Speaking within Chautauqua!, Stonington, Maine, April 6

I've been invited to deliver a ten-minute mini-lecture-within-a-play next week by the deliciously-named National Theater of the United States of America.

NTUSA is putting on their production of Chautauqua! at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle the evening of April 6. The production -- a decidedly unconventional celebration of the famous 19th century Yankee variety-show-cum-intellectual-program -- is in the midst of a New England tour from its New York City spawning ground. The New Yorker has called it a "timely, beautiful meditation on the relationship between the arts, urbanity, community, and economics."

As you've probably guessed, I'll be giving distilled remarks drawn from my book on the cultural history and identity of coastal Maine, The Lobster Coast. Tickets are $20. Hope to see you there.