The excitement of holiday gifts has worn off. It’s too cold to go out to play and there’s not enough snow for sledding. You’ve been to the movies eight times this month. Right about now, your parents must be thinking: “Oy, winter is long.”

Indeed, it is. But it doesn’t have to be boring. In addition to the local skating rinks, bowling alleys, swimming lessons, dance classes and the Maine Discovery Museum, there may be a children’s activity you haven’t thought of: live theater. Throughout March, the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono has several family-oriented shows that are sure to help pass the time, but, more importantly, may inspire and delight younger theatergoers in ways that warm the heart on a cold winter day.

It all begins today at 10 a.m., when Metro Theater Company from St. Louis, Mo., presents “Captain Lindbergh’s Ocean Flight.” An internationally touring ensemble, Metro has been offering smart theater to young people and adults since 1973.

The “Lindbergh” piece, which will also play at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth, tells the well-known story of the first pilot to make a nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. It was originally written in Dutch and performed in Holland, but an artistic collaboration between Jeugdtheater Het Filiaal in The Netherlands and Metro Theater created an English version, which was performed in 2002 during Missouri’s 75th anniversary of Lindbergh’s flight. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that the show’s three actors, each of whom plays Lindbergh at some point in the hour-long play, find “excitement in a story whose ending everyone knows.”

And if excitement is what you are after, “FROGZ,” by Imago Theatre of Portland, Ore., is the show to see at 6 p.m. Friday, March 5. The work has been performed twice on Broadway as well as on national television and on international stages. The reptiles in this work have a vaudevillian demeanor – as well as unusual costumes and encounters with penguins. Although the production has no script, it features an original score and comes with a glowing endorsement from The New York Times, which called the show “a mastery of mime, dance and acrobatics.”

While “FROGZ” is recommended for children ages 4 and up, James Mapes, a hypnotist, may appeal to an older crowd at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 20. “Journey into the Mind’s Eye” is Mapes’ one-man show about hypnosis and communication that has captivated more than 1,500 audiences in more than two decades.

Trained as an actor, Mapes has also been in theater productions, on television and in films. He’s a certified hypnotist, but as the founder and president of The Quantum Leap Thinking Organization, he is an international speaker in corporate industry and the author “Quantum Leap Thinking: An Owner’s Guide to the Mind” and “The Magic of Quantum Leap Thinking.” “What David Copperfield does with magic,” wrote one reviewer, “James Mapes does with the mind.”

For theatergoers ages 12 and older, “Moby Dick,” by Theater Trieberk of Hamburg, Germany, will be presented at 10 a.m. and noon Wednesday, March 25. Billed as an imaginative adaptation of the American classic, the award-winning show, which was first written in German and then translated to English for international tours, is just over an hour long and features three actor-musicians who animate the dangers and difficulties of Ishmael’s whaling adventures. The inventive work will be coming to Orono after a weeklong run at the prestigious New Victory Theater in New York City.

“Thwak,” a physical comedy by two actors from Sydney, Australia, employs both choreography and acrobatics for a show that is appropriate for audience members as young as 10 and as old as 99. The Umbilical Brothers, who will perform the show at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 27, also created the voices and sound effects for Nickelodeon’s “Maisy” and have appeared around the world, including in an 11-month run on Broadway.

The final March offering is “Blue Orphan,” at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 28. Billed as a musical epic, the show, by the award-winning Catalyst Theatre of Edmonton, Alberta, is about a tired mill town and the cataclysmic future for the people who live there.

MCA has also scheduled the popular “Very Eric Carle” by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. The show is scheduled for May 26 but is already sold out.

For information and for tickets to any of the above shows at the Maine Center for the Arts, call 581-1755 or 1-800-MCA-TIXX. For information about daytime performances of “Captain Lindbergh’s Ocean Flight” on Jan. 28 at The Grand in Ellsworth, call 667-5911.