Zahra Ruffin was nearing the end of her sophomore year at Dartmouth around the time the college’s theater department committed to staging Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel in the fall of 2016, her senior year.
Back in the spring of 2015, the Brooklyn-native Ruffin could scarcely imagine taking on the role of the main character, Esther Mills, a young black woman who leaves the Jim Crow South early in the 20th century, only to continue to struggle to make a living — and to find meaning in life — in New York City, a hoped-for promised land. After all, Viola Davis had won an Obie (Off-Broadway) Award and a Drama Desk Award as well as several other nominations for her portrayal of Esther between 2003 and 2005.
Then, Ruffin played prison matron Mama Morton for three nights of the seven-show run on the student production of the musical Chicago, in February of 2016.
And this past summer, through Dartmouth’s Foreign Studies Program, Ruffin brushed up in earnest on her Shakespeare — and on throwing her vocal weight around — during an intensive acting workshop in London.
“I knew I needed to work on projecting, enunciating and understanding the text behind the language,” Ruffin said this week, between rehearsals for Intimate Apparel. “It really helped me develop some useful skills that carried over: Breathe correctly, take in enough air for the entire line, be present in my body when I’m trying to convey a point on stage.”
With seven performances at Moore Theater in Hanover over the next two weekends, starting Friday night at 8, Ruffin and the cast aim to convey a number of points.
“I’ve read the ending 30 bazillion times,” Ruffin said. “I kept asking myself, ‘What is the tone here?’ I wanted to make sure the point got across that Esther is more than what happens to her. Even though the play ends with her poorer and sadder than when she arrived, there’s no reason to think she’s any less strong or resilient.”
And as if it weren’t challenge enough to put herself in the place of a black seamstress in the early 20th century, down to the clothing women like Esther would have worn and how they styled their hair, Ruffin found herself pondering how current events might inform her performance.
“The Black Lives Matter movement and all the debate about immigration that has been going on over this time is constantly on my mind,” Ruffin said. “I can’t be unaware of those things.”
Nor, she adds, should the audience.
“There’s an obligation on their part to come in and know of what’s going on around them,” Ruffin said. “This isn’t just an isolated play. Things are better in many ways, but a lot of the racism that Esther deals with is still there.
“It’s still useful in understanding how America has changed and how it hasn’t changed.”
The Department of Theater at Dartmouth College stages Intimate Apparel at the Moore Theater in Hanover on Friday and Saturday nights at 8 and on Sunday afternoon at 2. The production will conclude with three performances the following weekend. To reserve tickets and learn more, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The Lark Quartet plays works of Debussy, Dvorak and Gershwin and folk songs from China during a concert at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall on Friday night at 7:30. For advance tickets ($10 to $33) and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464. Tickets at the door cost $35.
At 3:15 Friday afternoon, Lark violinists Deborah Buck and Basia Danilow, violist Kathryn Lockwood and cellist Caroline Stinson give a master class for advance string players at the Upper Valley Music Center in Lebanon, a gathering to which the public is invited at no cost. To learn more about the earlier appearance, visit uvmusic.org.
The Rochester, Vt.-based Bald Mountain Theater troupe performs Ethan Bowen’s adaptation of the Puss in Boots fairy tale at 13 venues around Vermont over the next three weekends. Upper Valley shows are scheduled for Friday night at 7 at Newberry Market in White River Junction, next Thursday night at 7 at Tunbridge Town Hall and Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. at Woodstock’s Little Theater. Admission at the door is $10 to $15 per person and $40 for a family of four. To reserve tickets and learn more, visit baldmountaintheater.org or call 802-767-4800 or email baldmountaintheater@gmail.com.
The Acacia Music chamber ensemble of clarinetist Meghan Davis, flutist Leslie Stroud and pianist Matthew Odell performs Vermont composer Patrick Wilkins’ new trio School of Orcas, as well as works of Martin Amlin, Debussy and Lowell Liebermann, during a concert at the Upper Valley Music Center in Lebanon on Saturday night at 7:30. Admission is $5 to $15. To learn more, visit uvmusic.org, call 603-448-1642 or email info@uvmusic.org.
Under the baton of new conductor Filippo Ciabatti, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra tackles works of Dvorak, Shostakovich and Carl Nielsen on Saturday night at 8 at Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover. Dartmouth senior Cheryl Chang is the soloist for the performance of Nielsen’s Flute Concerto. For tickets ($10 to $20) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The Dartmouth College Glee Club celebrates the story of 1960s civil rights activist Booker Wright on Sunday afternoon at 2 at Rollins Chapel in Hanover, by performing choral works of William Billings, Aaron Copland, Moses Hogan and Nolan Gasser. The concert, on the theme of “American Strength and Struggle,” premieres a choral version of Gasser’s Repast, a 2014 oratorio recounting how Wright waited tables at a whites-only restaurant while running his own popular restaurant on the African-American side of town. For tickets ($10) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Singer-songwriter Martin Sexton will perform at the Lebanon Opera House next Thursday night at 7:30. For tickets ($35) and more information, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or the box office in City Hall, or call 603-448-0400.
South Newbury, Vt. fiddler Patrick Ross joins Vermont performance artist Rusty DeWees (aka The Logger) and Emmy-winning singer/guitarist Pete Wilder to sing classic country music as The Fellers, on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall in Haverhill. To reserve tickets ($25) and learn more, visit patrickrossmusic.com or alumnihall.org or call 603-989-5500. Doors open at 6, with supper and other refreshments available for purchase.
