The Bangor Show does musical improvisations based on a book by Stephen King

Lights, music, improvisation, vampires.

“A Kick in Your Derry’ere!” will bring all of those things to life at the Bangor Opera this week as ImprovAcadia and Penobscot Theater Company take on the best-selling Stephen King and present him with one of his earliest works.

The show follows the story arc of King’s second novel, “Salem’s Lot,” published in 1975, but will be different each night based on audience suggestions. In the book, author Ben Mears returns to Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, to write a novel about his childhood, only to discover that a vampire there is endangering its citizens.

Penobscot Theater Company executive director Jen Shepard and her husband, composer Larrance Fingerhut, will be joined on stage by three Chicago-based actors with experience in improvisation – Bangor native Andy Bolduc, Alice Stanley Jr. and Cynthia Kmak.

“We’ve wanted to do a Stephen King-themed improv show for a long time,” Shepard said last week. “We may include references to other King books depending on where the audience takes us.”

Shepard and Fingerhut created a similar improv show based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” with the Penobscot Theater Company in 2019 and 2022. The couple also improvised musicals while running ImprovAcadia in Bar Harbor seasonally from 2004 to 2019 and completing several productions in Bangor since the pandemic.

The group began rehearsals on Monday, using suggestions that might come from the audience. Fingerhut said he mostly composes music spontaneously, based on what’s happening on stage.

“I’m looking for a heightened moment where it makes sense to break out into song,” he said last week.

The decision to make an improv musical based on the book by Bangor’s most famous resident was made before Max announced the release of the new film on Oct. 3, Shepard said. She also said that King has not yet communicated with the theater company about the show.

Bangor area theatergoers are familiar with stage adaptations of King’s novels, but this is the first professional improv show based on his work in the greater Bangor area. The theater company staged “Misery” in 2017 and Some Theater Company has produced “Carrie the Musical” twice, once in 2017 and again two years ago.

“A Kick in Your Derry’ere!” replaces a fall production cut this season as the theater company struggled with a large budget deficit in its 50th season earlier this year.

In addition to the King-inspired show, Penobscot Theater Company has other events planned this month. It will participate in the downtown trick-or-treating event from 2 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 26 and its second annual costume gala at the Bangor Opera House, 131 Main St., that evening at 6 p.m. , organize. Tickets are $75.

Ben Layman will tell stories about the theater’s three resident ghosts on October 29 and 30 at 7 p.m. and October 31 at 10 p.m. Each tour is limited to 20 participants and tickets are $15.

On Halloween at 8 p.m., the opera house becomes a movie theater again with a screening of Stephen King’s 1982 “Creepshow.” This is a pay-what-you-want event.

“A Kick in Your Derry’ere!” is performed Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. For more information, visit penobscottheatre.org or call 942-3333.