Upcoming Events

OD Bonny returns to Maine! Children and adults are welcome for a performance of traditional Acholi music and dancehall/Afrobeat by our own South Sudanese singer, songwriter, and producer! Dance to OD’s traditional hits like Lodongo Acholi, Apoka Poka, Be Mine, and Weng Acholi!

Copies of OD’s new children’s book A Feast for Joseph written with Terry Farish will be given away at the event (while supplies last). The book, set in Portland’s Kennedy Park and the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Uganda, was inspired by OD’s own journey from South Sudan to Maine.

This Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival event is in collaboration with the Indigo Arts Alliance sponsored by I’m Your Neighbor Books with special thanks to the Portland Food Co-op.

Two nights featuring some of the best that Maine has to offer in Burlesque, Drag & Flow!!

Saturday Host: GiGi Gabor (She/They) is a petrol-fueled force to be reckoned with. An unapologetic go-getter, she mixes grit and grace seamlessly into one powerful package. GiGi cut her teeth on the streets of New York City in both the technical and performance aspects of stage life before bringing her know-how back home to southern Maine. In her 13 years of performing, GiGi has graced stages all over New England, including [insert dive bar here] and [insert dumpster location here]. She is the proud owner of Curbside Queens, Maine’s #1 Traveling Drag Show! @the_gigi_gabor

Featuring: The Fsmarts, Kinky Slippers, Bee Kay Esq & MORE

Sunday Host: Ophelia Johnson (She/Her) Ophelia Johnson is a Stepford wife whose motherboard is fried. Ophelia was named Portland’s best drag personality in 2018 & 2022. She has been doing drag for 7 years. If you’d like to help with replacement nuts and bolts, Venmo her at @ophelia_drag and follow her on Instagram @ophelia_drag

Featuring: Cinnamon Maxxine, Clamz! Kasino, Tasha Tektite & MORE

Join Veeva Banga and her little sister Veronica at Mayo Street Arts to explore the diverse styles of Afro Beats! Afro Beats is a fun mix of Hip Hop, Jazz, and popular African moves.

Intended for parents/guardians and their children,  this class will start with a partner warm-up. Participants will learn the primary names and moves in Afro Beats, and then jump into choreography. The class will finish with a game!

All ages are welcome, recommended for 4+

“In sleep, he sang to me, in dreams, he came…” and now he is coming to Mayo Street Arts! Tophat Productions is proud to be bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece, The Phantom of the Opera to Mayo Street Arts for two miniature stage performances! To make this extra special, David Worobec is bringing his talented friend, Bethany Perkins to perform with him. David and Bethany, along with a miniature stage and action figure cast, will present this musical classic as you have never seen it before! Join us for the music of the night.

“In sleep, he sang to me, in dreams, he came…” and now he is coming to Mayo Street Arts! Tophat Productions is proud to be bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece, The Phantom of the Opera to Mayo Street Arts for two miniature stage performances! To make this extra special, David Worobec is bringing his talented friend, Bethany Perkins to perform with him. David and Bethany, along with a miniature stage and action figure cast, will present this musical classic as you have never seen it before! Join us for the music of the night.

Samāgata is a coming together – of the dance and dancer, of the artist and the audience, of three different dance forms from the Indian tradition – Mohiniyattam (Sapna Govindan), Odissi (Priya Bangal), and Bharatanatyam (Soumya Rajaram). These three distinct Indian classical dance forms are brought together in a masterful concert that preserves the essence of a traditional presentation but introduces them in a manner accessible to a diverse, uninitiated audience.

This performance is part of a collaboration between Mayo Street Arts and the East End Community School. This MSA-EECS Partnership is a portion of a year-round approach toward engagement with our neighbors in East Bayside. Elementary students and faculty vote to select artists and tailor workshops to support the classroom curriculum.

Ballads, step dancing, and original songs by way of Canada and the Ozarks ring like silver and shine like gold. With beautiful harmony singing, breathtaking instrumentals, and exquisite dancing, these two hit the stage in perfect rhythm.

Joe Newberry comes from a family of singers and dancers. He took up the guitar and banjo as a boy and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers. April Verch grew up listening to her Dad’s country band play for dances in the Ottawa Valley. She started step-dancing at age three and fiddling at age six.

Hear ye! Hear ye! King Friday, post-monarch, deposed and living in squalor beneath an old vaudeville house requests thy presence to witness the unveiling of new puppet works and puppet works in progress at an impromptu, after-hours, puppet-roadhouse show.

King Friday’s Dungeon Puppet Slam is an opportunity for emerging and experienced puppeteers and physical artists to share works-in-progress, experimental projects, and other acts that dance outside of the family-friendly mainstream puppet circuit. 

Hear ye! Hear ye! King Friday, post-monarch, deposed and living in squalor beneath an old vaudeville house requests thy presence to witness the unveiling of new puppet works and puppet works in progress at an impromptu, after-hours, puppet-roadhouse show.

King Friday’s Dungeon Puppet Slam is an opportunity for emerging and experienced puppeteers and physical artists to share works-in-progress, experimental projects, and other acts that dance outside of the family-friendly mainstream puppet circuit. 

Trio Sefardi, a northern Virginia-based ensemble, performs traditional songs of the Sephardim, the descendants of Jews exiled from Spain in 1492.

Their repertoire draws on the song traditions of Sephardic communities from the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and North Africa, with a special emphasis on traditional and original songs they learned from their mentor, Bosnian-born singer/composer and 2002 National Heritage awardee Flory Jagoda.

