Join the Wild Goose Players as they present Stephen Sondheim's musical, Into The Woods, beginning Friday, April 22, and continuing with performances April 23, 29, and 30 at 7:30 p.m., and April 23, 24, 30, and May 1 at 2 p.m. at the Bellows Falls Opera House.
Nominated for 10 Tony Awards and winning three, this epic musical adaptation of Grimms' Fairy Tales covers multiple themes: growing up, parents and children, accepting responsibility, morality, and finally, wish-fulfillment and its consequences.
Time magazine reviewers wrote that the play's “basic insight … is that at heart, most fairy tales are about the loving yet embattled relationship between parents and children. Almost everything that goes wrong - which is to say, almost everything that can - arises from a failure of parental or filial duty, despite the best intentions.”
Film and music critic of the New York Times Stephen Holden wrote that the themes of the show include parent-child relationships and the individual's responsibility to the community. The witch isn't just a scowling old hag, but a key symbol of moral ambivalence.
It's been dismaying recently to see losing sports teams walking out of the arena without the traditional line of handshakes with the winning team, violating one of the basics of good sports conduct that we were all taught beginning in elementary school. I've been wondering who on earth is...
I do not know Mark Speno, other than that he makes a very good impression when, as principal of Green Street School, he has spoken at school board meetings I've attended. I don't think I've ever spoken to him directly. Most residents in the communities that make up the...
The Vermont Theatre Company welcomes the community to the East Coast premiere of Rathmines Road, written by Deirdre Kinahan and directed by Charlene Kennedy. Performances will be held from Friday, April 29, through Sunday, May 1, and Friday, May 6 through Sunday, May 8, at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery, 139 Main St. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday performances begin at 3 p.m. Rathmines Road is set in a small room over the course of...
Lithuania and Vermont have enjoyed close ties for years, so that when a crisis affect one, the other will feel it also. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is one of those crises, raising worries from those in Lithuania and the other Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia bordering the war zone that their region might be next. However, Lithuania's deputy ambassador to the United States, Dovydas Špokauskas, told the Windham World Affairs Council on April 5 that his country is...
Becca Balint is a champion for educators, labor, and all working Vermonters; she is one of us. As a former Vermont public school teacher and a current parent of a public school student, Becca knows firsthand the challenges that educators face, and she carries them with her every day. With the pension issue, Becca's leadership helped assure that thousands of public employees can retire with dignity. When the issue flared last winter, I was deep in the trenches of Covid-teaching,
College news • Tyler Morris of West Townshend and Jessica Weiner of Brattleboro were both named to the fall 2021 Dean's List at College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, Mass. • Zane Hlavaty of Brattleboro was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society. Hlavaty was initiated at the University of Massachusetts. Transitions • Bill Anton, Kim Benzel, Linda Blumberg, Jennifer Mack-Watkins, and Edward McCatty...
Brattleboro lifts winter parking ban BRATTLEBORO - The Parking Department says the winter parking ban has ended for the season. Overnight parking will be allowed on all streets, except in the downtown area: Main, High, Elliot (from School to Main), Flat, Canal (from the Brattleboro Food Co-op to #63), Church, Elm, and Grove streets, and Harris Place. L&G Players present evening of short plays TOWNSHEND - The Leland & Gray Players present “An Evening of Short Plays” on Thursday and...
Vocal ensemble the Brattleboro Camerata will perform an afternoon of Renaissance love songs on Sunday, April 24, at the Brattleboro Music Center. The 4 p.m. concert, titled “To Live in Pleasure,” will feature love-centric works just in time for spring. The concert includes works by English, Italian, Spanish, and French composers, spanning the very early Renaissance to late Renaissance and Mannerist works, with music by madrigalists like Thomas Morley and Jacques Arcadelt, as well as works by less familiar names,
On Friday April 22, from 4 to 7 p.m., join 350Brattleboro, Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC), and many others to celebrate all the ways people are working toward climate justice. Starting at 4 p.m., organizers said they will have tabling from environmental, social justice and conservation organizations so people can “learn about all the ways your friends and neighbors are working to address climate change and foster a healthy and beautiful natural world.” They said they will be offering three...
A Mother's Day weekend comedy show, Momologues, comes to Main Street Arts, 35 Main St., on Saturday, May 7, from 3 to 5 p.m. Fifteen comics from around New England - a mix of mothers, fathers, and children - have prepared “their funniest 'mom-themed' comedy in an all-ages event that is a celebration of the incredible humans who brought us into this world,” organizers say. Doors open at 3 p.m. and, until the show starts at 3:30 p.m., audience members...
Eight Vermont youths have been selected as 2022 National Award recipients in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, with four winning gold medals and four receiving silver medals. The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) is the Vermont affiliate for the annual awards program. Willa Sheehan of The Putney School is the winner of the American Visions Medal for art, and Madison Wilson of St. Johnsbury Academy is the winner of the American Voices Medal for writing. Works were judged...
Let me first say that I speak for myself and do not claim to represent anyone other than myself. I am a property owner on Main Street in Putney and as such have a financial as well as personal interest in Putney and in any projects concerning Putney. I do not know, in the long term, if the proposed Windham-Windsor Housing Trust housing project will be good for the town or bad for it, as I am no prophet. I...
“All Brattleboro needs next is a climbing wall and Frisbee golf,” Dennis Smith said. The skatepark at the Boys and Girls Club in Brattleboro was a joyous place for my two sons and their friends as they transitioned from children to teens. This group, with brothers from at least three families, were a mixed-age bunch, and skating was an activity they could all do together, learning from each other and laughing as they flew on the half pipes and made...
