It’s a sunny spring Saturday afternoon and instead of working at Painted Pepper Farm in Steuben, Lisa Reilich is wearing pajamas and learning to jump off a hospital gurney in the dark. To do it quietly and quickly, she practices the movements half a dozen times, committing to memory the precise actions.

Reilich is not at a hospital but she does play a patient of sorts in the upcoming production of “Keely and Du,” Jane Martin’s 1993 drama about a woman held hostage by anti-abortion Christians determined to prevent the termination of her unwanted pregnancy. Not the usual light-hearted fare of summer theaters, the production is the third staged by the newly founded Meetinghouse Theatre Lab, an offshoot of Schoodic Arts for All, a community arts presenter on the Schoodic

Peninsula. “Keely and Du” will be performed Thursday June 17 and Saturday June 19 at the Edward J. Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor.

Meetinghouse was founded last fall after Reilich had performed in a Schoodic Arts festival. Although she moved to Maine in 1999 to raise a family and a farm, which she runs with her husband Jordan, her training is in theater. She studied at the Warehouse Theatre’s Journeyman Program in Greenville, S.C., and has worked in various aspects of productions at theaters on the East Coast, including Boston Lyric Opera and Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y.

While Reilich enjoyed the theater performances she saw around Maine, she wanted more opportunity closer to home. So she founded the Meetinghouse group to engage her own talents as well as her community. Last winter, the company put on an intergenerational production of “A Christmas Carol,” and in February staged a collection of original one-act works called “The Dance.”

“Keely and Du,” for which Reilich will play the lead role of the abducted woman, is the type of “more serious” theater she says is needed in local programming.

“I have had ‘Keely and Du’ in my possession for 10 years,” said Reilich, who grew up near Rochester, N. Y. “I’m attracted to it because it’s a piece that makes you think and it adds a lot of gray to the issue of abortion. I’m excited about it as an actress. But when I thought about doing this, I wasn’t really thinking about the Ellsworth theater scene. I wanted theater closer to me. I realized when we moved here that there wasn’t serious theater in what I consider my Down East Maine. I am very excited to create theater here. And if it challenges others to do challenging theater, that’s great.”

Mostly, Reilich and her colleagues, including the novelist and organic farmer Cynthia Thayer who is directing “Keely and Du,” were interested in working with talented artists in an ensemble setting.

“I don’t think it would work if it weren’t an ensemble company,” said Thayer, who runs Darthia Farm in Gouldsboro and is president of the Schoodic Arts board. “This is not a top-down directorship.”

Because of the subject matter of the play, Thayer faced some resistance from the 20-person board. But ultimately, she was able to convince the other members that the play had both artistic and community value. It is not, however, an appropriate show for young children. But the actors have scheduled post-show discussions facilitated by a local midwife and a counselor.

“Why not do this play?” Thayer asked. “There are a lot of people here who have seen serious theater. I’ve always liked working in this kind of danger zone. It makes a lot of people uncomfortable but I like the danger.”

It was Thayer’s written proposal, in fact, that garnered a Maine Community Foundation $3,000 startup grant for the group to do “on-edge” theater through Schoodic Arts.

As with many artists who choose to live in Maine, the four actors and two stagehands working on the show rely on other full-time work for their livelihoods. Bonnie Myers, who plays the nurse Du, runs North Light Books in Blue Hill. Steve Gormley, who plays Keely’s abusive husband, is a builder on Mount Desert Island. Scott Sortman, as the minister, is a lobsterman in Cutler. Reilich has two daughters, ages 3 and 6.

The schedule for the actors’ meetings reflects the necessary flexibility of the organizers. Myers was auditioned in her bookstore.

“Right off the bat they realized that I am a busy person,” said Myers, a veteran of area theater. “To me, that’s what community theater is. That’s a sign that they are listening to you and thinking about your life.”

While Reilich likes the idea of community theater principles, she says the theater is not, strictly speaking, a community theater.

“I want to put on a show with people who appreciate the ensemble approach I am headed for,” said Reilich, a graduate of Emerson College in Massachusetts. “I don’t see the Meetinghouse Theatre Lab as a community theater. We exist in the community and pull from the community. But I try to emulate professional standards. The elements are minimal and suggestive so the audience can fill in the blanks as much as possible. Cinema provides realism. But what I am interested in is the acting value.”

The set for “Keely and Du” is a simple bed, rocking chair and stool in the center of Hammond Hall, an old clapboard community building that a few years ago was considered a potential training ground for firefighters. Now, with the attention of Schoodic Arts, the 1904 building has undergone improvements, including updated lighting and heating systems.

A baby grand piano sits on the proscenium stage at the front of the room, but this is not where Reilich wanted to stage the play. Much like the three-quarter balcony that curves around the upper area of the room, she wraps the audience in theater pieces by staging the action “in, around and through” the seating area.

Reilich, who spends the 90-minute production in a flannel nightgown, says she picked this show because of its potential to create the type of theater she finds interesting and useful. The play does not take an obvious pro- or anti-abortion stand. It uses the topic to bring into focus the bonds that people form and break with one another.

“This is the type of theater that can move people and open up the realm of truth,” she says. “What is reality? It’s different to each of us. I want everybody who sees this to walk away and honor that a little more.”

The Meetinghouse Theatre Lab, in conjunction with Schoodic Arts for All, will present “Keely and Du,” 7 p.m. June 17, and 2 and 7 p.m. June 19 at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor. For tickets, call 963-2569, or visit www.schoodicarts.org. Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.

The Meetinghouse Theatre Lab

What: “Keely and Du”

Where: Edward J. Hammond Hall, Main Street, Winter Harbor

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, June 17; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, June 19

Tickets: $6 in advance, $8 at the door

Contact: 963-2569, or visit www.schoodicarts.org