All posts by Troy R. Bennett

Troy R. Bennett

About Troy R. Bennett

Troy R. Bennett is a Buxton native and longtime Portland resident whose photojournalism has appeared in media outlets all over the world.

No women, wigs or lipstick: All-male Portland cast takes on Shakespeare

Peter Brown, playing the king's daughter, Goneril, rehearses a scene from Shakespeare’s "King Lear" in Portland on Sunday. All female characters in the production are being played by males, a concept knows as “original practices,” because in Shakespeare’s day, women did not act in the theatre. Female roles were played by adolescent boys. Troy R. Bennett | BDN

Shakespeare’s “King Lear” is not a comedy. It’s the story of a monarch who decides to divide his kingdom between his daughters. Two are awful and one is sweet. Loyalties are questioned, deceit is employed by the bucketful, betrayals abound, eyes get gouged out and the innocent are hanged. It’s a real bummer. Kidding aside, it’s […]

I went to the desert in search of sun and sand. What I found instead was mud and adventure

I held the Maine flag aloft while standing on the rocks on the west side of the Monitor and Merrimac Buttes north of Moab, Utah. Dom Chang took the photo for me.

I started planning the April trip before Christmas. It was epic. I drove four days straight, more than 2,500 miles from my home in Portland, Maine, to Moab, Utah, a mecca for desert motorsports adventure. Dragging my Russian sidecar bike behind my truck, I made it all the way out west, over the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, […]

Here’s a place in Portland where it’s OK to touch a stranger in the dark

A pair of dancers tear up the hardwood during the Portland Swing Project's Friday Night Stomp at Maine Ballroom on Congress Street. Tom Whitehead and the Rights of Swing provided the live music. Troy R. Bennett | BDN

The plate glass window separating the hoofers from the Congress Street sidewalk kept fogging up Friday night. Folks walking by slowed down, craning their necks to see through the thin spots. A few rubbed their palms in disappointed circles, realizing the condensation was on the inside. Hot string jazz leaked out when the door was propped open to cool the room […]