Second Chances: Encores, Repeats, or What You Might Have Missed the First Time
24 Hour Plays, quiet vs noise, white tablecloths, why “join or die” is not hyperbole, and more . . .
I’ll be brief. The UV is hopping with plays, movies, and other artful activities. Some are “repeats,” about which I have previously written. Then they pop up again, win awards, or fall under the rubric of “same venue/new content.” Where fitting, I have provided hyperlinks (they’re underlined) to original posts so you can get more than just the meager skinny offered in today’s Artful post.
The Quietest Year, Karin Akins’s film about noise pollution right here in Vermont (in Stowe and elsewhere), will be screening as part of the 10th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival in Middlebury VT on Friday, August 23 at 9:00 a.m. in Twilight Hall. Too far, too early, or both? You can stream the film virtually on September 25 to 27 for a fee. Here’s more info. In addition, Akins will be presented with the Gaia Prize for Environmental Filmmaking on August 25th at the Festival. The prize honors a feature film that delivers exceptional insights in environmental and sustainability issues.
Join or Die (photo, top) is the brilliant film adaptation of the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam, a New Hampshire resident whose lifelong work has been researching and writing about the decline of our social fabric. Despite the title, the movie is not dreary but quite clever and informative. Screening at the Orford Congregational Church in Orford NH on August 29, with Sunnyside providing snacks and . . . WRJ’s Wolf Tree serving up the drinks. Because, you know, the social fabric is often strengthened by picking up forks and raising a glass with neighbors.
New Hampshire has thus far failed to follow Vermont in enacting a Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) law; attempts went nowhere in the NH legislature this year. Rob Mermin (Circus Smirkus) wrote ACT 39, a play about MAID based on his real life experience with a close and dying friend that debuted last year. Highland Center for the Arts is now launching the first Vermont tour of ACT 39 at Greensboro's HCA Main Stage 8/29-9/1, Burlington's Main Street Landing 9/4-9/8, and closer to home, Woodstock's Pentangle Arts 9/12-9/14.
The glorious Art at the Kent returns with an opening celebration on September 7 at 3:00 pm in Calais, Vermont. It’s a yearly exhibition of the works of many Vermont artists, sited in an ancient Vermont building whose peeling walls are as much a part of the experience as the objects on display. The theme this year: Illuminated Worlds. You always have to move quickly; this gem is available on weekends only, lasts for just one month and will close on October 6. More info here. Best paired with a nice dinner in Montpelier, maybe at the Three Penny Taproom or for fancy, Oakes and Evelyn.
WCAX TV featured a new round of public art in progress at this very moment at the downtown Lebanon Pedestrian Tunnel. Video is here.
Rachael Thomeer is at it again, and she’s a prime example of a weaver of social fabric. Her recent creation was the successful, first-of-its-kind Free Time Fair for Upper Valley folks who take the concept of Putnam’s “join or die” seriously. This time she is returning with the second annual 24 Hour Play Festival. And it’s grown sufficiently from last year that the final productions have now been moved to Briggs Opera House on September 7. Rachel explains, “Last year’s festival took place at Parish Players in Thetford, VT and we fully sold out the 100-seat theater and had to turn people away for the public performance. We’re so excited to move to Briggs in WRJ this year so we can accommodate a bigger audience . . .” Plays are conceived, written, rehearsed and made ready for the stage within a single 24 hour period. Here’s more.
A trip to the DMV in Newport, NH can be brightened up with lunch at The Old Courthouse Restaurant. It appeared a little over a year ago in the Artful/Daybreak collaboration in which Rob Gurwitt and I interviewed owners of local restaurants to have them name their own favorite menu items. I returned recently after yes, a (what turned out to be an unnecessary) trip to the DMV this week, and shared with owner Karen Doucette a remark I had just made to my husband: When’s the last time you sat at a table with a white tablecloth, and for lunch no less? It’s cozy, and old-time elegant.
(Photos are mine. May all of the hyper- and other links take you where you need to go.)
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And in case you are wondering . . . 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.