SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
Friday
US Sen. Rand Paul at Dartmouth. The prominent libertarian Republican from Kentucky will be lecturing on federalism and how it’s evolved since the founding as part of the Rockefeller Center’s "Law and Democracy Series: The United States at 250". 12:30 pm in the Loew Auditorium and online.
Beecharmer at the Howe Library. Jes Raymond and Jakob Breitbach bring their acoustic string-music chops to the new books area on Friday at 3:30 pm. No charge.
Flannel Fest at Whaleback. The mountain’s annual fundraiser gets going at 5:30 pm, with live music from Brooks Hubbard starting at 6, a silent auction, complimentary food, beer, and a raffle for a pair of Parlor skis with custom Whaleback graphics.
“Chuckles for Charity” at the Cornerstone Community Center in Wilder. Comedians Michael Petit, Steve Scarfo, and Dave Decker join forces in a fundraiser for Unmask the Invisible, an Upper Valley-based nonprofit focused on education, advocacy, and support for people with traumatic brain injury. 6 pm.
Nice Work If You Can Get It at Hartford High School. Though it’s got songs by George and Ira Gershwin and is based on stories by P.G. Wodehouse and his frequent collaborator, Guy Bolton, the musical itself didn’t get its Broadway start until 2012. A screwball, Prohibition-era comedy. Friday and Saturday, 7 pm, Sunday at 2 pm.
Annemieke McLane in Strafford. Her solo piano concert, “Through Time”, will feature a Handel suite, JS Bach’s “Italian Concerto”, Beethoven’s “Sonata Pathétique”, a Chopin nocturne, and the “Suite Bergamasque” by Debussy (its best-known movement is “Clair de Lune” but the rest is pretty darn great, too). These are, she writes, “amazing works that you don't hear 'live' much anymore.” 7 pm, United Church of Strafford. No link.
SPONSORED: The LISTEN All Things Winter Event has started at the Lebanon, Canaan, and WRJ Thrift Stores. Shop cozy coats, sports gear, and other seasonal must-haves until they’re gone! And starting Friday, November 14th, the Holiday Event will bring even more magic, like festive decor, attire, and gifts. Every purchase supports neighbors through food, fuel, and housing assistance. Shop local. Make a difference. Sponsored by LISTEN Community Services.
Perfect Arrangement at Springfield Community Players. It’s the community theater troupe’s final show of the year, a play by Topher Payne set in 1950s Georgetown in the days of the “Lavender Scare”: Two State Department employees have the task of identifying “sexual deviants” within their ranks. As it happens, they’re both gay, and have married each other’s partners as cover, living together in a DC duplex. Friday at 7 pm, Saturday at 2 pm, next weekend it’s Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 2 pm.
Opera Vermont at the Chandler in Randolph with A Bayou Legend. It’s the inaugural show in a multi-year collaboration between the company and the Chandler “dedicated to redeeming the majestic compositions of William Grant Still, known to scholars as ‘The Dean of African-American Composers.’” Love and revenge in a Mississippi bayou. Friday 7 pm, Saturday at 4 pm.
Hop Film presents the National Theatre Live with Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Imelda Staunton (The Crown) and her actual daughter, Bessie Carter (Bridgerton) star in George Bernard Shaw’s play about a daughter with “ambitions to take up the legal profession” and a mother who owns a string of brothels. When mom and daughter get together, “this secret is explosively revealed,” writes the Hop. 7 pm in the Loew.
Reese Fulmer and the Carriage House Band at Court Street Arts in Haverhill. The 2023 and 2024 Americana Artist of the Year at the Thomas Edison Music Awards, Fulmer and his band are rising fast on the Upstate NY scene. “Think Wilco with hints of Prine and Zappa: smart, emotionally tuned arrangements and a stage presence that balanced earnestness with unpredictability,” writes one reviewer. 7:30 pm.
