About Us
Mission
Theatre Nouveau in Belfast Maine aims to enrich our community with quality theatre productions that push the boundaries of theatre in order to create inspirational and transformative works that incite thoughtful dialogue. Our provocative and entertaining plays address contemporary relevant social issues primarily through the reimagining of the classics and presentation in intimate performance venues.
History
In 2019, A group of seven actors, along with director/writer Suzanne Ramczyk, presented the first iteration of our original play, AddictionSpeaks, for which first-hand accounts were gathered from Maine residents who lives or families were devastated by the opioid epidemic. Interspersed with song, music and movement, their stories, which were crafted into stage monologues, were performed in Belfast. Plans already set in motion to take this production on the road to several small communities in Maine were thwarted by the Covid pandemic. However, our initial production experience of the piece was a profound one for all of us; and in 2023, this became an impetus to the formation of our not- for-profit company – Theatre Nouveau, which focuses on issues of contemporary social concern. Our company’s founders include Cory Burns, Kathleen Reilly, Lisa Goodrich, Peter Conant, Susan McConnell, Beverly Mann, and Suzanne Ramczyk.
May-June, 2023
The Madwoman of Chaillot -uncensored
Mary Weaver’s Playhouse, Belfast, Maine
Ramczyk’s adaptation of Jean Giraudoux’s play, redolent with powerful and timely themes around the destructive power of greed and the strength of community, also focused on First Amendment rights. We were thrilled to play to sold-out houses for five of our six performances.
November, 2023
AddictionSpeaks Again! by Suzanne Ramczyk
Basil Burwell Theatre, Belfast, Maine
A revised version of AddictionSpeaks, this adaptation was performed in the style of Greek Tragedy with chanted/sung and choreographed Choral Odes. The stories remained at the heart of the production.
May – June, 2024
The Shakespeare Lonely Hearts Club by Suzanne Ramczyk
Basil Burwell Theatre, Belfast, Maine
Four one-act plays, each representing one of the four common classification of Shakespeare’s plays – Histories, Comedies, Tragedies, Romances- featured fragments of Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, Henry V, and Pericles. The plays explored the theme of loneliness among older adults.
December, 2024
A Christmas Carol, a new adaptation by Stacey Stewart
Basil Burwell Theatre, Belfast Maine
This fast-paced staged reading, a retelling of Dickens’ classic story of redemption, atonement, and renewal, was enlivened with music, singing, movement and sound effects.
Our Values
Artistry
Equity
Anti-racism
Inclusivity
Collaboration
Meet the Artistic Director
Suzanne Ramcyzk
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
In 2017, Suzanne Ramczyk left her 31-year tenure as Professor of Theatre Arts at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, where she specialized in Performance and Directing, as well as her professional work in the Boston-Providence area, to retire to Belfast, Maine. Since retiring, Suzanne has directed Cabaret and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for Midcoast Actors Theatre (Belfast), her own AddictionSpeaks for the first annual “Artivism” conference in Belfast, and Picasso at the Lapin Agile for Everyman Repertory Theatre (Camden, Maine). She also directed her own adaptation of Treasure Island for the Belfast Maskers.
-
Over the course of her career, she has directed or performed in most every style and genre of theatre. Her directing credits include Riders to the Sea (opera), The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, A Flea in Her Ear, Big Love, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Threepenny Opera, Company, Urinetown, The Secret Garden, The Pirates of Penzance, Lock Up Your Daughters, The Country Wife, Machinal, How I Learned to Drive, The King Stag, and Jose Rivera’s Marisol among many others. She has also directed several “Theatre for Social Change” productions, devising works that deal with addiction, veterans’ issues, women’s issues and censorship. She has also developed numerous new plays and has worked as a dramaturge for regional theatre. Her directing work has received high honors from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the New England Theatre Conference.
In addition to directing, Suzanne has worked as a professional dramaturge, choreographer, fight choreographer, speech and dialect coach, singing coach and music director.
Along with conservatory training, Suzanne holds an undergraduate degree in Music-Classical Voice and Conducting, as well as Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Theatre Arts from the University of Oregon.
As an actor, Suzanne has performed in numerous plays and musicals on the West Coast and in the Boston area, including Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Kate in Old Times, Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs, Jessie in “Night Mother, Susanna in the opera The Marriage of Figaro, Elizabeth in Laundry and Bourbon and Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress. In 2003, she was given her university’s annual award for excellence in teaching.
Currently, Suzanne is thrilled to be able to oversee a new company dedicated to imagining, creating and presenting theatrical works that focus on contemporary social issues.