Donations sought for beach wheelchair

Published in the Current and the American Journal

The story of a dutiful son whose car got stuck in the sand on Willard Beach while he was trying to help his mother get into the water has spurred city councilors to ask for donations to help the city buy a beach wheelchair.

William Scully of Beatrice, Neb., whose mother lives in the area, wrote to Dana Anderson, director of parks and recreation, on June 25, to tell his unusual tale and propose a solution to the problem. On a Sunday morning in early June, Scully wrote, he took his mother to Willard Beach to go swimming.

His mother, 85, has arthritis that makes it hard to walk. “It takes her a long time to get to the water’s edge,” Scully wrote. “So in a moment of lunacy I decided to drive the old Volvo onto the beach close to the water.”

His mother safely out and swimming happily, Scully found the car was stuck up to its axles. A tow truck he called also got stuck, and a second tow truck arrived to help.

“With the help of about 20 people digging and a wide-tire F 150 Ford pickup” the car was freed, but Scully doesn’t want to have to do that again.

In the intervening weeks, he has tried to think of a solution, and rather than build an expensive boardwalk for regular wheelchair access, he found a web site, www.beachwheelchair.com, selling a balloon-tire wheelchair made especially for beach use, able to stand up to salt water and sand.

They weigh about 40 pounds and will be used to get disabled people to and from the beach, rather than having one person use it all day, said Tim Gato, aquatics coordinator for the city.

Gato is looking at two models, which will cost between $2,000 and $2,500 delivered. Scully has donated $1,000. He hopes a chair can get here before summer’s end, but if not expects it will be here in plenty of time for next summer.

Councilor Linda Boudreau read Scully’s letter aloud at last week’s council meeting and asked the public for help raising the remainder of the money needed.

“We will essentially be providing handicap access to Willard Beach,” said City Manager Jeff Jordan.

To tell the truth: Opening eyes and hearts

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Tessy Seward and Caitlin Shetterly don’t want to entertain people with the theatrical performances they produce. Instead, they are returning art to its roots, of disturbing, informing, and creating social change.

"We want people to see things that will move them in a fundamental way," says Seward. Their new venture, Winter Harbor Theater Company, has put on two brief runs of the first act of Tony Kushner’s still-unfinished play, Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy. Their last showing of this work will be at the St. Lawrence July 30 and 31. It is a powerful show, brilliantly performed.

But it is not Little Me, or Hedwig, or any of the other shows recently found at the St. Lawrence. Only We has a harsher worldview than even the Cast’s festival, delivering a political and humanitarian message while still exploring the inner workings of the human mind.

In it, an angel (Stephen McLaughlin) welcomes first lady Laura Bush (Tavia Lin Gilbert) to one of Mrs. Bush’s most common photo-ops, a reading to a group of schoolchildren.

But these kids are Iraqi children killed by American bombs in the 12 years since the end of Gulf War I. The angel gently flays Laura’s confidence in her husband’s rhetoric, revealing a human heart beneath her loyal chest.

It is powerfully eloquent, and even "changed" Seward’s dad, a marine-hardware store owner in Hancock County and Vietnam veteran nervous about the political bent of his daughter’s new venture.

Shetterly and Seward, neither yet 30, speak with a youthful idealism, tempered by practicality and pain: Winter Harbor was formed in the cab of a U-Haul truck heading from Maine to New York, to retrieve Shetterly’s worldly belongings at the end of a broken relationship in a broken, post-9/11 New York.

The two, best friends in nursery school who hadn’t seen each other in 21 years, quickly forged a commitment to speaking out. Shetterly, daughter of painter Robert, wanted to respond to the constant US bombing of Iraq, even before war broke out. Only We fit the bill.

Seward wants to be "a force for creating some positive change." She wants audiences to leave the theater and "see the world with new eyes," hoping they undergo "an emotional transformation" and become more compassionate.

There is also a hard line: "A time like this calls for drastic measures. It calls for courage and truth-telling," Shetterly says. Their productions will "get people to that vulnerable place where you’re so alive and open emotionally," that life literally flows through your veins, and perhaps your tear ducts.

