Go and do

WHAT: “A Beautiful Game”

WHO: Storyteller Michael Parent

WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23

WHERE: Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library

ADMISSION: Free

Breaking the ice
Storyteller Michael Parent will share glimpses into the game of hockey and Franco-American lifestyle

LEWISTON – Storyteller/actor Michael Parent will present his new, one-man show “A Beautiful Game,” Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library. The hourlong performance is open to the public free of charge.

Known for his poignantly humorous glimpses into Franco-American life, Parent describes “A Beautiful Game” as the “mostly true” recollections of his longtime connection to ice hockey. Set in Lewiston, where Parent grew up, the story follows him from his days as a young boy struggling to stay upright on his first pair of skates, to his big moment as goalie for the St. Dom’s hockey team which competed, against heavy odds, at the Boston Garden for the New England Championship in 1964.

Though the focus of the program is hockey, Parent emphasizes that no specific knowledge or even appreciation of the sport is required, as he forays widely into mill-town culture, father and son issues, and connections between religion and sports.

In the course of these reminiscences, he resurrects a parade of memorable characters, such as his father, a traditional, hard-working Franco-American man-of-few-words; and Gaston, a local factory worker who bets his paychecks on the hockey games.

Liz McMahon, manager of the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland, where “A Beautiful Game” was presented earlier this month, described the show as “balancing nostalgia with an immediacy of storytelling style that keeps audiences in suspense, while simultaneously tickling their funny bones.”

Parent also received a warm reception at a recent performance of the show at the McArthur Public Library in Biddeford, where director Vicky Smith applauded his “unerring” comic timing. “His themes – of growing up as an underdog, of the closeness of the Franco-American community, of the unquestioning loyalty of a mother’s love, and above all, of the need of a boy to prove himself to his father – resonate universally,” Smith said.

Parent has been spinning his homegrown tales before audiences throughout the United States, Europe and beyond since 1977, garnering a National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award along the way. After living in Virginia for many years, he returned to Maine in ’98 and now lives in Portland, where he stays active on the ice as a player in the Greater Portland Oldtimers Hockey League and the Old Farts Classic Tournament.

The snow date for Parent’s Jan. 23 performance is Tuesday, Jan. 29. The library is at 200 Lisbon St. For more information, call 513-3135.