Located in South Paris, Maine, Celebration Barn offers workshops and residencies for physical theater artists to hone their craft and develop their body of work. We also serve our local community through our Show Series and our community-based initiatives, such as Theater in Schools.
A Brief History
Celebration Barn Theater was founded in 1972 by Tony Montanaro, a world-renowned performer and teacher. For over four decades, Montanaro pioneered a style of mime all his own, and he brought his work to the world through touring, television, and teaching. For over two decades, Celebration Barn served as the home base of Montanaro’s acclaimed Celebration Mime Ensemble, and performers from around the country and beyond came to South Paris, Maine during the summer to study and train with Montanaro and his collaborators.
To learn more about the life and work of Tony Montanaro, who passed away in 2002, please visit Mime Spoken Here, a project dedicated to his legacy, led by Michael Menes.
Celebration Barn continued to thrive under the artistic direction of Leland Faulkner (1988–1992) and executive directorship of Carolyn Brett (1988–2006).
In 2006, Amanda Huotari became the Barn’s executive artistic director, a role she would hold for the next fifteen years. During her tenure, the Barn deepened its commitment to artists by offering workshops in clown, bouffon, devising, professional development, and much more. In tandem, the Barn notably expanded its Show Series, bringing world-class touring artists and local audiences together, and launched its Theater in Schools program, among other community-based initiatives. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Barn began offering workshops online, an initiative that has served hundreds of artists from over twenty-five countries around the world.
In the fall of 2021, David Bruin assumed the role of executive artistic director.
The Campus
Celebration Barn occupies an eleven-acre campus located on the homeland of the Wabanaki, including the Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Nations, in what is today known as South Paris, Maine in the Oxford Hills region of the state.
Celebration Barn strives to be good caretakers of the land it occupies and to be a good neighbor to the more than human kin, including plants, animals, and fungi, with which it shares the earth and its resources. The campus includes walking trails that wind around its rolling hillside. There is also an apple orchard and other fruit-bearing plants that grow on the property. We encourage all visitors to the Barn to enjoy the campus, both as a site of relaxation and a creative playground.