Members of the trio are Susan Gaeta (lead vocals, guitar), Tina Chancey (back-up vocals, viola da gamba, Renaissance violin, Pontic lyra, rebec), and Howard Bass, (lute, guitar). The group combines Susan’s extensive experience with jazz and folk music, Tina and Howard’s early music background, and the influence and inspiration that Susan and Howard derived from fifteen years of working and touring extensively with Flory Jagoda. 

“La Nona Kanta” is a tale of survival and courage. The multimedia program is a celebration of the life and work of Flory Altarac Jagoda, the National Heritage Award-winning, Bosnian-born Sephardic Singer and composer, with live music by Sudan Gaeta, Tina Chancey, and Howard Bass of Trio Sefardi.

“La Nona Kanta” features documentary footage of Bosnian-American guitarist Flory Jagoda—who escaped the Nazis in 1941 and spent her life in the U.S. helping to preserve her musical heritage—interspersed with a live performance of her songs, pictures from the Altarac family archives, animation, and translations of Flory’s songs, which were composed in Ladino and Serbo-Croatian.

Trio Sefardi, a northern Virginia-based ensemble, performs the music of Flory Jagoda and traditional songs of the Sephardim, the descendants of Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. 

The group combines Susan’s extensive experience with jazz and folk music, Tina and Howard’s early music background, and the influence and inspiration that Susan and Howard derived from fifteen years of working and touring extensively with Flory Jagoda.

This event will take place at the Maine Jewish Museum located at 267 Congress Street.

The music of Bulgaria, a country long considered a cultural crossroads, is known for hauntingly expressive melodies, fascinating irregular rhythms, and fiery dance tempos. 

Bulgarika will present a concert of traditional Bulgarian songs and instrumentals. The evening features Donka Koleva (vocals), Nikolay Kolev (gadulka), Temelko Ivanov (kaval), Nikolay Kodzabashev (tambura), and Marin Chalumov (tupan).

The show will have a brief intermission when we will push the chairs back for collective Balkan dancing.

Tricyckle is a bewitching spectacle of metamorphosis and transformation using objects and puppetry. 

Guided by enigmatic arrows, a scrap collector steers his tricycle and trailer to the opening of a fantastical maze filled with illusions. A dream-like adventure begins.

The tricycle guides the man through his life journey as if it were an uncanny ride at a fairground; through the house of mirrors, the carousels, and the games of chance leading him through the dark shadows of his past toward his quest for freedom and into the light.

 Without words, Tricyckle‘s intriguing musical score is composed solely of invented instruments created with found objects. The lights are made with tin cans and vegetable strainers. 

Tricyckle is a bewitching spectacle of metamorphosis and transformation using objects and puppetry. 

Guided by enigmatic arrows, a scrap collector steers his tricycle and trailer to the opening of a fantastical maze filled with illusions. A dream-like adventure begins.

The tricycle guides the man through his life journey as if it were an uncanny ride at a fairground; through the house of mirrors, the carousels, and the games of chance leading him through the dark shadows of his past toward his quest for freedom and into the light.

 Without words, Tricyckle‘s intriguing musical score is composed solely of invented instruments created with found objects. The lights are made with tin cans and vegetable strainers. 

Set against the colorful backdrop of a giant storybook, Tanglewood Marionette’s Hansel & Gretel is based on the classic fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, and features melodies from the Humperdinck opera.

As the pages of the storybook turn, each new and exciting scene is revealed. All the staging, scenery, and lavishly costumed 30″ marionettes are handcrafted by Tanglewood Marionettes. Together they represent over a year of construction time.

The story itself is set in the mid-nineteenth century. As the tale unfolds, Hansel and Gretel must call upon their inner reserves and learn new methods to overcome the challenges they encounter while lost in the woods.

Set against the colorful backdrop of a giant storybook, Tanglewood Marionette’s Hansel & Gretel is based on the classic fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, and features melodies from the Humperdinck opera.

As the pages of the storybook turn, each new and exciting scene is revealed. All the staging, scenery, and lavishly costumed 30″ marionettes are handcrafted by Tanglewood Marionettes. Together they represent over a year of construction time.

The story itself is set in the mid-nineteenth century. As the tale unfolds, Hansel and Gretel must call upon their inner reserves and learn new methods to overcome the challenges they encounter while lost in the woods.

Business Pants Corporate Theater is proud to present Miracle on Mayo Street: Elf Control: A Corporate Christmas Carol: Featuring Multiple Colons.

In the spirit of patriarchy-smashing Barbie dolls, Angela Merkel-sized prime ministers, and contractually obligated UPS truck air conditioners, we bring you the story behind the corporate takeover at Christmas Inc.

It features an egotistical sleigh driver who has been CEO for a few too many centuries—despite working only one day a year, the long-forgotten COO who not-so-secretly manages the Naughty or Nice List (do we really believe a man has this level of emotional empathy?), the solidarity of pro-labor elves (because somebody has to do some actual work around here), and introducing history’s forgotten holiday love child: the teenaged Claus offspring and her woke ghosts of Christmas failure.

Business Pants Corporate Theater is proud to present Miracle on Mayo Street: Elf Control: A Corporate Christmas Carol: Featuring Multiple Colons.

In the spirit of patriarchy-smashing Barbie dolls, Angela Merkel-sized prime ministers, and contractually obligated UPS truck air conditioners, we bring you the story behind the corporate takeover at Christmas Inc.

It features an egotistical sleigh driver who has been CEO for a few too many centuries—despite working only one day a year, the long-forgotten COO who not-so-secretly manages the Naughty or Nice List (do we really believe a man has this level of emotional empathy?), the solidarity of pro-labor elves (because somebody has to do some actual work around here), and introducing history’s forgotten holiday love child: the teenaged Claus offspring and her woke ghosts of Christmas failure.