Hackmatack Farm + Playhouse is a vibrant space, focusing on bringing theater, youth education, and sustainable agriculture together onto a beautiful farm. Situated on a historic family farm dating back to the 1600s, Hackmatack has produced, for over 50 years, professional summer-stock theater, including dramas, comedies, and musicals, all at accessible prices. These productions are entirely created on-site, providing paid opportunities for actors, technicians, and designers, allowing the Playhouse to be both a launching spot for national emerging artists + designers and a home for creative professionals in rural Maine.
Hackmatack also nurtures young talent through its youth theater camps, a tradition spanning over 40 years. These camps offer children ages 7 to 13 a hands-on education in theater, focusing on fostering creativity, empathy, and a sense of agency. Each program culminates in live performances, allowing campers to showcase their talents to family, friends, and neighbors.
In conjunction with its artistic side, Hackmatack is home to a bison + heritage breed animal farm, an integral part of the family farm. Through this, Hackmatack connects visitors to sustainable and regenerative farming practices, hosting Open Farm Days that highlight local musicians, makers, and artisans in a festival-like setting. The Playhouse also embraces Maine’s folk traditions by organizing contra dances, creating spaces for folk artists and dancers to thrive.
Looking to the future, we are dedicated to rebuilding our organization after the tough years of the covid-19 pandemic. We aim to expand our youth programming to include camps for teenagers as well as nature-based camps, introduce a theater for young audiences programming featuring local playwrights, build back up to 4 mainstage shows a year (a standard prior to 2020), continue with critical infrastructure improvements to increase sustainability and comfort within the theater and further enhance accessibility to the performing arts, ensuring that our contributions to the community continue to grow in interior York county, Maine.
