Celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month with queer stories and filmmakers at the Camden Opera House. Bark Events presents a Camden Pride Pop-Up evening of short films. Proceeds from the event benefit OUT Maine, which creates programs supporting LGBTQ+ youth. The program includes documentaries, experimental films, animation, a musical and so much more. General admission tickets are $20 at camdenoperahouse.com and at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds). Doors open 6:30 p.m. 

FILMS:

Ronita Rambo

Ronita Rambo, the sharp-tongued waitress at a rural Missouri diner, has everyone’s order memorized—but not a clue how to text her new crush. Enlisting the help of two gay teens, she takes an unexpected leap toward love and authenticity.

Buffalo Ten

A glamorous trans woman aching for the simplicity of her upbringing moves back to Buffalo from NYC, where she tumbles into a Rust-Belt dalliance at the local bowling alley.

Squish

When chronically anxious Allie becomes obsessed with living a thought-free life just like a plush squishy kid’s toy, she discovers erasing her brain is a lot harder than she thought.

Voices Unveiled

Tending to the Soul

In rural Alabama, Freedom Farm Azul serves as a sanctuary for nourishment, education and healing. Through intimate interviews and lush imagery, this poetic documentary reveals how land stewardship becomes an act of resistance, restoration and collective care. 

Prom Party Massacre

In a horror musical full of teenage rebels, poodle skirts, and betrayal, a young gay man tries to woo his crush with a swinging prom party – but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!

Subject of Desire

Moses, a twenty-something seasonal worker on Fire Island, navigates the tempestuous waters of pleasure and connection in a journey to become an artist seen on their own terms.

Fireflies

During Dorothy’s second year of summer camp, she must face the reality of a newfound relationship.

Old Girl in a Tutu: Susan Rennie Disrupts Art History
With humor and wit, feminist scholar Susan Rennie, seizes her iPhone and sneaks her queer, octogenarian body into master works of art, disrupting the narrative of the male gaze.

A Space for Us

A Space of Us chronicles how the Queer and Trans Youth + Allies (QTYA) summer camp provides life-affirming community and self-discovery in nature. Through participatory filmmaking, queer youth capture a glimpse of the joy and vibrancy of being their full selves in the outdoors.

FMI about our wheelchair seating or other accessibility questions, please email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154.

Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable. Film program info follows.

Camden Opera House is pleased to offer another Summer Theater Week for children entering first through 12th grade, July 6-11! The acclaimed Missoula Children’s Theatre is coming back for a week-long theater training workshop that culminates in a public performance of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a fun show with music, sets, costumes, makeup and a cast of local students. 

BEFORE REGISTERING, read the Theater Week Policies by clicking HERE or on the home page of our website, camdenoperahouse.com. Space is limited and registration is by age (come camp week), due to casting constraints: 48 in the older group (including 4 assistant directors); and 16 in the younger group. 

SIBLING DISCOUNT! If you are registering more than one child, enter coupon code SIBLING at checkout.

Synopsis: “Dress for success” is good advice that the Emperor takes whole-heartedly, wanting to impress the Kings & Queens of the Elemental Kingdoms. But where to stop? When the clothes (and other people’s opinions) become more important than the people of the kingdom, trouble brews. The Royal Scholars & Royal Artisans try to help their beloved Emperor find the way back to his heart, but the Money Council led by Manypenny want to keep the Emperor’s new obsession growing. When the loyal Silkworms are kicked out of the castle, it becomes clear that the Emperor needs to learn a lesson. With all of the Elemental Kingdoms gathered, it’s time for a royal parade! 

This hilarious one-man comedy show was born one August afternoon when 22 years of parenting came to a sudden and thankless end. These same children…the ones who thought pushing a garbage can 100 feet to the curb qualified as “doing chores”...the ones who considered your leftover pizza “available for anyone,” but their party size bag of pita chips (that YOU paid for) not to be touched…just up and left for their $80,000/year college. Thank god you hung onto the streaming service passcodes, otherwise you might never hear from them.

Now it’s just you and your wife. The kids have been gone for a month and you’re out of topics. “Does she really want to know if I think she looks good in that pair of overalls?”

Welcome to Empty Nest and All the Rest.

Clay has performed his unique brand of comedy, insight and storytelling to audiences of as many as 1000. He has appeared on KGO-TV, ABC Radio, and in Fast Company. He is the author of four screenplays and was a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2011. And he is now officially an empty nester. FMI info, go to: www.emptynestrest.com.

