Arts and Entertainment
January 30, 2023
From: Waterville Opera HouseF E A T U R E D
FEBRUARY FIRST FRIDAY
Multiple Locations
Downtown Waterville
Friday, February 3
4–7pm
FREE
First Fridays celebrate the vibrant creativity of Waterville by inviting people downtown to engage in arts experiences. On the first Friday of every month, visit Main Street in downtown Waterville to meet artists, participate in various workshops, listen to live music, eat delicious local food, and come together as a community.
A R T S
COMMON THREADS
Ticonic Gallery
93 Main St, Waterville
On view through Sunday, February 12
FREE
What does it mean to be part of a community? How can we forge meaningful connections with each other and the place we call home? Using a beautiful, screen-printed tent as a gathering place, artists Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella brought artists and community members of all ages together to explore these questions through a series of collaborative workshops and conversations during the summer of 2022. Featuring an array of prints, written works, and portraits, this exhibition represents the individual and collective stories gathered throughout the process and provides a glimpse of the shared hopes, dreams, and ideas for Waterville.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Maine Arts Commission and realized in partnership with the Colby College Museum of Art and its Lunder Institute for American Art.
F I L M
80 FOR BRADY
Maine Film Center
93 Main St, Waterville
Opening February 3
$12 adults, $10 students + seniors
This film is eligible for the Youth Arts Access Fund.
Four of the most celebrated actresses around—Oscar winner Jane Fonda, Oscar winner Sally Field, Oscar winner Rita Moreno, and Oscar nominee Lily Tomlin—star as four best friends with a crush on Tom Brady (actually, one prefers his fellow New England Patriot Rob Gronkowski) who decide on living life to the fullest when they take a wild, impromptu trip to the 2017 Super Bowl to see their hero play.
LOVE MAKERS + RULE BREAKERS
Maine Film Center
93 Main St, Waterville
Thursday, February 2–Tuesday, February 28
$12 adults, $10 students + seniors
These films are eligible for the Youth Arts Access Fund.
Every Tuesday and Thursday in February, come to the Maine Film Center for stories about passion, transgression, and sex. Show your ticket and get 10% off at Silver Street Tavern, and buy one dozen roses at Robin's Nest and bring in your coupon or receipt to receive the member price on your ticket. Come for the spiciness, stay for the cinematic pleasure!
P E R F O R M I N G A R T S
SHEMEKIA COPELAND
Waterville Opera House
Saturday, February 4
8pm
$23–$33
This event is eligible for the Youth Arts Access Fund.
Award-winning blues, soul and Americana singer Shemekia Copeland possesses one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time. She is beloved worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty, and humor of her revelatory music, as well as for delivering each song she performs with unmatched passion. Copeland — winner of the 2021 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year — connects with her audience on an intensely personal level, taking them with her on what The Wall Street Journal calls “a consequential ride” of “bold and timely blues.”
L I T E R A R Y
BOOK BITES!
A FACEBOOK READ-ALOUD
Waterville Public Library's Facebook Page
Thursday, February 2
7–7:30pm
FREE
Discover your child’s next favorite read! Each week on Thursdays from 7-7:30pm, Mrs. Liz will read an excerpt from a book off one of the New Books shelves.
C O M M U N I T Y
DOWNTOWN WATERVILLE VISIONING WORKSHOP
Educare
86 Drummond Ave, Waterville
Thursday, February 2
5:30–7pm
FREE
The City of Waterville is hosting another Downtown Visioning Workshop on February 2! Stop by Educare between 5:30-7pm to help create a community vision for housing, recreation, economic development, transportation, and more!
U P C O M I N G
WOMEN TALKING
Maine Film Center
93 Main St, Waterville
Opening February 10
$12 adults, $10 students + seniors
This film is eligible for the Youth Arts Access Fund.
Set in a remote, isolated Mennonite community, “Sarah Polley's WOMEN TALKING, based on the novel by Miriam Toews, feels very much like a stage play... These eight angry women live in a religious colony and are coming to grips with the knowledge that for years, men in the colony have been drugging them and raping them in their sleep. They gather together to discuss their options: Leave. Stay and fight. Or stay and do nothing.”—Mullingmovies.com.
BLUES TRAVELER
Waterville Opera House
Tuesday, May 23
8pm
$63–$73
This event is eligible for the Youth Arts Access Fund.
On sale to public: January 30 at 11am
36 years ago, the four original members of Blues Traveler—John Popper, Chandler Kinchla, Brendan Hill, and the late Bobby Sheehan—gathered in their drummer’s parent’s basement in Princeton, NJ, to jam. From these high school sessions emerged a band that would go on to release a total of 14 studio albums, four of which have gone gold, three platinum, and one six-times platinum - selling more than 10 million combined units worldwide. In “Run-Around,” Blues Traveler had the longest-charting radio single in Billboard history, which earned them a Grammy® for “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.” Their latest album TRAVELER'S BLUES (Round Hill Records) was released in 2021 and featured reimagined and recharged classics from the American blues songbook and a few surprises. The group’s first official blues album, it was nominated for a Grammy® for “Best Traditional Blues Album” in 2022.