BY DAVID CORRIVEAU
VALLEY NEWS STAFF WRITER
More than a quarter of a century and dozens of plays later, Jim Nicola likes to tell the tale of how the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) started sending emerging playwrights and directors to Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center each summer to fine-tune their works-in-progress.
Or should we say the tail?
“We had a relationship with the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut for our summer residency program,” Nicola, NYTW’s artistic director since 1988, recalled on Monday, at the start of the company’s third and last week at Dartmouth. “Then that first year (1990), a dog belonging to one of our staff members bit a security guard.”
The rest, since the residency program moved to the Hop in 1991, is history: After its 1994 workshopping at Dartmouth, the musical Rent went on a 12-year tsunami of a run on Broadway.
In 1999, Moises Kaufman’s theatrical documentary The Laramie Project, based on hundreds of interviews, journals and news stories surrounding the 1998 murder in Wyoming of gay student Matthew Shepard, took shape here.
And in 2014, Rachel Chavkin, a member of the corps of creative minds that NYTW calls its “Usual Suspects,” sculpted Vermont troubador and composer Anais Mitchell’s folk opera Hadestown. This spring and summer, the workshop presented the current iteration of Mitchell’s adaptation of the myth of Orpheusand Euridyce on its main stage in New York City, to strong reviews.
“It was very intensive, really important,” Nicola said of the Hadestown project’s Dartmouth vetting. “It became the biggest success we’ve had in terms of box office” at NYTW’s main stage. “We extended it twice this season.”
While few plays that start at the Hop take off commercially, just the chance to see productions in their infancies thrills Alison Clarkson, a co-founder of NYTW and former theatrical producer who moved to Woodstock from New York in 1991, the same year that the workshop began its residencies here.
“(Upper Valley residents) get the benefit,” said Clarkson, a Vermont state representative who recently won the Democratic primary race for one of three Windsor County seats in the state Senate. “You get to see it from the beginning here. Audiences here then get to follow it through its life in New York.”
Some require more fine-tuning than others: At the end of week 1 of this year’s residency, a workshop team staged Her Portmanteau, one of nine plays from Nigerian writer Mfoniso Udofia’s The Ufot Cycle saga. Her Portmanteau, which follows a Nigerian family’s navigation through stormy cross-currents of its African traditions and its American reality, is now on NYTW’s main-stage schedule for 2016-2017.
“It needed some time and focus,” Nicola said. “What they started with on Tuesday and how it looked Saturday night when they shared it, were completely different. It is now ready to go into rehearsal. It wasn’t before.”
This week, in advance of stagings in the Hop’s Warner Bentley Theater on Saturday, workshop actors and crew are tweaking America 2-Episode 2-Psychopatriot, the follow-up to Norwegian writer-choreographer Alan Lucien Oyen’s 2008 play America — Visions of Love, a rumination on the mythologies, mysteries and realities of the United States; and Here Are Our Monsters, A. Rey Pamatmat’s examination of the lives of three characters in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
“It’s been hectic here, but it’s never as hectic as New York,” Nicola said. “The staff always talks about leaving here exhausted, but it’s a different kind of exhausted.”
Feedback from summer audiences helps.
“The people from the Upper Valley who come to see the work in the raw state that it’s in are really engaged,” Nicola said. “I’ll walk down Main Street for coffee and run into someone who says, ‘You know that thing you had last night? That was something.’
“This is a very smart audience, very savvy. … Over the years, there’s a core of people who enjoy this kind of work. The voices of the artists actually mean something to them.”
The New York Theatre Workshop this Saturday completes its summer residency at Dartmouth College with performances of two works-in-progress in the Warner Bentley Theater of the Hopkins Center in Hanover. At 4 in the afternoon, the workshop presents America 2-Episode 2-Psychopatriot. And at 7:30 Saturday night, workshop performers stages Here Are Our Monsters. For tickets ($6.50 to $13) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The 24th annual Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival kicks off tonight at 7 at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall, with an admission-free open rehearsal by the visiting performers. The first complete performances take place over the weekend, with the ensemble of string players Basia Danilow, Arturo Delmoni and Peter Sanders and pianist Molly Morkoski playing works of Beethoven and Brahms at the Chandler on Saturday night at 7:30 (tickets $25) and, in conjunction with Pentangle Arts, at the North Universalist Chapel on Church Street in Woodstock at 4 on Sunday afternoon (tickets $10). For more information about this weekend’s shows, including performances between next Thursday night and Aug. 28, and discounts for reserving tickets for more than one show, visit centralvtchambermusicfest.org/.
