LEWISTON — A lot can happen in 30 years — just ask Christopher Schario as he gets ready for a new stage in life after 30 years as the executive director and co-artistic director of The Public Theatre and a lifetime of acting and directing.

When Schario and then-wife Janet Mitchko came to Lewiston in the summer of 1993 from New York City, The Public Theatre was in its infancy, with just two seasons and six plays under its belt. It didn’t even have a permanent home.

Under different leadership, the first two plays were performed in a space at the Auburn Mall, while the second season followed with a move to the rented Ritz Theatre at the corner of Lisbon and Maple streets, which would become its permanent home a few years later.

Then Schario and Mitchko arrived.

“Our goal was really to get this fledgling theater off the ground,” Schario recounted. “We picked an interesting season that could be done — none of the shows was huge in terms of the cast size or anything. I think the largest cast was five.”

But one of his first — and perhaps most critical — moves was to sign a contract with the Actors’ Equity Association, the union that represents more than 51,000 stage actors and stage directors nationwide. It wasn’t a discussion, said Schario. It was more like a precondition of accepting the job.

There were a lot of skeptics at first who didn’t think a gritty, former mill town like Lewiston could support a professional theater.

“There are still people who don’t know the difference,” Schario said. “Like there are people who come here and say, ‘You do such great shows,’ and you just want to go, ‘You know those actors are all from New York, right?’ And that’s why that show is so great, because we have professional actors.”

Auburn native, business owner and architect Tom Platz has been a board member of the theater for 35 years, and was part of the interview process for Schario’s hiring. He says Schario’s requirement that it be an Equity theater simply brought another level of professionalism to productions.

“At the time, I think we were only the second or third Equity theater in Maine,” Platz told the Sun Journal. “You had Portland Stage (Company), I think Bangor had an Equity theater, and I think that was it. There’s more now, but at that time it was a feather in our cap.”

A CHANCE TO HAVE THEIR OWN THEATER

Schario was a stage actor and director in New York City for about 20 years — meeting Mitchko at Carnegie Mellon University about halfway through that period — when the couple decided in the early 1990s that they wanted to operate their own theater. He had never been to Maine, but that didn’t dampen his interest when he heard about the opportunity in Lewiston.

“What we really wanted was to run our own professional theater. And when this opportunity (in Lewiston) came up the only proviso was that we had to be a fully Equity theater. They said, yes, and so we did it. And essentially, we’ve been doing what we had been dreaming of doing ever since, which is running a professional Equity theater and producing professional shows with professional actors for 30 years.

Schario said the timing was just right for the move to Lewiston. “It was fortuitous. Us and this place, at the right place, at the right time. Very, very lucky for both Janet and I and The Public Theatre.”

As Schario tells it, the chance to run their own Equity theater got the couple to Lewiston, while Maine’s beauty kept them here.

“We started driving around (the first summer they were here). We just got in the car and drove. And it was amazing, because, you know, you get toward the end of the day, and you go ‘We don’t have to go home. We’re already home.’

“It’s like when you go someplace on vacation or something, at some point you go ‘OK, let’s load up the car and go home.’ But up here you’re ‘here.’ . . . You don’t have to go home. You’re already home. You’re in a place you would happily spend good money to vacation in. . . . What drew us to Maine was the job. But what kept us in Maine was Maine.”

When he was hired, Schario was the only full-time employee. In the fall, he brought back the technical director as the second full-time employee. Everybody else was contracted on a show-to-show basis. The actors, designers and stage managers were all members of Equity and were under Equity contracts.

There was no box office. And the building, which at one time also housed the Le Montagnard social club, needed work. Schario said that fortunately, Mitchko’s work study job at Carnegie Mellon University was in the school’s theater box office, so she set about creating a box office for Lewiston’s new Public Theater home. Volunteers and local business donations helped refurbish the Ritz movie hall into a professional theater.

“So, that first couple of years we were just trying to survive,” Schario remembered. “And by the end of our second season, it was clear — you know suddenly we had more people on the staff.”

During Schario’s first season, in addition to settling with Mitchko in Lewiston-Auburn and taking the reins with her at The Public Theatre, he created his own version of “A Christmas Carol.” The adaptation has since become an annual tradition at the theater and picked up and produced by many other theaters after being published by Dramatists Play Service, considered one of the premier play licensing and theatrical publishing agencies in the world.

Schario not only adapted and wrote the play, he also played the role of Scrooge’s nephew Fred and directed the play. Mitchko and their daughter, Emily, also had roles in the adaptation, with Emily playing Tiny Tim from the time she was 8 until she turned 12 and literally outgrew the role.

Over the years, upgrades were regularly made to the building and systems as finances allowed, with major upgrades in 1998 when they bought the former Le Montagnard building and then a major renovation in 2005 that included almost all aspects of the building, helped by a significant $250,000 grant from Jane’s Trust in Boston as well as critical philanthropic support locally.

During that same time period, the theater became a part of the community, not only as an arts organization but through its educational programming.

“Every arts institution of our size and shape does outreach to the community,” said Schario, “depending on the skill set that they’ve got on their staff. It varies, and one of the skill sets that is very strong in our staff is the education skill set.”

Almost immediately, Schario said, the theater began offering student matinees to schools throughout the region to the professional performances for $5 a student. When schools didn’t pick up the cost, the price was waived for any student unable to pay.

