With masterful improvisational skills and comic interactive experiments, Doktor Kaboom — a German scientist with a penchant for bangs and blasts – keeps his audiences riveted AND rolling in the aisles. The brainchild of actor/educator David Epley, Doktor Kaboom! strives to make science accessible to all by leading students on a sidesplitting journey of increasingly spectacular (and usually successful) science experiments designed to involve, excite, educate, and entertain.

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In a time of constantly being wired in with uploads and downloads from laptops to camera phones, and where conversations no longer take place face-to-face, Damian’s passport to friendship and popularity is his computer. This new play from Canada’s Green Thumb Theatre – who for over 30 years has used the emotional impact of live performance to educate and empower young people – examines the alarming rise of cyber-bullying as Damian quickly learns that cyberspace isn’t necessarily as friendly as he had thought, and that just because it’s virtual doesn’t make it less real.

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Thrilling choreography, joyous rhythms, vibrant costuming, and a feisty exuberance emanate from a 38-member troupe of dancers, instrumentalists, and singers hailing from the Bahian region of northern Brazil. Performing a lush repertory of carnival and slave dances, samba and capoeira – an explosive Afro-Brazilian artform that combines martial arts, music and dance – Balé Folclórico da Bahia provides a truly authentic global experience.

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Based on Mo Willem’s beloved Caldecott Honor-winning picture book, Knuffle Bunny is a hilarious musical tale of firsts: a stuffed animal’s first trip in the laundromat, a little girl’s first words, and a Daddy’s first time dealing with his child going “boneless.” Newly commissioned by the Kennedy Center, it’s a celebration of family, friendship, baby steps and memories that last a lifetime. Keep an eye out for a cameo by everyone’s favorite bus-driving pigeon...

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A whimsical concoction of vaudeville, cirque and the zoo, Imago Theatre’s newly hatched ZooZoo uses elaborate costumes, mime and physical finesse to animate larger-than-life creatures, including the most intriguing animal of all: the human. Veteran puppeteers and actors help caterpillars to cavort, hippos to hop, penguins to play and rabbits to romp in this genre-defying production that piques the imagination and mesmerizes the mind.

Bronx-based Universes is an international ensemble of writers and performers who fuse poetry, theater, jazz, hip-hop, politics, down home blues and Spanish boleros. In their new work, Live From the Edge, soaring song combines with fierce rhymes, and feet and hands stomp out enthralling beats as the troupe tracks the evolution of their language from childhood and community rituals, to poetry and theater, hip-hop and gospel. Redefining what theater is and to whom it speaks, Live From the Edge is a one of a kind performance event that transforms the poem into a communal act.

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Introducing Destination Portland:
Subsidized Transportation for School Field Trips in the Arts, Culture, and Humanities

Portland Ovations is subsidizing transportation for field trips in the arts, culture, and humanities for Maine schoolchildren and educators for schools with populations of 50% or more free/reduced lunch.

Through the initiative, called Destination Portland, school groups are invited to attend an Ovations school-time or evening performance at Merrill Auditorium or Hannaford Hall in Portland, while also combining the performance with a program, tour, or activity at another Portland cultural institution. Ovations will make available transportation subsidy grants up to $400 when a school purchases tickets to an Ovations performance and plans a program the same day with any of these current Destination Portland partner organizations:

• Portland Museum of Art (www.portlandmuseum.org)
• Museum of African Arts and Culture (www.museumafricanculture.org)
• The Telling Room (www.tellingroom.org)
• Maine Historical Society (www.mainehistory.org)
• The Children's Museum (www.kitetails.org)
• Portland Public Library (www.portlandlibrary.com)

Transportation subsidies through Destination Portland are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Barri Lynn Moreau, director of school programs, will work with schools and Destination Portland partners to tailor a field trip that meets the needs of teachers and students and ties into Maine's Parameters for Essential Instruction.

You can download a flyer and application for a Destination Portland subsidy here.

Interested schools and teachers can also apply for a transportation subsidy via email to Barri Lynn Moreau at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or by writing Director of school programs, Portland Ovations, 50 Monument Square, 2nd Floor, Portland, ME 04101 at least one month prior to the performance date.

Destination Portland is funded in part by Unum and TD Bank.