Island Women Speak

Tickets:
In Person: Adults $25 | Under 17 $12.50
Hancock County Students 17 and Under Free

Live Stream: $20

The popular annual Island Women Speak storytelling event returns to the Stonington Opera House for its eighth year, highlighting voices of women in our community. 

Seven women from Deer Isle and Stonington, representing five generations, will tell personal stories from their lives on the Stonington Opera House stage on Thursday, January 22nd at 7pm. Conceived of and directed by Debbie Weil, this year’s theme is My Aha Moment.

There will be a pre-show performance in the Opera House lobby by Along for the Ride, led by Renee Sewall, beginning at 6pm. Concessions will be available for purchase in the theatre lobby.  

Can’t join us in person?  Island Women Speak will be live-streamed. 

This project is supported, in part, by a Creative Communities Grant awarded to Opera House Arts by The Maine Arts Commission, which receives support in part from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

The 2026 storytellers are:

Jadyn LaDeau, 27, grew up on Deer Isle and continues to live and work on the island. While she mainly works as an artist creating oil and gouache paintings, she also teaches art at the one-room school house on Isle au Haut, as well as teaching art through several local organizations. She has a deep love for her home state, and can often be found reading Stephen King, staring at wild mushrooms, and herding cats.

Julianne Harris, 36, is an eldest daughter, globetrotter, and organic farmer. Born and raised in New Jersey, she studied English and music in Tennessee, found her legs as a marketing director, yoga instructor, and professional artist in Texas, and traded the concrete jungle for a breath of fresh air when she became a Stonington resident 3 years ago

Diana Lane, 37, was born and raised on Deer Isle in a homeschooling family of six. She went away for a little while to study music, but it didn’t take long for her to discover that her heart was rooted in the island, and so she came back home again. She currently homeschools her own two daughters plus a naughty puppy and they love to spend their days reading, singing, and exploring the world around them.

Heather Dunham, 55, has seven generations of history here on the island.  She currently is the Theater Operations Coordinator at OHA as well as a Methodist pastor serving two congregations.  With two grown daughters now out of the house, she is able to devote herself fully to her flock of geriatric chickens and three arthritic goats.

Liz Leuthner, 60, grew up in Stafford Springs, a little mill town in northeast Connecticut. She made her way to the ocean as a child and has tried to keep the salt water around her ever since. She tried to be a city girl for way too long, in Providence, Boston, and Portland, before finding home in the heart of Deer Isle Village where you can find her teaching in the Deer Isle Yoga Studio or dangling from a ladder.

Missy Greene, 68, was born in New Haven Ct, and grew up in Guilford, in a real place called Podunk. She spent glorious summers on Long Pond in Maine’s Rangeley Lakes, catching trout, picking blueberries, and watching bears at the dump. She has lived on Deer Isle for 34 years with her husband, running Greene-Ziner Gallery and Yellow Birch Farm. Her favorite thing is being with her two boys and husband, just hanging out by the fire, or on an adventure…but really, every moment with them IS an adventure.

Maureen Farr, 75, was born in Portland, Maine and raised in a raucous Scots-Irish family of strong women. She’s lived and worked in Deer Isle for almost 31 years. She evolved from graphic design to making jewelry about 18 years ago. She loves traveling, her posse of women friends, and her sweet, slightly crazy Poodle, Fern.

Debbie Weil, 74, is directing ISLAND WOMEN SPEAK for the eighth time. It’s her best adventure since moving to Stonington from DC 13 years ago. She also writes the bestselling Substack newsletter [B]OLD AGE, about the bittersweetness of growing old. She’s been coming to Deer Isle with her family for over 50 years.