FREEPORT

Historical Society speaker to discuss farmstead design

The Freeport Historical Society will host its 41st annual meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Freeport Community Center. The speaker is Tom Hubka, an educator and author who will talk about his book “Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn” and the story of the development of the connected farmstead architecture in New England. A short business meeting will precede Hubka’s presentation and will include the fifth annual Partners in Preservation Award and the Mel Collins Community Service Awards. Beverages and sweets will be available. The public is invited.

PORTLAND

Mad Horse Theater to stage ‘Heartbreak Help’ in June

Mad Horse Theatre Company’s Dark Night Series presents the one-act comedy “Heartbreak Help” by Los Angeles playwright Justin Tanner June 7-16. The show will run Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at the Studio Theater at Portland Stage Company, 25A Forest Ave., Portland. Admission is by donation, with a suggested donation of $10.

“Heartbreak Help” tells the story of four women attending a women’s empowerment conference in the Joshua Tree Desert. Having signed up late for the conference, the four strangers find themselves sharing a room in a low-budget motel. Each woman is there for her own reasons, and the play follows their triumphs, trials and insights as they encounter a range of new-age practitioners and hypesters.

“Heartbreak Help” features Brunswick’s Theater Project favorites Heather Perry, Wendy Poole, Emily Weddle and Michele Livermore Wigton. Directing is Mad Horse Company member Chris Horton.

SOUTH PARIS

Moore Park Art Show now accessible on new website

Organizers of the Moore Park Art Show in South Paris have launched a new website featuring the entertainment schedule, exhibitor and vendor applications, the 2010 poster artist and a brief account of the show’s four-decade history. It is available at www.MooreParkArt.org. The Moore Park Art Show will include more than 50 western Maine artists and artisans from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 14.

FRIENDSHIP

Pam Cabanas will be hosting open house, studio sale

Midcoast artist Pam Cabanas will host an open house and studio sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 29-30, at her studio at 372 Waldoboro Road, Route 220.

HIRAM

Stone sculptor earns juried entry into Cambridge show

Stone sculptor C.R. Gray of Hiram was recently juried into the Cambridge Art Association in Cambridge, Mass. Gray was also juried into the Spring Sculpture Show at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in Provincetown, Mass. Locally, his stone sculptures may be seen at Constellation Gallery in Portland and The Gallery at Chase Hill in Kennebunkport.

BELFAST

Panel discussion to consider role of the figure in art

A panel of artists will discuss the figure in art at 7 p.m. Monday in the Clifford Gallery, 256 High St., Belfast. The talk is in association with Waterfall Arts’ current exhibition of figure work by members of the Belfast life-drawing group. Panel members include artists David Estey, Nancy Morgan Barnes, Kris Engman and Richard Mann. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. Two life-drawing groups meet each week at Waterfall Arts, on Tuesday evening and Saturday morning.

For information, visit www.waterfallarts.org or call 338-2222.

BRUNSWICK

Winner of Bowdoin festival to play at Gamper concert

The Bowdoin International Music Festival has announced that Elliott Bark, a doctoral student at Indiana University, has won the festival’s third annual student composition competition. Bark will receive a $500 award, and his work for solo harp will receive its premiere in the July 31 Charles E. Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music concert.

Bark is a pianist, conductor and composer. At IU, he is assistant director of the Indiana University New Music Ensemble and a doctoral fellow in the composition department.

The 2010 Gamper Festival will be July 2, July 31 and Aug. 1 at Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College.

New for this year, the Juilliard Technology Center will present multimedia interpretations of traditional and contemporary works on July 29 and Aug. 1. Works by composer-in-residence Samuel Adler, Damariscotta resident Richard Francis and the festival’s top student composers will be performed July 31.

The Bowdoin Festival’s annual student composition competition is announced each year in early winter, and is funded by an anonymous grant. It is open to all students younger than age 35. For information, visit www.bowdoinfestival.org.