Updates about MIO’s April community lunch, welcoming home Abdi, upcoming community open mic night and upcoming tour dates for Broken Clock!

We kicked off our first events of the year with “Time Served,” a community Open Mic at Recovery Connections of Maine (RCOM) and a performance of “Broken Clock” at University of Maine Farmington.

In 2025, the Maine Inside Out Creative Ensemble will be touring “Broken Clock” throughout the State of Maine. “Broken Clock” is an original play created by the Maine Inside Out Creative Ensemble about incarceration, gun violence, grief, family, trust, and time. MIO’s Creative Ensemble is a group of staff facilitators and Lewiston Community Artists using theater to explore themes connected to our identities, life experiences, and the world in which we exist. 

This past week, MIO’s Lewiston community group hosted our final event of 2024 “Everything Must Change” Open Mic at L/A Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was a beautiful celebration. Thank you to everyone who joined us for a night of original poetry, comedy, music, and community.

The fall sessions of Maine Inside Out’s youth theater projects in Lewiston and Portland completed this past week with four original performances followed by community dialogues between the performers and the audiences!

Join us for the last MIO event of 2024!

Join us for our final events of 2024!

Portland Youth Performances at King Middle School & a Community Open Mic in Lewiston

Last week MIO kicked off our Broken Clock Tour with events in Lewiston and Portland. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the film premiere, performance, and community dialogue. 

MIO’s Creative Ensemble is preparing for two November performances of the original play “Broken Clock” in Lewiston and Portland. The Creative Ensemble is a group of staff and Lewiston community artists using theater to explore themes connected to our identities, life experiences, and the world in which we exist together. Check out the official webpage for the Broken Clock Tour for more information about the ensemble and the performance. 

Learn more about our October Open Mic Night, our community landing pad project, and meet our new board members!

We are kicking off our Fall season of play creation, performances, community events, and open mics. We know that difficult experiences and questions will emerge and we are excited to use art and theater to be in deeper dialogue and relationship in the midst of challenge and crisis. Check out what we are up to!

Maine Inside Out is kicking off our Fall season with a free performance at Celebration Barn in South Paris, Maine on Friday, September 6 at 7:30pm (doors open at 7pm).

July is a month for gratitude, reflection, and rest at Maine Inside Out. We are celebrating the incredible people who make this work possible: the MIO team, our partners, our supporters, and our entire community - you! What an incredible first 6 months of the year. Thank you for being a part of MIO’s vision to build connection and leadership across boundaries, identities, and generations. 

MIO’s Juneteenth Festival “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets and Heartbeats” was a beautiful celebration of community, love, and joy.

Join us on June 19 for “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats” a Juneteenth festival in Lewiston featuring public art, community parade, performances, and a block party. Maine Inside Out is honored to host this free event in partnership with the City of Lewiston with incredible community partners and local artists. 

Maine Inside Out’s performance season is in full swing!

“Streets & Heartbeats” is the first event in our Spring festival series “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats! The festival honors community, joy, and grief through public art events and performances culminating with a parade and block party on Juneteenth. 

Please join us for “Life Lost in the Streets” an original performance created and performed by currently incarcerated artists. The performance will be followed by a dialogue with the play creators and a dinner reception. 

Spring is here and MIO’s creative process is in full swing. These are the moments when groups of artists and collaborators turn to face each other in deep connection and trust for one another and for the creative process that is unfolding between them. Soon these circles will open up into performances, street parades, and block parties. You are invited to join us in these magical, live moments when performers and audience members meet as co-creators of an encounter that can only happen once.

Since February, two groups of 7th grade artists at King Middle School have been collaborating to create two new performances. Join us for the original play premieres on May 13 and May 15 at 5pm at King Middle School 92 Deering Avenue in Portland!