I would like to believe I attract heart-centered individuals to work with. I create a sense of safety in the rooms, empowerment and we are in service of the text. I pick plays that are going to take us on a journey that we all want to go on; that we’re all going to leave a little bit better; that we’re going to share with our audience, and we’re all going to leave the experience a little bit better than when we came. That’s my hope.
I strive to create and share life-affirming stories that speak from the heart and celebrate our shared humanity.
Janet Mitchko is the Artistic Director at The Public Theatre, an Equity theatre located in Lewiston, Maine. She considers herself lucky to have spent most of her life earning a living in the theatre. Executive/Co-Artistic Director Christopher Schario will be retiring at the end of this season and her title has been changed from Co-Artistic Director to sole Artistic Director of The Public Theatre. An Executive Director has been hired as we pursue a new leadership model.
Trained as an actress at Carnegie-Mellon, Janet worked in regional theatres, in New York at Theatre of the Open Eye, and with various companies developing new work. She also directed and taught acting and voice and speech at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1993, she left NYC to move to Maine with her then husband and CMU classmate Christopher Schario to share the helm of Artistic leadership at The Public Theatre. At that time, The Public Theatre was 1 ½ seasons old and had renovated an old movie theatre to become its performance space. When they arrived in Lewiston a contract was negotiated with Actor’s Equity and turned The Public Theatre into a professional Equity theatre. In thirty years, the annual audience grew from 1,200 to over 17,000 people each season and voted “Best Theatre in Maine” seven years in a row by DownEast magazine readers’ poll.
Voted Maine’s “BEST THEATRE” by Down East Magazine seven years in a row, The Public Theatre brings you the most exciting contemporary plays from Broadway and beyond featuring the finest professional actors from New York to Los Angeles. Whether you’re seeing a rollicking comedy or a searing drama, we promise you a good story, well told.
The Public Theatre’s mission is to create high quality professional theatre that is integral to the lifeblood of our community. We believe theatre is for everyone and strive to create inspiring, entertaining, and inclusive experiences that celebrate our shared humanity. We tell stories that speak from the heart; that are life-affirming and uplifting even when the subject matter is challenging; that invite our audience to see their world in a new way. We are committed to engaging and enriching the communities we serve and inspiring children with our educational programs. Artistic excellence is central to the mission of The Public Theatre.
The Public Theatre
31 Maple Street
Lewiston, ME 04240
Business: (207) 782-2211
Tickets: (207) 782-3200
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