FARMINGTON – Members of Portland’s homeless community will present a new original production about homelessness in Maine for the ecumenical Good Friday service at Old South Church on Main Street.

The event begins with a community lunch at noon. The free public performance of “Cast Off” starts at 1 p.m., followed by short talk sessions with the actors and guided meditation and music at 2 p.m.

People may come for lunch or just the play or later meditation, a representative from Old South said.

Current and former homeless people have scripted and performed the play that reflects the increase in homeless families with children over the past decade, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

The play is produced by Add Verb Productions, a nonprofit based in Portland that uses theater to engage audiences and provide information on social issues. Its intent to generate conversation about the issues and promote community action.

“Cast Off” is a project that seeks to dispel some of the stereotypes and myths about homelessness, said Cathy Plourde, Add Verb production’s executive director.

“These individuals have shared their stories about what it is to be a person without a home, what it is to walk the tight rope of the poverty line and how all it takes is one unforeseen, unpreventable calamity for someone to lose everything,” Plourde said. “They are the faces of veterans, of working citizens who work eight hours a day for minimum wage but stay at the shelter because housing costs have become extraordinary. They are the single mothers, the disabled, the elderly, the widowed, the terminally ill and children.”

The Good Friday service is sponsored by the Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry.

For more information, contact Old South Church at 778-0424 or Sherry Jenckes at 778-6554.