GORHAM, ME — Will they do it? Is it possible? Can a theatre ensemble possibly perform thirty plays in under an hour?! Join the USM Department of Theatre for the high-octane, interactive theatre experience that is Greg Allen’s 30 Neo-Futurist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes, one of Chicago’s longest-running theatre phenomena.

Each night audiences receive a menu of play titles that run the gamut between funny, serious, political, poignant, and abstract. Part theatre, part sporting event, each night is different as the audience determines the order and cheers on the cast to make it past the finish line before the buzzer sounds.

Rachel Price Cooper directs the USM Department of Theatre’s first-year cohort in this play that truly has something for everyone. “There is a lot of audience participation in that everyone receives a menu of all the plays on their way in and gets to yell out which ones they want to see”, she says. “It’s a kind of choose-your-own-adventure theatre experience. It’s a great one to take your friend to who thinks they don’t like live theatre. It is also great for those of us (myself included) who don’t have the longest attention span. This will keep you interested, start to finish. You’ll laugh, you’ll think, and can come back a second time and have another totally new experience.”

This show is also a homecoming of sorts for Price Cooper. “This piece originated on the north side of Chicago, where I grew up. It ran for decades. Every weekend people would line up outside the Neofuturist space on Ashland and Foster. Often the line stretched around the block and they had to turn people away. It was a phenomenon!”

30 Neo-Futurist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 plays in 60 minutes) by Greg Allen, directed by Rachel Price Cooper runs from November 30-December 3 at Russell Hall, USM Gorham Campus.

Performances:

November 30 at 7pm

December 1 at 7pm

December 3 at 2pm & 6pm

Get tickets online at https://a.purplepass.com/events/262569 or call the box office at 207-780-5151

$18 for Adults; $14 for USM Faculty, Staff & Students; $12 for Seniors; $8 for Students/Youth

Discounts: $3 off any ticket at any performance with code Thursday3 at checkout. Patrons at shows will receive a special discount to attend the show more than once!

More Info USM Department of Theatre Shows & Programs: https://usm.maine.edu/department-theatre/

Content Advisory: This show contains the use of strobe and flashing lights, use of profanity, depictions of alcohol consumption and violence, references to suicide. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

Those needing special accommodations to participate fully in this program, contact Janice Gardner at (207)780-5289 or janice.gardner@maine.edu. Hearing impaired: call USM’s telex / TDD number (207)780-5646

Sydney Weinberger & Pierina Camuzzo

GORHAM, ME — The New Year Gorham (NYG) Committee is seeking volunteers to help with the specific tasks below on December 31st:

Decorating between Noon and 2pm

Children’s Crafts between 3:30 and 5:30pm

Staffing for Admission tables for an hour between 3:30 and 8:30pm (training provided)

Please contact NYG Coordinator Thomas Hasbrouck (trhasbrouck@icloud.com) if you can help make New Year Gorham the best it can be!

Put on the skates and head out to Open Ice Skate at USM’s Ice Arena on December 10 from 9:30-10:30am. Skating is open to the public as well as the USM community. $5 for community members, USM students/faculty/staff free.

WESTBROOK, ME — Join us at Smiling Hills Farm at 781 County Road in Westbrook, ME on Saturday December 2 and Sunday December 3 to visit with Santa and the goats, weather permitting. Cancellations will be announced on Facebook with rain/snow dates of December 9 and 10.

Take pictures with Santa and the goats. Barnyard wooden toys will also be available for use. There will also be barnyard animals for visiting depending on weather and conditions. Animals may include mini donkeys, mini horses, sheep, alpacas and potbelly pigs.

The cost of this event is $12 per group of up to 3 people; $4 for each additional person. Pay upon arrival, as there are no advance tickets or reservations due to the possibility of uncertain weather condition cancellations. Santa will be on a scheduled break from 10:45-11:15.

The Ice Cream Barn will be OPEN for this event at 9 until 6, serving soups, sandwiches, mac & cheese, and more from 11-3, for those looking to purchase lunch, enjoy an ice cream, or warm up with a cup of hot chocolate.

Be sure to check out the gifts for children & adults and ice cream, milk, butter, cheese, and yogurt for your home & holiday needs.

Staff will also be on hand to assist you with purchasing Barnyard 2024 Season Passes and gift cards for all occasions: XC Skiing, Barnyard, Lunch, etc.

Hope to see you there!

WESTBROOK, ME–WinterKids, the non-profit organization dedicated to helping children stay active, healthy, and happy during the winter months, is in the midst of its annual License to Chill Silent Auction. The auction officially opened on November 13 and will run through December 7 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

This exciting event will lead into WinterKids’ 12th Annual License to Chill community fundraiser at Après, marking the official kickoff to another busy winter season. This year, WinterKids has assembled a remarkable selection of premium goods and services generously contributed by Maine and New Hampshire businesses. The diverse array of items up for bidding includes outdoor equipment and sporting goods, apparel and outerwear, health and fitness memberships, delicious food and beverage experiences, home decor, and much more.

With the holiday season fast approaching, many of these items are perfect for gift-giving, making the silent auction an ideal opportunity for early holiday shopping. Contributing businesses to the License to Chill Silent Auction include well-known names such as L.L. Bean, WMTW, Agren, Sidecountry Sports, Bird & Co., Winterstick Snowboards, Sugarloaf, Adventure Bound Whitewater Rafting, Kittery Trading Post, and Portland Pie Company. The generous support of these businesses has made it possible for WinterKids to offer a broad and impressive range of items for auction. There will also be options to donate to Lewiston/Auburn community funds.

The License to Chill Silent Auction allows participants to bid on and win some incredible products and experiences, all while supporting WinterKids’ mission to help kids across Maine enjoy being healthy, active, and vibrant in the outdoors during the winter season. Every dollar raised through this auction will directly benefit WinterKids programs.

“We are thrilled to host the License to Chill Silent Auction once again and are grateful to the incredible businesses that have come together to make this event possible,” said Sterlynn Marx, Events and Sponsorships Manager at WinterKids. “By participating in the auction, you will have the opportunity to treat yourself or someone you love, and at the same time, you’ll be giving the gift of winter fun and outdoor activity to children across Maine!”

Bidding in the License to Chill Silent Auction opened on November 13 and will close on December 7 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The closing of the auction will coincide with WinterKids’ live community fundraiser at Après in Portland, providing a perfect opportunity for bidders to join in the festivities, which will include guest emcees Blake & Kelly from Coast 93.1, music by TJ Swan, S’mores donuts by Eighty8 Donut Cafe, drinks by Après, food by Meet on the Street, charcuterie by Charcutemarie, door prizes, and more.

To browse the catalog of silent auction items, place bids, buy tickets, and learn more about both the WinterKids License to Chill Silent Auction and Live Celebration, please visit https://winterkids.org/licensetochill/.

The 12th Annual WinterKids License to Chill is presented by Mt. Abram Ski Resort & Bike Park. Snowman Sponsors are Kittery Trading Post and PTC, and Snowball Sponsors are Acadia Insurance, Chalmers Insurance, Charcutemarie, Eighty8 Donut Cafe, ReVision Energy, and Sidecountry Sports.

GORHAM, ME – On Saturday, December 2,  from 4:00-5:30pm, stop by White Rock Community Clubhouse at 34 Wilson Road, Gorham for a tasty homemade meal.

Eat in or take out! Homemade baked kidney & navy beans, coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni & cheese, biscuits, hot dogs and dessert.

$10 adults, $5 under 12

Follow us on Facebook for updates: facebook.com/whiterockcommunityclub

PORTLAND, ME — Opening weekend for the Portland Children’s Dyslexia Center’s  Festival of Trees is this weekend, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday November 24th, 25th, & 26th at 415 Congress Street, next to Portland City Hall. Open 10-8:30 Friday & Saturday and Sunday 10-5.

Listen to holiday music, wander among over 30 beautifully decorated Christmas trees. You might even get to bring one home! 

There will be a Craft Fair, an LL Bean Gift Card Raffle with $1,000, $750 & $500 prizes, a 50/50 Raffle drawn on Nov. 26th and December 3rd….AND a Silent Auction!

Visit with SANTA on December 1st, 5:30-8:30pm & on December 3rd, noon-5:00pm                           

Admission: Adults: $5 Children under 12 are free when accompanied by an adult.                

Proceeds support free one-on-one tutoring of children with Dyslexia at the Portland Center.

GORHAM, ME — The White Rock Friendship Club is hosting the 39th Annual Tree Lighting at the White Rock Community Clubhouse located at 34 Wilson Road on Sunday, November 26th at 4:30pm.

Listen to the reading of the Christmas story. Sing Christmas carols while sipping hot cocoa around the Christmas tree.

Santa will arrive on a White Rock Fire Station fire truck! See https://www.facebook.com/events/3161492787493713 for more info

GORHAM, ME — Embodying Softness / Excavating Delight sees artists Jackie Milad and Libby Paloma paired for the joy they share in their processes. Works in this show range from mixed media wall hangings to free-standing soft sculptures. The artists consider the intersection of the lives of objects and language, and the point at which truths otherwise indiscernible manifest.

Milad’s exhibition works stem from her interest in recently discovered artifacts of the Lenca people on Tiger Island in Honduras, where the artist traces her maternal lineage. The artwork examines how self-conception intertwines with objects’ journeys. Milad’s process mimics archaeology through excavation and even recalls resurrection as she tears down and reconfigures older pieces into new works. Alongside iconography, she often adds song lyrics from Bad Bunny, among other artists. In doing so, Milad interrupts a linear trajectory of history to expose the intersecting nodes, networks, and cultures that comprise selves and objects.

Drawing on her background as a Speech-Language Pathologist, artist Libby Paloma locates her artistic investigation in idiomatic language and its capacity to convey more than straightforward speech. In No Picnic, Paloma makes figures of speech visible, conjuring cans of worms, spilled milk, pickles, and more in her installation’s soft sculptures. These idioms are a metaphor for living with chronic illness and the inarticulability of affect and experience. A feeling of bittersweetness saturates Paloma’s installation — a by-product as we build a new and, for Paloma, decidedly softer reality.

Paloma and Milad utilize their respective media to arrive at truths only conveyable through a layering of the visual and linguistic. In doing so, they ask what parts comprise our narratives around selfhood and heritage. How can we dismantle the false construct of objective linearity and embrace a more distributed, situated conception of our stories? If this is possible, then so is a softer and more accurate world for ourselves and all whose experiences do not hew to an orderly path.

The show will run until Saturday, December 9, 2023. The Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday from 11 am – 4:30 pm and by appointment. A suggested donation of $2 is requested for exhibition visits.

Jackie Milad (she/her) is a Baltimore City-based artist whose mixed-media abstract paintings and collages address the history and complexities of dispersed cultural heritage and multi-ethnic identity. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. Select exhibitions include The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD), The Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD), Academy Art Museum (Easton, MD), Weatherspoon Art Museum (Charlotte, NC), The Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), and the Harvey B. Gantt Center (Charlotte, NC).

Milad is a multi-year recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. In 2019, she was named a Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Finalist and a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby Grantee. In 2022, Jackie received the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Travel Prize to conduct in-depth research on the Egyptian antiquities held at the British Museum and Petrie Museums in London. Her work is included in several public collections, including The Baltimore Museum of Art, Academy Art Museum, Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Library, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Pizzuti Collection and Meta (Facebook) Open Art Program. Milad received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and her MFA from Towson University. She is currently represented by SOCO Gallery in Charlotte, NC.

Libby Paloma (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in New York, NY. Paloma’s work is informed by aspects of her/their Mexican-American, queer, disabled identity, using soft sculpture, installation, and performance to create gentle environments and often humorous encounters. Inspired by everyday objects and natural surroundings, Paloma’s installations and performances are an invitation to rest in a fluffy, puffy, tender world.

Paloma has been an artist in residence at Space, Portland, ME; The Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY. Recently, Paloma was featured as a panelist on the roundtable, What is an Image? at The International Visual Sociology Association Annual Conference, which was subsequently published in Visual Studies Journal, FebruaryMay 2023. Work from Paloma’s assemblage series Lo Que No Sabrías (What You Wouldn’t Know) appeared in the same issue. Paloma’s work has been exhibited at El Museo Del Barrio in New York, NY; Burlington City Arts (BCA), Burlington, VT; SOMArts in San Francisco, CA; SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME; Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY, Unprofessional Variety Show, New York, NY, and the Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY where she received the Artist Purchase Award.

In July of 2023, Paloma received an Award of Excellence for their installation in the QUEERwerks exhibition at Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT. Paloma holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BA) in Liberal Studies, a Master’s Degree (MS) in Communicative Disorders from San Francisco State University, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Parsons School of Design, The New School, where she/they received the President and University full Scholarship.

Installation view, Embodying Softness/Excavating Delight, 2023. University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, Gorham, Maine. Photo: Jack Stolz.

GORHAM, ME — The Town of Gorham is seeking proposals from qualified and experienced vendors to create an Economic Development Strategic plan, which would include a Market Analysis, Local Asset Assessment and Action Items Matrix, in order to help guide economic development policies and strategies in Gorham.

The selected consultant must possess demonstrated expertise in land use planning and economic development, specifically in conducting market analysis, utilizing data sets, and synthesizing information to provide a clear understanding of the local economy. 

The Plan will identify key drivers and emerging issues facing Gorham’s economy, and serve as a playbook with actionable items and policies for Town staff, elected officials and community leaders. 

The goal is to establish a benchmark of findings and data from which a plan to create and maintain a strong, vibrant local economy can be formed and implemented.

RFP Schedule:

RFP Issued: November 7, 2023

RFP Questions Deadline: November 21, 2023

Responses to RFP Questions Posted: December 5, 2023

Proposal Submission Deadline: January 18, 2024

Optional Interview(s) Period: January 29, 2024 – February 8, 2024

Anticipated Award: February 8, 2024

Projected Start Date: March 1, 2024

Instructions for Viewing the RFP:

To view the RFP, please see the Town of Gorham’s website.