Longtime Dartmouth College music professor Marcia Cassidy plays viola with her violinist son David Horak in the Classicopia ensemble that performs three concerts this weekend featuring folk-inspired piano quintets of Antonin Dvorak and Erno Dohnanyi. The marathon begins Friday night at 7:30 at Lebanon’s First Congregational Church, where admission is $10 for church members and $20 for others, with discounts available by visiting classicopia.org.
The quintet, which also includes violinist Ralph Allen and cellist Iris Jortner and Classicopia co-founder and pianist Daniel Weiser, also will play two house concerts, the first on Saturday afternoon at 3 on Lake Sunapee and the second on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Hanover. With limited seating at both venues, reservations are required through classicopia.org. Admission to each is $40.
What it lacks in lions and tigers and bears (oh, my!), the “Magnificent Mammals” exhibit at Quechee’s Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) on Saturday makes up for in diversity. Between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., VINS plays host to wildlife experts who will introduce an Arctic fox, a three-banded armadillo, a beaver, a Bennett’s wallaby from Australia, a coatimundi (a raccoon-like creature from Central or South America), a hybrid coyote-wolf, a gray fox, a Flemish rabbit, an opossum and a porcupine. Other activities during the exhibit, which runs from 10 to 5, include a biofacts table at which visitors can feel pelts and compare skulls, presentations at 10:30, 1 and 3 of raptors by gloved staff members of VINS, and face painting and crafts. Admission to the VINS Nature Center is free for VINS members and $12.50 to $14.50 for others. For more information, visit vinsweb.org/mammals or call 802-359-5000.
In a festival benefiting the Reading-West Windsor Food Shelf, several area singer-songwriters and players of bluegrass and funk take the stage a Claude Bartley Memorial Field in Reading, Vt., on Saturday from noon to 9. Scheduled performers include acoustic guitarist Aidan Ellis of Reading, Woodstock residents Bradley “Wolf” Hinson and Sawyer Mattson and Luke Jacobs, Scott Baumann of Reading, Jack Snyder of Barnard, the Burlington-based Matt Sturm Funk Band and the bluegrass ensemble of Thomas Bryce and Jonah Cohen. Admission is by donation: refreshments are also for sale. Signs will be set up in Reading directing concertgoers to the field.
During the weekly concert on Sunday afternoon at 2 in the Little Studio at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, the Arianna String Quartet and guest clarinetist Jonathan Cohler perform the world premiere of adventurer-composer Stephen Lias’ … into the Blue, as part of the site’s musical celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. In addition to … into the Blue, the ensemble also will play works of Mozart, Osvaldo Costa de Lacerda and Astor Piazzolla. Admission to the concert, the second to last in the 2016 summer series, is included in the $7 entry fee to the historic site. For more information, visit nps.gov/saga.
Songwriter David Rosane joins forces with the American Zookeepers — aka the Bradford duo of Don and Jenn Sinclair — to play punk-infused Americana on Aug. 27 at 7:30 p.m., during the final summer concert at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret. Admission is $10. To learn more, visit artistreevt.org.
In the kickoff to its final production of the summer, the New London Barn Playhouse stages the bedroom farce Don’t Dress for Dinner on Wednesday afternoon at 2 and Wednesday night at 7:30. The run will end on Sept. 4. This weekend, the company wraps up its revival of the Gershwin-infused Crazy for You with performances tonight at 7:30, Friday afternoon at 3, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 and Sunday afternoon at 5. For tickets ($20 to $29) and more information, visit nlbarn.org or call 603-526-6710.
