Seacoast Repertory Theatre appoints Mad Men as artistic directors
June 23, 2019
Seacoast arts community honored with high-level visit
July 15, 2019
By Jane Murphy
PORTSMOUTH – Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, made a visit to two Seacoast arts organizations Tuesday to highlight projects supported by NEA grants.
Her first stop was the Plains School in Portsmouth, home to Pontine Theatre, which this year received a $10,000 grant to fund a tour of its original plays around the region as an outreach to rural communities.
At the Plains Schools, Carter met with Pontine co-artistic directors Marguerite Mathews and Gregory Gathers as well as Pontine board members and local and state arts officials.
Carter, who actually lived in Portsmouth as a child when her father was stationed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, listened to Mathews and Gathers tell of Pontine’s more than four-decade history and how its new performing space and headquarters in the Plains School came to be. Over the years since 1998, Pontine has received more than $100,000 from the NEA.
“It’s a welcome statement of support in a year where things have been unusual because of the opening of this school,” said Pontine board member Mike Huxtable said of the grant, noting Pontine just completed its first year in the renovated city-owned schoolhouse.
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