Dear Sarah - An Original Stage Reading

The love story of doomed sea captain Charles Barry and his wife Sarah will be presented by the Brick Store Museum on Saturday, March 29, at 7:30PM, and Sunday, March 30, at 2:00PM, in the Museum’s Program Center. Nathan Lapointe, as Captain Barry, and Elinor Strandskov, as Sarah, will star in the play. They are both members of the University of Maine Gorham drama department. The 50-minute show will cover two years of the married couple’s separation due to Captain Barry’s work as a sea captain from Kennebunk.

Show creators Patricia Schwebler of Norway Savings Bank and Cynthia Walker of the Brick Store Museum have crafted the narration of the Barrys’ lives through the Captain’s carefully crafted – and often witty – letters to his wife during his travels around the world. Throughout the play, audiences can expect to see authentic pieces owned by Captain Barry and his wife, which are now housed at the Museum.

Captain Charles Barry was born in 1811 in Boston. He became a ship captain at an early age, and married Sarah, the oldest daughter of Kennebunk shipbuilder William Lord, in the 1840s. Throughout his years away from Sarah at sea, Barry continually wrote to her, describing what he saw, felt, and experienced. They couple had two young sons when Captain Barry and his ship, the William Lord, went missing after departing from South Carolina in 1850. He was never heard from again.

The Brick Store Museum is located at 117 Main Street in Kennebunk’s historic district.  For 75 years, the Museum has been dedicated to preserving and exhibiting the region’s cultural and artistic heritage.  Its galleries and research archives are open to the public year-round: Tuesdays – Fridays, 10 – 4:30 and Saturdays, 10 – 1.  Admission: $7.50 adults, $6 seniors, $3 children (6-16), $20 family.  Visit www.brickstoremuseum.org or call 207-985-4802 for further information.