Heaven knows what Calvin Coolidge would say about all those actors and musicians From Away invading his hometown of Plymouth Notch, Vt., this Labor Day weekend. Again.
On Saturday afternoon alone, a company of 20 thespians, writers and directors will be staging their ninth Stand Up Shakespeare revue in the wood-paneled Union Christian Church — where the 30th president and generations of his family worshipped with their neighbors in the quaint village of Coolidge’s birth.
And no sooner will that show let out than a steady stream of singer-songwriters will start performing songs about peace, love and understanding for the 15th Plymouth, Vermont, Folk & Blues Festival, on the nearby lawn of the visitor center of the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.
Not to worry, Cal: In the case of Stand Up Shakespeare, no wags in Elizabethan ruffed collars will leer at the audience in the pews and say, “Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Lady Macbeth and Hamlet and Prospero walk into a bar …” Probably.
“We call it a Bard-based variety show,” actress and Shakespeare retreat co-founder Kate Konigisor said last week. “It’s a mix of straight Shakespeare, with songs or skits based on it.”
Among the routines that sent the Stand Up Shakespeare audience out of the church laughing in 2018 was a twist on Abbott & Costello’s baseball routine.
“Instead of ‘Who’s on First?’ ” Konigisor said, “it was ‘Who doth inhabit the primary position?’, and so on around the bases.”
In preparation for this year’s Shakespeare retreat, at Konigisor’s brother’s ski lodge near Killington Mountain Resort, the invited performers have been writing and revising and rehearsing a fresh parade of numbers and routines in small groups of collaborators for months.
“Without giving too much away,” Konigisor said, “this year there will be five songs, ranging from a peppy Elizabethan number to an opera aria, and an original piece with Shakespeare lyrics.”
If recent Labor Day weekends are any guide, spectators will want to arrive early enough to tour at least the visitor center of the historic site, and then line up outside the church well ahead of the noon start.
“Our audiences have tripled since the first few years,” Konigisor said. “It’s not the smallest stage we play, but it fills up fast.”
So far, the well of story lines to adapt for future shows, well, runneth over.
“Shakespeare is a bottomless reservoir,” said Konigisor, whose resume includes portraying the title character in an all-woman production of Macbeth. “He’s timeless. An endless font of material.”
As for the music festival, which starts right after the revue, it typically draws around 400 people — more than a few of them aging hippies and flower children. It’s a far cry from the 400,000 who swarmed Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y., for the Woodstock Music Festival 50 years ago this month.
The material for the music festival ranges across the spectrum of folk and blues. Saturday afternoon’s lineup features singer-songwriters Dan Weber and Jay Psaros at 2 and 3, respectively, and The Whispering Tree duo of singer-songwriter Eleanor Kleiner and multi-instrumentalist Elie Brangbour at 4. The Bellows Falls, Vt., roots duo The Milkhouse Heaters opens the festivities on Sunday afternoon at 2, followed at 3 by singer-guitarist Zach Dupont and percussionist Matt Deluca. The closers, at 4, are the folk-rocking married couple of Maura and Pete Kennedy.
The Stand Up Shakespeare Company performs on Saturday at noon, in the Union Christian Church at the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vt., and the Plymouth, Vermont, Folk & Music Festival runs Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the site’s visitor center. Admission to both events is free with the entry fee to the site ($2 to $10 for individuals, $25 for families of up to eight).
ArtisTree Community Arts Center kicks off its third annual musical-theater festival on Thursday night at 7:30, with a preview performance of Souvenir at the Grange Theatre in South Pomfret. Stephen Temperley’s 2004 comedy explores the effort of a socialite soprano with a hopeful but hapless voice to take the opera world by storm during World War II.
The play opens on Friday night at 7:30, and runs through Sept. 14. For tickets ($25 to $30 for Thursday’s preview, $28 to $35 thereafter), and for information about subsequent festival musicals, visit artistreevt.org or call 802-457-3500.
■ Mutts share the spotlight with purebreds at Saturday morning’s annual Puppies & Pooches on Parade dog show on the Woodstock village green. In addition to the procession around the common, dogs “compete” in a variety of classes favoring cuteness and pedigree. While spectator admission is free to the show, which starts at 10:30, donations are welcome to the Friends of Norman Williams Public Library, which is aiming for the finish line of its effort to raise $500,000 for a new climate-control system.
