Community news

Bangor

A sample of Tim Sample

Tim Sample took to the streets of Bangor recently to promote his shows to benefit the restoration of the Bangor Opera House.

The footage helped make a television spot for Sample’s shows at 5 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, which launch the Penobscot Theatre Company’s fundraising effort to restore the Opera House.

“Sample’s street antics were so entertaining that we just had to share the outtakes on our Web site,” said Scott RC Levy, artistic director of the Penobscot Theatre Company. “There, people can vote for their favorite clip and maybe win a Tim Sample prize package.”

The public was invited to vote for a favorite Tim Sample “man-on-the-street” outtake, or as Sample puts it, his “mistah-man-on-the-street” outtake, at www.penobscottheatre.org. The Web site also details Penobscot Theatre Company’s 2006-07 season.

The Sample prize package includes two subscriptions to the theater’s 2006-07 season, four tickets to a June 10 benefit show, an autographed box set of Tim Sample’s “The Bert and I Years,” a whoopie pie, a bottle of Moxie and a bottle of fly dope. The winner was to be announced on June 7.

Built in 1920, the Bangor Opera House is downtown Bangor’s last live performance venue. The Opera House needs exterior and interior restoration and renovation. The multi-year, multimillion dollar project aims to return the Opera House to its Egyptian-inspired art deco glory, while modernizing stage equipment and disability access.

Tickets to Tim Sample’s June 10 performances to benefit the restoration of the Bangor Opera House are available by calling the Penobscot Theatre box office at 942-3333, or at www.penobscottheatre.org.

‘The Goose of Cairo’

Bangor native Ashley Emerson will perform in the “Concerts at Jewett” series, featuring PORTopera’s Maine’s Emerging Artists.

The group will present Mozart’s two-act humorous opera, “L’Oca del Cairo” – “The Goose of Cairo,” sung in English at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 25, at Jewett Hall Auditorium, University of Maine at Augusta.

There will be a preconcert talk at 1 p.m.

Emerson is a recent graduate of the University of Southern Maine’s School of Music, and will appear as Auretta the chambermaid in this performance.

Emerson recently was selected to join New York City’s Metropolitan Opera in its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program – one of 12 singers from across the country. The concert series is presented by UMA College of Arts and Humanities and UMA Senior College.

Tickets are $10, $5 for students, and 12 and under free. Tickets are available at the door. For information, call 621-3551.

Old Town

Summer literacy program

Children in grades kindergarten to 12 can boost reading and writing skills during a University of Maine in Orono summer program 8:30-11:30 a.m. daily, June 26-July 27, at Old Town Elementary School. Designed for area pupils who would benefit from additional literacy instruction, the program is a longstanding tradition of the UMaine College of Education and Human Development.

Students work with experienced teachers who also are completing graduate studies in literacy at UMaine. Over the five-week period, teachers develop a profile of each student’s strengths and needs in reading and writing, as well as recommendations, for parents to share with teachers in the fall.

Pupils in grades kindergarten to five receive 2 1/2 hours of literacy instruction daily, work in small classroom settings, participate in a variety of reading and writing activities and have individual tutoring. Students in grades six to 12 meet by appointment for one-on-one individualized literacy tutoring twice a week. The 1 1/2-hour sessions are held 8:30-11:30 a.m. Research indicates that students having difficulty with literacy learning often are able to maintain and even gain skills if they have opportunities to continue reading and writing over the summer break, according to program director Jane Wellman-Little, a veteran public school teacher and UMaine instructor.

A basic tenet of the program is that literacy skills develop most rapidly when children are surrounded by books and by people who love to read and write, said Wellman-Little, and that’s how the summer program is conducted.

The program is operated on a first-come, first-served basis, and the number of participants is limited to ensure small groups and optimum teacher-student ratio. The fee is $200. Scholarships are available. For more information, call Jane Wellman-Little at 581-3687.