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This show is a benefit for the Community Arts Fund.



Tickets are $18 in advance, $22 on the day of/at the door. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

FMI about wheelchair and other accessible seating, email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154.

Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable.

Noel Paul Stookey & A.S. Aubrey: Listening for the Notes, an evening of Poetry & Song

LISTENING FOR THE NOTES: The Gift of Word & Song in Challenging Times 

Join Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary) and his daughter, poet A.S. Aubrey, in an inspiring evening of song and poetry, ‘Listening for the Notes: The Gift of Word & Song in Challenging Times.’ You’ll hear classic songs of hope and change like ‘Blowin in the Wind’ and ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’, and Stookey’s own ‘The Wedding Song,’ along with Aubrey’s poetry, as father and daughter explore with humor and heart where their inspiration comes from, and how listening can be used to create and provide meaning in our lives. The Ventura County Reporter described the event as “so uplifting and inviting that you felt you had been welcomed into the Stookeys’ living room to listen as they swapped poems, songs and stories…an inspiring night.”

BONUS: 

Aubrey’s poetry chapbook, ‘Hide & Seek: Poems for Being Found in a Lost World’” will be mailed to all audience members, included in ticket price, as a memento of the evening, after its release on Thanksgiving 2026 by Finishing Line Press. (*This will mean that patrons’ mailing addresses will be transferred to Aubrey, for this purpose only.)

Named by presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco as “exemplify[ing] what poetry does best,” Hide & Seek: Poems for Being Found in a Lost World explores themes of mortality, purpose and hope with “rapturous lyricism” and “enthralling language.” At once fragile and fierce, this collection reminds us that within endings lie openings – and that in listening carefully we may find ourselves met by life’s inevitable embrace. 

Choose-your-own-reserved-seat tickets are $39 in advance/$45 day-of-show. Doors open at 7 p.m. Sponsored by 40 Paper. FMI about our wheelchair seating or other accessibility questions, please email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154. Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable. 

Bob Marley is coming back to the Opera House on August 8th to make us laugh! Popular Maine comedian Bob Marley has done thousands of shows in over 15 countries, he is one of American comedy’s most seasoned performers. Marley’s comedic bits are mostly about life in Maine. His first television appearance was on Comedy Central. He also appeared as Detective Greenly in the movie The Boondock Saints, and reprised this role in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. In 2010, he made history when he entered the Guinness Book of World Records by setting a new record for longest continuous stand-up routine at 40 hours.



Reserved seat tickets are $39.50, limited to four per person.

BEWARE of resellers (and their much higher prices)!

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

FMI about wheelchair and other accessible seating, email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154.

Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable.

Bob Marley is coming back to the Opera House on August 8th to make us laugh! Popular Maine comedian Bob Marley has done thousands of shows in over 15 countries, he is one of American comedy’s most seasoned performers. Marley’s comedic bits are mostly about life in Maine. His first television appearance was on Comedy Central. He also appeared as Detective Greenly in the movie The Boondock Saints, and reprised this role in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. In 2010, he made history when he entered the Guinness Book of World Records by setting a new record for longest continuous stand-up routine at 40 hours.



Reserved seat tickets are $39.50, limited to four per person.

BEWARE of resellers (and their much higher prices)!

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

FMI about wheelchair and other accessible seating, email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154.

Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable.

TOM RUSH is a gifted musician and performer, whose shows offer a musical celebration…a journey into the tradition and spectrum of what music has been, can be, and will become. His distinctive guitar style, wry humour and warm, expressive voice have made him both a legend and a lure to audiences around the world. His shows are filled with the rib-aching laughter of terrific story-telling, the sweet melancholy of ballads and the passion of gritty blues.

Rush’s impact on the American music scene has been profound. He helped shape the folk revival in the ’60s and the renaissance of the ’80s and ’90s, his music having left its stamp on generations of artists. James Taylor told Rolling Stone, “Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences.” Country music star Garth Brooks has credited Rush with being one of his top five musical influences. Rush has long championed emerging artists. His early recordings introduced the world to the work of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, and in more recent years his Club 47® concerts have brought artists such as Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin to wider audiences when they were just beginning to build their own reputations.

