By Liz Schildkret, Director of School & Family Programs

We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with Portland Public Schools and Antonio Rocha, a Maine-based artist who has been part of Ovation’s Maine Artists in Schools program twice before. This school-year, every 9th grader in Portland will experience Waves of Tears | Winds of Hope, a new solo performance from Rocha that weaves two Maine-built ships’ stories together through narrative, mime, and song. Rocha previously brought these stories to communities individually, Malaga Ship Story in Spring 2023, and Once Upon a Hill in Maine: The Pedro Tovookan Parris Story in 2025, both stories of slavery, freedom & Memory.

In order to bring the performance to Portland high schools, Ovations is collaborating with Foundation for Portland Public Schools through their Arts Partnership Program. We were proud to be one of the inaugural companies to participate in the program last year, when Antonio Rocha led a series of workshops on Mime for students at Lincoln Middle School. This year, Antonio Rocha will perform his new piece for high school students, and will lead workshops at all three Portland high schools on capturing oral history through storytelling.

Last year alone, 700 students and community members in 4 counties in Southern Maine experienced Once Upon a Hill in Maine. It was deeply moving to watch students experience a story about a real person from Maine through Antonio Rocha’s masterful storytelling. Now, both Malaga Ship Story and Once Upon a Hill in Maine will be a permanent part of Portland Public Schools’ 9th grade social studies curriculum through this compelling new performance.