In Brief: Black Opry Revue, Northern Stage, Hood Museum, Parish Players

An abundance of riches

One of the best things about living in the Upper Valley is that there are more arts events than one individual can get to, or write about. That is a good problem to have. Here are some quick reminders of recent openings, upcoming performances at Lebanon Opera House and the Parish Players, and the second production of Northern Stage’s new season.

Black Opry Revue is an all-ages, free event (reservations necessary and donations gratefully accepted) at the Lebanon Opera House in Lebanon, NH on Saturday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m. It showcases five emerging Black singer-songwriters whose work falls into the country genre with gospel, folk, blues, and Americana influences. According to Rolling Stone, “Black Opry was born as a simple way for founder Holly G to meet like-minded fans. She rarely saw anyone who looked like her at a country concert. It was always a sea of white faces and the unshakeable feeling that she wasn’t welcome. It’s now a force of change in bringing racial equity to country music.”

Northern Stage’s second production of the 2022-23 season, Spring Awakening, will be in previews early this week beginning on September 27 with opening night on Friday, September 30, continuing through October 23, 2022 at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction, VT. “The original play that the musical is based on was written in Germany in 1891, but it could have been written in America last week,” explains director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, who also directed last season’s Heisenberg. “The play explores this powerful story of teenage rebellion and brings the hidden, electric inner life of the teens to the stage in music and dance with a contemporary rock score.” Recommended for people 14 years and older.

Currently on view at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College is Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, the first major exhibition of Aboriginal Australian paintings to tour the United States, and the largest and most important exhibition of its kind mounted in the western hemisphere in over 30 years. There are guided tours, video installations, and lectures and conversations with curators and others over the next few months. Through December 4, 2022. Click on the hyperlink for more information.

Parish Players in Thetford, VT opens on Thursday, September 29 at 7:30 pm (with several performances until October 9) with the multiple-award winning comedy . . .

(Photo, top, Julie Williams, one of the performers featured in Black Opry Revue at Lebanon Opera House. Courtesy of Lebanon Opera House.)

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Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.