Seward admits people may turn away before they even get in the door: "It’s the risk of absolutely transforming their life that’s terrifying." She believes something about theater, about being together in a space both public and private, "makes it okay to feel more than you might feel if you were alone."

There are economic challenges involved in this work, but Shetterly points to the success of controversial playwright Langford Wilson. Grants are in the works and a board is forming.

Tough pieces addressing sensitive issues may turn off donors, but they say they won’t sell out. "We’re going to do something that challenges people," Shetterly says. "We refuse to have anybody tell us how to do our thing."

They are starting slowly but steadily, planning a short run of one show in October, and a full run of another next spring. August 7, will see Cosy Sheridan’s one-woman show The Pomegranate Seed at the St. Lawrence for one night only. Addressing appetite, body image, and myth in modern culture, Sheridan tells her own story of learning compassion.

Seward and Shetterly saw it not long ago, and were both in tears for much of the performance, opening themselves the way they want others to open during their productions. Any trepidation the pair have is masked by an iron determination. Echoing her painter father’s message, Shetterly is adamant about one thing in particular: "I will tell the truth."

Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy
By Tony Kushner, with Tavia Lin Gilbert and Stephen McLaughlin. Shows at 8 p.m., July 30 and 31, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center. Free. Arrive early and see painter Robert Shetterly’s Portraits of Americans Who Tell The Truth. Call (207) 775-3174.
The Pomegranate Seed
Written and performed by Cosy Sheridan, at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 7, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center. $10. Call (207) 775-3174.

BACKSTAGE

• Michael J. Tobin has done it again. In a move he says has " guaranteed a secure future " for the five-month-old Cocheco Stage Company, he has closed its Dover, NH, home and will perform on various local stages, though with what is unclear. (Deathtrap had two last-minute cast changes, and was canceled in the middle of tech week. A reprise of Players Ring hit Gender Bender, slated to open July 25, won’t be happening either.) He initially blamed the closing on the landlord, but now says he’s choosing to avoid the responsibility of a permanent lease. It’s happened before: In the mid-1990s, Tobin opened and quickly closed the Portsmouth Playhouse, leaving bills unpaid. (He chalks it up to being " young and business-stupid. " ) A second try was the late-1990s MainePlay Productions in Portland. After moving locations because he wouldn’t up ticket prices to cover a rent increase, Tobin eventually left, claiming there was no arts support in Portland.

Fuel trucks kept out of Red Bank

Published in the Current and the American Journal

The South Portland City Council ruled Monday that the Portland International Jetport may expand, but may not truck fuel through the Red Bank neighborhood to get to a planned storage site.

The jetport’s proposal is to relocate private planes based at the jetport from one side of the main runway to the other, offering them space for hangar storage and opening more room for storage of planes only visiting the jetport for short periods.

Presently the roughly 60 private aircraft based at the jetport are parked on a paved area on the north side of the main airport buildings, according to Jeff Monroe, transportation director for the city of Portland. That location is also where visiting planes park, and it’s running out of room.

“We get a lot of people flying in over the summer,” Monroe said. As many as 30 to 40 planes a week are brought in by people who either own or rent vacation homes in Maine, he said.

The jetport wants to use a portion of a 70-acre parcel between the Red Bank neighborhood and the Fore River to allow plane owners to build hangars for indoor aircraft storage. As part of that complex, there would be at least three above-ground fuel tanks holding a total of 60,000 gallons of aviation gas and jet fuel.

To supply the tanks, the jetport had asked for permission to drive small fuel trucks along Western Avenue and Westbrook Street to get to the new area, at least until the planned Jetport Plaza Road is complete.

If that road is not complete by the time the complex is in use, the jetport argued, the only alternative would be to truck fuel across the airport’s main runway.

District Five Councilor Jim Hughes, who represents the area including the jetport and the Red Bank neighborhood, was worried about putting fuel trucks through a densely populated area and successfully lobbied his fellow councilors to limit fuel trucks to the Jetport Plaza Road.

While a timetable for the road’s completion is unclear – it is now just a short spur leading to the parking lot near the Staples store – councilors were confident that the road would be complete before the jetport space was ready. Hughes said the restriction would virtually ensure the road was built in time.

