Three UMaine professors wrapped up in ‘One Blue Tarp’

Two University of Maine theater instructors will star in a UMaine English teacher’s award-winning comedic play set to premiere at Penobscot Theatre in Bangor.

Boston-born Travis Baker teaches English courses at the university and earned a master’s in English at UMaine in 2006. He penned “One Blue Tarp” after he heard a comment on a local radio sports talk show about how the Maine Red Claws — the NBA D League team that plays in Portland, Maine — should have been named the Blue Tarps.

Tom Mikotowicz, who teaches directing, playwriting, history and performance theory at UMaine, plays native Mainer Dave Stillman. The independent Stillman likes life as it is in the small coastal town of Clara, and that includes his right to have a junk pile under a blue tarp in his dooryard.

Julie Lisnet, who teaches acting at UMaine, plays Joan, Stillman’s wife who wants him to get rid of the tarp and the junk collection he has amassed so she can have a garden and not have passersby stare at the mess.

“One Blue Tarp” was named Best Play for the state of Maine in the 2013 Clauder New England Playwright Competition. It runs from Jan. 30, 2014 to Feb. 16, 2014 at the theatre on Main Street in Bangor.