Theater News
For 2013 updates you can stay connected to NMT through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other media posted here throughout the season. Videos of rehearsals and performances coming soon!
Press Releases
April 23, 2013
Cast Announced for NMT’s 2013 Summer Production The Spitfire Grill
Northport Music Theater will present The Spitfire Grill, a musical drama directed by Tobin Malone, with music direction by John Gelsinger, in July of 2013.
The show is by James Valcq (Music and Book) and Fred Alley, (Lyrics and Book). It has become one of the most often-produced new American musicals since it opened Off-Broadway in 2001 at Playwrights Horizons. The Spitfire Grill has had more than 350 productions around the world. Based on the award-winning film by Lee David Zlotoff, this musical drama was nominated for best musical for the 2002 Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama League Award and was the winner of the 2001 Richard Rodgers Production Award. Sally Cragin, of The Boston Globe states “Spitfire has enormous psychological scope for a deceptively small musical. Deeply intimate, with an impressive, complex, and tuneful array of musical inspirations!” Joel Hirschhorn, of Variety describes the show as “Poignant and spine chilling!”.
The story tells of a recently released parolee, Percy Talbot, arriving in the deserted town of Gilead, Wisconsin. She reports to Sheriff Joe Sutter who procures her a room and a job at a ramshackle diner called the Spitfire Grill, run by a crusty old widow, Hannah Ferguson. When Hannah trips on the stairs and breaks her leg, she has Percy take over the Spitfire against the better wishes of her fiercely protective nephew Caleb. Percy is joined at the Spitfire by Caleb’s wife Shelby. In the heat of the kitchen the two women are drawn together. Shelby tells Percy about Hannah and Gilead’s past – the day her childhood hero went off to war and her hometown changed forever. Wanting to escape painful memories, Hannah’s had the Grill on the real estate market for ten years with no takers. Percy dreams up a possible solution: a raffle. For a hundred dollars and an essay about why they might want the Grill, anyone can enter. Soon the very first raffle entry arrives in the mail. That night on the back porch, Percy encounters a silent visitor. The story of relationships, memories, loves lived and lost, unfolds, and while taking first steps to rebuild their lives and relationships, everybody eagerly greets the last day of Hannah’s contest. They all read their favorite essays. Finally Hannah reads the words that have touched her the most, and reveals who will get the Spitfire Grill.
Savannah Creech, soprano, will play the lead role of Percy Talbot. Tyler Johnstone, tenor, will play the role of Sheriff Joe Sutter. Meg Nickerson, alto, plays the role of Hannah Ferguson, the owner of the Spitfire Grill. The role of Shelby Thorpe, Percy’s new friend, will be played by Annie Watson, soprano. Kathryn Robyn, alto, will play the role of the postmistress, Effy Krayneck. John Coleman, baritone, will play Caleb Thorpe, an out-of-work foreman of the stone quarry.
Learn more about the cast
The show is produced by Ruth Gelsinger, NMT Artistic Director, with set design by John Bielenberg of Belfast and Karina Shorten of Rockland as stage manager. The musical drama is accompanied by a six member orchestra of violin, cello, piano, guitar, mandolin, and accordion. Show dates and times are Fridays and Saturdays, July 19, 20, 26, 27 at 7:30 and Sunday July 21 and 28 at 3:30.
November 27, 2012
Northport Music Theater Receives Grant
Northport Music Theater recently received a grant of $2500 from the Maine Theater Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to provide support for its 2013 season. The summer musical theater was founded in 2007 and features contemporary American musical theater and a day camps program for kids. The theater is located in Northport on Route 1 and seats 128 people. The stage is a modified thrust design. NMT became a non-profit organization in September of 2012 and is managed by a seven member Board of Directors.
Ruth Gelsinger, Artistic Director of NMT, thanks Waterfall Arts of Belfast for acting as fiscal sponsor and gratefully accepts the funds on behalf of the NMT Board, the casts and crews of NMT, and the NMT summer campers and their parents. “It’s hard to believe that we are getting ready for our seventh season”, she recently remarked. “With our new nonprofit status and support in the form of grants and donations from the community, we are even more committed to shaping the future of the performing arts here in midcoast Maine. We look forward to keeping the NMT program strong and growing.”
A statewide organization with offices in Ellsworth and Portland, the Maine Community Foundation partners with donors and nonprofits to strengthen Maine communities. For more information, visit mainecf.org or call 1-877-700-6800.
Learn more about supporting Northport Music Theater’s programs.
November 8, 2012
Northport Music Theater Becomes Non-Profit
Ruth Gelsinger, Artistic Director, and the Board of Directors of the Northport Music Theater are pleased to announce the theater’s acceptance as a public charity under section 501 (c) (3) of the IRS code. The summer musical theater was founded by John and Ruth Gelsinger in 2007 and features contemporary American musical theater and a day camps program that teaches kids musical theater at all grade levels.
The theater is located in Northport on Route 1 and seats 128 people and was an industrial machinery repair shop in the 1960’s and 70’s and later was used as a furniture repair shop. The stage is a modified thrust design and the 1940’s vintage and refurbished seats were originally from a theater in Amherst, Mass.
The first production, The Musical of Musicals! (The Musicals), was presented in June of 2007. Other shows since then include Six Women with Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know, Fame Takes A Holiday, Golf! The Musical, Closer Than Ever, Five Course Love, The Big Bang, The Bikinis, Sister Robert Anne’s Cabaret Class, and Funny Girl. Camp shows presented since 2008 by students include Jungle Book, 101 Dalmations, Attack of the Killer Grasshoppers, Mulan Junior, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Rent, Into the Woods, and Fairy Tale Dreams, among others.
The Board of Directors comprises seven members; Annie Watson, President of the Board, a resident of Lincolnville, John and Ruth Gelsinger from Northport, Blair and Beanie Einstein from Bayside, Nancy Hauswald of Belfast and Richard Tourigny, of Stockton Springs.
To learn more about making a donation.