UMaine theater producer will take on Orono’s performing arts festival

Orono’s elected officials on Monday night chose a local theater production manager to host the town’s annual performing arts festival this summer.

Stillwater Community Arts has held Artsapalooza, a festival featuring visual and performing artists at local businesses, since 2011. The nonprofit announced in March that it would no longer host the event. In April, the group’s vice president, Connie Carter, said the nonprofit will disband .

Although Orono, Old Town and surrounding towns will lose a group that promoted the arts for more than a decade, the Orono Town Council stepped in to see if the festival could be saved. Last month the council voted 5-2 to spend up to $7,000 on the festival, which will be renamed.

Two vendors responded to the town’s request for proposals, and the council voted unanimously to hire Mary Jean “MJ” Sedlock for the job on Monday night.

Sedlock lives in town and works as the production manager and technical director at the University of Maine’s School of Performing Arts. She is also a senior lecturer at the university.

“Looking at these, we have really capable, hard-working people for both of these proposals who would do a great job,” Councilor Rob Laraway said. “It did seem to me like one of the proposals was superior.”

Sedlock has the professional experience to host the festival, and her proposal was detailed, which makes her a good choice, said Laraway, who is a musician and private music educator. At UMaine, Sedlock coordinates budgets, schedules and people for four theater productions and two dance showcases a year.

Kayla Gayton and Zachary Fisher, who are University of Maine alumni moving back to town from Massachusetts this month, submitted the other proposal.

Sedlock, who has worked at the performing arts school for nearly a decade, has ties with performing artists within the community and knows some who participated in Artsapalooza, she wrote in her proposal.

While this year’s festival will likely rely on many artists and venues from previous years, Sedlock sees an opportunity to expand in the future.

She imagines an event that “better reflects the diversity of artists in our community,” and one including music, dance, theater, improv and more, according to her proposal. Workshops and lectures might fit in. Sedlock also suggested a street fair with booths that provide a source of income for funding the festival’s expansion.

A date for the festival and specifics about how it will operate were not discussed Monday.