When Crystal Lisbon was hired at Hackmatack Playhouse in 1997, it changed the course of her life. Working at the Berwick, Maine theater convinced Lisbon that, after years of studying ballet, theater was the passion she wanted to pursue.
“I’d just started to do theater … and being at Hackmatack and seeing how we can put up a show in two weeks … it was just really exciting for me, and I left that summer thinking that maybe theater is the thing I want to do,” she says.
That’s exactly what she did, though she continued to dance as well. After a number of years working in Boston as an actor, choreographer, and dialect coach, Lisbon returned to Hackmatack as an actor and choreographer in 2010. This year marks her first season as the theater’s artistic director, and Lisbon says the lineup will be a blend of new shows, old favorites, and a number of returning faces who’ll be familiar to longtime Hackmatack audiences. The season begins on June 19 with “Unnecessary Farce.”
“Hackmatack is a very special place, and the reason people come back once they work here is that it sticks with you,” she says.
Former artistic director David Kaye is coming back to direct “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” in late July and early August. It was Kaye who hired Lisbon back in 1997. One of the show’s stars, Stephen Dascoulias, is also a former Hackmatack artistic director, and the show’s music director, John Berst, worked as a resident company member in the theater’s early days. Other familiar faces in “Scoundrels” include Hackmatack veterans Dan Clay and Tanya West.
“It’s a dream team,” says Hackmatack’s producing director Michael Guptill.
For Lisbon, though, it’s more like a family reunion.
“The thing with Michael is that once you’ve worked at Hackmatack, you’re part of the family,” she says.
Above and at top, Danica Carlson and Tomer Oz in “Unnecessary Farce.” (photos courtesy of S&W Bradley Photography)
The season starts with “Unnecessary Farce,” a madcap comedy in which two cops and three cooks have a series of increasingly hilarious run-ins at a small motel. It’s a newer show and not as well-known as some of this season’s other productions, but Lisbon says the play calls back to some of Hackmatack’s most successful productions.
“The shows that were very successful for us were farces, those silly, over-the-top shows, and we hadn’t done one in a long time,” she says.
One of the shows Lisbon is looking forward to the most is “West Side Story” — which was last on stage at Hackmatack more than a decade ago.
“Coming from a dance background, that’s a show I love and am invested in and interested in. … It’s one that people love,” she says. “West Side Story” runs July 8-25.
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” follows in late July, and in August, the season closes with “Ruthless,” an outrageous comedy that Lisbon says is the season’s “wildcard.” The final shows of the last few seasons have tended toward the dramatic, and Lisbon said this year, she wanted to do something a little different.
The musical follows an 8-year-old girl who’ll stop at nothing — even murder — to get the lead role in her school’s production of “Pippi Longstocking.” “Ruthless” had a successful off-Broadway run in the 1990s, though it’s not well known outside of theater circles.
“Not a lot of people know it,” Lisbon says. “It’s very witty, funny, and dark … When I read the script, I couldn’t stop laughing.”
Guptill says “Ruthless” will be especially fun for audiences with a background in theater. “There’s a lot of inside theater humor,” he says. “But someone from outside can get a great picture of how theater works and how people can be completely ruthless as they try to build their career.”
“Each show is really engaging, and we’re very lucky to have some wonderful people at the helm of each.” — Crystal Lisbon
Though the lineup includes three comedies, Lisbon says she and Guptill didn’t have a theme when they were choosing this year’s shows.
“In the end, we wanted everything to fit into place the right way. Each show is really engaging, and we’re very lucky to have some wonderful people at the helm of each,” she says.
Not much has changed at Hackmatack, which Guptill’s father, S. Carlton Guptill, founded 43 years ago in a former dairy barn on his farm. The once red barn is now white, but otherwise, Lisbon says the theater, and everyone who works there, are still carrying on the Hackmatack tradition.
“We like leaving things the way they are,” Guptill says. “We’re not ones to change much of anything.”
And that, according to Guptill, keeps everyone in the Hackmatack family — and audiences — coming back. There are some audience members who’ve returned each summer since the theater opened in 1972.
“They bring their children and grandchildren now,” he says. “We don’t change a whole lot, and we don’t really want to change a whole lot.”
Hackmatack Playhouse’s season opens with “Unnecessary Farce,” running June 19-July 4. For ticket information and a full schedule, visit hackmatack.org.