If Jeanne Beckwith harbored any lingering doubts about directing a staged reading of Topher Payne’s play Perfect Arrangement at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph this weekend, the new administration in Washington, D.C., washed them away in a split-second last Friday.
“As soon as Donald Trump took the oath of office, they erased everything that had been on the White House website about LGBTQ issues and rights,” Beckwith recalled during a telephone interview on Monday from her home in Roxbury, Vt. “The very first thing they did, they took the page down.”
The news resonated with the cast and crew of the play, in which two same-sex couples — including a male and a female employee of the U.S. State Department in Washington — pass as straight by sharing adjoining apartments during the peak of anti-Communist fever in the early 1950s.
“We’ve already been finding new things each time we’ve gone through it in rehearsal,” Beckwith said. “It is about a period of time that nobody talks about very much. We all hear about McCarthy and the Red Scare, but we tend to conveniently forget just how much gays and lesbians were ostracized. Even if you weren’t subject to scrutiny working in the government, you could go to prison for being found out.”
Indeed, in one of his last acts as secretary of state before Trump’s inauguration, John Kerry apologized for the firing of State Department employees during the agency’s “Lavender Scare,” and for the nearly 40 years that passed before the agency issued security clearances to openly gay employees.
The timing of the apology came as further vindication of the choice of this play by the organizers of Vermont Pride Theater.
“We sought a script dovetailing with our intention to dedicate the proceeds to GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders,” Vermont Pride producer Sharon Rives wrote during an exchange of emails last week. “Perfect Arrangement fit the bill. We applied for the rights at the beginning of October.”
And in late November, Rives asked Beckwith, who has directed plays for Vermont Pride’s summer festival and had one of her own plays produced by the group, to take on the Payne piece.
“I had been busy all summer and fall and had said, ‘No, I won’t do anything the rest of the winter,’” Beckwith recalled. “But this is a wonderful script. … Topher Payne is writing with a 21st-century sensibility, in this time where people are deciding to stand up and come out. That just didn’t happen then. Up to a point, you could get away with it more as a writer or an artist, but overall, we have no idea how closeted the world was at that time. That was not even 70 years ago.”
Now in her 60s, Beckwith, teaches playwriting at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt., where her husband, Brett Cox (a member of the Perfect Arrangement cast), teaches English and writing. She remembers listening to the radio with her parents during the Red Scare, when her father long harbored the hope that Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, accused of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, would be pardoned.
“We don’t want to go back to the ’50s,” Beckwith said. “No. Please, no.”
Vermont Pride Theater stages a reading of Topher Payne’s play,
Best Bets
Alto saxophone master Rudresh Mahanthappa channels the spirit and works of Charlie “Bird” Parker at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover on Friday night at 8. Joining him for a concert based on his album Bird Calls will be trumpeter Josh Evans, bassist Thomson Kneeland, pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Dan Weiss. National Public Radio’s jazz critics and Down Beat magazine named Bird Calls jazz recording of the year in 2015. To reserve tickets ($17 to $30) and learn more, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Pianist Henry Danaher and clarinetist Meghan Davis perform works of Camille Saint-Saens, Gerald Finzi, Witold Lutoslawski and Paule Reade at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon on Saturday night at 7. Admission is by donation to relief for refugees of the civil war in Syria.
Fiddler Liz Faiella and guitarist Dan Faiella sets the rhythm with Celtic and traditional New England folk music while Luke Donforth calls the steps during a contradance at Norwich’s Tracy Hall on Saturday night. Before the dancing and the music begin at 8, there will be a 7:45 run-through for newcomers. Admission is $6 to $9. Dancers should bring a change of clean, soft-soled shoes, and are encouraged to bring snacks for a pot luck.
The Westminster Quartet performs Bach’s The Musical Offering on Sunday afternoon at 1 at Rollins Chapel in Hanover. Admission is free to the concert, part of Dartmouth College’s ChamberWorks series.
The southwest New Hampshire-based Apple Hill String Quartet performs compositions of Mendelssohn, Celso Garrido Lecca and Anthony Green on Sunday afternoon at 3 at Lebanon’s First Congregational Church. The recital benefits the Upper Valley Music Center’s education programs. Tickets ($10 to $25) are available at the door or in advance by visiting uvmusic.org.
Peter Pardoe, of Plainfield, hosts an open mic for comedians at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon on Monday night at 8:30. Sets run five to seven minutes. Sign-up starts at 8.
The Danish String Quartet plays Scandinavian folk music between works of Beethoven and Rolf Wallin at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium on Tuesday night at 7. For tickets ($17 to $50) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422. The ensemble’s master class in chamber music on Monday afternoon at 4 is open to the public, free of admission to Faulkner Recital Hall in the Hopkins Center.