Mayor and District Three Councilor Ralph Baxter said his “worst-case scenario” was trucking fuel across the main runway.

Councilor-at-large Linda Boudreau was also worried about the dangers that could pose, mixing fast-moving aircraft with fuel trucks.

Hughes argued that limiting fuel trucks puts pressure on Portland, which must grant an easement for Jetport Plaza Road before it can be built. He said the restriction would not only improve safety but would bring the political interests of the two cities into alignment to get the road built.

District Two Councilor Thomas Maietta suggested that if the road was not complete, the private planes could taxi from the new space back to the present fueling point, keeping fuel out of the neighborhood and preserving airport safety.

In other airport business, Boudreau also noted that the next meeting of the jetport noise advisory group will be held Sept. 24. A report will be issued before that, and the meeting will discuss the report, she said.

Looking for the whole: Or was it the hole?

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Two souls, split by the gods centuries ago, must find each other to again become one. In Hedwig and the Angry Inch, one of those souls must search through himself, then herself, and ultimately in both to find peace.

Braden Chapman (producer, director, and actor playing Hedwig) and the cast and crew have transformed the ex-parish hall theater of the St. Lawrence into a rock-concert stadium, complete with video projection, two televisions, strobe lights, and a proscenium stage allowing direct contact with the audience. Two members of the crew sit in the front row, cheering and screaming to make the concert illusion more real.

The story is hilariously poignant, about a German boy, Hansel, whose mother flees to East Berlin as the wall goes up, raising him to believe that being powerless is better than being corrupted by power. Hansel seeks his soulmate and finds an American soldier who makes Hansel get a sex change before marriage, Oedipally taking his mother’s name and becoming Hedwig. After moving to America and divorcing, Hedwig becomes a rock star, and takes under her wing a spoiled, super-religious boy who rises to surpass Hedwig in stardom.

This show, a hit musical and movie worldwide, was adapted for Portland audiences, including a dig at Phoenix editor Sam Pfeifle’s music taste and a nod to the constant presence of Bobby Lipps, the St. Lawrence’s "best friend."

A reference to Hedwig’s attorney brings up — you guessed it — Joe Bornstein, including the jarring chord that always follows that name in the TV ads. Portland police chief Mike Chitwood also takes a hit, as Hedwig asks, "Are there no fascists in the audience?" Finding no audience support, she says, "I am sure I saw your police chief out there somewhere."

Chapman carries the show and even added a number of in-character ad-lib sections on opening night. When he slammed a door so hard the exit sign above it fell down, he immediately seized the opportunity to pitch the St. Lawrence’s fund-raising campaign: "They need your money, folks! It’s falling apart!" A German transsexual rocker with that kind of presence-of-mind would be invaluable on the St. Lawrence capital campaign.

And then, realizing that a missing exit sign violated the fire code, Chapman gave a brief safety lecture: "Two lights means ‘exit.’ "

Sadly, and perhaps as a result of on-stage audio monitor problems (the subject of yet another ad-lib) Chapman’s singing is almost completely drowned out by the musicians — particularly drummer Ryan Gill — who pound out their songs like any self-respecting punk band should. After a check of the lyrics online, it is clear my sneaking suspicion was true: Major plot events and character development occur in the songs.

This means the audience must wait through the music, knowing something is missing, and try to catch up when Hedwig speaks again. Perhaps this adaptation, which Chapman has so clearly immersed himself in and made his own, would have been even better if it was "unplugged" in the MTV style.

It is an unapologetic production from its opening words: "Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not — Hedwig!" And as such, it does well, with hilarious costumes (recreated by the costume designer for the show’s 1998 New York debut), outrageous dancing, and thought-provoking questions like "Can two people actually become one, and if it happens on the Autobahn, can we still use the diamond lane?"

The audience is truly a part of this show, as at any rock concert. Chapman startles several people with brief, seated "cameos." He is outrageous and dynamic, making even the act of putting a microphone back on its stand sexual. And he carries off a key moment powerfully, when Hedwig smashes herself with tomatoes (under her shirt as fake breasts), marking herself with a scarlet symbol of betrayal.

