It's a Wonderful Life

December 16

6:30 P.M.

It's a wonderful film. Frank Capra's inverted take on A Christmas Carol stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a good man who's spent a lifetime giving up on his dreams in order to keep life in his small town humming. When a guardian angel named Clarence finds a despondent George poised to jump off a bridge, he shows George what life would've been like had he never been born. This classic is a holiday favorite.

Friday night film series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library present:

Without Love
Friday, April 29th
6:30 PM
Room 208, Thomaston Academy

Convinced that two people can have a meaningful partnership without the trappings of romance, pragmatic widow Jamie Rowan (Katharine Hepburn) asks scientist Pat Jamieson (Spencer Tracy) to marry her on condition that the relationship remain platonic. But Jamie's plan falls apart when love enters the scene. Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn also star.

Admission is free. Donations gratefully accepted. The Library and the Book Store will be open prior to the start of the movie. Light refreshments will be served.

The Thomaston Academy building is handicapped-accessible from the parking lot entrance.

For more information call the Library at 354-2453.

Library Open

The Library has re-opened ahead of schedule. We will be open today, Thursday, August 13th, for the duration of our normal operating hours.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library present:

The Wizard of Oz
Friday, June 5th
Thomaston Academy Building, Room 208
6:30 pm

There's no place like home for young Dorothy (Judy Garland), who's been swept away from her farm in Kansas to a wonderland of munchkins, flying monkeys and different-colored horses. She must follow the Yellow Brick Road to the all-knowing Wizard of Oz to find her way home. Along the way, she meets the Scarcrow (Ray Bolger), the Tin Man (Jack Haley) and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who help her fend off the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton).

Doors and Bookstore open at 6:00. Admission is free and donations are gratefully accepted. For more information, call the library at (207) 354-2453.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Public Library present:
Bread and Tulips
Friday, May 29th
6:30 p.m.
Thomaston Academy Building, room 208

An unhappy housewife (Licia Maglietta) taken for granted by her philandering, self-centered husband (Antonio Catania) finds bella fortuna when she hitchhikes to Venice and starts to construct a new life for herself. Blossoming with her newfound independence, the woman begins a tentative relationship with a lonely, suicidal waiter (Bruno Ganz) that bodes well for both of them.

Doors and Bookstore open at 6:00. Admission is free but donations are gratefully accepted. Light refreshments will be served. For more information or directions, contact the Thomaston Public Library at (207) 354-2453

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Public Library present:

The Motorcycle Diaries
Friday, May 15th
6:30 p.m.
Room 208, Thomaston Academy Building

This film tells the incredible true story of a 23-year-old medical student from Argentina, Che Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal), who motorcycled across South America with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) in 1951-52. The trek became a personal odyssey that ultimately crystallized the young man's budding revolutionary beliefs. Walter Salles' films is based on Che's own diaries of the trip.

Doors and Bookshop open at 6:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served and donations gratefully accepted. For more information call the library at (207) 354-2453.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library present:

Mr. Holland's Opus
Friday, May 8th
Thomaston Academy Building, Room 208
6:30 p.m.

In 1965 passionate musician Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced its just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As t he decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose. Dreyfuss earned an Oscar nomination for his outstanding work in this emotional drama.

Doors and bookstore open at 6:00. Light refreshments will be served and admission, as always, is free. Donations gratefully accepted. For more information call the library at (207) 354-2453

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library Present:

The Belle of Amherst

Friday, April 24th
Thomaston Academy Building rm. 208
6:30 p.m.

Julie Harris reprises her Tony Award-winning Broadway role as 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson in this one woman interpretation of the great literary figure's life. Against the backdrop of Dickinson's 19th century Amherst, Mass., home, Harris declaims from the reclusive poet's poems, letters and diaries to offer a delicate portrait of the artist as both a real human being and long-suffering genius.

Doors and 211 Bookshop open at 6:00. Popcorn will be served and admission, as always, is free. For more information, call the library at (207) 354-2453.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library Present:

Dead Poets Society

Friday, April 10

6:30 p.m.

Thomaston Academy Building, Room 208

John Keating (Robin Williams) is an unconventional English teacher who lives by a simple motto:  Sezie the day!  Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) is a prep school student who dreams of being an actor but lives in fear of his imperious father, who wants to see him matriculated into Harvard's medical school.  Can Keating - and his infectious love of poetry - inspire Neil to reach for his dreams?

Doors and bookstore open at 6:00  Free admission, donations gratefully accepted.  For more information about the Friday night film series, contact the library at (207) 354-2453

Origami Workshop

Origami Workshop

Wednesday, April 15th

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Children's Library

Join us and Ketch Cowan for a workshop on the Japanese art of Origami, or decorative paper folding.  Learn to make basic shapes and animals out of colorful paper.  This event is free and open to all.  For more information call the Children's Librarian at 354-2453.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library Present:

Il Postino
Friday, April 3rd
6:30 p.m.
Thomaston Academy Building rm. 208

Mario Ruoppolo (Massim Troisi) stars as the mailman on an Italian island, pines from afar for a beautiful waitress. When exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Phillipe Noiret) comes to live on the island, Ruoppolo delivers Neruda's mail and picks up lessons on love, life and poetry. With director Michael Radford's commentary, a featurette about the real-life Neruda and more, Il Postino is a sun-splashed romantic comedy.

