JULY 2022.VOL. 22, NO. 07. PORTLAND, MAINE.
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Origins of the Shoestring Theater Free Soil Her Son,” an anti-war morality play. Actors wearing masks and black clothing mimed the action described by a narrator.
By Harlan Baker “I’ve been here all my life,” said Nance Parker, director of The Shoestring Theater. “All My Life” is also the name of one of the shows that gained the most publicity for the theater. It was based on the lives of the working class women who lived in Portland’s West End. The theater and Parker have been a fixture in the West End for forty years.The theater’s workshop on the third floor of the old Brackett Street Dress factory is covered with masks, giant puppet heads, marionettes, flyers, and posters for Shoestring shows and parades.
I attended a rehearsal one night at the invitation of Pierre Shevenell. Andy Trompettor saw me sitting in the front row. He walked over to me and asked me to step into the playing area. Suddenly I was thrust into the action of the play.
The Blackbird Theater performing an Anti-Vietnam war play in front of Portland City Hall. -Photo courtesy of Portland
The theatrical ancestor for the Shoe- Public Library Special Collections. Colorization string Theater was The Blackbird Theater, by WEN. (Orig. photo on Pg. 4) founded by Andy and Amy Trompettor. They came to Portland to co-direct the Children’s Theater of Portland. The Chil- minimal. Large and small puppets filled in dren’s Theater was housed in the Wood- for the lack of scenery. fords Corner Fire Barn. The Fire Barn was It was open to anyone who wanted also the home of The Blackbird Theater. to participate and recruited people on the Nance Parker was a performer with spot. A person attending a production or the Children’s Theater. Watching a perfor- rehearsal might also find themselves asmance of Blackbird’s “Rat Story” she was signed a role in the show. intrigued. “Actors were wearing giant rat West End activist Pierre Shevenall head puppets,” she said. “Everyone else hated the show. But something in that was recruited on the day of the nationwide anti-Vietnam war moratorium on struck me.” October 15th, 1969.
Starting the Blackbird Theater
He was walking up High Street and noticed an assembly of people dressed in black with large paper mache puppets in front of the Eastland Hotel. Someone called out to him, “We need someone to wear a mask and a black garment and walk The theater attracted the attention down Congress Street.” of Portland’s counterculture and was reShevenell joined the procession. “I ceiving favorable attention from the local was walking on the sidewalk,” he said, “and media. I see my cousin and two banker friends. The productions relied mostly on They tried hard not to look at this strange movement, sound, and music with minimal thing. I didn’t know what it was all about, dialogue, often just narration. A jug band but I thought hey I like this.” provided musical accompaniment. Actors At the end of the rally the theater would often perform in masks with very simple pieces of clothing. Scenery was performed, “A Mother Says Goodbye to Andy Trompettor, a Holocaust survivor, and Amy met each other working with Bread and Puppet Theater in New York. They soon married.
The Trompetters left Portland for a tour across the United States. When they returned to Maine they were based in Rangeley. They continued to present shows and toured the county fair circuit with Punch and Judy.
Lead Tests Available in Greater Portland Now Testing Chicken Eggs for Lead By Tony Zeli
They toured internationally. It was Gardening is a great activity. But a long during a tour in France that their marriage industrial history and major 19th century ended, which resulted in the end of the fires put the Portland peninsula at an eleBlackbird Theater. vated risk for soil lead contamination. And other neighborhoods throughout Greater Rebirth as The Shoestring Portland that have older housing stock Theater with lead-based paint, former industrial arSometime after returning from eas, and former farmland (think lead based France, Pierre Shevenell and company pesticides) may also be areas of concern. member Michael Romanyshyn were con- Luckily, with a free soil lead test you can versing over a few beers at a bar on Dan- know what your risk to lead exposure is forth Street about reviving the theater. and take the necessary steps to mitigate it “We wanted to continue the tradition of and enjoy your summer! political theater based in the neighborThe Cumberland County Soil and hoods,” said Shevenell. Water Conservation District (CCSWCD) The theater became known as The began the free testing program in 2019 Shoestring Theater. Shevenell and Roma- for four of Portland’s most affected neighnyshyn performed puppet shows and a borhoods. This summer the program is “Cranky movie,” at any location they could serving all the Greater Portland region, including South Portland, Westbrook, Scarfind. More people joined the company. borough, and Brunswick. A growing company needed a perNeighborhoods outside of Portland manent home. Romanyshyn and Shevenell approached the board of Youth in Action, that are of potential concern include: a neighborhood youth group located in Frenchville in Westbrook, Ferry Village the old dress factory on Brackett Street, and Mill Brook in South Portland, Oak known as the “People’s Building.” The third Hill in Scarborough, and Brunswick Stafloor of the building became a workshop tion and Main Street in Brunswick. But any for the theatre. The theater performed all garden is worth testing. And the data col-
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