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In 2014, the Thetford native played “poor, sickly Edmund” in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, with Quechee resident Mike Backman portraying Edmund’s helpless father and Thetford’s Kay Morton his drug-addicted mother.
In 2016, Chapin inhabited Happy Loman, the ambitious, neglected son of Backman’s Willy Loman and Morton’s Linda Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
And over the next two weekends, in Sam Shepard’s scathing True West, Chapin finds himself negotiating the frenetic, borderline-schizophrenic arc of an aspiring screenwriter named Austin, alternately tortured and enabled by his mom (Morton), his ne’er-do-well brother Lee (Erik Gaetz, who played the next-door neighbor in Salesman) and a two-faced Hollywood producer (Backman).
“Mike is the nicest human being in the world, and I’m screaming at him at the top of my lungs in this role,” Chapin said last week. “It’s so funny how easy it is to look at him and hate his guts.”
The feeling is mutual.
“I love working with Sam,” Backman said this week. “I usually swear off doing theater during July and August, as this is when I want to be outside, not inside in rehearsals. But doing a small part in a play with Sam and the rest of this group convinced me to come out of my summer retirement.”
For Chapin, a 2006 Thetford Academy graduate whose father, Ray, is directing this production, playing with old friends in True West is a summer vacation before he returns to New Orleans for his third year teaching high school English.
“I haven’t taken any roles back there yet because I’m still adjusting to the new city,” the younger Chapin said. “Plus, teaching is far more exhausting than acting. When you’re in a play, you know the people in front of you are there to watch you. They’ve paid, and they’re going to sit there. If a student is anxious or bored or upset, they’re going to tell you. You have to strike a balance. As a teacher, you never know what’s happening with an individual student.
“Every day’s going to be a different show.”
Shepard’s shows are different from most other playwrights’, as Chapin learned during the Parish Players’ 2009 production of Curse of the Starving Class, and more recently while watching Ed Harris star in an off-Broadway revival of Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, not long before the playwright died in 2017.
“With Shepard in general, the characters go through such rapid changes, sometimes over the course of a scene,” Chapin said. “One moment, you’re going to be incredibly sensitive and kind and caring. In the next, you’re accusing somebody of the vilest things. … Shepard is a master of surreal realism. Each one of his plays is so honest and true to the human condition, especially the American human condition.”
The Parish Players perform Sam Shepard’s
Best Bets
For the eighth summer in a row, the Vermont Pride Theater organization is staging three plays built around lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and, well, conflicted characters, at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall.
The Summer Pride Festival productions include Lia Romeo’s A Perfect Fit, in which Norwich resident Leah Romano plays Janet, a middle-aged woman whose daughter’s lesbian affair triggers a re-evaluation of her role as a heterosexual housewife.
“There aren’t many roles that are put out there for women at mid-life that are actually interesting,” said Romano, a self-employed communications consultant and personal organizer in her early 40s. “She’s not just being the mother. … Its title is so appropriate: Some people are looking for perfection. Some are happy at a notch below perfection. There’s that push and pull.”
Romano added that the play, as in other Pride productions in which she’s acted, “has a supportive message.
“The producers work hard at finding a variety of pieces that move the conversation forward.”
Performances of A Perfect Fit are scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 and again on July 29.
The festival opens Friday night at 7:30 with a staging of S.P. Monahan’s comedy Aunt Jack, in which a young gay man’s new partner, a drag performer named Andy, befuddles his aging gay fathers and his birth mother. Aunt Jack also will be performed on July 28.
On Sunday night at 7:30 and again on July 27, the festival will stage Bright Half Life, Tanya Barfield’s dramedy spanning 45 years in the lives of a lesbian couple.
Tickets to individual plays in the Summer Pride Theater Festival cost $15 to $20 in advance and $17 to $22 at the door. Passes to all three plays cost $25 to $55. To learn more, visit chandler-arts.org.
Millions of iPhone owners rely on the artificial-intelligence avatar Siri to secure movie tickets, dinner reservations or life advice. Friday night at 6, Susan Cameron Bennett, the woman who gives voice to Siri, appears in the flesh at the Engine Room in White River Junction. After a dinner benefiting the Hartford Historical Society, Bennett will talk about her experience as a voice actor and a singer, and perform with her guitarist husband, Rick Hinkle. To reserve tickets ($50), visit eventbrite.com.
The Vermont-based Village Harmony ensemble performs traditional songs from Quebec, from the Occitan Valleys of Italy and from ancient Lithuania on Friday night at 7:30 at Court Street Arts in Haverhill. Admission is $5 to $10.
The young acrobats, clowns and jugglers of Circus Smirkus bring their Big Top Tour to Hanover’s Fullington Farm Field for four shows, spanning Saturday and Sunday. For tickets ($16 to $22) and more information, visit smirkus.org or call 877-764-7587.
Guitarist Jose Lezcano, pianist Virginia Eskin and mandolinist August Waters perform two concerts on the theme of “Music of Mostly Immigrant Communities” this weekend, starting Saturday night at 6:30 at the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts. Admission to this show is by donation.
The trio also performs Sunday afternoon at 2 at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish. Admission is included in the price to enter the historic site, $10 for age 16 and up. For more information, visit nps.gov/saga.
The Vermont-based Counterpoint chorus’ summer tour swings through the First Congregational Church of Lebanon on Saturday night at 7:30. The program, on the theme of “Flowers of the Field,” includes Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Flos Campi and the premiere of contemporary Vermont composer Matthew LaRocca’s adaptation of a Sara Teasdale poem. Admission is $5 to $20
The all-woman Americana trio Maybe April performs Saturday night at 8:30 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door.
