When Peggy O’Neil, executive director of WISE, approached Carol Dunne, artistic director of Northern Stage, to talk about whether the two organizations might work together, they thought, naturally, that the result would be a theater production of some sort.
That was in March 2019, and Dunne and Jess Chayes, who was the BOLD associate artistic director at Northern Stage, worked for a year on a theater production, until the coronavirus pandemic came along.
Pandemic or no, WISE was still planning to celebrate a big birthday in 2022: For 50 years, the Lebanon-based nonprofit has led local efforts to end domestic and sexual violence and to support victims of such violence.
So WISE and Northern Stage pivoted to a pandemic-proof medium: the podcast.
The first episode of WISER — 50 years ending gender-based violence becomes available Thursday, with five more episodes appearing the next five Thursdays, through March 10. The podcast, which Chayes called a kaleidoscopic impression of how WISE has become the organization it is today, is available for free at northernstage.org/WISER.
Chayes, who recently completed a three-year stint as the BOLD associate artistic director at Northern Stage, interviewed 17 people who were involved in WISE’s growth.
“There are people in the Upper Valley who represented every decade of WISE’s development,” Chayes said in a Zoom call with O’Neil and Betsy Kohl, WISE’s director of communications and development.
The aim of the podcast, O’Neil said, is both to celebrate the organization’s growth and the people who made it happen and to invite more people to get to know WISE.
“We would love to have a party,” she said, “but we can’t do a party.”
Instead, O’Neil, Kohl and others at WISE started digging into the archives in search of people who were key to the organization’s history.
“I would say they really run the gamut from people who worked at WISE, some for long periods of time” to board members, students who took WISE education programs and people who worked at similar organizations.
Other WISE events in the past have highlighted the voices of survivors of gender-based violence, O’Neil said. The anniversary is a moment to hear about the organization itself.
For Northern Stage, partnering with WISE is an opportunity both to expand its creative services in the Upper Valley and to support women.
Northern Stage produced its first podcast, Portraits of the Pandemic, based on the voices of Upper Valley teens, in June 2020, and has used the pandemic to experiment with how it reaches its audience. The company has long focused on the advancement of women, particularly in the theater arts. Chayes was part of the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership program led by Carol Dunne, which aims to help more women assume leadership roles in theater.
If the process of making the podcast left her with an overall impression, Chayes said, it was about the commitment of the people who have taken up the work that WISE has become known for. In addition to advocating for survivors of domestic or sexual abuse, WISE operates a 24-hour crisis line, an emergency shelter, support groups, workshops and safety planning, as well as in-person support at hospitals, police stations and other social service agencies.
“It struck me how much of a calling this is,” Chayes said. During her interviews, she considered leaving the theater and joining WISE. “It was infectious.”
“I think the podcast just gave me an opportunity to listen to the people who dedicated themselves to this work,” she added.
The podcast will enable listeners to do the same.
Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts kicks off a series of three documentaries that feature discussion with live guests with a screening of The First Wave at 7 p.m. Saturday in Loew Auditorium.
The First Wavefollows three front-line workers through the early days of the pandemic. Director Matthew Heinemann, a 2005 Dartmouth graduate, is slated to be on hand to discuss the film with Dr. Lisa Adams, Dartmouth’s associate dean for global health.
For tickets and information go to hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
And on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Mayer Room of Hanover’s Howe Library, CineSalon returns to screening films live and in person with a program dedicated to Terrence Malick.
Each of the screenings organized by Bruce Posner for the “Cine Salon: Rebirth” season, focuses on a prominent director, all of them men, including Robert Bresson, Stan Brakhage (yes, he went to Dartmouth), Wong Kar-Wai and Abbas Kiarostami. The screenings are free to attend.
Shaker Bridge Theatre in Enfield opens its production of Lungs, a two-person play that follows a couple through the fears, doubts and hopes of their relationship in a rapidly changing world, on Feb. 3. For tickets and more information go to shakerbridgetheatre.org.
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.
