Maine Masque nostalgia

There was a time when the Maine Masque of the University of Maine used to play a vital role in the cultural scene of Bangor and its environs. Each year we had three or four productions by undergraduate theater majors directed by distinguished faculty that included Bost, Cyrus, Hallman, Hardy, Mikotowicz, Snider and Wilkinson.

The performances were in the Hauck Auditorium, and once in a while in the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre, from Thursdays to Sundays, and the ticket price was about $5 a person. Ibsen, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Sheridan, Shaw, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill were all there, to name a few.

We had such delightful musicals as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Mikado” and “Sweeney Todd.”

The Maine Masque had the privilege of hosting the Royal Shakespeare Company for a week in November 1983. In other words, we had our own “Broadway” right in our own back yard those days.

It is nostalgia that is forcing me to write this. Are those days gone forever? Will those days ever come back?

V.K.Balakrishnan

Veazie