Performing arts
• Country Comedy Tour comes to BF: The Bellows Falls Opera House will host the Country Comedy Tour live on stage Thursday, March 17.
The all-clean, family friendly show features comedians MG Gaskin and Kelly Terranova. Both comics bring their own brand of Southern flavor to their crowd-pleasing insights on everyday life. The show is high energy and interactive, and is suitable for all ages. The doors open at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30.
Tickets start at just $10. For tickets and information, visit their website, www.bfoperhouse.com. Tickets are also available at Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls. For more information on the Country Comedy Tour, visit countrycomedytour.com.
• Open Mic at BF3F: As part of the Bellows Falls Third Friday Art Walk (BF3F), Chicago-born poet and arts critic Clara Rose Thornton hosts Vice and Verses, a unique poetry open mic that takes its cue from Thornton's popular and innovative InkBlot Complex Poetry Workshop, and adds the energy and bravado of a raucous concert in some dingy underground club, all glory intact.
In addition to highlighting community voices, there will be occasional featured readers from around the country. Bring your shouts and hollers. It happens every third Friday at the RAMP Gallery, Project Space 9 at 9 Canal Street, 6-8 p.m. A $3-5 donation is suggested, and no sign-up is necessary.
• Annie Hawkins in Grafton: Come celebrate Women's History Month with storyteller (and Commons columnist) Annie Hawkins at the Grafton Public Library on Sunday, March 20, from 4-5:30 p.m.
The program, Tales of Plucky Girls and Sparky Women, will feature shared, unscripted, five minutes stories from audience members. Participants are asked to speak from the heart about a woman who has inspired them - living or dead, real or fictitious. Hawkins will start things off, and then the stage belongs to whomever has a story to tell. Everyone is also welcome to sit and listen, if they prefer.
All programs at the Grafton Public Library are free and handicapped accessible. Contact librarian Michelle Dufort for more information at 802-843-2404.
• NEYT's Theatre Adventure Adult Troupe presents its second show: The New England Youth Theatre's Theatre Adventure Adult Troupe presents its second original show, Imagine That: Our Stories Take Flight!
Springing from their first original show last year, Raising Our Voices, the Theatre Adventure Adult Troupe Members have created a new show that features the breadth of their imaginations and theatrical courage. Combining dancing, poetry, songs, and the presentation of a “topsy-turvy tale,” written by one of the troupe members, this show will inspire audience members to take pause, listen with a new ear, and see through a new lens.
The Theatre Adventure Program was launched as an innovative and inclusive mixed abilities theater arts opportunity at NEYT eight years ago, using theater arts to help empower, strengthen, and embolden Troupe Members as valued and contributing members of our community.
Performances will be at NEYT on Thursday, March 24. at 10:30 a.m., tickets $6 at the door; and Friday, March 25 ,at 7 p.m., tickets $10 at the door. The shows will be interpreted with ASL. The theater is wheelchair accessible.
• VTC seeks new scripts from local playwrights: The Vermont Theatre Company is searching for original material from local writers to create an evening of original one-act plays.
VTC is proud to be part of a thriving artistic community and hopes to help some of our local aspiring playwrights by giving them the chance to see their works come to life. Whether you are professional or amateur, published or unpublished, VTC would like to offer you this opportunity.
Play submissions should be “one-acts,” approximately 5-40 minutes in length. Send either a paper copy to Vermont Theatre Company, P.O. Box 11, Brattleboro, VT 05302, or e-mail a digital copy to jamesgelter@gmail.com. All submissions must be sent by April 20 for consideration. Note that not all plays submitted will be chosen for performance. There will be no monetary compensation for authors whose works are chosen.
Music
• Ensemble Datura brings world music to Brattleboro: On Friday, March 18, at 7 p.m. at the Hooker-Dunham Theater, Friends of Music at Guilford presents Ensemble Datura in a program of traditional music from Turkey, South India, and the Arabic world, as well as original compositions featuring musical instruments and ideas that draw on the cultures of South India, the Middle East, Turkey, Australia, Tuva, Zimbabwe (the Shona tribe in particular), Brazil, and the United States.
Todd Roach, who runs The Loft teaching and performance space in Brattleboro, will be playing darbuka, riqq, frame drums, pandeiro, djembe and percussion. Multi-instrumentalist Mac Ritchey, once referred to as a “musical Swiss Army knife,” plays oud, guitars, duduk, and didjeridu.
They will be joined by K.S. Resmi, an author, teacher, and scholar in Indian classical music and specialist in the Carnatic vocal techniques of South India; she has been featured on numerous film soundtracks and CDs. The fourth member of the group is exotic percussion master N. Scott Robinson, who plays frame drums, ghaval, riqq, pandeiro, sanza, mbira dza vadzimu, and hammer dulcimer.
Tickets for the concert are $10 for adults, $5 for students age 5 through 16. A buffet of Middle Eastern foods from Sarkis Market will be offered for sale from 5:30 p.m. ($10 a plate with dessert and a beverage), and an array of desserts and beverages will be available during the concert. For further information, contact Friends of Music at Guilford at 802-254-3600 or office@fomag.org.
• The Met in HD at the Latchis: French soprano Natalie Dessay sings one of her greatest roles, the fragile heroine of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, as part of The Met: Live in HD series at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro on Saturday, March 19 at 1 p.m., with an encore performance on Sunday, March 20, at 11 a.m.
