All Entries in the "In the Arts" Category
‘Once’ kicks off Weston theater season that ends with Walker Farm opening
©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Weston Playhouse Theatre Company will lead off its 2017 season with the Vermont premiere of the 2012 Tony Award winning musical Once and conclude with the opening of the company’s new second stage on the Walker Farm property in Weston, which has been 10 years in the making. “We’re planning a […]
Cavendish calendars on sale; art exhibit at Whiting; CAFC fund-raisers aid heat program
2017 Cavendish calendars available The Cavendish Community and Conservation Association’s 2017 Cavendish calendar is now on sale, just in time for the holidays. CCCA selected the pictures from its annual calendar photography contest. Entrants are Cavendish and Proctorsville residents who submitted photos in the spring. Images reflect life in this rural Vermont community. Calendars are […]
Northern Stage’s ‘Christmas Carol’ a children’s holiday delight
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016-Telegraph Publishing LLC It’s that season again when ballet companies polish up their “Nutcrackers” and regional theaters reheat that old chestnut “A Christmas Carol.” White River Junction’s Northern Stage offers up its biennial production of Scrooge’s story in a production that looks very good for the most part but gets hobbled by […]
Chainsaw carvers create buzz in Cavendish
Photos and Story by Kevin Kunze ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Amid chainsaws buzzing like a musical ensemble more than 100 spectators sit in a semicircle of timber benches. Three wood carvers are quick-carving wood sculptors, with chips flying, creating art. Within an hour, they were finished and their works were auctioned off. An 8-foot tall […]
Arts events: Oct. 8, 2016
For more upcoming events, click here for The Chester Telegraph calendar. To be included in our Upcoming Events briefs, email Susan Lampe-Wilson at calendar@www.chestertelegraph.org. Photos welcome. No PDFs, please. Notices must be received by noon on Fridays to be eligible for publication the following week. Oct. 8: Third annual Black River Folk & Blues Fest […]
Re-imagined ‘Macbeth’ in modern mode a winning production
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Ghosts walk Northern Stage’s production of Macbeth, playing through Oct. 23. Set in the present and performed in modern dress, this re-imagining may not be appreciated by Shakespeare traditionalists. Swords are replaced with automatic weapons, armor becomes Kevlar vests and some basic themes are twisted to suit the creative […]
Singers sought for Brattleboro Concert Choir
Susan Dedell, director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir, announced the start of the 2016–2017 season, with rehearsals of Johannes Brahms’ magnificent Ein Deutches Requiem (A German Requiem) beginning in September. The choir welcomes new members. Interested singers or returning members who have not sung with the choir for the past year are encouraged to contact […]
Nuanced performances make powerful ‘All My Sons’ a must-see
By David Lampe-Wilson 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Weston Playhouse completes its 80th season on a dramatic high note as a secret destroys an American Dream in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, playing through Sunday, Sept. 4 at the Weston Playhouse. The play is part of the Playhouse’s American Masters Series – and it is dark, […]
Multi-talented cast carries multi-character ‘Murder for Two’
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Weston Playhouse continues its summer season at its Other Stage with “Murder for Two,” a frivolous musical that sends up murder mysteries and their attendant tropes. While its premise is clever — two actors play all parts including detective, victim and suspects — your enjoyment will depend on […]
Ground breaks, curtain rises on next act for Weston Playhouse
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Years of planning and designing came to a close Sunday as the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company officially broke ground for its new arts center on the corner of Route 100 and the Andover Weston Road. What will not come to an end however is fund raising for […]
Take a chance on Weston’s exuberant ‘Mamma Mia’
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Take a sitcom script, a passel of Swedish disco-era tunes and some lively dancing and you have “Mamma Mia!” the long-running Broadway musical now in production at Weston Playhouse. On the Greek island of Kalokairi, young Sophie is preparing her wedding and wants her father to walk her […]
Weston’s ‘Round & Round’ is comic precision in a delightful farce
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Norman Conquest has landed onstage at Weston Playhouse with Round and Round the Garden, the third play in Alan Ayckbourn comic trilogy, bringing a breath of fresh air to relieve the hot summer nights. The first two plays of the trilogy were previously presented at Northern Stage […]
In moving ‘Forever,’ restless ghosts haunt Weston’s Other Stage
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Actress, poet and playwright Dael Orlandersmith returns to the Weston Playhouse Other Stage with Forever, an angry eulogy to the spirit of her abusive mother. It is a festering wound of a play that takes no prisoners in its unvarnished, raw honest language and its rich, telling […]
Weston’s ‘La Mancha’ hurls down gauntlet to begin 80th season
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Anyone who was around in the ’60s and ’70s has probably heard at least a dozen of the hundreds of cover recordings of “The Impossible Dream,” the signature song of the musical Man Of La Mancha. Whether it was Andy Williams or Frank Sinatra or Jim Nabors […]
The ABC’s of fun abound in ‘Schoolhouse Rock, Live!’
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Anyone who raised a child and had access to television may have at least a passing knowledge of Schoolhouse Rock. But, for the uninitiated, Schoolhouse Rock was a collection of energetic, three-minute animated musicals about various academic topics that were broadcast between children’s cartoons on ABC every […]
Northern Stage delivers a farcical feast in ‘Living Together,’
first in ‘Norman Conquests’ trilogy
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC White River Junction’s Northern Stage finishes off its 2015-16 season with Alan Ayckbourn’s comic Living Together, the first in a trilogy of plays known collectively as “The Norman Conquests” (more about that later). For anyone who delights in the absurdities of Britcoms, Living Together is a feast of […]
‘The Mountaintop’ an interesting trip, with a confusing view
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC White River Junction’s Northern Stage continues its season with Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, a fictionalized account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final day, that begins as a realistic drama then veers into the otherworldly. And while the idea is an interesting one, the execution borders on the schizophrenic. […]
Gifts bring Walker Farm theater plan closer to goal;
Norman Conquests: three plays, three theaters, one cast
The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company has announced that it has received major support for its capital campaign from the Hunter Charitable Trust of Boston and the Loewe Foundation of New York. The Campaign for the Weston Theatre, which currently stands at $8.5 million of a $10 million goal, will build a flexible second stage on […]
Comic ‘Baskervilles’ a howling success at Northern Stage
By David Lampe-Wilson ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC White River Junction’s Northern Stage serves up a huge helping of British silliness with The Hound of the Baskervilles, the 2007 comic adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes novel. This featherbrained adaptation by Steven Canny and John Nicholson has a lot going for it, but […]
Northern Stage’s ‘Mad Love’ a crowd-pleaser, but carries heavy baggage
By David Lampe-Wilson © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC White River Junction’s Northern Stage approaches the dead of winter on an adventurous path with Marisa Smith’s new comedy Mad Love and judging by audience reaction during a recent preview performance, it has the potential of being a real crowd pleaser. Mad Love is a 21st-century rom-com […]