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St. Lawrence Arts and the Portland Theater Festival are excited to be collaborating partners for the 2023 Festival! Founded in 2021 by East Shore Arts and Mayo Street Arts, Portland Theater Festival (PTF) introduces an annual summer season of diverse, inclusive, and exceptional professional theater to the City of Portland. Locally staffed and incubated, PTF offers cutting-edge performances in intimate and found spaces with the aim of promoting a more mindful, more compassionate, and more harmonized community in Maine.
 
History

In early 2021, East Shore Arts Founder Dave Register wanted to find a way to bring live summer theater to Portland in a safe and accessible way after a year of COVID-19 isolation. Audiences were eager to consume live entertainment again, and an intimate, outdoor production seemed like the perfect project to take on in an early post-vaccine landscape: small cast, outdoors, etc.

When Dave pitched the idea of producing Annie Baker’s The Aliens—set behind a coffee shop in Vermont—in the lot behind Tandem Coffee Roasters in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood, owner Will Pratt responded immediately and enthusiastically. Will enlisted Mayo Street Arts, who signed on to co-produce Baker’s award-winning play, and the ensuing sold-out run served Portland with a direct response to the pervasive isolation and loneliness felt throughout the pandemic.

Read all about last years productions here!

And here's a great article by Eric Russell of the Portland Press Herald about how PTF came to be and all the 2022 collaborators!

Happening Now

Performing Arts

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Portland Theater Festival Presents: The Thin Place

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