In light of recent letters of opinion addressing the proposed housing project in Putney by Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, the directors of Green Commons of Vermont would like to clarify our position. Our mission is to purchase and preserve open, green space for community use. Our first project is the acquisition of a 1-acre parcel to ensure the continued success of the Putney Community Garden and the Putney Farmers' Market. This acquisition is expected to occur after WWHT closes...
It appears the lure of the Ring of Power under the golden dome in Montpeculiar has captured Brattleboro Rep. Emilie Kornheiser. The white-hot prospect of inheriting the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee seems to have blinded Rep. Kornheiser and consumed the integrity she brought with her to the State House. Rep. Kornheiser is now carrying the water for retiring chair Janel Ancel and the Ways and Means Committee (and in the process making Republican school choice/private school...
April arrives. Sugaring is over, at least in southern Vermont. Winter is a dim memory; predicted snow failed to arrive, and rains were common. As a winter lover, I remember the snows we used to have. Faulty memory? Embellishment of the past? I think not. Studies and statistics confirm my memories. The Vermont Climate Assessment is a study put out by the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont in 2021. It found that many customs and hallmarks...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) will present “The Delight of Listening: Interviewing for Oral History and Deeper Understanding,” a free in-person workshop with the Vermont Folklife Center's Sasha Antohin, Ph.D., and Mary Wesley, on Thursday, April 14, at 7 p.m. Register at brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101. The workshop will provide an introduction to the Vermont Folklife Center's approach to the art of interviewing, as well as a brief overview of best practices for audio recording. The...
Seven months after 27 farmers in Vermont - among the 89 across the Northeast - were shocked by a letter from Horizon Organics saying the company would stop buying milk from them in August, a few bright spots are shining through. Stimulated by Horizon's announcement, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets and several Northeast partners led a farmer-focused Northeast Dairy Task Force to identify key issues facing the region's dairy industry. The task force's comprehensive report released in...
The Actors Theatre Playhouse in West Chesterfield, N.H., announces open auditions for its 2022 Ten Minute Play Festival. Audition will take place at the Brooks Memorial Library Community Room on Main Street in Brattleboro on Saturday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Tuesday, April 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. The Festival will run for nine performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, July 14 through 31. At the audition, you will be asked to read from the...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) will present “Historical Depictions of Slavery,” a free talk by art historian Renée Ater, on Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live. The talk is presented in connection with “Roberto Visani: Form/Reform,” an exhibit of cardboard sculptures that reinterpret past portrayals of enslaved people. Register at brattleboromuseum.org. To create the sculptures in his “cardboard slave kits” series, Visani begins by identifying a historical work of art in which enslaved...
As many of us are still not able to join together, may this story be a comfort. Having been living in this region for only a few months before Passover, I found myself on my own. I had spent a few Seders by myself in previous years, but that was by choice - unlike this time. So, determined not to be alone, I happened upon a very different type of Seder, but one I would not trade for anything. It...
I'm going 5 mph above the limit, and you're a car length behind. And, as if we're singing along to the same song on the radio, we both mouth, “WTF?” You, because you're in a rush. Me, because you appear to be in my back seat. I consider resorting to previous failed responses: cursing, fake braking, slowing down, pulling over, flashing lights, and flipping the bird. I've since matured and have posted across my rear window: “Only you can prevent...
There are occasions in life that gift us serendipitously. Often they move us. Such was my experience when I met Russian-born Alexey Neyman, an 83-year-old Jewish artist whose work was sold at the Creative Connections Gift Shop and Gallery in Ashburnham, Mass., recently in support of Ukraine. Neyman's exhibition, “The Habitual Light of Memory,” was mounted to raise funds for Ukraine. The works raised over $4,600 on the first day of the exhibit, and the funds were immediately sent to...
With eggs from her own hens and wax from her own hive, Jenny Santa Maria offered a hands-on introduction to the art of pysanky - Ukrainian egg decorating - workshop on April 9. Using a tool called a kitska, Santa Maria scoops a small amount of beeswax and heats it over a candle flame. She then uses the kitska to draw with the wax on the egg before dipping it into different colors of dyes. With multiple applications of the...
With 100 people attending via Zoom and more wanting to get into the meeting, the Putney Huddle hosted a forum on April 10 to hear from the four people running for a one-year seat and the two vying for the two-year seat on the Selectboard. Voters at this year's Annual Town Meeting agreed to add two new members to make a five-member board, thus the need for a special election. Organizer Laura Chapman apologized that more people could not be...
Guitarist Glenn Jones, a friend and musical protégé of folk guitar hero John Fahey, will perform at the downtown Brattleboro art space Epsilon Spires on Thursday, April 14, at 8 p.m. The event will also feature Vic Rawlings, a musician, documentary filmmaker, and instrument-builder based in Western Massachusetts. “Jones is a master of the guitar style known as 'American Primitive,'” a news release states, “a term coined by Fahey to describe an intricate fingerpicking style typical of country blues and...
Unified basketball is back at Brattleboro Union High School after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is a wonderful sight to see. I was at the BUHS gym on April 6 for the Colonels' second game of the season, against the Middlebury Tigers. The place was filled with spectators, and was easily the biggest crowd I've seen in there since before the pandemic. What they got was an enjoyable game, even though the Colonels lost, 36-25.
Brattleboro's municipal government and the town's nearly 60-year nonprofit emergency medical service provider are on course to part ways because of an escalating contract dispute. Newly hired Town Manager Yoshi Manale announced on April 11 that Rescue Inc. would stop responding to Brattleboro calls as of July 1, leading his office to draft a transition plan to hire a private ambulance company until the local fire department can secure enough employees and equipment to take over. “After a careful internal...