Dessay's acclaimed portrayal was first seen at the Met in the 2007 premiere of Mary Zimmerman's production. Dessay is joined by co-stars Joseph Calleja as Edgardo, Ludovic Tézier as Enrico, and Kwangchul Youn as Raimondo. Patrick Summers, the Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, conducts. Renée Fleming, who stars in the Live in HD transmission of Capriccio on April 23, is the HD host for Lucia di Lammermoor and will interview the opera's stars.
Ticket prices are $24 on Saturday and $22 on Sunday. Jim Anderson will present a pre-performance talk Saturday at noon, admission is $10.
• Music For The Universe: On Saturday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m., Open Music Collective will be hosting Boston's Kurtis Rivers in concert. Kurtis is a Sax/Woodwinds player who has been an integral part of the music scene in Boston and New York for over 30 years. In this concert he will be accompanied by The Jazz Demolition Project with David Goodrich on guitar, Jamie MacDonald on bass and Doug Raneri on drums.
The concert will be held in a handicapped-accessible suite in the Cotton Mill in Brattleboro Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students. Call 802-254-5054 or e-mail info@openmusiccollective.org for reservations.
• Jatoba CD release party: On Saturday, March 26, at 9 p.m., at The Stone Church, corner of Grove and Main streets, Brattleboro, the groove-grass trio Jatoba will host a party celebrating the official release of their first full-length studio album, Death, Fire, and Picnic Tables.
This show will be limited to only 200 people. This is a Barnaby's event, so expect crazy lazers, lights, fog and projections for your visual pleasure. This event is BYOB and will be 21 plus only please with POSITIVE ID, so feel free to bring your own drinks and refreshments. Tickets are $10 in advance at brattleborotix.com, or $12 at the door the night of the show.
Film
• Award winning Guilford documentary to be shown on March 19: The Stuff of Dreams, a documentary on the 1977 Guilford production of The Tempest, will be shown on Saturday, March 19, at Guilford Central School at 7 p.m. The event is the third in the series of Guilford Movie Nights forming part of the town's year long 250th anniversary celebration. Admission is free with donations welcome.
Although only active from 1975-81, The Monteverdi Players of Guilford became widely known for their imaginative annual outdoor plays held in several rural locations of Guilford. Director John Carroll, who also appeared in the lead role of Prospero in The Tempest, worked with filmmakers Alan and Susan Dater of Marlboro and John Scagliotti of Guilford on this film, which documents the creation of this production, which took place on Sweet Pond in Guilford.
Scagliotti will be present on Saturday to introduce the film.
The production of this play, believed to be Shakespeare's last work, involved a large number of creative people from the community, including many of the best local actors. An original score was written by Guilford composer Zeke Hecker, and was performed by a small band of musicians. In the film, Hecker is seen teaching a song to Christopher Coutant, who plays Ariel.
Fantastic sets, costumes and headpieces, characteristic of many Monteverdi productions, were used in the play, which was performed on an “island” near the shore of Sweet Pond, a small state park in Guilford. Mark Fenwick of Guilford created not only this island-stage but also an actual period ship which sailed into view of the audience at the opening. The Players were also known for fantastic costumes and other pieces. Costumes for the production were by Sue Merton and Joan Peters, and headpieces by Stacy Morse.
The film was released in 1979, and was shown on public television, both in Vermont and in New York, and has won awards and many admirers. In addition to showing how the production was created, the film includes interviews with Guilford neighbors about their response to the arrival of the artistic community which formed the Monteverdi Players. Toward the close of the movie, a number of scenes from the actual performance are seen.
For those wishing to have “Dinner and a Movie,” all in Guilford, one may attend the early seatings of the Sugar on Snow Supper at Guilford Community Church at 4:30 or 5:45 p.m. (for supper reservations, call 802-257-1819).
Dance
• Drop In Center, Village Dance combine forces in fundraiser: On Saturday, March 19, the Village Dance Series presents a Contra Dance that is a fundraiser for the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center.
The dance will take place at the Evening Star Grange in Dummerston Center, and will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a family friendly dance of contras and squares. From 8-10 p.m., there will be adult contra dancing. Refreshments in the form of desserts and hot and cold beverages will be sold at the dance. The Drop In Center's winter raffle will also be held, with many prizes drawn during the evening.
The New England Dancing Masters are co-sponsoring the event as a way to help support the programs of the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center. The cost for the dance is $7 for adults and $4 for children, with a family price of $20. All the dances will be taught and beginners are welcomed. Andy Davis will call the dances, and music will be provided by Laurie Indenbaum on the fiddle and Keith Murphy at the piano.
For dance information, contact Andy Davis at 802-257-1819 or village@dancingmasters.com. For event details or to purchase raffle tickets, contact the Drop In Center at 802 257-2005, ext. 103, or visit www.brattleborodropin.org.
Books
• Moore Free Library has new website: The Moore Free Library, 23 West St. in Newfane has a new website: www.moorefreelibrary.org.
On the site, one can read news and notes from librarian Meris Morrison, see the calendar of upcoming events and library programs, check what the Friends of Moore Free Library are reading in their book group, or search the library's online catalog to find a book.
Moore Free Library is a privately-funded library that receives no local, state or federal funding. Donations from patrons from Newfane and Brookline and fundraising events help support the website and other activities. Last year, their more than 1,000 patrons checked out more than 10,000 books.
Library hours are Tuesday through Friday, 1-5 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.