PORTLAND – The Children’s Theatre of Maine staged its final performance at its former home on Marginal Way in Portland 10 months ago. Now, it has announced plans to resume original productions in partnership with the Children’s Museum of Maine.

The 83-year-old theater company, one of Portland’s oldest arts organizations, plans a three-show season beginning in October in the 50-seat theater at the Children’s Museum on Free Street.

“It’s a natural fit between two organizations that have much the same audience and much the same outlook for bringing children’s programming to Maine,” said Michael Bourque, president of the theater’s board of directors.

Several organizations expressed interest in working with the theater, Bourque said, and the museum expressed what he called “the most consistent and common sense approach to partnership and friendship.”

When the theater company closed the curtain on “The Little Mermaid” in October 2006, the board of directors announced it would not renew its lease at the building on Marginal Way because of financial difficulties, and that it would reevaluate all aspects of the organization before committing to future productions.

Bourque said in the first year in its new home, the theater will operate with a budget of about $70,000. Previously, the theater had budgets as large as $400,000 or more, and it had an extensive education program, frequently producing plays that traveled around the state.

For now, the company will focus solely on producing shows for the theater at the Children’s Museum.

“We analyzed our priorities and decided that producing [shows] is what we need to do first and foremost,” said Bourque. “We feel that getting ourselves producing again and filling up that space is the most important thing. We want to do that well, and create enthusiasm to spur us forward.”

The theater will open on Oct. 6 with “Odd at Sea: A Pirate Odyssey.” A second show will be presented around the December holidays, and the third will be presented in the spring, said Raymond Dumont, who has been hired as the theater’s managing director.

Tickets will cost $5.

“We’re less expensive than the movies,” said Dumont, a former managing director at Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick and outreach director in the University of Southern Maine Theatre Department. “We really want to get kids used to going to the theater. That’s our goal.”