At The Wild Fern in Stockbridge, Laurie Goldsmith and Jireh Calo. Goldsmith lives in Bethel but got her start in Boston’s folk-music scene in the ‘80s. Calo was born in the Phillipines and is now based in Boston. They’ll be performing one set each of “everything from jazz to blues to folk and everything in between.” 7:30 pm.
The Moanin’ Frogs at the Claremont Opera House. “Conservatory trained and entertainment minded,” six saxophonists with classical, ragtime, jazz, pop. 7:30 pm.
Saturday
Upper Valley Youth Birding Club meets at Kilowatt Park South in Wilder. “There have been some excellent birds there the past couple of days—highlighted by Great Cormorant and Red-throated Loon—and mid-November is a great time of year to find water birds,” writes Chris Rimmer. Local birder Kyle Jones will lead the trip, with support from an expert crew of co-leaders. 8 am to 9 am, with an option to bird longer. Sign up at the link above.
Royalton Memorial Library book bazaar and signing with Jeffrey Lent and Joseph Citro. There’s a used book sale, a silent auction (including first editions), kids’ crafts, and above all, from 11 am to 1 pm, a chance to meet novelist (In the Fall) Jeffrey Lent and famed VT author and folklorist Joe Citro. The entire event runs 10 am to 3 pm.
Stephen Gorman and Waiting for Winter at the Norwich Bookstore. Gorman, a writer and photographer who’s made northern climes his specialty, has a new book out for young readers, filled with photos and words about the polar bears of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as they wait for sea ice to form—ever later in recent years—so they can hunt for seals. He’ll be reading and talking about the changing Arctic. 2 pm.
Hop Film screens One Battle After Another. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “prescient, mesmerizing, frequently hilarious and fearlessly political piece of work” (NPR) is also an action thriller, based (loosely) on Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti as his daughter facing off against an unnerving Sean Penn. 2 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
Upper Valley Music Center’s Community Chorus fall concert. Directed by Annie Arrington, the chorus pulls together more than 75 singers from throughout the Upper Valley, from Cornish to Bradford. The program will include a mix of popular songs, folk music from around the world, and “contemporary compositions that celebrate community and connection.” 4 pm, First Baptist Church of Lebanon.
Bluegrass classics with The Well Kept Men in Thetford. Mark Sunderwirth on mandolin, Eric Faro (guitar), Chuck Horrell (banjo), Josh Cleaver (stand-up bass), and Tanner Wallace (fiddle) play a benefit concert for the upkeep and operations of the Thetford Hill Church—in the church itself. Sweet and savory dessert buffet to follow. 6:30 pm.
The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra does Mahler. The DSO’s headed to Italy in December, and Friday’s concert offers a preview: Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” with baritone Samuel Kidd, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Filippo Ciabatti conducts. 7:30 pm in the Hopkins Center’s Spaulding Auditorium.
Sunday
At Artistree’s Hayloft, a book signing and conversation with Stephen and Lorna Garrow. Stephen is 92 now, but when he was a young man, he worked in that very same barn when it was part of a dairy farm. The former farmer, chef, salesman, and truck driver, and current storyteller and writer will be joined by his wife of 70 years, Lorna, as they share reflections from his two books, The First 92 Years of My Life and From the School of Hard Knots, and from hers, My First 40 Years of Foster Care. 1 pm.
Piano prodigy Kingsley Chen in Woodstock. The UU’s North Chapel hosts its final concert in the 2025 chamber series, with Chen—born in Hong Kong, performing since he was 5, and studying at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School—playing works by Schubert, Brahms, and Liszt. 2 pm, free and open to the public.
Family dance in Cornish. Upper Valley Music Center and Cornish’s Stowell Library co-host a “traditional New England dance” with veteran caller David Millstone at the mic, ready to teach all dances. Music by UVMC faculty with an open invitation to join the band (rehearsal Friday at 6:30 pm). 3-5 pm in Cornish Town Hall.
Have a fine weekend!
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