Round Top offers studio tours

     DAMARISCOTTA -- Five distinguished area artists will open their studios to visitors in a unique tour opportunity offered by Round Top Center for the Arts Thursday, Aug. 12, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

     The Artist’s Studio Tours is a new addition to Round Top’s educational offerings, providing a view of the artist’s life. This is a unique opportunity for visitors to see not only studios or workspaces but also artworks in progress.

     The five artists are Jacques Vesery, internationally renowned for his woodturned vessels, Kathleen Mack, a painter and sculpture whose work is widely featured in the Midcoast region, Don Justin Meserve, a stone sculptor recently featured in Round Top’s International Sculpture Symposium, Chip Williams, a sculptor whose exquisite bronzes were exhibited at Round Top last year, and Susan Atwater, a fiber artist whose silk paintings are exhibited throughout New England.

     The tour of the five studios follows a loop through Damariscotta, Round Pond, Pemaquid, and back to Damariscotta. Box lunches may be picked up at Round Top in the Darrows Barn 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Visitors must provide their own transportation.

     Admission is $15 in advance or $20 day of the tour. Reservations may also be made for a box lunch at $10. For tickets and a map of the tour, call 563-1507.

     Round Top is located on Business Route 1. Log onto www.roundtoparts.org for more.

‘Orwell Rolls’ at Skidompha

     DAMARISCOTTA -- As part of its film series, CONA at the Movies, Citizens Offering New Alternatives will show Robert Kane Pappas’ 2003 documentary, “Orwell Rolls in His Grave,” 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, in Porter Meeting Hall, Skidompha Public Library, Elm Street.

     Filmmaker Robert Kane Pappas comprehensively pieces together the puzzle that answers why the media act -- or fail to act -- as they do, using George Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth” as a scary, but edifying reference point. A former “60 minutes” producer, a U.S. congressman and some of this country’s leading voices on the media, from professors of journalism to filmmaker Michael Moore, examine the mix of business, politics and ideology that drive the operations of modern mainstream media.

     Discussion will follow the 103-minute film. CONA programs are free and open to the public, but donations are welcome.

Opera House has theater classes

     BOOTHBAY HARBOR -- The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor, 86 Townsend Ave., is offering classes in acting, improvisation and video production for youth and adults through the end of the month. The professional actors and musicians appearing in the Opera House’s current productions teach most of the classes.

     Classes offered include Digital Video Production, a two-week course that gives teens the chance to write, direct, perform, record and edit videos. The course takes students through the entire video production process, from planning the movie and writing the script to filming the action, editing the final movie and adding the soundtrack. The class is for youth age 12-18 and runs 9 to 11 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays through Aug. 19. Cost is $50.

     “Stone Soup” has children age 5 and older creating their own theatrical experience as they write and perform a play based on the popular folk tale “Stone Soup.” The one-week class runs Tuesdays through Saturdays with new sessions beginning Aug. 17 and 24. Cost is $25.

     Improvisation classes teach teamwork, listening and comedy skills using games and exercises such as those seen on television’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The weeklong classes for teens run 2:30 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and conclude with a performance for friends and family Saturday afternoons. New sessions begin Aug. 17 and 24. Cost is $25. A version of the class for adults is offered the week of Aug. 24, set to run 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

     Other courses available include vocal instruction and musical theater audition techniques. For a brochure and a complete schedule, call the Opera House Box Office at 633-5159 or visit the Web site: www.opera-house.org.

Authors talk at Round Top

     DAMARISCOTTA -- Two bestselling authors and brothers, Richard Preston and Douglas Preston, will present a talk about writing and growing up together at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 18, in the Darrows Barn at Round Top Center for the Arts.

     “A Conversation with Richard Preston and Douglas Preston” is the last lecture in a series of nationally distinguished individuals, speaking on a variety of topics in the humanities and the arts.

     Richard is championed locally for his most recent book “The Boat of Dreams, a Christmas Story” set in the village of New Harbor, Maine. He also authored two best selling books “The Hot Zone” and “The Cobra Event.”

     Douglas has also authored bestsellers with Lincoln Child, including “Thunderhead” and “Relic” which was leased as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997.

     There will be a book signing following the lecture.

     Tickets for the lecture are $7 members of Round Top and $9 non-members and may be purchased at the door. For information call 563-1507.

     Round Top is located on Business Route 1. Log onto www.roundtoparts.org for more.

Callithump at Little Brown

     ROUND POND -- Little Brown Church on Route 32 will host a benefit concert by local folk trio Callithump 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18.

     The group, celebrating the release of its first CD, plays an energetic mix of Irish, Scottish and French-Canadian fiddle music. Members Zachary Davis, Alden Robinson and Abraham Stimson first began playing fiddle music together while in grade school. Since then, they have expanded their talents to include mandolin, bass, viola, banjo, African drum and piano.

     Davis and Robinson both attended Lincoln Academy in Newcastle, where they helped found the Wild Thyme Band, an innovative contra dance band composed entirely of high school students. Now in college, Callithump’s members have played concerts and contra dances throughout the state, including a highly successful concert at the Brown Church last year.

     Admission will be $8 at the door. For information about the concert or the Brown Church concert series, call 529-5438; for information about Callithump, call 529-5558.

Local author signs his rare tale

     DAMARISCOTTA -- Life-long New Harbor resident, public figure and author Sherley Duane Geyer will sign copies of his book,”70 years at Pemaquid,” 2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, at Skidompha Public Library’s Porter Meeting Hall, Elm Street.

     “70 years at Pemaquid” offers an intimate portrait in word and image of the New Harbor and Pemaquid Point area of Bristol. Much of the information is based on Geyer’s personal recollections, as well as his self-appointed Herculean task of scanning archived pages of local newspapers from the 1930s to the mid-1990s, one year at a time.

     The stories and images -- in the form of postcards Geyer collects -- gathered in the book shed light on a dynamic era in the region’s history, from its famous lighthouse, once the site of a roller skating rink, to the fort and revelations of regular incognito visits by to the area by some very notable folks.