Looking Ahead
Colby-Sawyer College cultural historian Patrick D. Anderson will share film clips and slides of works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mack Sennett at the Claremont Opera House next Thursday night at 7, during a retrospective look at the era of silent movies. While admission is free, donations are welcome. To learn more, visit claremontoperahouse.org or call 603-542-4433.
Randolph-based fiddler Spencer Lewis will celebrate the release of his 27th album, From Now to Now, during a Feb. 3 concert at ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret. Joining him for the 7 p.m. performance will be Haywire bassist Eric Graham and singer Hillary Leicher. To reserve tickets ($20 a person or $30 a couple) and learn more, visit artistreevt.org or call 802-457-3500. The ticket price includes a CD of his 2016 instrumental album Soul and a download card for From Now to Now.
Theatre/Performance Art
Northern Stage’s production of Jack Neary’s dark comedy Trick or Treat continues at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction through Feb. 5. For tickets ($15 to $30) and more information, visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
Shaker Bridge Theatre stages the drama Love Alone through Feb. 5. After this Sunday’s matinee, medical and ethics professionals will join the cast of the play in a discussion of issues raised in the play, which explores the impact of a woman’s death in surgery on her same-sex partner, their children and the doctor of the deceased. The play will run through Feb. 5. To reserve tickets ($16 to $32) and learn more, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-3750.
Music
The Cantabile chorus performs a range of classical, modern, spiritual, folk, pop and theater music on the theme of “How Can I Keep from Singing?” on Saturday afternoon at 3 at the Norwich Congregational Church and at 3 on Sunday afternoon at the Lyme Congregational Church. To reserve tickets ($5 to $15) and learn more, visit cantabilewomen.org.
The Upper Valley Community Band celebrates “Low Brass, High Brass” during its concert at Lebanon Opera House on Saturday night at 7:30. The performance will include solos by trombonist Matt Hodgson on Joseph Alessi’s Atlantic Zephyrs and tuba player Larry Jones on Brazilian dance rhythms. And the low brass section will play the promenade from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Admission is $5 to $10.
Alto saxophonist Greg Abate performs this weekend’s Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon concert at 4 at the Center at Eastman in Grantham. To reserve tickets ($16 to $18) and learn more about this concert and the current series, visit josajazz.com or call 603-381-1662 or email bill.wightman@comcast.net.
Dance
Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center hosts “Two to Tango,” a free demonstration of Argentinian tango aimed at families with young children, on Saturday morning at 11 in Alumni Hall in Hanover.
Film
The Upper Valley Jewish Community screens Woody Allen’s 1969 comedy Take the Money and Run next Wednesday night at 7 in room 13 of Dartmouth College’s Carpenter Hall in Hanover. Admission is free. To learn more about the community’s series, which runs through Feb. 22, visit uvjc.org.
Bar and Club Circuit
Canaan fiddler Mike Gareau joins singer-guitarist Rob Oxford and bassist Dave Clark for a session of Americana in the tavern of the Lyme Inn tonight at 6.
Acoustic chameleon Joseph Stallsmith performs at the Canoe Club tonight 6:30 to 9:30. Following him to the microphone with 6:30 shows over the coming week are jazz pianist Jonathan Kaplan on Friday, jazz singer Rowley Hazard on Saturday, jazz guitarist Billy Rosen on Sunday and pianist Gillian Joy on Tuesday. And on Monday night between 5:30 and 8:30, Marko the Magician performs his tableside sleight-of-hand.
Singer-songwriter Brian Warren pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7:30, followed by The Trichomes with a set of rock on Friday night at 9:30, Riddim Vigil with rootsy reggae on Saturday night at 9:30 and guitarist Ted Mortimer on Tuesday night at 6.
Singer-songwriter Guy Burlage appears at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 7, and Jamie Ward sings and commands the keyboard on Saturday night at 7.
The Bradford-based trio Wild Roots performs in the tavern at Jesse’s in Hanover on Friday night at 5.
Guitarist Ted Mortimer kicks off the weekend of music at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon on Friday night at 8, and Tirade fills the venue with rock rhythms on Saturday night at 9.
The Boston-based rock ensemble Cold Engines performs at the Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Friday night at 9, and Alex Smith & The Mountain Sound appear at the same hour on Saturday night.
About Gladys plays a set of funky rock at Newport’s Salt hill Pub on Friday night at 9, followed on Saturday night at 9 by Mo’ Combo frontman Will Michaels.
The Squids set a rockin’ rhythm for dancing at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night at 9.
Singer-guitarist David Greenfield ranges across many genres during an appearance at the Stone Arch Bakery in Lebanon on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Bow Thayer plays his weekly set of Americana at the Skinny Pancake on Wednesday night at 7:30.
Open Mics
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 on Thursday nights. 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 at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic Tuesday nights at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday night, and shepherds yet another at 7 the following night at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.