The Old Church Theater in Bradford lowers the curtain on William Fray’s adaptation of The Secret Garden with performances on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 and on Sunday afternoon at 4. For tickets ($6 to $12) and more information, visit oldchurchtheater.org or call 802-222-3322.
The Woolen Mill Comedy Club in Bridgewater hosts a comedy jam this weekend, with headliners Alex Koltchak on Friday night at 8 and Josh Day on Saturday night at 8. Admission is by donation.
Sensible Shoes performs at the Lebanon Farmers’ Market on Colburn Park this afternoon between 4 and 7.
Doug Perkins joins the Bessette Quartet for a set of jazz during the Feast and Field Market in Barnard tonight from 5:30 to 7:30.
The folk-rock ensemble Gone Walden plays on the gazebo at Denny Park in Bradford tonight starting at 6. Admission is by donation.
Anderson East performs a set of vintage soul at Colburn Park in Lebanon tonight at 7.
Pianist Andreas Klein playsworks of Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and Brahms tonight at 7:30 at the First Baptist Church of New London. For tickets ($5 to $25), call 603-526-8234, or visit summermusicassociates.com or New London’s Morgan Hill Bookstore, Tatewell Gallery and Chamber of Commerce.
The Kearsarge Community Band performs the final concert of the summer at the Mary Haddad Memorial Bandstand in New London on Friday night at 6:30.
If you missed their show at the Harbor House Livery earlier this month, guitarists Tom Pirozzoli and Kit Creeger return to Sunapee Harbor on Saturday night to play from 5 to 7 on the Flanders Stage, next to Wild Goose Country Store.
Revels Traditions holds a free community sing at the Loch Lyme Lodge in Lyme on Saturday night from 6 to 8.
JJ’s Music plays at the Newport Town Common on Sunday night at 6.
Royalton singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner joins forces with Soulfix at the Grantham Recreation Park on Tuesday night at 6.
Wednesday night at 6:30, Nick’s Other Band performs dance-able rock at the Ben Mere Bandstand overlooking Sunapee Harbor.
Guitarist Ted Mortimer plays jazz at the Canoe Club in Hanover at 6:30 tonight and Wednesday night. Following (and preceding) him to the microphone over the coming week with shows from 6:30 to 9:30 are pianist William Ogmundson on Saturday and acoustic chameleon Joseph Stallsmith on Tuesday.
Dave Clark performs bluegrass at the Boho Cafe in downtown White River Junction tonight between 7 and 10, followed Friday night at 7:30 by Harmony Hotel.
The Bone Factory pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7. Following the band to the venue over the coming week are Brickdrop on Friday night at 9:30, The Tricksters on Saturday night at 9:30 and singer-songwriter Erik Boedtker on Tuesday night at 6.
Singer-songwriter James Mee appears at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 8.
The Occasional Jug Band performs at the tavern at Jesse’s in Hanover on Friday night starting at 5.
Friday night at 6 on the bandstand at the Norwich Green, the Brian Cook Band plays its blend of rock, pop, soul, R&B, country and folk.
The Flames perform from 4:30 to 7 during Pizza Friday at King Arthur Flour in Norwich.
Royalton singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner commands the microphone at the Three Stallion Inn’s Willy B’s Tavern on Friday night from 7 to 9.
Sensible Shoes sets the rhythm for dancing at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night starting at 9. The ensemble also performs at the Loch Lyme Lodge in Lyme on Sunday night; for reservations ($8 for ages 5 to 12 and $22 for ages 13 through adult), which cover the buffet dinner that starts at 6, call 603-795-2141.
The Friday night lineup at the Upper Valley’s Salt hill Pubs features The Rock Island Blues Brothers Revue in Lebanon, Club Soda in Hanover and Josh Gerrish with a mix of country-western and acoustic rock in Newport. Stepping to the microphone in Lebanon on Saturday night with a set of soul, blues and funk is the B-3 Brotherhood of Tim Gilmore, Norm Wolfe, Tom Caselli, Mike Parker and Mike Connerty. All shows start at 9 at night.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights starting at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
The Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon runs an open mic on Tuesday nights, beginning at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday nights.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.