Grammy-nominated fiddler/singer Bruce Molsky leads banjoist Allison de Groot and guitarist Stash Wyuslouch into Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall on Nov. 12, for a night of old-timey Americana music. Before the 7:30 performance, the trio will conduct a workshop for instrumentalists aiming to learn short phrases of melody or simple chords by ear. For advance tickets to the performance ($10 to $18; admission at the door is $20), visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464. To register for the workshop ($25), email outreach@chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
The Mont Vert Cafe in downtown Woodstock is inviting aspiring poets to recite original or favorite verses tonight, to celebrate the cafe’s first anniversary. Listeners also are welcome. The doors open at 5 and recitations begin at 5:30.
The Parish Players perform the Anthony Shaffer thriller Sleuth at the Eclipse Grange on Thetford Hill, with 7:30 shows on Friday and Saturday nights before wrapping the production with a matinee at 3 on Sunday afternoon. For tickets ($10 to $15) and more information, visit parishplayers.org or call 802-785-4344.
This month’s observance of First Friday in White River Junction kicks off at 5, with Gabriella Atkinson performing at the Revolution Clothing Boutique. Subsequent musician appearances, by performance time, follow:
5:30 to 7:30: Ken Rokicki at Fat Hat Clothing on Gates Street
6 to 8: David McGaw & Friends in Newberry Market; Mike Wood and Steve Hennig at entrance of Tip Top Building; Dave Clark and JukeJoynt at Big Fatty’s BBQ; Never Too Late at The Engine Room; Mike DiPomeio at Two River Printmaking in Tip Top Building.
6 to 9: Martin Decato at The Boho Cafe
8 to 10: Dave Clark hosts open mic at Big Fatty’s BBQ
As a preview to the Symphony NH Strings’ Nov. 13 concert benefiting the Good Neighbor Health Clinics, Symphony NH bassist Robert Hoffman visits Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon on Friday evening to discuss the seven pieces the ensemble will perform. Starting at 5:30 p.m., Hoffman will play excerpts from the program, which includes works of Kreisler, Bach, Bartok, Flynn, Dvorak, Brahms and Vivaldi. Admission to the preview is free. To reserve tickets ($18 to $49) to the Nov. 13 concert, which starts at 3 p.m., visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
Philip Liston-Kraft joins Classicopia pianist Daniel Weiser on a marathon of four-hand concerts around the Upper Valley this weekend, performing particularly energetic works of Grieg, Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Bizet.
The tour begins Friday night at 7:30 with a house concert in Hanover, where reservations of tickets ($40 a person) are required because of limited seating.
The Saturday night concert, also at 7:30, takes place at the First Congregational Church in Lebanon, where admission is $10 for church members and $20 for others.
On Sunday afternoon at 2, the duo plays at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Upper Valley in Norwich, where tickets at the door cost $15 for church members and $20 for others.
For information on these performances and upcoming Classicopia concerts, visit classicopia.org/schedule.aspx.
Classical guitarist William Ghezzi of West Lebanon plays works of Bach, Britten and Brouwer at Dartmouth College’s Faulkner Recital Hall in Hanover on Sunday afternoon. Admission is free.
Singer-songwriter Tret Fure features songs from her new album, Rembrandt Afternoons, during a house concert in North Pomfret on Sunday afternoon at 4. To reserve tickets ($20) and learn more, email tojohnoconnor@gmail.com, call 802-457-2070, or visit tretfure.com/concerts.
James Graham and Co. play the tavern at the Lyme Inn tonight from 6:30 to 9:30.
Pianist Bob Merrill and bassist Peter Concilio accompany jazz singer Cyn Barrette at the Canoe Club in Hanover at 6:30 tonight. Appearing at the club over the coming week with shows from 6:30 to 9:30 are the Sensible Shoes duo of Barbara Blaisdell and Tim Utt on Friday, vocalist Lydia Gray and guitarist Ed Eastridge on Saturday, versatile singer Tony Ferrari on Sunday, guitarist Ted Mortimer on Wednesday and the Guingette duo of accordionist Kerr DeWolfe and singer Samantha Moffatt next Thursday night. And on Monday night between 5:30 and 8:30, Marko the Magician performs his weekly sleight-of-hand.
The roots duo Strangled Darlings pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7, followed on Saturday night at 9:30 by Swimmer.
The Occasional Jug Band plays at Jesse’s restaurant in Hanover on Friday night starting at 5.
Bassist Peter Concilio, pianist Bruce Sklar, drummer Tim Gilmore and saxophonist Scott Mullett perform jazz at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night at 8.
The Ruby Street duo of Rob and Shelly Parker appears at The Public House in Quechee on Friday night from 7 to 10.
Singer-songwriter EJ Tretter performs at the Stone Arch Bakery in Lebanon on Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Sensible Shoes drummer/singer Steve Drebber joins bandmates Tim Utt and Barbara Blaisdell at the SILO Distillery in Windsor on Sunday from noon to 2.
Bow Thayer plays his weekly set of Americana at the Skinny Pancake on Wednesday night at 7:30.
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, Vt.’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesday nights at 8
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.