Doors and Bookshop open at 6:00. Free admittance, donations gratefully accepted. For more information, contact the Thomaston Library at (207) 354-2453

Friday Night Film Series - March 27th

The Friends of the Thomaston Library present:

The Incident

Friday, March 27th

6:30 p.m.

Room 208 Thomaston Academy Building

In this drama set in 1944, small-town lawyer Harmon Cobb (Walter Matthau) must defend the most hated man in town - a man who represents pure evil.  When Cobb's friend Doc Hansen (Barnard Hughes) dies at the local POW camp, a Nazi prisoner is accused of his murder.  Cobb, whose son is overseas fighting for the allies, is talked into representing the accused.  The town is out for blood, but Cobb uncovers evidence that may prove his innocence.  

Doors and bookstore open at 6:00 p.m.  Free admission, donations accepted, popcorn will be served.

Puppet performance - Thursday, April 2nd

Play With Me
by Marie Hall Ets
Performed with puppets by Toki Oshima of the Ashwood Waldorf School
Thursday, April 2nd
11:30 a.m.

The Thomaston Public Library will be holding a puppet play on Thursday, April 2nd at 11:30 in the morning. Toki Oshima of the Ashwood Waldorf School in Rockport will perform, “Play With Me” by Marie Hall Ets.

Play With Me is a story about a little girl who is looking for someone to play with. She asks her animal friends the turtle, the grasshopper, the squirrel, and the bluejay, but no one will play with her. Will she find someone to play with?

Friday Night Film Series - Friday, March 20th

One Against the Wind

Friday, March 20th
6:30 p.m.
Room 208, Thomaston Academy Building

In the days of occupied France during World War II, an English born French woman finds herself in he position of helping downed flyers escape German occupied territory. This is the story of a stubborn, driven woman, the countess de Melville (Judy Davis) and her part in the French Resistance. The movie captures the flavor of occupied France, and moves between action there, and London, where the first man she helps escape back to freedom (Sam Neil) works to coordinate her efforts with British intelligence.

Doors and bookshop open at 6:00. Popcorn will be served. Friday night films are free of charge, donations gratefully accepted.

Three Button Delux

Three Button Deluxe
Saturday
March 21st
7 - 10 p.m.
Watts Hall

A dance party to benefit children's programming at the Thomaston Library will be held, featuring Three Button Deluxe, the Biggest Little Band in Maine. Join us to dance the night away and sing along. All proceeds will go toward funding future events for children in the Thomaston area.

Admission is 10 dollars per person or 18 dollars for a couple.

Come at 6:30 for a FREE dance lesson!

Origami for Children

Tuesday, March 17th

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Origami Workshop

Local student Katie Mcguirl will lead interested children in an origami workshop in the Children's Library.  Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper to create the shapes of animals, plants - anything you can imagine.  Katie will teach us how to make basic origami shapes and animals.  Refreshments will be provided, and this event is free of charge.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Public Library Present:

Goodnight and Good Luck

Friday, March 13

6:30 p.m.

Room 208 Thomaston Academy Building

George Clooney's Oscar-nominated docudrama pits TV newsman Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) against Senator Joseph McCarthy and his single-minded crusade to quell the red threat at home.  Despite corporate pressure to back off, Murrow and his CBS staff are determined to examine the lies and fear tactics perpetrated by McCarthy during his Communist witch hunts.

Doors and the 211 Bookstore will open at 6:00 p.m.  Popcorn will be served and donations are gratefully accepted.

Friends of the Library Meeting

The Friends of the Thomaston Library will next meet on Monday, March 9th, at 6:00 p.m. in the Thomaston Library's living room area.

The Friends of the Thomaston Library are a non for profit fundraising group which works closely with library board members and staff to fund programs and events. They also managed and operate the 211 Bookshop, which is located on the second floor of the Thomaston Academy Building.

Friends of the Library meetings are open to the public. If you would be interested in volunteering with the Friends of the Thomaston Library, contact head librarian Brian Sylvester at 354-2453 or send an e-mail to headlibrarian@thomaston.lib.me.us.

Friday Night Film Series

The Friends of the Thomaston Library present:

Norma Rae
starring Sally Field and Ron Leibman
Friday, March 6th
6:30 p.m.
Room 208
Thomaston Academy Building

In an Oscar winning performance, Sally Field is unforgettable as Norma Rae, the southern millworker who revolutionizes a small town and discovers a power in herself she never knew she had. Under the guidance of New York unionizer (Ron Leibman) and with increasing courage and determination, Norma Rae organizes her fellow factory workers to fight for better conditions and wages. Based on a true story.

Doors and Bookstore open at 6:00, popcorn will be served, and donations gratefully accepted. For more information call the Thomaston library at 354-2453.

Read Across America with Thomaston Library

Wednesday, March 4th & Friday, March 6th
1:15 p.m. both days
Children's Library

Join Children's Librarian Debby Atwell, Library volunteer Donna Tokarz, and local clarinetist Richard Tassinari as we celebrate Read Across America.

We will host dramatic readings of "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham" for local school children. These readings are free and open to the public.