Festival of New Works stays thought-provoking, enjoyable

In only its second year, the New England Festival of New Works, presented this weekend at Penobscot Theatre, proved to be one of the more exciting theatrical events this season.

In comparison to last year’s two-week ballyhoo, which included a costume ball, a fully staged premiere of a new play, stage readings, and a ballet, this weekend’s fare was considerably pared down. Indeed, the Penobscot has fallen victim to a year of severe pruning, but the absence of artistic leadership and a resident company has not trimmed away the spirit of the theater community. A crowd of theatergoers rallied Saturday night to attend an uncomplicated and pleasant evening of new theatrical works. It was one of the largest and most gracious opening-night audiences at Penobscot in the past year.

Writers Sanford Phippen, of Orono, and Andrew J. Gay, of Belfast, shared the limelight with their respective works “The Police Know Everything” and “Caitlin.” Neither writer is a playwright by trade. Phippen is best known for his homegrown, quirky short stories, and Gay is a poet, short-story writer, and journal editor. But their works, each still in progress and each very different from the other, were well-received with long, appreciative applauses.

Phippen’s play, an adaptation of a 1982 story collection by the same name, ran first with actors Alan Gallant, Pauline Ernst, Peggi Parsley-Cole, Lanna Lee Maheux, Tamra S. Philbrook, Balenda G. Ganem, Margaret Miller, and Rebecca Cook. About a group of working-class women and their stronghold on a rural Maine town, the local-color play elicited much laughter from the audience. During a post-show discussion led by Phippen, director Kent McKusick and all but one of the actors acknowledged their native-Maine status and spoke of the dialects and themes of the play.

“I was tired of reading books about Maine that were wrong, phoney, and filled with lies,” said Phippen explaining his impetus for writing the original “Police,” currently in its 10th printing at Puckerbrush Press in Orono.

Two of Phippen’s family members, who are depicted in the play, were in the audience. Susan Springer, Phippen’s half sister on whom the character Lillie was based, spoke to the audience and expressed her delight in her brother’s work.

In a later interview at Bangor International Airport, where she was returning to her residence in Anchorage, Alaska, Springer spoke about the production.

“I wasn’t at all uncomfortable,” she said of seeing her family portrayed. “I definitely enjoyed seeing a reflection of our lives, our Maine lives. It brought the written word alive, and I think it’s more meaningful to people when it’s brought out like that.”

Springer has lived in Alaska for 23 years, but returns to Hancock Point each year for vacation. She agreed with the play’s germane aphorisms: “For anyone who has ever lived here long enough, Maine is haunting,” and “Maine is a place you’re homesick for even when you’re here.”

Actor Melissa Hughes kept a rapt audience during Gay’s one-woman show “Caitlin,” a biography of Dylan Thomas’s wife. The play was directed by Harold Hynick. Standing at a podium and peering over half-eye reading glasses, Hughes read the lively, dramatic script about Caitlin’s struggles with alcoholism, and unsettled life with the Welsh poet, whose own alcoholism, carousing, and scrounging wore at the 17-year marriage.

After the show, Gay asked for responses to the hope-filled ending. “After so many years, she still has confusion about her life,” said Gay about the character. “In the end, she begins to realize she has to rely on other people. How do you feel about that?” he asked. The audience was eager to share its unanimous in support of Gay’s final choices.

One audience member complimented Hughes, saying that the performance was so skillful and believable that the dramatic convention seemed to disappear, leaving Hughes as a convincing embodiment of Caitlin.

A stimulating and accessible exchange between artists and viewers, the New England Festival of New Works is perhaps the most important contribution former director Joe Turner Cantu made to Penobscot Theatre. Though minimal this year, the event was still thought-provoking and entertaining.