$12.00 Adults; $10.00 Youth and Seniors  
Presented in the Studio Theater, 93 Main Street, 1st Floor
The Ruckus at Machias, the story of the first naval clash between American colonists and their mother country, is also a real life heart-warmer about a woods-bound young wife, her wedding spoons, and a red dress in a world of brown and green.  History (and drama) is always a bringing together of vast matters and trivia.  The Ruckus at Machias shows us life in a small settlement on the edge of its world.  We watch the community caught up in a stubborn conflict, half-comic yet potentially tragic; they face it with guts and dry humor.  Shrewd sense collides with cussedness as they are tugged into a fight with the British navy.   They seem wildly outmatched, but, in the end, prove equal to the challenge.  The part of Hannah Weston is being played by a direct descendent, who, coincidentally, is also named Hannah Weston! Bring the family to this heartwarming tale and experience Maine history at its best.  Director Richard Sewell originally wrote The Ruckus at Machias in the late 1960s for students of the former Coburn Classical Institute in Waterville. Expanded and rewritten, the play won first prize in the 2003 National New Playwright Contest at the Fremont Centre Theater in Pasadena, CA. Mr. Sewell taught theater at Colby for over 20 years and is a founding director of the Theater at Monmouth.