PAST POP-UPs

Here’s a history of PortFringe pop-ups dating back to 2016. WTF is a PortFringe pop-up??

2024 –  20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (Jules Verne)

FEATURING:

  1. Sampson Spadafore
  2. The Content Collective (Megan Tripaldi)
  3. Gen Z
  4. Always Happens! Productions
  5. Brass Handles Productions (Josh Brassard)
  6. Elizabeth Lardie Thompson
  7. Inventing Trees
  8. Fitzwilliam (Andrew Ostrow)
  9. Chimera Theatre Collective (Chris DeFilipp)
  10. Hey Party People!

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2023 – THE GREAT GATSBY (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

It’s gonna be great… Gatsby! Almost 100 years after it’s first publication, PortFringe is excited for you to bring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to life for PortFringe POPUP 2023! If you don’t remember your high school English class, no worries, we’re here to help. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway’s interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby’s obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

FEATURING:

1. FrostHEAVE (Augusta)
2. Allen Adams (Bangor)
3. Generation Z (Portland)
4.  Always Happens! Productions (Portland)
5. Mad Horse Theatre Company (South Portland)
6. Shakespeare & Shenanigans (Portland)
7. The Content Collective (Portland)
8. Eleven & One Theatre Collective (Portland)
9. Chimera Theatre Collective (Scarborough)
10. Josh Brassard (South Portland)

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2022 – THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (Gilbert & Sullivan)


We are incredibly excited that 2022 will be the first ever musical theater/operetta PortFringe Pop-Up. Pirates of Penzance is a frothy and absurd musical comedy built on satirizing musical hits of its time, and we are excited for PortFringe artists to bring the same variety, panache, and critical spirit to Pirates as they have shown time and again through Pop-Up. Gilbert and Sullivan are deeply flawed creators – as is Shakespeare, as are Dante and Homer – but we also feel like this piece effectively captures the Fringe ethos, and we are excited to see PortFringe artists reimagine Pirates in a contemporary context. Whether that means satirizing, re-contextualizing, or otherwise reacting to the themes of the show, we want it all–and it feels right for the increasingly absurd moment we find ourselves in.

Featuring: Chimera Theatre Collective, Bad Dog Productions, Allen Adams, FrostHEAVE!, Brynn Lewallen with members of Polyphonic Theatre Ensemble, Always Happens! Productions, Generation Z, Walks into a Bard, Amanda Eaton & Co, Tandem Theatre Collective

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2021 – THE INFERNO (Dante)


A fringe-on-film production presented in live, online (Zoom) watch party events on April 3, 2021, followed by a month of on-demand digital streaming.

Featuring: FROSTHEAVE, Fitzwilliam, Always Happens! Productions, Shakespeare and Shenanigans, Tandem Theatre Collective, Brynn Lewallen, Allen Adams, Chimera Theatre Collective, Generation Z, janoah…anygoodjokes?, Apparatus Movement Arts, Mackenzie O’Connor

2020 – ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (Lewis Carroll)


A fringe-on-film production streaming on demand from October 31 – November 22, 2020, after the live version of was cancelled in March 2020 when the pandemic lockdown began.

Featuring: Allen Adams, Always Happens! Productions, Chimera Theatre Collective, Generation Z, Inventing Trees, Stacey Koloski, Two Red Hens Productions, janoah…anygoodjokes?, Polyphonic Theatre Ensemble, Pop Killed Culture, Shakespeare and Shenanigans, Tandem Theatre Collective

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Videos on demand

2019 – THE ODYSSEY (Homer)

POP-UP Homer’s Odyssey was presented in two huge, live performances in the brisk loading bay of Oxbow Blending & Bottling, on Saturday, March 2, 2019

Featuring: 2 Sheets Theater Company, ArtHard, Bare Portland, Brigitte Paulus & Friends, Finyette Productions, The Hornswaggle Theatre Company & The Portland Youth Film Festival, Inventing Trees, Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Theatre Company, Hannah & Hillary Perry, Kristen Peters, Pie Man Theatre Company, Suze Quackenbush, Tandem Theatre Collective, Walks Into A Bard

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2018 – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (William Shakespeare)

First friday venues:

THINK TANK
533 Congress St, Portland, ME
90 Acre Theater Company // Scene 4
Bad Dog Productions // Scene 9
Joe Quinn // Scene 13
Sound and Fury // Scene 5

LOCAL SPROUTS
649 Congress St, Portland, ME
Portland Youth Film Festival // Scene 14
Down to Clown // Scene 2

MECHANICS HALL – LYCEUM (aka Classroom)
519 Congress St, Portland, ME
Inventing Trees // Scene 1
Walks into a Bard // Scene 6

