July 12 -29
California, Maine and Emily Dickinson are converging to produce Summer theater at the historical Centennial Hall in Harpswell this July. The Belle of Amherst, a one-woman play based on the life and writing of Emily Dickinson, is the first production of Theater at Centennial Hall, a new ongoing summer program in this Mid-Coast community. The inaugural production is co-sponsored by the Harpswell Recreation Department, the Harpswell Historical Society and the Harpswell Garden Club.
After a very successful run in California, Marion Jeffery will be coming to Maine from July 12 until July 29 to offer her extraordinary performance as Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst. This award-winning play by William Luce is an inspiring biographical sketch of the famous and eccentric recluse who is one of America’s greatest literary figures. We are welcomed by Emily to her home in Amherst in 1883 and learn about her perspectives on being a woman in 19th Century New England and about her struggles to become a published poet. In Marion’s portrayal we discover not the dowdy, repressed Emily that is often represented in biographies of Emily Dickinson, but rather a woman who is full of life and offers a radical and often humorous perspective on 19th Century American culture and society. Marion will be offering her incarnation of Emily in a very appropriate location-a hall that was constructed at the time Emily was writing and that was built in honor of America’s 100th Anniversary.
Theater at Centennial Hall is co-founded by Harpswell Residents Bill Bergquist and and John Bush of Grass Valley, California. Bill is an organization consultant who attends local theater whenever possible in the many countries throughout the world where he is working. While in California this past spring, Bill saw Marion perform The Belle of Amherst and was immediately inspired to bring this production to Maine. His own very positive reactions to Marion’s performance were echoed in its California reviews:
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