Muhlenberg Presents Pardon My French!
Muhlenberg College will host “Pardon My French!,” a play with music, on Wednesday, April 21, 7:00 p.m., in the Recital Hall, Center for the Arts.Friday, April 9, 2010 00:23 PM
“Pardon My French!” is a two-person performance, performed in English, that incorporates stories from Franco-American families in Maine into a piece discussing language and identity. The performance is open to the public and is sponsored by the Student Government, the French Club, the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and Lectures and Forums.
In the land of hyphenated identity, Susan Poulin sets out on the sometimes humorous, sometimes treacherous path to reconnect with her Franco-American heritage. Her rollercoaster ride of self-discovery leads her to some surprising places. From the origins of Franco-American Spaghetti, to the textile mills of Skowhegan, Maine, from logging camps on the Canadian border to being hypnotize to find the French in her head, Susan is determined to reclaim her first language and in the process reclaims a whole lot more.
Selected by Portland Magazine as one of the "Ten Most Intriguing People in Maine,” writer/performer Susan Poulin has been creating and touring her original theatrical productions since 1992. She was a featured performer in The Mirth of Venus and The Mirth Canal at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, The Maine Festival, the Minneapolis Fringe Theater Festival and Portland, Maine’s Cassandra Project. Her work has been supported by the Maine Arts Commission the Maine Humanities Council. In 2005, Susan received a NH State Council on the Arts Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant to study traditional Franco-American music with master artist, Lucie Therrien. Her essays have been published in the Portsmouth Herald, the online journal moe pi toe and the Twin Farms Anthology, and heard on both Maine and New Hampshire Public Radio. As her alter-ego Ida, Susan writes the popular Maine humor blog and podcast, Just Ask Ida, for Down East magazine (downeast.com).
Gordon Carlisle has been actively involved as a visual artist, songwriter and actor in the greater Portsmouth, NH area for over twenty-five years. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Gordon primarily makes his living as a visual artist, creating both private and public murals, theatrical set design, portraits, graphics and illustration. In 1999, Gordon was awarded a New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship for his achievement as a muralist. His most recent commissions have been a 1493 square-foot exterior mural in downtown Somersworth, NH, celebrating the city’s ”Proud Past, Bright Future,” and a Percent for Art Commission for the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, NH. His studio artwork has been exhibited across the US. (gordoncarlisle.com)
As Poolyle Productions, Poulin and Carlisle have been collaborating on plays, songs, and artwork for over almost two decades. Their critically acclaimed plays, In My Head I'm Thin, Shutting Up Peggy Lee!, Spousal Deafness…and Other Bones of Contention, Pardon My French!, Ida: Woman Who Runs With The Moose (Seacoast Media Group 1998 Spotlight on the Arts Award for Play of the Year and Best Actress), Ida’s Havin’ a Yard Sale! (SMG’s 2005 Spotlight on the Arts Award for Best Original Script and Best Actress in a Play) and A Very Ida Christmas! have broken box office records throughout the Northeast. Their play Yellow Jackets was one of twelve plays selected for the 2008 Maine Short Play Festival in Portland, Maine.
For more on Poolyle Productions, including booking information, performance schedule and even an on-line gift shop, visit their website at: poolyle.com, email: [email protected] or call: 207-384-4526.
