While auditioning for two of the high-profile roles in the Parish Players’ production of Spinning Into Butter, Laine Gillespie paid little mind to the character of the campus security guard in playwright Rebecca Gilman’s satire of fear and loathing in academia.
And the Enfield resident almost forgot about Mr. Meyers altogether, after director Kay Morton cast Jenn Langhus as the conflicted dean of students Sarah Daniels and Kim Meredith as Catherine Kenney, the PR-obsessed dean of the college of the fictional Vermont liberal-arts institution modeled on Middlebury.
Then, less than two weeks ahead of Thursday night’s opening performance at Thetford’s Eclipse Grange Theatre, Morton asked Gillespie back to play Mrs. Meyers, after the actor Morton had cast had to withdraw.
“I wasn’t really thinking of that particular role at first — not consciously, anyway,” Gillespie recalled this week. “Then I did one of (Meyers’) scenes with Sarah and thought, ‘That was interesting.’ ”
It grew more intriguing after Morton, a veteran actor, director and producer with Parish Players, advised Gillespie to “think of myself as almost a mentor of Sarah, who’s at the center of all this.”
“All this” revolves around two hot-button diversity issues with which Dean Daniels grapples on the mostly white campus: In the more public one, a black undergraduate (unseen and unheard) reports receiving racist notes at his dorm, including one referring to him as “Little Black Sambo” — the main character of the fable about an African boy who fools two predators into chasing each other in circles until they, well, spin into butter that Sambo spreads on pancakes.
Meanwhile, Sarah loses patience with a student, New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent (played by Acadia Cook) who balks at accepting a scholarship for promising minority scholars because the conditions of the scholarship require the student to describe herself as a recognized minority — in this case Hispanic.
“As soon as I finished reading it, I wanted to be in this or to direct it,” Morton said. “It really made me consider what hidden prejudices I have had or still have.”
“This seems so timely now, with the separatism in our country, spawned from lack of information and ignorance. This is a good format for public awareness and open discussion.”
In the final analysis, the security guard emerges as more aware and open than any of the academics who spend most of the play covering their own backsides and little to none of it listening to the students.
“Sarah has to say some really ugly stuff, and I get to pull her up short,” Gillespie said. “It turns out there are a lot of universal themes in the play, including that everybody is an outsider at some point in their lives.
“It seems at first to be all about the issue of diversity, but it’s also about being the ‘other.’ ”
The Parish Players stage eight performances of Spinning Into Butter, starting Thursday night and running through Oct. 6, at the Eclipse Grange Theatre on Thetford Hill. For tickets ($10 to $20) and more information, visit parishplayers.org or call 802-785-4344.
The lively Cape Breton quartet Coig plays Lebanon Opera House on Thursday night at 7:30. General admission costs $18 to $28.
■ A wave of world music and dance hits the Hopkins Center this week, starting Thursday and Friday nights with two performances in the Moore Theater by the Colombian dance/theater troupe Sankofa Danzafro. In The City of Others, the ensemble explores Colombia’s history of racism, slavery and colonialism. Admission $25 to $45. After the first show, members of Sankofa and of the Lebanese alt-rock band Mashrou’ Leila will appear at the free Thursday Night Live gathering, at 9, at the Top of the Hop. Mashrou’ Leila, renowned for tackling LGBTQ rights, race, religion and culture with its electro-Arabic pop, plays Spaulding Auditorium on Saturday night at 7:30. Admission $20.
■Jarvis Antonio Green previews his JAG Productions’ 2019-2020 seasons on Friday night, with his second annual Juke Joynt gathering in downtown White River Junction. The evening begins at 7, with a supper of southern-style comfort food at the Newberry Market. And at 8, singer Tyla Collier, actor-singer Marcus Gladney Jr. and performing artist Stevie Walker-Webb perform theatrical music at the Briggs Opera House. For tickets ($175) and more information about the coming season, visit jagproductionsvt.org or call 802-332-3270.
■ Enfield native Brooks Hubbard closes the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce’s LebFest celebration with a concert of Americana music at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, on Saturday night starting at at 7; admission $10. Admission is free to all other LebFest activities, between 2 and 7 at Colburn Park.
