Boreal Theater intent on bringing arts and culture to the Katahdin Region
WRITTEN BY JUDY HARRISON
Visitors to the Katahdin region now have the opportunity to enjoy an art show, a concert, or a play after spending time outdoors in the shadow of the majestic mountain.
Boreal Theater, located at 215 Penobscot Ave., has art shows, outdoor painting opportunities, concerts, and a theater production planned for this spring and summer.
The theater aspires to bring cultural enrichment and engagement to the local community through the performing and visual arts, according to its mission statement. Its vision is to deepen the presence of the creative arts as an essential part of community life in Millinocket and the surrounding region.
Randy Jackson, a retired physician’s assistant who’s lived in Millinocket since 1976, bought the empty downtown building in 2020, intent on transforming it into an arts and cultural center for the region. The building previously housed retail and office space.
“I think the arts are as important for rural Maine as they are for Bangor or Portland,” Jackson said. “I want to promote the arts and enable the kids in the region to spend a day in Millinocket instead of having to travel, when the cost can be prohibitive for families, to be exposed to the arts and culture. … Kids who are exposed to the arts grow up to be patrons of the arts.”
The 49-seat black box accessible theater and event space opened in 2021 for “bare bones” operations. A grand opening was held two years later. In 2024, it hosted 56 performing and visual arts offerings. Last year it hired Amanda Albanese of Millinocket as its first program director, a part-time position. Her background is in the visual arts.
“I do a little bit of everything — updating the website, posting on social media, advertising, planning art exhibits,” she said. “Randy and I work on bookings and sponsorships. We have artists and musicians here and we welcome the opportunity for them to use the space.”
The Boreal has coordinated with art teachers in the area to put up a show of their students’ work. On May 22, the theater will hold a donors event during the opening of a show of the works of Frank Sullivan, an art professor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. A bluegrass music festival will be held in the vacant lot next to the building in a tent on May 23.
Over the summer, Albanese will focus on the work of Frederic Edwin Church, a 19th century landscape painter, who worked in the summers from his camp on Millinocket Lake. The Boreal will hold an outdoor painting event at Rhodora, Church’s lakeside retreat.
Theater camps for local kids culminating in productions will be held this summer. A community theater company is forming to perform “An Allagash Haunting” by Tim Caverly later in the year.
The building where the theater is located also houses the Katahdin Gear Library and the Yum Bake Shop. The library “is a gear-lending library, outdoor adventure hub, and community space for people of all ages to access equipment, information, and support to connect with people around a common interest in outdoor adventure and recreation.”
The bakery is open Thursday through Saturday, serving soups, quiches, and meat pies along with cookies, cakes, muffins, brownies, and more.
Jackson said that he is happy to share the building and looking forward to getting the theater’s sprinkler system working. That will allow seating capacity inside to reach 70.
“We have a lot of work behind us and a lot still to do,” Jackson said.
Upcoming Boreal Theater Events:
- May 22 – Boreal Donor Night
- May 22 – Frank Sullivan Art Opening
- May 23, 12-5 p.m.– Boreal Music Festival
- June 3, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.– Reflections: In the Footsteps of Frederic Edwin Church Plein Air High School Painting Event at Rhodora, Millinocket Lake
- July 20-24 – Boreal Theater Camp
- August 16, 3–5 p.m. – Anni Clark Musical Performance
- August 23 – Reflections: In the Footsteps of Frederic Edwin Church Plein Air Adult Painting Event at Rhodora, Millinocket Lake
- Late Summer/Early Fall – An Allagash Haunting Theater Production — TBA