As much as Chapman dominates, there is a character who acts as the foil for all of Hedwig’s plans. The barely recognizable Lynne McGhee (in long black wig, with a goatee), plays the Serbian Jew transvestite Yitzak, Hedwig’s second husband, who sings a bitter song of betrayal with sarcasm and power, and generally adds to the amusing mayhem on stage.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Written by John Cameron Mitchell. Music and lyrics by Stephen Trask. Directed by Braden Chapman. With Braden Chapman and Lynne McGhee. By the Glitterati Theatre Company, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, Portland, through Aug. 3. Call (207) 775-5568.

BACKSTAGE

• Nothing hurts more than abandonment, so shame on Michael Howard, director of Macbeth by the Stage at Spring Point, for not even showing up the day after the Phoenix panned the show. Was he crying in his beer or looking for a new job? If that’s how he treats his actors, cut him off from both.

• The Food Chain, a farce about society’s idea of beauty, is back at Portland Stage’s Studio Theater from July 25 through July 27, at 8 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-can ($15 suggested). Proceeds will improve the Studio Theater space, including comfier seats! The show’s September run was among the Phoenix’s most memorable theatrical moments of 2002.

• The Camden Civic Theatre is accepting play and musical submissions from directors for its 2004 season. For more information, call Ron Hawkes at (207) 239-2092. Deadline is August 8.

Coke bust near S.P. school

Published in the Current and the American Journal

Two 25-year-olds were arrested July 9 on charges of trafficking in cocaine in a home at 566 Ocean Street, just a few doors away from the Hamlin School in South Portland.

A search of the house resulted in the seizure of three handguns, two rifles, a shotgun, several magazines and rounds of ammunition, $8,100 in cash, two scales, seven drug-packaging plastic bags, three tablets of OxyContin “packaged for resale,” methadone and a crack pipe.

The house is “well within the 1,000 feet” drug-free school zone required by state law, said Scott Pelletier, a supervising special agent with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, which conducted a search at the home and arrested the two people living there.

Mark Morin and Cheryl Gallant were arrested and have been charged with felony aggravated trafficking in cocaine-related drugs. Both have posted bail. Their cases will go before a Cumberland County Grand Jury next month, Pelletier said.

Morin and Gallant had left the home as MDEA agents and South Portland police were preparing to enter the home, just before 9:30 p.m., July 9. The pair was driving away in Morin’s Chevrolet Suburban when the vehicle was stopped. They were each found in possession of “an amount of crack cocaine.”

The warrant was served shortly thereafter. Agents had made special arrangements for entering the home unannounced, as they were expecting children to be in the home. “There are children there routinely,” Pelletier said.

There were none, and the kids are now “with their mothers,” Pelletier said.

In late May, an anonymous informant told South Portland Detective Steven Webster, assigned to the MDEA, that Morin was “selling cocaine base in the Greater Portland area,” according to the search warrant filed in Portland District Court.

The informant told him Morin “was known to move frequently” and usually carried a handgun when making drug deals.

On July 2, a second informant told Webster Morin was “selling in excess of one ounce of cocaine base per day” and was also “trading cocaine base for guns.”

The source, who said Morin had recently gotten three friends addicted to cocaine, also told Webster that Morin had an “extremely vicious” pit bull.

It was so vicious, in fact, that a South Portland police officer, investigating an unrelated July 4 complaint that the pit bull had attacked someone, had to shoot at the dog to turn away an attack himself. The shot missed, and the dog was unhurt.

On July 9, the day of residential trash collection in the neighborhood, police searched the trash from 566 Ocean Street and found 11 filters “used when smoking cocaine base or crack cocaine,” 10 plastic bags “commonly used for packaging drugs for sale,” four sandwich bags “that appeared to have cocaine residue” and one of which tested positive for cocaine in a field test, two used hypodermic needles and a plastic crack pipe, according to court documents.

Webster then applied for a search warrant allowing unannounced entry during nighttime hours because, the warrant states, cocaine evidence could be destroyed if the entry was announced, and because of fear Morin “may use deadly or non-deadly force in resistance.”