• What would have happened had the Wright Brothers failed? Would we drive to Florida for spring training? Take a boat to Europe or a balloon around the world?
A whimsical new play at Portland Stage Company ponders that question in a flight of fantasy. “The Center of Gravity, or the Disinvention of the Airplane” previews Tuesday through Thursday, and opens Friday for a three-week run.
Written by Gregory Hischak, the play gets its world premiere at Portland Stage. The play won the grand prize at the Clauder Competition for New England Playwrights in 2009. Paul Mullins directs the show, which stars two newcomers to Portland Stage, Matt Harrington and Christopher Kelly, as Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range from $14 to $37. Call 774-0465 or visit www.portlandstage.org.
• A new Portland-based theater company, Dramatic Repertory Company, stages its first production beginning Wednesday evening in the studio theater at Portland Stage. The show is “Blue/Orange,” written by Joe Penhall, and is about a patient in a London mental institution who claims to be the son of an African dictator. Do you believe him? It’s a story about race, mental illness and a power struggle between doctors and diagnoses. Theater founder Keith Powell Beyland directs. The play is on stage through March 12, with performances at 8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $10 to $15. Call (800) 838-3006 or visit www.dramaticrep.org.
• What did you do for your February vacation? Daniel Sonenberg, music professor at the School of Music at the University of Southern Maine, spent his break writing one piece each night for steel-string guitar and clarinet. The collected suite, “7 Jarring Dances for Clarinet and Steel String Guitar,” will be premiered by Sonenberg and clarinetist Maria Wagner at the First Friday celebration of the Jar Project at Whitney Art Works, 492 Congress St., Portland. The piece lasts about 15 minutes, and will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and again at 4 p.m. Saturday. Not coincidentally, the Jar Project represents the efforts of Sonenberg’s wife, artist Alex Sax; it involves 60 artists encasing small works in glass jars.
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