People, Poetry, Perspective: Adams Theater Hosts Ten-Day MA250 Celebration

The Adams Theater, at 27 Park Street, is hosting the MA250 Festival: People, Poetry, Perspective, a ten-day run of events from June 12 through 21 that manages to squeeze a storytelling dinner, a Pulitzer Prize winner's homecoming, a High Tea with the local historical society, and the state's first-ever Poet Laureate into a single festival. It is state-validated and funded by the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, and tickets range from pay-as-you-wish to $45.

"We are honored to be a recipient of the MA250 grant, which allows us to curate a program that reflects the deep historical and creative roots of our region," says Yina Moore, Founder and Artistic Director of the Adams Theater. "By bringing home world-class voices and community-initiated programs in the same space, we are making the past feel present, personal, and profoundly local."

Opening Night: Ten Toasts

The festival opens Friday, June 12 at 6pm with a dinner called "Ten Toasts: Laughter, Realness, and Connection." The format draws its themes from conversations and site visits with community members. Participants share stories no one at the table has heard before, and toast the moments and people that have shaped them. It is designed to surface the unexpected. Organizers note that people who have known each other for years often discover things about one another they never knew.

The Main Stage: Regie Gibson and Guy Mendilow

On Saturday, June 13 at 7:30pm, Massachusetts Poet Laureate Regie Gibson and composer and "storycatcher" Guy Mendilow bring their show "Different Ships, Same Boat" to the Adams Theater. Gibson was sworn in by Governor Maura Healey on May 30, 2025, as Massachusetts' first Poet Laureate. He is also a former Poetry Slam Champion, teaches at Clark University, has won two international poetry prizes representing the U.S. in Italy, and appeared in the film Love Jones, which was based on events in his own life.

"Different Ships, Same Boat" is an interactive, multidisciplinary performance combining spoken word, music, and song that draws on real-world stories from small towns, cities, and ports of entry, set to a musical score spanning American Blues and songs from older immigrant homelands, including those of Ottoman Jews from Greece and Hungary. The show has been presented at venues including the Celebrity Series of Boston and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

High Tea with the Historical Society

On Sunday, June 14 at 2pm, the Friends of the Adams Library, the Adams Historical Society, and the Adams Theater co-host a High Tea and Speakers Event. The menu includes quiches, finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and homemade pastries. Your teacup and saucer are yours to keep.

The Keynote: Stacy Schiff Comes Home

The festival's anchor event is Saturday, June 20 at 4pm, when Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff returns to her hometown of Adams for a keynote conversation. Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize; Cleopatra: A Life, a number-one bestseller translated into 30 languages; and The Witches: Salem, 1692.

Her most recent book, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, recovers a Founding Father who deliberately obscured his own legacy, destroying countless documents and most of his personal correspondence, and who Thomas Jefferson called the true leader of the Revolution. The book landed on year-end best lists from the New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and others, and was named one of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2022.

At the Adams Theater, Schiff will be in conversation with Sara Houghteling, an award-winning author and current professor at MCLA, and will offer a preview of her current research into the final years of Benjamin Franklin. The program includes live readings, an audience Q&A, and a post-event book signing.

Closing: A Screening of 1776

The festival closes Sunday, June 21 at 2:30pm with a screening of 1776, the musical drama adapted from the Broadway show about the debates among the Founding Fathers in the lead-up to the Declaration of Independence.

The Adams Theater is at 27 Park Street, Adams, MA. Full schedule and tickets are available at adamstheater.org.