Looking Ahead
Teens from Northern Stage’s Summer Musical Theater Intensive stage the Broadway adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book James and the Giant Peach six times next week, starting with previews Wednesday night and next Thursday night at 7:30 at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. To reserve tickets ($17.75 to $23.75) and learn more, visit northernstage.org or call 802-295-7000.
Soprano Anastasia Robinson will sing at the First Baptist Church of New London next Thursday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($5 to $25) and learn more, visit summermusicassociates.org or call 603-526-8234.
Theater/Performance Art
The New London Barn Playhouse stages the showbiz musical 42nd Street over the next three weekends, including tonight at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($20) for this and subsequent productions, visit nlbarn.org or call 603-526-6710.
North Country Community Theatre completes its production of the musical-comedy whodunit Curtains at Lebanon Opera House with 7:30 performances tonight, Friday night and Saturday night. For tickets ($13.50 to $23.50) and more information, visit ncct.org or call 603-448-0400.
Music
Fu’Chunk plays funk and rock at the Feast and Field Market in Barnard tonight starting at 5:30, and on the Quechee Green bandstand on Wednesday night at 6:30.
Folk-rocker Pete Kilpatrick performs tonight at 7 on the bandstand at Lebanon’s Colburn Park, and the Upper Valley Community Band plays big-band standards there on Monday night at 7.
The South Royalton Town Band plays on the Richard W. Ellis Bandstand in South Royalton tonight at 7; at the end of South Royalton’s Old Home Days Parade on Saturday morning; and on Chelsea’s North Common on Saturday afternoon at 2.
Roots musician Marc Berger leads his ensemble Ride onto the back lawn of the Woodstock History Center on Friday evening at 5:30. Admission is free.
Studio Two plays tribute to the pre-Sgt. Pepper Beatles on Friday night at 6:30, on the Haddad Bandstand in downtown New London.
Entangled Strings performs roots music at the Flanders Stage on Sunapee Harbor on Saturday afternoon at 5.
The Red Hat Band plays classic rock during the next free concert at the Orford Bandstand, on Saturday night at 7.
Hartland singer-songwriter Jay Nash plays the ArtisTree Community Arts Center’s Hayloft in South Pomfret on Saturday night at 7:30. For tickets ($20) and more information, visit artistreevt.org or call 802-457-3500.
The Upper Valley Chamber Orchestra performs Henry Cowell’s Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 3 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 on Sunday afternoon at 3 at Hanover High School. Admission is $10.
JJ’s Music rocks the Newport Common on Sunday night at 6.
Blabpipe performs a set of rock at Grantham’s recreation park on Tuesday night at 6.
Steve Pro leads his dance band The Ticket onto the Fairlee bandstand on Tuesday night at 6:30.
The France-based duo Ginkgoa plays swing-infused electronic dance music on the green in Hanover on Wednesday evening starting at 5:30. Admission is free.
Bar and Club Circuit
Rock singer-songwriter Chris Powers performs at the Hungry Bear in Bradford, Vt., this evening starting at 5.
Guitarist Ted Mortimer, saxophonist Katie Runde and bassist Ben Green play Peyton Place in Orford tonight starting at 6. On Saturday night at 7, Mortimer and Runde join forces with accordionist Steve Pixley at the Farmer’s Table in Grantham. And on Sunday afternoon at 3, Mortimer and Runde play Babes Bar in Bethel.
Fiddle Witch pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7 to play a set of progressive bluegrass. Diamond Special ranges through the rock hits of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s at 9:30 Friday night, and Jester Jigs performs Saturday night at 9:30.
Singer Lydia Gray and guitarist Ed Eastridge play Brazilian-inflected songs from their new album Summer Samba at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover, Friday night at 8.
Keyboardist Doc Winslow, bassist Tom Lord, guitarist Kit Creeger and drummer Bryant Harris perform a set of Americana at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night at 9, then play their weekly gig during the weekly brunch at Poor Thom’s Tavern in Meriden on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m..
The acoustic quartet Carter Glass performs Americana and rock Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon, and singer-songwriter Duane Mark performs on Saturday night at 9.
Hammond-organ maestro Tom Caselli leads his B3 Brotherhood into Hanover’s Salt hill Pub on Friday night at 9, for a set of funk. And on Saturday night at 9, Doug Lantz brings his ukelele and a parade of tall tales to the microphone.
Singer-songwriter Duane Mark plays Salt hill Pub in downtown Lebanon on Friday night at 9, and GrooveSum performs its mix of rock, Americana, blues and funk on Saturday night at 9.
FLEW-Z frontman Alec Currier plays a solo set of acoustic rock at Newport’s Salt hill Pub on Saturday night at 9.
Pianist Sonny Saul performs jazz at the On the River Inn in Woodstock on Saturday and Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9.
Singer-songwriter Alex Smith commands the microphone at SILO Distillery in Windsor between 1 and 3 on Sunday afternoon.
Juke Joynt plays a set of rock during the buffet supper ($10 to $25) at Loch Lyme Lodge with on Sunday night at 6, and singer-songwriter Pawley Daley performs during the weekly cookout ($8 to $20) on Wednesday night at 5:30.
Open Mics
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 his weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass on Monday night at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
Rural Outright hosts an open mic on Tuesday night at 6 at the Claremont Maker Space at 46 Main St. Performers are welcome to perform music, skits, poetry and whatever other talents they’d like to share. Admission is free.
Fiddler Jakob Breitbach leads a weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music on Tuesday nights at 7 at The Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Entertainment news also can be sent to highlights@news.com.