CREATIVE PORTLAND
84 Free St, Portland, ME
Pop Killed Culture // Scene 8
Two Sheets Theater Company // Scene 3

PORTLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY ATRIUM
5 Monument Way, Portland, ME
Bare Portland // Scene 12
Mackenzie Bartlett with the Angry Women Arts Collective // Scene 10

PORTLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY RINES AUDITORIUM
5 Monument Way, Portland, ME
Eric Darrow Worthley and Brigitte Paulus // Scene 11
Moonlit Corkscrew // Scene 7

Featuring:

1. Inventing Trees (Topsham, ME)
2. Down to Clown (Portland, ME)
3. Two Sheets Theater Company (Portland, ME)
4. 90 Acre Theater (Portland, ME)
5. Sound & Fury (Portland, ME)
6. Walks Into a Bard (Portland, ME)
7. Moonlit Corkscrew (Portland, ME)
8. Pop Killed Culture Productions (Portland, ME)
9. Bad Dog Productions (Portland, ME)
10. Mackenzie Bartlett & The Angry Women Art Collective (Portland, ME)
11. Eric Darrow Worthley & Brigitte Paulus (Portland, ME)
12. Bare Portland (Portland, ME)
13. Joe Quinn (Portland, ME)
14. Portland Youth Film Festival (Portland, ME)

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2017 – MACBETH (William Shakespeare)

MARCH 4TH
2PM & 7PM

AT OXBOW BLENDING & BOTTLING
49 WASHINGTON AVE

Featuring:

Walks Into A Bard
Inventing Trees (Topsham, ME)
InfraREd Productions
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Theatre Co.
60 Grit Theatre Company
Pie Man Theatre Company (South Portland, ME)
Bad Dog Productions
Finyette Productions
Eric Darrow Worthley
Allen Adams (Bangor, ME)
theatre.unmasked (Dover, NH)
Mad Horse Theatre Company (South Portland, ME)
The Woodshed Mystics
90 Acre Theatre

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2016 – HAMLET (William Shakespeare)

In celebration of the incoming Shakespeare Folio, PortFringe presents POP-UP HAMLET. 20 theater companies from across Maine take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy in the ultimate Hamlet mash up.

Wait, what?
We cut Hamlet into twenty scenes, and randomly assigned twenty theater companies one scene each. The artists are free to present their assigned scene however they want — with dance, puppets, a hip-hop remix, the possibilities are endless– as long as scenes are under 10 minutes and incorporate at least one line of original text from their scenes. Audiences can experience POP-UP HAMLET in two ways: in different pop-up locations throughout Portland’s First Friday Art Walk AND/OR in rapid-fire order from start to finish at PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY.

So how is it “pop up”?
You can catch all 20 scenes scattered throughout the city at First Friday Art Walk, March 4, 6-7:30pm. Companies will be stationed at various locations–from the library to bars to a street corner–across the Arts District. Audience members may travel from scene to scene in whatever order they wish using their Pop-Up Hamlet passport as a guide. See one or see all 20, you get a stamp for each scene you find.
Check them out at these FFAW locations!

GREEN HAND BOOKSHOP (661 Congress St)
-James Patefield (Scene 1)
-Allen Adams (Scene 2)
-Joe Quinn (Scene 4)

COFFEE BY DESIGN (620 Congress St)
-Mark Magee & Ashley Kotzur (Scene 3)
-Ten Bucks Theatre (Scene 12)

GENO’S ROCK CLUB LOBBY! (625 Congress St)
-Mad Horse Theatre Company (Scene 5)
-Serendipity Theater Collective (Scene 14)
-DragonMaul Productions (Scene 20)

PORTLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY (5 Monument Square)
-Woodshed Mystics (Scene 9)
-Hit The Lights! Theatre Co (Scenes 6 & 19)

ETAIN BOUTIQUE (646 Congress St)
-Pop Killed Culture (Scene 8)
-Eric Worthley (Scene 18)

THINK TANK (533 Congress St)
-theatre.unmasked (Scenes 7 & 10)
-Pie Man Theatre Company (Scene 17)

THE BEARDED LADY’S JEWEL BOX (644 Congress St)
-Lorem Ipsum (Scene 11)
-Walks Into A Bard (Scene 16)

EMPIRE (575 Congress St)
-Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Theatre Company (Scene 13)
-Bad Dog Productions (Scene 15)

What if I want to see the whole shebang, in order, just as Shakespeare wanted it*?
We got you! For $10, you can join us March 4 at 8:30, or March 5 and 2 or 8:30 at PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY to see all 20 scenes performed rapid-fire, in order, all in one sitting. Wow!

*We can absolutely guarantee that Shakespeare wanted and needed to see Hamlet performed this way.

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