Tom Rush began his musical career in the early ’60s playing the Boston-area clubs while a Harvard student. The Club 47 was the flagship of the coffee house fleet, and he was soon holding down a weekly spot there, learning from the legendary artists who came to play, honing his skills and growing into his talent. He had released two albums by the time he graduated. Rush displayed then, as he does today, an uncanny knack for finding wonderful songs, and writing his own – many of which have become classics re-interpreted by new generations. (It is a testimony to the universality of his appeal that his songs have been folk hits, country hits, heavy metal and rap hits.) Signed by Elektra in 1965, Rush made three albums for them, culminating in The Circle Game, which, according to Rolling Stone, ushered in the singer/songwriter era.

Choose-your-own-reserved-seat tickets are $55 in advance/$65 day-of-show. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Sponsored by Camden Maine Stay Inn and 40 Paper. 

FMI about our wheelchair seating or other accessibility questions, please email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154. Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable. 

The Twelve Wild Geese, presented by Ensemble Galilei

The Twelve Wild Geese is an ancient tale of a princess and her brothers, told for centuries across cultures from Ireland to Norway and Myanmar to Denmark, and published in an Irish folk tale collection by W. B. Yeats. Refashioned by David Novak and Ensemble Galilei, the work explores universal themes of loyalty, courage, love, and hope through a vivid fusion of storytelling and music that celebrates creativity, humor, and the joy of art in the making.

Known for pushing the boundaries of multidisciplinary performance, Ensemble Galilei has spent over two decades blending words, music, and visual art through collaborations with figures and institutions such as Neal Conan, the Hubble Space Telescope Institute, National Geographic, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and NPR, culminating in this deeply collaborative project with Novak. A recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award, Novak brings masterful theatrical presence and emotional depth to the tale, fully embodying each character and captivating audiences of all ages with his immersive, passionate storytelling, creating an experience that bridges past and present in a way that is both timeless and profoundly meaningful.

Choose your own seats are $30 in advance, $35 on the day of show for Adults and $20 advance/$25 day of show for Youth. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Sponsored by Camden Maine Stay Inn and 40 Paper.

FMI about our wheelchair seating or other accessibility questions, please call (207) 236-3154. Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable. 

Tickets go on sale Friday 5/15 at 10am!

Pokey LaFarge and his band are coming back to the Camden Opera House to celebrate the release of his new album, ‘Rent Money’!

For two decades, Pokey LaFarge has walked his own effortlessly cool road as an exceptionally iconoclastic troubadour – forthright, genuine, and markedly keen to put it all out there. Rent Money now sees him pushing forward yet again in what can be safely declared his finest collection to date, both as an heartfelt expression of personal experience and as no-nonsense social commentary. With its twanging guitars, plucky rhythms, and undeniably captivating melodies, the album soars and swings, its joyous refrains belying the inescapable undercurrent of constant worry and angst that permeates these troubled times. As always, the Illinois native deftly traverses the genre boundaries, seamlessly integrating the myriad strains of 20th-century American music with a freewheeling command of earnest songcraft, inspired performance, and subversive creativity. Rent Money stands tall as an indisputable high-water mark for Pokey LaFarge – a defining collection from a one-of-a-kind artist of rare ingenuity and uncommon candor, now as ever, determinedly crafting a sure-footed brand of deeply human music all his own. 

“People are always going to tell you what they think you should play,” says Pokey LaFarge, “what you should sing about, how you should sound, how you should look, how you should act. And I’ve always just been like, nah. Nope. I’ve just completely gone my own way, and hopefully I’ve been honest and authentic in the process.”

“I’m just trying to make music that AI can’t replicate. Things are so homogenized right now. That’s what I’m really, really, really resistant to, especially when it comes to music. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to conform.”

Choose-your-own-reserved-seat tickets are $38 in advance/$45 day-of-show. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Sponsored by Lord Camden Inn and 40 Paper. 

FMI about our wheelchair seating or other accessibility questions, please email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154. Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable. 

“The hottest acoustic Irish band on the planet” (Irish Echo) makes its annual return to our stage to celebrate the season and the joy of traditional Irish music! Lúnasa is a traditional Irish music group, named after Lughnasadh, an ancient harvest festival. Cillian Vallely (uilleann pipes and low whistle), Kevin Crawford (flute, whistles and bodhran), Trevor Hutchinson (standup bass), Colin Farrell (fiddle and whistle), Patrick Doocey (guitar) and special guest Dave Curley will fill the House with glorious music in a concert sponsored by 40 Paper. Choose-your-own-reserved-seat tickets are $48 in advance, $54 day-of-show. 

Doors open 7 p.m.

FMI about our wheelchair seating or other accessibility questions, please email [email protected] or call (207) 236-3154. Tickets, attached to emailed confirmation, are nonrefundable.