Guilford Center Stage will stage two productions, in the spring and fall of 2024, at Broad Brook Community Center in Guilford. These will be the 12th and 13th shows since the group was founded in 2015, and both feature the work of Vermont playwrights.
On the first weekend in May, Hardwick playwright Marc Considine's Love Lost Diaries will be staged, directed by Julie Holland of Guilford. Considine is a science teacher at Hazen Union School in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. He is coach of the school's ambitious Drama Club. It was for his student actors that Considine wrote this play, which was the ensemble's entry in a regional drama festival in the late 1980s.
Director Holland has appeared or stage-managed 10 of the theater group's productions. She says, "Love Lost Diaries is a bittersweet story of a lifelong marriage that could have been so much more loving than it was, if only the couple had communicated their feelings to each other." The couple's history is revealed through diaries discovered by a group of high school students.
Auditions for Love Lost Diaries will be Saturday, Feb. 10, from 1 to 4 p.m., and Monday, Feb. 12, from 5 to 8 p.m., upstairs at the Broad Brook Community Center in Guilford. The facility is fully accessible, with an elevator to the upstairs.
Beginning Feb. 1 and continuing through April 11, AARP Foundation is providing free tax assistance and preparation through its Tax-Aide program. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is the nation's largest volunteer-based free tax preparation service. Volunteers are trained and IRS-certified every year to ensure they understand the latest changes to the...
Main Street Arts (MSA) will offer a Creative Aging program beginning in February for seniors in the Greater Rockingham area. There will be three sessions featuring diverse artistic opportunities taught in-person by local teachers. The first session, from Tuesday, Feb. 6, to March 26, will include "An Expressive Arts...
The 17th annual Northern Roots Festival once again offers daytime workshops, a Saturday evening concert, and Sunday pub sessions to delight lovers of traditional northern musical traditions, which this year include Irish, English, French Canadian, Scandinavian, and New England. Organizers say this cornerstone of the traditional music calendar in New England begins Saturday, Jan. 27, from noon to 5 p.m., as the Brattleboro Music Center hosts workshops on a variety of topics. Attendees can learn more about everything from Fiddle...
The General Federation of Women's Clubs of Vermont (GFWC-VT) announces the availability of scholarships for Vermont women, beyond the traditional high-school-to-college-age track, seeking to further their education or training or to upgrade their skills in preparation for entering or advancing in the workplace. Applicants must submit a specific plan for their education or training. Applications are due to Betty Haggerty, 16 Taylor St., Bellows Falls, VT 05101, by March 15; her contact information is also included on the application. The...
Windham County NRCD hosts Conservation Coffee Chat DUMMERSTON - The public is invited to attend the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District (NRDC) at their annual conservation coffee chat on Friday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon at The Bunker Farm on Bunker Road. Participants can learn about locally led conservation efforts and the local working group, as well as discuss how federal dollars should be invested in Windham County to support the restoration and protection of our natural...
The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC) invites the public to join artists Fawn Krieger and David B. Smith on Zoom Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m. for a discussion of their work, which is on view at the museum in the exhibit "Home Bodies" through March 9. Krieger, a ceramic artist, and Smith, a textile artist, share a creative approach: They layer and collapse physical materials and shapes to expand the possibilities of their respective media. According to Sarah...
Last week, Gov. Phil Scott, in conjunction with The Hartford, a Connecticut insurance firm, announced a new paid family leave program that extends to the private sector a program already in place for state employees. Meanwhile, the Senate is working on its own paid family leave bill, one that originated there and was written by Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro. That bill has already passed out of the House. The difference between the governor's plan and the Senate's is who will...
On Sunday, Jan. 28 - a day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day - the creators of The Cure for Hate: Bearing Witness to Auschwitz will bring the 85-minute documentary, released last month, to the Latchis for a screening and discussion. The film features former neo-Nazi Tony McAleer and depicts, according to a media release, his "journey from a troubled teen drawn into white supremacist ideology to a man trying to make amends for his hate-filled past." McAleer, the film's subject,
Robin Rieske, a certified prevention specialist and community substance-prevention consultant, has worked in the field of substance use for over 35 years. I recently turned down a deal with the devil. Two lobbyists with Altria, a big tobacco company, reached out to me because of my work with Vermont's recovery and harm-reduction community. They tried to convince me that flavored tobacco products serve as a "coping mechanism" for people in recovery and compared these products with proven harm-reduction approaches like...
Another icon and era in Vermont has passed with the retirement of Lester Dunklee and the closing of the R.F. Dunklee Machine Shop on Flat Street in Brattleboro. Two marvelous articles in the Brattleboro Reformer and The Commons perfectly captured the legacy of Lester, the family, and the shop - and their importance in our history. Now Lester will not have to attend his own funeral, as he will know what will be said in his eulogies! And he deserves...
Having moved back to Brattleboro recently, I am feeling helpless about the serious homelessness crisis. I know I am not alone in this. In talking with Libby Bennett, director of development and communications at Groundworks Collaborative, she explained that Groundworks - which includes the Foodworks food shelf program and many more services - is only funded by government grants for roughly 65%, and the other 35% comes from fundraising with some small grants, occasionally. Although we live in a generous...
The Brattleboro Rotary Club bestowed the "Norm Kuebler Four-Way Test Award" upon Robert "Woody" Woodworth at the club's weekly meeting on Jan. 18 at the Heart Rose Club. The award honors the late Norm Kuebler, who was a past president of the club, a local businessman and a longtime community volunteer. Kuebler died unexpectedly at the age of 63 in April 2010. Kuebler was a strong proponent of Rotary International's code of ethics, called the "Four-Way Test," which asks, "Of...
