SOUTH PORTLAND — Mad Horse Theatre Company will celebrate the New Year with its wildly popular “By Local” new play series with a staged reading of Monica Wood’s play “Papermaker” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, at the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher Street.

“Papermaker,” directed by local director and Portland Stage literary manager Dan Burson, is based on Wood’s novel “Ernie’s Ark.” In the play, Ernie is on strike. Henry owns the mill. When their lives unexpectedly collide in the boiling-over town of Abbott Falls, Maine, the labor-management conflict takes a personal turn, exposing the combatants’ frailty in the face of fatherhood, family, and the notion of a worthwhile life.

Wood is a Portland writer whose most recent book, “When We Were the Kennedys,” won the 2012 May Sarton Award for best memoir by a U.S. or Canadian woman. Her novel “Any Bitter Thing” spent 21 weeks on the ABA bestseller list, and her book “Ernie’s Ark,” on which the play “Papermaker” is based, has been read in towns and cities throughout Maine. Her widely anthologized short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and have been read on the NPR program “Selected Shorts.” Her essays have appeared most recently in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Parade, and Oprah Magazine.

Admission for this event is pay what you can, cash or check, at the door. The suggested donation is $10. For more information, go to www.madhorse.com or call 747-4148.

Copy the Story Link