This summer Camden has seen a host of famous people - all of them hanging around the Camden Public Library at the head of the harbor.  We've seen Mark Twain and, believe it or not, Atticus Finch was there as well! 

Next week Camden will be graced with the humor of James Thurber!

The Camden Public Library presents

“Thurber’s Theatre” at Camden Library August 24

An hour with “one of America’s most cherished humorists of the 20th Century” will come to the Camden Public Library on Tuesday, August 24, at 6:30 pm, in a performance of  “Thurber’s Theatre: An Evening with the Inscrutable Male.” David Foster returns to the Library’s Reading Room for another hour of guaranteed laughter after his standing-room-only performances of the past three summers.

James Thurber (1894-1961) grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and found his way to The New Yorker magazine in the late ’20s, where he joined Harold Ross and E. B. White to put a unique and indelible stamp on American culture. In over 300 cartoons and hundreds of stories, Thurber portrayed the bittersweet war between the sexes, the fantasies that shield man’s inability to cope with life, our fascination with crime, and his own hilarious memories of growing up in a family beset with “crotchets.” Favorites from each of these themes will be performed, including “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Night the Bed Fell on Father,” “Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife,” and a host of others.

Throughout his career as a lawyer, political advocate and business executive, David Foster has pursued an amateur vocation in the theatre as an actor, director, producer ,and teacher of acting and stagecraft. He acted in school and community productions in his native Iowa and, prior to moving to Oxford, MD, in 1983, performed with numerous theatre companies in the Washington, DC area. Past president of Oxford’s Tred Avon Players, he has appeared on its stage in many roles. While summering in the Camden and Belfast areas, he has been on stage for the Belfast Maskers, has directed productions for the Maskers and the Fifteen Minute Play Festival, and frequently entertains for Elderhostel tours. At the Camden Library, Foster performed “Meet Mr. Mencken: An Evening with the Sage of Baltimore” in 2007, “The Magic of American Humor” in 2008, and “The Irreplaceable Mark Twain” in 2009.

“Thurber’s Theatre” is the latest of David Foster’s platform presentations and was introduced to library, campus, and retirement community audiences earlier this year. This will be its first performance in Maine.