“(Schools were) the most surefire way of reaching every community, because every community in the city their children go to the public schools,” said Schario.

The theater also began offering a summer theater training program for youth that continues to this day, though now it is in coordination with the city.

And during the COVID pandemic, the theater offered theater classes on Zoom free to all schools throughout Maine. “All they had to do is ask for it, and we would set it up and do it,” said Schario. “And we did — scores and scores of them.”

PROFESSIONAL ACTORS, PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCES

But by far it was the quality of the theater’s productions — always selected, cast, produced and directed by Schario and Mitchko — that established The Public Theatre as a major arts player in the state.

Schario and Mitchko quickly built a reputation for quality professional theater at a low cost to theatergoers. They cultivated a cadre of talented people — actors, artists and staff — many of whom, Schario says, worked for far less pay than they deserved. Schario offered as an example a woman who designed the costumes for the first two seasons and who is coming back to work on the theater’s spring production this year.

“She did that job for so little money for her fee and so little money for her budget, and did a beautiful job for us. Because back in those days the theater had no money,” he said.

Schario said they were blessed with “people like her, who were in our corner those first few years when Janet and I were inventing this place — in terms of creating an identity for it artistically.”

Of course, professional acting was at the core of that mission.

“If there’s any identity we have that stands out, it’s the quality of the plays,” he said, “and that’s all because of the actors.”

Schario and Mitchko’s process has been to head to New York City each summer to hold auditions for the principal roles of the plays they choose for the coming season. Their annual two-week stint in the city includes a single day of about 130 auditions, followed by more days of call-backs. While there, they also complete casting for the first show of the season, and return to the city a couple more times during the season to finish casting for the remaining shows in the season.

Schario is full of praise for Mitchko for her talent in corralling the casting process. “It is difficult. Janet does the most tedious part, which is going through all of those files and all of those pictures and resumes. I don’t have the patience just to sit and read all of that, and absorb each one as though it’s new and fresh. . . . Janet gets a lot of credit for how well that’s gone for us, because she’s kept track of all of that over the years.

The results of the process — from selecting and casting the shows, to creating a team of behind-the-scenes talent to design, light, costume and support each show, to the producing and directing — is obvious. The theater has become a mecca for theater lovers around the state, was voted Maine’s best theater by Down East Magazine seven years in a row, and is considered an important economic driver for the community.

CHALLENGES BEHIND AND AHEAD

Schario says that aside from the process of growing The Public Theatre and the constant fundraising needed for that mission, the greatest challenge he and Mitchko faced was the COVID pandemic. As with most businesses that relied on the public, the theater was hit hard, shutting down at a time that was supposed to be a celebration of 30 years of performances.

On March 13, 2020, opening night for “I and You” was cancelled due to the pandemic. The theater reopened a year-and-a-half later in October 2021 with “Middletown,” and Schario says it still isn’t back 100%

“It’s still just coming back. . . . The first year we were back was very difficult. Like half a house was decent,” he said, referring to the number of seats sold. Selling more than 200 seats for a production was a big deal, given 250-seat shows had been the norm.

“But we’re doing pretty good now. We’ve held on to a big chunk of our audience and some younger people are coming in. So I think our numbers are actually looking pretty nice for this year,” Schario said.

The theater historically draws between 17,000 to 20,000 people a year between its performances and events. Platz, who is also the theater board’s treasurer, says the theater is an important part of the local economy.

“If you look at the arts, what they do to the economy — all those people are in town. They’re having dinner. They’re partaking in other things in town. So, the arts are a tremendous economic driver. The theater is very viable in that way.”

Other than COVID-19 and the occasional effects of bad weather, Schario says his 31-year run has been a good one. He lights up when he recalls one year in particular.

“We opened our third season (1995-1996) with ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ (in which Mitchko played one of the principal characters).” A close friend of the couple’s was in the production along with a number of other familiar actors. Schario said that the day before rehearsals began, “Janet told me she was pregnant. So, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ stands out because that was Emmy’s first play that she was ever in – in utero.”

Platz says two aspects of Schario’s 30-plus years leading the theater come right to mind: making The Public Theatre an Equity theater and producing what he calls artistic excellence.

“Excellence goes just without saying. I mean, that was always his mantra. You’ve got to produce excellent theater. Everything else follows that and I think he’s lived up to that.”

Shanna Cox, president and CEO of the LA Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, sees it this way: “Christopher has been a driver of ensuring people understand the contributions arts and culture make to the local economy. Indeed, his leadership of The Public Theatre has resulted in it being recognized as one of the best and has drawn crowds to our region who then dine and shop in the area.”

Schario, 74, will officially retire in June. He’s already handed some of his duties over to Ray Dumont, who will be the new executive director. (See related story.) Mitchko will become sole artistic director. Between now and then, Schario will help with the transition. As for his future plans?

Schario’s well-known personality and wit quickly rise to the question. “I have none. Zero. How dare you ask me about my plans? The whole point of retirement is to not have all these (expletive) plans.”

Is he worried about the future of the theater without his presence?

He gets serious. “The biggest thing to know is that Janet’s the artistic director. She’s been part of this from day one, co-artistic director from the beginning. And the quality of the product is going to be as good or better than it’s been all along.”

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