The schools are alive with the sound of musicals.
On stages around the Upper Valley between now and mid-December, student performers and technical crews run the gamut of song-and-dance productions from traditional to cutting-edge.
At Hartford High on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, a cast of 42 and a technical crew of 10 is taking on Fiddler on the Roof. And on Dec. 15, 16 and 17 at Lebanon Opera House, 32 singers and 16 behind-the-scenes contributors from Lebanon High’s Wet Paint Players tackle Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life), a satire set in the early years of life on Earth by the writers of the Tony Award-winning dystopia Urinetown.
“We last did Fiddler in 2000,” Hartford High musical producer Rob Gattie said last week. “We have done some lighter — but not easier — fare with Seussical, Spamalot, Crazy for You, etc., lately and haven’t done a more serious, weighty show since Les Mis in 2011. It seemed like a good time to give the kids a different experience.”
You want different? Yeast Nation delivers, with a musical featuring primordial life forms in a King Lear-esque tussle for supremacy, love and redemption. Lebanon drama teacher Jonathan Verge, an LHS graduate and former Wet Paint Player, worked on an early production of the then work-in-progress musical during an internship at the American Theater Company in Chicago in 2009.
“I try to pick material that really resonates with the kids,” Verge said last week. “This gives the kids a chance to be a little more reactive in taking on roles and material that aren’t old and tired. The music is terrific — a little more of a poppy-rock feel to it, and it takes a really humorous look at managing resources, a little bit of an environmental twist.”
Tickets to Fiddler on the Roof are $7 to $10 and are available at Hartford High School’s main office. And tickets to Yeast Nation are $5 for the general public and free to Lebanon School District students and staff, and for senior citizens.
Except for Thanksgiving weekend, teen players will be strutting and fretting their hours upon the stage almost every weekend through mid-December … and that’s not even counting Christmas Revels. Upcoming shows include:
Rivendell Academy’s Harry Potter parody The Adventures of Sally Cotter, this Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7 at the academy gymnasium in Orford. The cast includes Dean of Students Michael Galli in a cameo appearance as a Voldemort-like wizard Lord Murderdeath. General admission costs $5 for students, $12 for adults and is free for military veterans.
The student body of The Sharon Academy performs Rock of Ages at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall on Nov. 17 and 18. For tickets ($7 to $12) to the play, a broad satire and homage to 1980s culture and rock classics, call 802-763-2500, extension 248.
Students from teacher Ray Chapin’s Fall Play class at Thetford Academy stage The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at 7 the nights of Nov. 16, 17 and 18 at the school’s Martha Rich Theater. The production weaves pieces of 37 works of The Bard of Avon into 87 minutes, including a hip-hop Othello and Titus Andronicus in the form of a cooking show. Chapin said last week that his students prepared over the summer by attending full-length productions in Boston of Romeo and Juliet and of Othello. To learn more, call 802-785-4805.
Under the auspices of Amplified Arts and the Performers Playhouse, teen actors from the Newport and Claremont area will don costumes of the Roaring ’20s to perform an adaptation of The Great Gatsby at the Newport Opera House. To reserve tickets ($15 general admission) and learn more, visit newportoperahouse.com or call 603-863-2412.
Woodstock Union High School’s Yoh Theater Players adapt the 1960s Disney movie romp Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Dec. 1, 2 and 3. To learn more, call 802-457-1317.
Language Learning
Business-strategy consultant Brooks Jealous lectures on the topic of “Breakthru Chinese” at Woodstock’s Norman Williams Public Library tonight at 6:30.
Jealous will discuss the neuroscience behind Chinese and other character-based languages, the historical and political background of modern Mandarin and an introduction to written and spoken Chinese.
Research for Tomorrow
Arctic researcher Jackie Richter-Menge talks about her experiences in Earth’s northernmost latitudes during the Hanover Conservancy’s annual meeting on Nov. 13 in the auditorium at Hanover High School.
Richter-Menge, an engineer at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, is a member of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. She begins her talk at 7 p.m., and the conservancy’s annual meeting starts at 8:15. Admission is free.
The biology research journal G3: Genes Genomes Genetics recently accepted a scientific article on which Lyme resident Maximilian Alverson collaborated with fellow students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Alverson and his colleagues focused on a species of fruit fly that has evolved a gene allowing the fly to survive eating a toxic plant.
Screen Gems
Students from Dartmouth College’s class on making video documentaries will screen their work on Thursday night at 7 in Loew Auditorium, at the Black Family Visual Arts Center in Hanover.
The subjects of the four 10-minute documentaries are refugee resettlement in Rutland, addiction to smartphones, the buildup to the Dartmouth Theater Department’s current production of the muscal Cabaret and recovering addicts in the Upper Valley.
Admission is free.
Artistic Merit
Marion Cross School student Nora Bradley placed second in her age group in a summer art competition sponsored by Cricket magazine.
The magazine will publish Bradley’s picture, of a girl on a swing under a tree in summer, in its November/December edition. Bradley, who lives in Norwich, competed among artists ages 10 and younger who submitted work depicting favorite summer activities. It can be seen at cricketmagkids.com/contests.
Voices
Newport resident Cathryn Gallione recently earned a berth on the all-woman Lyric Choir for women at Bob Jones University in South Carolina.
Gallione, a senior majoring in biblical counseling, was selected after auditioning at the start of the fall semester. The choir will perform a Christmas concert in December and a concert in April featuring madrigals and Broadway and film music.
Food for Thought
The Student Dietetic Association at Ohio’s Ashland University recently inducted Lebanon resident Lyssa Wright as a member. Wright, a senior majoring in dietetics, is a 2014 graduate of Lebanon High School.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.
Education-related news and announcements also can be sent to schoolnotes@vnews.com