BRUNSWICK — The Theater Project of Brunswick is excited continuing its 45th anniversary season with the next production in a season of original plays by Maine playwrights.

 

“The ANZACS: Lest We Forget” will be staged April 6 to 15.

 

Written by Michele Livermore Wigton and based on “The Anzacs, 100 Years On” by author Ted Egan, it tells the story of the beginnings of the Australian New Zealand Army Corps, the extreme conditions of war in the 20th century, and the effects of battle on the ANZACS and those who waited at home during World War I.

 

Egan has allowed The Theater Project to use his music, his words, and his family’s own history to produce this new work. For 40 years he has been writing and recording songs, filming and writing about the spirit of the Australian people.

 

“I come to this topic with a strong family connection and interest,” he wrote. “My mother, Grace Brennan, had three brothers who volunteered to join the Australian Light Horse in 1914. Jack Brennan was killed at Gallipoli, Bob Brennan served three years straight in the horror of the Western Front. Martin Brennan went to the Middle East after Gallipoli, engaged in many conflicts, was briefly a prisoner of war, escaped, and rejoined his regiment. I wrote “Song for Grace” to record, word for word, the story my mother told me when I was 12.”

 

Three years ago, local businessman Sam Kelley, a fan of Egan’s music, approached Wigton, Theater Project veteran and playwright, with the idea for this work. A Vietnam veteran himself, Kelley believed that Egan’s music and his family’s story of war would make an incredible play. The Theater Project decided to commission the piece.

 

“The ANZACS: Lest We Forget” performance are:

Thursdays, April 6 and 13, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 7, and Saturdays, April 8 and 15, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, April 9, at 2 p.m.

 

All performances are pay-what-you-want, with a suggested price of $18. FMI: go online to theaterproject.com or call 729-8584.

 

The Theater Project is at 14 School St.