Meet the Centennial Celebration Play Festival Youth Playwrights!
The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine is proudly celebrating 100 years of Children’s Theatre! 2023 marks the Centennial of the country’s longest-running children’s theatre.
Centennial Celebration Weekend
CMTM will mark 100 years of performance and play with a Centennial Celebration Weekend of theatre-focused events for adults, children, and their families from May 18 - 21, 2023.
The festivities include a two-day play festival on May 20 and 21 for children and families. Over a dozen original plays written by local and national youth and adult playwrights will be performed throughout the weekend. CMTM’s exhibits inspired the plays, which will be shown throughout the facility.
Theatre History
Having journeyed from parks to flatbed trucks, storefronts, and temporary locations across Portland since 1923, the Children’s Theatre of Maine merged with the Children’s Museum of Maine in 2008. Organizational leaders dreamed of one day finding a permanent home for the museum and theatre that allowed both to flourish and weave together narrative, play, performance, and learning all under one roof. The new Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine at Thompson’s Point is the realization of that dream and the product of 100 years and countless individual’s hard work to retain a precious community resource for current and future generations.
Youth Playwrights
The play festival will feature four original plays by five youth playwrights! Read on to learn more about their plays and about the playwrights themselves.
The Color Constellation by Sloan Willows and Maeve Narbus
Directed by Emily M. Dixon
Time for a field trip! Students: check, Bus: check, Color Mountain: Check, Greedy talking moose…Uh Ohh…
Playwright Bios:
Sloan (she/her/hers) is a 4th-grade student at Small School Elementary in South Portland. This is Sloan's first play, though she has dabbled in storytelling and plot development in her classroom with Maeve, her co-writer and bestie. Her favorite things are her puppy, Skipper, making slideshows, reading, and anything art related.
Maeve is a 4th grader at Small School in South Portland. She loves playing all kinds of sports and spending time with friends and family. She is very excited to be a part of this festival.
Speed Lobster Trap by Eleanor Keniston
Directed by Nathan Lapointe
It's just another day off the coast of Maine, catching lobsters and getting pulled over for speeding…wait what?
Playwright Bio:
Eleanor is a sixth-grade homeschooled student who is excited to be appearing on the Maddy’s Theatre stage with such a talented cast and production team! She has appeared in GRUFF! An Epic Fairytale Eco-Musical as Griff and Dragons Love Tacos as the Kid, and has worked in the lighting/sound booth and backstage for a number of productions, including Snow in the Jungle/Nieve en la Jungla, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, and Blueberries for Sal.
The Bush Creature by Pearl Rockers
Directed by Reba Askari
In a world where two explorers search for a lost zoo animal…” Wait…what kind of animal are we dealing with?”
Playwright Bio:
Pearl Rockers, 6 years old, is a kindergartener at Pond Cove Elementary School in Cape Elizabeth, ME. She loves to dance, draw, and travel the world! The Bush Creature is her first original play, and she is so excited to share her vision with you all.
The Tale of the Lost Seal Skin by Tatiana Esbjorn-Hargens
Directed by Allison McCall
An underwater adventure to help a new friend who's lost something important…A scary sea witch…What could go wrong?
Playwright Bio:
Tatiana Esbjorn-Hargens is 16 years old, and a sophomore at Waynflete in Portland. She loves theater, writing and travel, among other things. She has been acting in plays since first grade, but this is the first play she’s written.
To learn about the Centennial Weekend Play Festival adult playwrights, visit: