Almost, Maine

Last updated

Almost, Maine
Image-AlmostMaine.jpg
Logo
Written by John Cariani
Date premiered2004
Place premiered Portland Stage Company
Portland, Maine
Original languageEnglish
Genre Romantic Comedy
[ www.almostmaine.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg Official site]

Almost, Maine is a 2004 American play written by John Cariani, comprising nine short plays that explore love and loss in a remote, mythical almost-town called Almost, Maine. It premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine in 2004, where it broke box office records and garnered critical acclaim. [1] The play was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007 [2] and has since become one of the most popular plays in the United States with nearly 100 professional productions and over 5000 community, university, and high school productions to date. [3] It has become one of the most frequently produced plays in North American high schools. [4] [1] It has also received over twenty international productions and has been translated into over a dozen languages.[ citation needed ]

Contents

History

Almost, Maine was developed at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002. [5]

It premiered at Portland Stage Company (in Portland, Maine) in 2004. [6]

Almost, Maine opened Off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre on 12 January 2006 and closed on 12 February 2006. [7] Directed by Gabriel Barre, the cast included Todd Cerveris, Justin Hagan, Miriam Shor, and Finnerty Steeves. [8] Though this run was brief, the play is featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006 and was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007. [2]

It is the most produced play in North American high schools over the past decade. [9]

Almost, Maine is now a novel, published by Macmillan. [10]

Reviews

The New York Times review of the play in 2006 was mixed: “A comedy comprising almost a dozen two-character vignettes exploring the sudden thunderclap of love and the scorched earth that sometimes follows, John Cariani’s play will evoke either awww-s or ick-s, depending on your affection for its whimsical approach to the joys and perils of romance.” [11]

The New York Times review of another production at TheatreWorks in Hartford in 2013 was positive: “John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is a series of nine amiably absurdist vignettes about love, with a touch of good-natured magic realism ... This is a beautifully structured play, with nifty surprise endings (most but not all of them happy) and passing references to characters from other vignettes, which slyly tell us more about them. Mr. Cariani describes the play’s subject as ‘falling in and out of love’. It is just as much about pain.” [12]

Reviews for Transport Group’s 2014 revival of the play were very favorable. The New York Post said: “Mega-hit ALMOST, MAINE lands somewhere between Norman Rockwell and ‘Our Town.’ Unabashedly unhip. There is no pretense of an edge here — the show offers a sweetness and decency that’s become rare at the theater. At this point, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air.” [13]

The New York Daily News said: “Almost, Maine’s charm is real. [It] packs wit, earns its laughs, and, like love, surprises you.” [14]

Awards and achievements

Featured in  The Wall Street Journal ’s regional roundup of must-see theater in 2004. [1]

Selected by the American National Theatre as one of the most outstanding regional theatre productions of the 2004-2005 season. [15]

Two actors rehearse a scene from Almost, Maine in Cleveland, Tennessee Two actors rehearse a scene from "Almost, Maine".jpg
Two actors rehearse a scene from Almost, Maine in Cleveland, Tennessee

Featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006. [16]

In 2014, Transport Group revived Almost, Maine Off-Broadway. Lincoln Center recorded the production for its Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. [1]

Dramatists Play Service recently published its 80th Anniversary Edition, a boxed set of 8 definitive titles representing each decade of the Play Service’s history. Almost, Maine was selected to represent DPS’ eighth decade. [17]

Almost, Maine was the fourteenth most streamed play of the Covid-19 pandemic. [18]  

Controversy

Almost, Maine has been a source of controversy as it became popular in theaters across the United States. Calls to ban, cancel or amend the play have arisen several times. [19]

Two notable calls for the cancellation of the play came in the 2010s.

In 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland intervened on behalf of the Bel Air High School students in the Bel Air Drama Company (BADC), urging the Harford County Public Schools “to reverse the decision to remove a scene from BADC’s upcoming performance of Almost, Maine, by John Cariani. We understand that Mr. Schmitz recently decided that BADC could not perform a scene from the play, entitled “They Fell.” In the removed scene, two male characters reveal their romantic love for each other. It is the only portrayal of same-sex love in the play; it is also the only portion of the play that BADC was required to remove from its production. Mr. Schmitz’s decision to censor the play to eliminate representation of same-sex love and gay identity is unlawful and we demand that the decision to remove the scene be reversed.” [20]

In 2014, Maiden High School in North Carolina canceled a production of Almost, Maine after "some parents and area churches complained about the play’s inclusion of a same-sex couple" according to students. Principal Rob Bliss released a statement describing the play as having "sexually-explicit overtones and multiple sexual innuendos that are not aligned with our mission and educational objectives." [21]

Cariani contacted a local news outlet about the controversy and was quoted as saying "I believe the play is about love, not sexual love. The scene with the two young men has no reference to sex at all." Cariani, who is gay, added: "I just think there is a solution other than canceling the production. I’ve reached out to the teacher who applied for rights to the play, but I haven’t heard back. I don’t think the students should have to suffer. They had already purchased the play and started rehearsing for it." [22]

With the involvement of a local teacher, the group performed the play off-campus in mid January, after raising over $6,000 on Kickstarter. The play was directed by a local actor and attorney. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrence McNally</span> American playwright (1938–2020)

Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and received the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and he also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. His other accolades included an Emmy Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards.

David Auburn is an American playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. He is best known for his 2000 play Proof, which won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He also wrote the screenplays for the 2005 film version of Proof, The Lake House (2006), The Girl in the Park (2007), and Georgetown (2019).

Will Eno is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, Thom Pain was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. His play The Realistic Joneses appeared on Broadway in 2014, where it received a Drama Desk Special Award and was named Best Play on Broadway by USA Today, and best American play of 2014 by The Guardian. His play The Open House was presented Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2014 and won the Obie Award for Playwriting as well as other awards, and was on both TIME Magazine and Time Out New York 's Top Ten Plays of 2014.

<i>The Heidi Chronicles</i> 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein

The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Weller</span> American screenwriter

Michael Weller is a Brooklyn-based playwright and screen writer. His plays include Moonchildren, Loose Ends, Spoils of War and Fifty Words. His screenplays include Ragtime, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and Hair, both directed by Miloš Forman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Ruhl</span> American writer

Sarah Ruhl is an American playwright, poet, professor, and essayist. Among her most popular plays are Eurydice (2003), The Clean House (2004), and In the Next Room (2009). She has been the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career. Two of her plays have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and she received a nomination for Tony Award for Best Play. In 2020, she adapted her play Eurydice into the libretto for Matthew Aucoin's opera of the same name. Eurydice was nominated for Best Opera Recording at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

<i>I Love You, Youre Perfect, Now Change</i> 1995 musical by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is a musical comedy with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, and music by Jimmy Roberts. It is the second-longest running Off-Broadway musical. The musical was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Off-Broadway musical in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Nottage</span> American playwright (born 1964)

Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa</span> American writer (born 1973)

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee, Big Love, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. He is Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Fitzgerald (actor)</span> American actor and singer

Christopher Cantwell Fitzgerald is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Boq in the musical Wicked, Igor in the musical Young Frankenstein, and Ogie Anhorn in the musical Waitress. He earned Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award nominations for his performances in Waitress and Young Frankenstein and won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in Waitress.

Stephen Adly Guirgis is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and a former co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced both Off-Broadway and on Broadway as well as in the UK. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cariani</span> American actor and playwright

John Edward Cariani is an American actor and playwright. Cariani is best known as the forensic expert Julian Beck in Law & Order. On stage, he earned a Tony Award nomination for his role as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. He is also known for his roles in Broadway shows Something Rotten! and The Band's Visit, and for writing Almost, Maine, one of the most produced plays in American high schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quiara Alegría Hudes</span> American playwright and composer (born 1977)

Quiara Alegría Hudes is an American playwright, producer, lyricist and essayist. She is best known for writing the book for the musical In the Heights (2007), and screenplay for its film adaptation. Hudes' first play in her Elliot Trilogy, Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Water by the Spoonful, her second play in that trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Barfield</span> American playwright

Tanya Barfield is an American playwright whose works have been presented both nationally and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kitt (musician)</span> American composer and musician

Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.

Laura Eason is an American playwright and screenwriter.

Cul-de-sac is a play by American playwright John Cariani. Cul-de-sac premiered off-Broadway in April 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martyna Majok</span> Polish-American playwright

Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. She emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New Jersey. Majok studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School. Her plays are often politically engaged, feature dark humor, and experiment with structure and time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Barre</span> American director and actor

Gabriel Barre is an American director and actor. Best known for creating original musicals, his work has been seen on Broadway, throughout the United States, and across four continents internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yussef El Guindi</span> Egyptian-American playwright (born 1960)

Yussef El Guindi is an Egyptian-American playwright. He writes full-length, one-act, and adapted plays on Arab-Muslim experience in the United States. He is best known for his 2005 play Back of the Throat and has been called "the most talented Arab American writer of political plays."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Praise". ALMOST, MAINE.
  2. 1 2 "Dramatists Play Service, Inc". www.dramatists.com.
  3. ↑ "About the play". ALMOST, MAINE.
  4. ↑ "NPR The Most Popular High School Plays and Musicals"
  5. ↑ "History 1995 – 2021 — Cape Cod Theatre Project". capecodtheatreproject.org.
  6. ↑ "ALMOST, MAINE (2004)". Portland Stage.
  7. ↑ Jones, Kenneth (2 February 2006). "Like the Northern Lights, Almost, Maine Will Flicker Out Off-Broadway Feb. 12". Playbill.com. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  8. ↑ Cariani, John (2007). Script, Almost MaineAlmost Maine. Dramatists Play Service, Inc. ISBN   978-0-8222-2156-2 . Retrieved 9 December 2010– via Google Books.
  9. ↑ "The Most Popular High School Plays And Musicals". NCPR.
  10. ↑ "Almost, Maine". Macmillan.
  11. ↑ Isherwood, Charles (16 January 2006). "Down East, So Much Love, Exciting and New". Theater reviews. The New York Times .
  12. ↑ Gates, Anita (15 February 2013). "Almost Maine at TheaterWorks". Review. The New York Times .
  13. ↑ Vincentelli, Elizabeth (5 February 2014). "'Almost, Maine' boasts a quirky charm". NYPost.com.
  14. ↑ "'Almost, Maine,' theater review". New York Daily News .
  15. ↑ Alleman, Annie (16 February 2012). "Re-live love's near misses in PTL's Almost, Maine". The Herald-News . Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
  16. ↑ OCLC. New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006. OCLC   608514405.
  17. ↑ "Dramatists Play Service, Inc".
  18. ↑ "The 20 Plays and Musicals Most Produced for Streaming in 2020-2021 | Playbill".
  19. ↑ "Banned Together: A Censorship Cabaret | Banned Books Week".
  20. ↑ "ACLU Blasts Bel Air High School Censorship of Gay Scene in "Almost, Maine"".
  21. ↑ Ford, Zack (16 October 2014). "High school cancels popular play over allusion to same-sex relationship". Think Progress. Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  22. ↑ "Playwright speaks out about play canceled at local school". WSOC-TV. Cox Media Group. 16 October 2014. Archived from the original on 30 November 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  23. ↑ Purcell, Carey (16 January 2015). "Following school cancellation and Kickstarter success students present independent production of Almost, Maine". Playbill . Archived from the original on 3 August 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.