enlarge 2009 Press Herald file

Michael Howard performs during a Naked Shakespeare production at The Wine Bar in Portland. The group will no longer be able to perform there due to a city zoning rule.

PORTLAND — A zoning rule that's intended to combat drunken rowdiness in the Old Port has caused the city to shut down a monthly reading of Shakespeare.

Henceforth, Acorn Productions' Shakespeare Ensemble shall be banished from the Wine Bar & Restaurant on Wharf Street.

The bar does not have an entertainment license and cannot get one because a bar next door already has one. A city ordinance prohibits any bar from having an entertainment license if another bar within 100 feet has one.

Mike Levine, artistic director of Acorn Productions, said the Wine Bar & Restaurant provides an intimate atmosphere for his actors, who attend weekly training sessions at Acorn's studio at the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook.  

Levine said the ensemble might have no choice but to leave the city.

"You would think it was something you should be celebrating, rather than trying to contain," he said.

Alas, rules are rules, said Mayor Jill Duson at Monday's City Council meeting.

The council approved the 100-foot rule three years ago in an attempt to disperse entertainment venues throughout the Old Port and prevent a concentration of rowdy crowds. 

The Westbrook-based ensemble has been reading Shakespeare sonnets and plays on the first Monday of every month for the past three years. The production is called Naked Shakespeare because the actors don't use props or costumes. The fully clothed performers recite their lines while people in the audience sip wine and nibble cheese and crackers.

Scott Berry, one of the owners of the Wine Bar & Restaurant, said he got a letter in March from the city's business license administrator informing him that such activity must cease.

"It's interesting that they grapple with this versus grappling with a place that wants to have more dancing girls in short-shorts and cowboy boots dancing on the bar," he said.

City officials say they were unaware of the Naked Shakespeare performances until March.

The council voted Monday to renew the Wine Bar & Restaurant's liquor license, but rejected Berry's request to approve the Naked Shakespeare performances. Instead, the council dispatched the ordinance to its Public Safety Committee and the Planning Board for review.

Some councilors want to abolish the 100-foot rule, arguing that the city should not use land-use codes to combat rowdy behavior. Councilor John Anton said the city should enforce laws aimed at controlling antisocial behavior and preventing bars from serving too much alcohol to customers.

Other councilors are reluctant to eliminate the rule because they say it's working as intended – for the most part.

"I want to see a fair amount of analysis before I would consider altering it significantly," said Councilor Nicholas Mavodones Jr. "It  makes sense to not have establishments with entertainment butting up against each other."

Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:

tbell@pressherald.com