworthmuseum.org

Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art

Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegies/MECA Prints. Robert Indiana is widely regarded as one of the most important painters, sculptors, and printmakers working today. Perhaps most famous for his LOVE image, which has appeared in prints, monumental sculpture, and postage stamps, Indiana profoundly influenced Pop and Minimal art as well as reductive abstraction in the United States. Driven by a strong pacifist sensibility, Indiana makes spare, powerful text-images that combine contemporary social commentary with a keen awareness of the legacy of avant-garde art. Through Feb. 4. Free. 522 Congress St., Portland. 207-879-5742, ext. 229. www.meca.edu/GalleriesExhibitions/ICA/Overview.aspx#2

Portland Museum of Art

American ABC: Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America. Presenting works by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, and other major American artists, the exhibition will investigate the connection between American ideas about children and the ideals and issues that defined the nation as it matured. Through Jan. 7. u Francisco Goya: Los Caprichos. This exhibition will feature one of the most influential works of graphic images in the history of Western art, Los Caprichos, a series of eighty black-and-white prints published in 1799 that satirize the foibles of late eighteenth-century Spanish society and humanity in general. Influenced by Enlightenment thinking, Goya set out to analyze the human condition and denounce social abuses and superstitions. Through Feb. 25. u New Acquisitions 2006. Every winter, the museum highlights significant art acquisitions of the previous year in a special exhibition. Contemporary art was a major highlight of collecting activity in 2006, with prints by Francesco Clemente, Jim Dine, Anish Kapoor, Robert Stackhouse, and Pat Steir and two paintings by John Walker entering the collection. Nineteenth-century art was also represented with the purchase of an important work by Charles Codman and the remarkable bequest of a painting by Thomas Moran. Opening on the museum's fourth floor, New Acquisitions 2006 will spotlight a selection of these artworks and others that entered the collection in the last twelve months. Through Feb. 28. u A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster, Jr. This show features fifty outstanding paintings illustrating the full range of Brewster's long and successful career. The exhibition and companion book provide a major assessment of Brewster's life and art within his four worlds: his artistic influences, his distinctive painting style and techniques, his elite clientele, and the world of the deaf in early America. Jan. 25 - March 25. $4-$10, and free Fridays 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. 7 Congress Square, Portland. 207-775-6148. www.portlandmuseum.org

USM Lewiston-Auburn College

Area Artists 2007. Open juried biennial exhibition featuring painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and contemporary crafts from artists in Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford counties. Jan. 21 - March 30. Free. Atrium Gallery, 51 Westminster St., Lewiston. 207-753-6500. www.usm.maine.edu/lac/art

OTHER MUSEUMS

The Dyer Library/Saco Museum

Peregrine Press Artists: 15 Years of Printmaking. Peregrine Press was established in 1991 by a group of artists interested in printmaking with a common goal: to have a cooperative studio, a place to work, and an organization of fellow printmaking artists. The exhibition consists of thirty prints selected to demonstrate the range of techniques and artistic approaches. Through Jan. 27. $2-$4; free admission every Thursday from 4 - 8 p.m. 371 Main St., Saco. 207-283-3861. www.dyerlibrarysacomuseum.org

FAIRS & FESTIVALS

Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival

A glorious Twelfth Night celebration featuring costumed cast, live animals, choirs, and musicians. Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. & Jan. 6 at 4 & 7 p.m. $10-$15. Rockland Congregational Church, 180 Limerock St. 207-594-8656.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Bath Antiques Shows

With sixty dealers, this popular show features country and formal antiques from the functional to the decorative. Jan. 14 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. $4. Bath Middle School, 6 Old Brunswick Rd. 207-443-8983. www.bathantiquesshows.com

Ice Harvest

"Ice, ice baby" is what you'll be singing at the Washburn-Norlands' farm ice harvest as you use hand tools to cut ice on the local pond. Hot meals and beverages are served so you won't freeze. Jan. 27 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Free admission; meals $3-$5. Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, 90 Norlands Rd., Livermore. 207-897-4366. www.norlands.org

Portland Public Library

The library has three writers scheduled for its popular Brown Bag lecture series this month: Stacy Mitchell promotes Big Box Swindle Jan. 10; Pulitzer winner Richard Ford discusses his new novel The Lay of the Land on Jan. 17; and poet Wesley McNair reads from The Ghosts of You and Me on Jan. 24. Noon - 1 p.m. Rines Auditorium, 5 Monument Sq., Portland,Free. 207-871-1700 www.portlandlibrary.com

Ricky Craven Ride for Charity

Newburgh's native son gets behind the wheel along with a host of snowmobilers to raise money for children's charities. Jan. 27 at 6 a.m. $125. Greenville School sports field. 207-695-2702. www.mooseheadlake.org