The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

17 hours ago | pressherald.com | Katherine Lee

Tucked behind the Wex headquarters beyond a stretch of gravel parking lot in downtown Portland are two adjoining empty buildings. On a sunny Wednesday, Josh Schlesinger, who has leased the spaces, pulls open a garage door, letting the light pour in. “It’s pretty crazy what this place is going to become,” he said. And if all goes according to plan, that will be a new music venue, Live at Madrids, with room for about 800 people.

20 hours ago | pressherald.com | Katherine Lee

Seeing a great live concert can lift your spirits and boost your energy, but it can also empty your wallet. Thankfully, there are lots of free concerts and other performances around Maine this summer. Many shows are part of a free concert series in a town park or public space. Portland also has free Shakespeare in the Park, and there are free shows for younger folks at Opera Maine and Ogunquit Playhouse.

20 hours ago | pressherald.com | Katherine Lee

Every summer, Tara McDonough makes a plan. For more than a decade, McDonough has been involved in one way or another with PortFringe, an annual theater festival that pushes the boundaries of performing arts. This year, the program will include more than a dozen shows across four venues in a little more than a week. McDonough is on the planning committee, but she usually has to get organized to make sure she sees everything she wants to see during the whirlwind.

23 hours ago | pressherald.com | Katherine Lee

The host of “The Nite Show with Danny Cashman” called into the Howard Stern show this week to talk about the “magnificent” moment David Letterman appeared on his show. Stern started the segment by describing Cashman’s long-running show in Bangor as one “no one’s heard of” and seemed surprised by Letterman’s appearance. “I thought Letterman had been kidnapped and put on this show,” he said. Letterman was the final guest on Cashman’s show, which wraps up this month after 15 years.

1 day ago | pressherald.com | Scott Monroe

Maine lawmakers are looking to reduce the total number of charter schools allowed in the state, even as the commission responsible for overseeing them approved a new school this week. The Maine Charter School Commission greenlit the state’s newest charter Tuesday, a Portland-based middle and high school focused on serving vulnerable populations like multilingual and disabled students.