■Choreographer Catherine Galasso stages her Cloud Dance 2.0 at the Aidron Duckworth Art Museum in Meriden on Saturday night at 6. The free performance mixes dance, theater, fiber art and sculpture.
■Irish singer-songwriter John Doyle, Cape Breton Island fiddlers Wendy MacIsaac and Mairi Rankin, the Quebecois folk trio Genticorum and fiddler Alexis Chartrand, and Vermont-based folk veterans Keith Murphy and Sarah Blair headline the 27th annual New World Festival on Sunday from noon to 11 in and around the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph. Admission $12 to $44. To learn more, visit newworldfestival.com.
■Hanover cellist Justin Zhou leads eight fellow teen musicians into the First Congregational Church of Norwich on Sunday afternoon at 2, to play a concert benefiting the Upper Valley Haven. Joining him are pianists Alice Garner, Liana Lansigan, Amica Lansigan and Joshua Wirogo; violinists Diego Aspinwall and Miriam Viazmenski; and cellist Miriam Herron. A previous concert Zhou organized raised $1,130 for the White River Junction-based homeless shelters. Admission is by donation.
The Marvelous Wonderettes, Roger Bean musical using pop songs from the 1950s and 1960s to celebrate that era’s fad of high school Songleader squads, performances at New London Barn Playhouse through Sunday. Tickets $20 to $37.
Haywire, Americana, Thursday night at 5:30 during Feast & Field Market at Fable Farm in Barnard. Free.
■Guitarist Gary Robinson, Friday night at 6:15 on downtown Lebanon mall; saxophonist Fred Haas, organist Norm Yanofsky and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz, Saturday night at 6:15. Free.
■ Wightman, Clegg & Abate, jazz, pop and rock, Friday night at 7:30 at The Livery in Sunapee Harbor. Admission $20.
■ Wheezer & Squeezer, aka folk duo of accordionist Jeremiah McLane and piper Timothy Cummings, Saturday morning and afternoon at Norwich Farmers Market.
■Organist Nicole Simental, works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Buxtehude, Sunday afternoon at 4 at Church of Christ at Dartmouth College in Hanover. Free.
■Out on a Limb, roots/Americana, Tuesday night at 6 at Strafford Common. Admission by donation.
Saxophonist Michael Parker, jazz, with pianist-singer Gerry Grimo on Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place in Orford; and with bassist Peter Concilio and guitarist Billy Rosen on Tuesday night at 7 at Carpenter & Main in Norwich.
■Still Hill, bluegrass, Thursday night at 7 at Windsor Station; Jack in the Pulpit, rock, Friday night at 9:30; Linda and the Barncats, rock, blues and soul, Saturday night at 9.
■Organist Norm Yanofsky and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz, Friday night at 6, under tent at Courthouse Restaurant in Newport.
■ Kind Dubs, roots-rock, Friday night at 7 at The Public House in Quechee.
■Better Days, classic rock, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners.
■Adam McMahon Trio, rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, and Saturday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Singer-songwriter Rich Thomas, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Singer-guitarist Wayne Canney, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Shrimp Tunes, roots-rock, 4 p.m. Saturday.
■Singer-songwriter Ken Macy, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport; acoustic rocker Chris Powers, Saturday night at 9.
■About Gladys, rock, funk and blues, Saturday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon.
■John Lackard Duo, danceable blues, Saturday night at 7:30 at The Public House in Quechee.
■ Jes Raymond and Jakob Breitbach, roots/Americana, Sunday night at 5 at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor.
■Woodstock singer-songwriter Jim Yeager, Monday night at 7 in the Richardson Tavern of the Woodstock Inn.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics on Thursday night at 7 at ArtisTree Community Arts Center; on Tuesday night at 6 at The Public House Pub in Quechee; and at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland on Wednesday night at 8.
■Alec Currier’s open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday nights at 8.
■Joseph Stallsmith’s hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, Monday nights at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach’s acoustic jam session of Americana music, Tuesday nights at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Tom Masterson’s open mic, Tuesday nights at 7 at Colatina Exit.
■Jes Raymond’s String Band Karaoke session of roots music, Wednesday night at 6 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau @vnews.com or 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.