■The new, co-ed a cappella chorus VoxStars debuts Saturday night at 7:30, during the North Country Chordsmen’s 42nd annual showcase of Upper Valley barbershop ensembles at Lebanon Opera House. To reserve $27 “premium” seats, email bwalker@lavalleys.com. For all other seats ($17) visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
■Cast members from this season’s ArtisTree Music Theatre Festival stage a cabaret at the Grange Theatre in South Pomfret on Tuesday night at 5, with proceeds going toward the Norman Williams Public Library’s new climate-control system. For tickets ($50) and more information, call Michael Ricci at 802-457-2295, ext. 126, or visit normanwilliams.org.
■Shaker Bridge Theatre kicks off its 2019-2020 season next Thursday night at Whitney Hall in Enfield, with a performance of the second-time-around romantic comedy Kalamazoo. For tickets ($16 to $28) to the play, which runs through Oct. 6, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-.3750
A Doll’s House, Part 2, performances Thursday night through Oct. 6 at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Admission to this production of Lucas Hnath’s Broadway-hit sequel to the Ibsen classic is $17.50 to $57.50.
Tintypes: A Musical Celebration of America, performances Thursday night through Oct. 5 at Grange Theatre in South Pomfret. Admission $28 to $35.
■Magician Tom Verner, Saturday morning at 11 at Dartmouth College’s Alumni Hall. Free.
Accordionist and keyboard player Robin Russell, climate-themed sing-along at Universalist Society of Strafford in South Strafford on Friday night at 6:30. Admission by donation.
■Anonymous Coffeehouse, Friday night at 7 at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Country-western singer Montey Crummer, bluegrass band Still Hill and western-Vermont folk duo Richard Ruane and Beth Dukette. Admission by donation.
■ Jes Raymond and Jakob Breitbach, roots/Americana, Friday night at 7 at Sunapee Coffeehouse. Admission by donation.
■ Ukelele composer and teacher Ross Malcolm Boyd, all-day jamboree of workshops for beginning players Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. at Court Street Arts’ Alumni Hall in Haverhill. Admission $5 for a single workshop, $20 for full-day pass. Call 603-989-5500 or visit courtstreetarts.org.
■Roy Book Binder, roots, Saturday night at 7:30 in Esther Mesh Gallery of Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph. Admission $19.
■Tenor Sean Parr and pianist Andrew Haringer, chamber works of Strauss, Schumann, Liszt and von Weber, on Sunday afternoon at 4 at Dartmouth College’s Faulkner Recital Hall. Free.
Mad Hazard Band, jazz, bossa nova, pop, Thursday night from 5:30 to 8 at the Quechee Club’s Davidson Restaurant.
■Adam McMahon Trio, rock and blues, Thursday night at 7 at Windsor Station; Cable Junction, jam rock, Friday night at 9:30; Moxley Union, rock, Saturday night at 9:30; Papa Greybeard, roots, Tuesday night at 6.
■ Gypsyreel, Celtic music, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland.
■Adam McMahon Duo, rock and blues, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Tirade, rock, 9 p.m. Saturday.
■John Lackard, blues, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Singer-songwriter Ken Macy, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Will Michaels, roots-rock, Saturday afternoon at 4.
■Singer-songwriter Wayne Canney, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport; Unbalanced, rock, Saturday night at 9.
■ Soulfix, Saturday night at 8:30 at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee.
■Organist Norm Yanofsky and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz brunch on Sunday morning at 9:30 at Courthouse Restaurant in Newport.
■Sensible Shoes, danceable rock and pop, Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4 at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor; Jes Raymond and Jakob Breitbach, roots/Americana, Sunday night at 5.
■Singer-songwriter Jim Yeager, Monday night at 7 at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern, and Wednesday evening at 5 at the inn’s lobby.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker, bassist Peter Concilio and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz, Tuesday night at 7 at Carpenter and Main in Norwich.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
Trifolium hosts open mic during final Feast & Field Market of the season on Thursday night at 5:30, at Fable Farm in Barnard.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach hosts a bi-monthly jazz jam on Thursday night from 6 to 8 at Hotel Coolidge’s Cafe Renee in White River Junction; and a weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music, Tuesday nights at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Woodstock singer-songwriter Jim Yeager, open-mic sessions Thursday night at 7 at ArtisTree Community Arts Center, and Tuesday night at 6 at The Public House Pub in Quechee.
■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.
■Tom Masterson’s open mic, Tuesday nights at 7 at Colatina Exit.
■Peter Meijer, open mic, Wednesday nights at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send news of upcoming live performances to highlights@vnews.com.