Elégie, the theatrical stage poem and the accompanying album by Cellista, comes out on Saturday, March 23. On Thursday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m., Cellista presents a workshop/recital of Elégie at New England Center for Circus Arts' (NECCA) "Big Studio " at the Cotton Mill, Room A-354. Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 for working artists and youths under 12, and are available at necenterforcircusarts.org. In signature Cellista style, organizers say, Elégie "defies standard categorization." The one-hour stage poem follows...
Gregory Lesch is executive director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce. As The Commons noted in its Jan. 10 front-page story by Joyce Marcel ["Vermonters ask: Where have all the workers gone?"], southern Vermont faces a serious labor shortage and a rapidly aging population that is compounded by a tight housing market. State-supported transitional housing for incoming refugees addresses these issues head-on. Welcoming these new Vermonters is not just a humanitarian effort, it's also a strategic economic measure. Since...
We're heading into the final three weeks of the high school basketball season in Vermont. It's the time when teams learn whether they have what it takes to succeed in the playoffs. The Bellows Falls Terriers have aspirations for a long run in the Division III boys' basketball tournament, but they have lost five straight games to finish last week with a 5-7 record. They hadn't won since a 68-53 victory over Twin Valley on Jan. 4. In BF's defense,
As Windham County Jews - some of us members of the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community (BAJC), and all of us belonging to Jewish Voice for Peace Vermont/New Hampshire - we were saddened and upset to read this letter from BAJC. It was so disappointing because it values fear of antisemitism more highly than it does the very real 23,000 Palestinian lives that have been taken by Israel's genocide. We, too, want the war to stop, no caveats. The letter represents...
The Commons is grateful to the people experiencing homelessness who have shared their stories with the newspaper over the past six months. Following are excerpts from these interviews. Names have been changed to protect their privacy. 'It's not fun being homeless' Joe is 70 years old and stays at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro. He had been paying for a room at the West Village Motel in West Brattleboro for 5{1/2} years but had to leave when the building was...
The Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) and the Vernon School District (VSD) are asking community members to consider running for open seats on those school boards "to make a meaningful impact on local education." The WSESD Board is comprised of 10 members from Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Putney, with each board member governing the schools in all four towns. The VSD Board is comprised of five members and governs the Vernon School. There are open seats on both WSESD and...
Barry Stockwell remembers his father, Raymond Stockwell, returning from work in the Putney Paper Mill in the 1960s. Each day, Raymond, a supervisor in charge of maintenance, would "grab a little whisk broom he kept on the top of the refrigerator and whisk the paper off the top of his hat. Then he'd sit down in a kitchen chair to unwind and tell us about his day," he reminisced. Until its current owner, Soundview Vermont, closed the paper mill at...
Editor's note: On Jan. 10, Kornheiser, as chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, recommended passage of an act relating to a harm-reduction criminal justice response to drug use. The bill, which calls for $1 million for a pilot program for overdose prevention centers, passed the House on Jan. 11 and is now in the hands of the state Senate's Committee on Health and Welfare. Emilie Kornheiser, state representative of the Windham-7 district, is up in Montpelier promoting...
The Selectboard has approved a proposed $22,993,830 million fiscal 2025 operating and capital budget as well as plans to spend the town's remaining $1.38 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money. The budget proposed for the Annual Representative Town Meeting (RTM) on Saturday, March 23 represents a 4.3% increase ($955,000) over this year's budget. Town Manager John Potter noted in his budget memo that numerous neighboring towns are seeing 7.4% increases overall. That's a $727,000 total increase in property...
After more than 50 years, more than two dozen albums released, and more than 250 million albums sold, British psychedelic phenomenon Pink Floyd continues to attract a legion of fans all across the globe. With its universal themes and timeless messages - not to mention the incredible light shows during the band's performances - Pink Floyd's music still resonates with band members, fans, and audiences. "Pink Floyd's music in general can be soothing and therapeutic. Some of it can be...
My son is addicted to vaping. He started when friends introduced him to a flavored vape product in high school when he was 17 and is now struggling to quit at 24. He's part of Vermont's youth tobacco addiction crisis that demands action - on two fronts. We can immediately remove the enticement for these products to youth by eliminating the sale of flavored tobacco. It's ridiculous to think that flavors like Sour Patch, Fluffernutter, and Gummy Chews are geared...
On a 25-degree afternoon, about 60 people - some without hats, gloves, or boots - held a candlelight vigil in Pliny Park to acknowledge and grieve the 19 unhoused local people who died last year. It was Homelessness Awareness Day on Jan. 18, and Vermonters across the state were renewing their commitment to end homelessness. "In 2023 almost 8,000 Vermonters experienced homelessness, including 2,000 children," event organizer Fred Breunig told the gathering. "Over the past year, local service providers supported...
Rick Holmes is retired and living in Marlboro after a long career in journalism and opinion-writing, mostly at the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass., where he served as opinion editor. A persistent question has found its way into the discourse over the last few years: Is the United States a republic or a democracy? The question typically comes in the context of an argument over voting rights, gerrymandering, or overturning the 2020 election. Liberal complaints about assaults on democracy...
College news• Sydney Henry of Brattleboro, Ava Cutler of Brattleboro, Christina Czechel of Londonderry, and Abigail Towle of Newfane were all named to the Dean's List for the fall 2023 semester at Stonehill College in Easton, Massaschusetts. • Jaden Conkling of Brattleboro was named to the Dean's List for the fall 2023 semester at Nazareth University in Rochester, New York. Obituaries• Norton "Norty" Garber, 86, of Westminster West. Died at home of pancreatic cancer on Jan. 13, 2024. Born in...