SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
Friday
For starters, it’s First Friday in WRJ. As you’d expect, there’s a ton happening, from exhibitions at Two Rivers Printmaking, Scavenger, and Zollikofer; to a gallery handoff at Long River as longtime owners Rachel Obbard and Kathy Detzer make way for Amanda Ann Palmer and Amy Hook-Therrien; to the JAMMYs year-end awards and celebration at JAM (sleepwear encouraged); to tarot readings at Open Door and piano rolls at the Main Street Museum, to Dead Men Strumming at River Roost and a bunch of interesting food and drink (and music) at Putnam’s. Details at the link.
Meanwhile, in Hanover, it’s “Celebrate the Season”. Extended hours for downtown businesses, Dartmouth’s tree lighting with caroling from New England School of the Arts on the Green from 5:00 - 5:30 pm, and a downtown holiday tree and window walk. The activities continue on Saturday with Hanover Parks & Rec’s “Home for the Holidays” with a pancake breakfast at the RWB Community Center, a HopStop cookie swap contest, and RUDOLPH at the Nugget.
At the Howe Library, a holiday concert with the North Country Chordsmen and VoxStars. Barbershop and lots of vocal harmony in the New Books Area on the main floor. 3:30 pm.
The Vermont Comedy Festival officially gets underway tonight (Thursday), with a kickoff party at Ramunto’s in Bridgewater and then a standup battle at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club at 8. But the biggest action is Friday-Sunday, with standup in Woodstock, Bridgewater, and Killington (full schedule at the link above) and headliner Judy Gold presented by Pentangle at the Woodstock Town Hall Theater on Saturday at 8 pm.
Cameo Baroque at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich. It’s a concert to benefit the Haven’s Giving Days campaign, with a program featuring works by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Telemann, Boismortier, Dornell, and selections composed by seldom-performed Baroque masters Jean-Fery Rebel, Roberto Valentine, and Evaristo Felice dall'Abaco. 7 pm.
Upper Valley Voices winter concert, “Season of Light”. Some 25 singers “drawn together by the joy of singing and a commitment to bringing good music from a variety of traditions to the community”: Friday at 7 pm at the United Church of Strafford; Saturday at 7 pm at the UUCUV in Norwich; and Sunday at 4 pm at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon.
Lebanon High School’s Wet Paint Players with Water for Elephants at the Lebanon Opera House. The new musical adaptation of the hit about a Depression-era veterinary student who joins a circus and falls in love with the star performer. With aerial and acrobatic performers from Upper Valley Circus Collective showcasing circus acts set to a musical score by PigPen Theatre Company. 7 pm both Friday and Saturday, 1 pm on Sunday.
Artistree screens White Christmas. Yep, that one: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen… 7 pm.
The Anonymous Coffeehouse’s season finale at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Things start up at 7:30 pm with Americana singer-songwriter Reed Foehl; continue at 8 pm with Ottawa, Canada’s Lynne Hanson, “Too tough for folk and too blues-influenced for country”; and finish off at 9 pm with a klezmer set by western Mass. duo, A Glezele Tey (Yiddish for “a little glass of tea”).
Saturday
The holiday markets continue… With the annual holiday bazaar at Lebanon United Methodist Church, the St. Nicholas Fair at St. Andrew’s Church in New London, a craft and cookie sale at Mascoma United Methodist Church in Enfield, and the big annual handmade crafts holiday gift fair in the Enfield Shaker Museum’s Great Stone Dwelling. VN roundup at the link above (scroll down to Dec. 6). And farther afield in Vermont, Erica Houskeeper’s Happy Vermont has a rundown that includes Killington’s three-day Holiday Festival and the Coolidge Homestead holiday open house in Plymouth.
The Family Place’s 23rd annual Gingerbread Festival. If you’ve never been, you should treat yourself to the astounding display of gingerbread and confectionary creativity, with plenty of family-oriented activities all around. And if you have been, you know why you’ll go back. 10 am to 3 pm at Tracy Hall in Norwich.
AVA Gallery Open House and Holiday Party. The open house is filled with artist demos, exhibitions, art for sale, and more, and runs from 10 am to 4 pm. Then, at 5 pm, the holiday party starts up with music by Billy Rosen and Norm Yanofsky and an opening reception for AVA’s Holiday Exhibition.
A chance to tour ShackletonThomas and the Bridgewater Mill. Furniture maker Charlie Shackleton and potter Miranda Thomas have thrown open the doors every year for the past three decades for what’s become a community celebration—and, as the mill gains new vibrancy, see what else is going on at places like Artifact Jewelry, Shift Change Apparel, Pietro Landi Gallery, and others. Runs 3-6 pm.
Montshire ornament-ornamentation workshop. “Turn a holiday ornament into a twinkling masterpiece! Work with a variety of art supplies and the Montshire's ChompShop tools to create a beautiful holiday decoration, and then make it dazzle with the power of electricity and LEDs.” Best for kids 5+, and there’s a $5 fee on top of regular admission. It’s a drop-in workshop, 11 am to 1 pm both Saturday and Sunday.
Upper Valley Music Center’s Holiday Music Festival. Student performances and recitals, an open house, ‘Tis the Session jam at 2 pm in the First Congregational Church parish hall, caroling at 4:45 pm in Colburn Park… details at the link.
Hop Film screens the Met Opera in HD’s The Magic Flute. This abridged, English-language production of Mozart’s much-loved classic was conceived by Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor (The Lion King), and was the Met in HD’s very first live transmission back in 2006. This is an encore presentation for the holidays. 1 pm in Spaulding Auditorium.
Billings Farm’s Woodstock Vermont Film Series kicks off. With two films: La Liga, MacPherson Christopher and Paul Rosenfeld’s short about a soccer league formed by immigrant dairy workers in Vermont; and Stories to Save Us: The Saltmarsh Sparrow, Matt Aeberhard and Melanie Finn’s film about a coastal bird facing rising tides and habitat loss. 3 pm both Saturday and Sunday. After Saturday’s showings, Christopher and Finn will be there in person to talk about their films. Full series here.
Krampusnacht Spooky Yule at the Main Street Museum in WRJ. Or at least, that’s where the Krampus-led costumed “march of mischief will start. They write, “We're making a single lap of the Gory Daze route, from the museum to Main Street to Putnam's, around to Gates Street to Currier St and back to the museum. Please remember that we are staying on the sidewalks, not marching through the street.” 6 pm.
BarnArts Holiday Cabaret and year-end fundraiser. They write: “Join us for savory nibbles and desserts, dancing to the Speak Easy Prohibition Band with Samirah Evans, special performances from beloved BarnArts actors and singers,” and a reunion of the von Trapp Family Singers.” 7-9:30 pm, Barnard Town Hall.
At the Chandler in Randolph, A Celtic Christmas with Cassie and Maggie. You might have caught the MacDonald sisters from Nova Scotia at the New World Festival this past summer. “Fiddle, guitar, piano, sibling harmonies, and percussive stepdance will mark the season, as well as classic Christmas hymns, ancient carols, and a sassy ode to the most mysterious of Santa’s reindeer, Vixen.” 7 pm.
Sunday
rePlay Arts Holiday Craftstravaganza in WRJ. From 10 am to 2 pm: “Want to make a handmade gift for someone special? Decorations for your home? A creative card? An ornament for your tree? Or a little something for Chanukah? We’ve got you covered! You bring your ideas and half-finished projects, and we’ll have cider and donuts, creative community, and all the materials you could ever dream of.”
Tom Rush at the Flying Goose in New London. The folk great is doing two shows, at 2 pm and 7 pm, accompanied by modern troubadour Matt Nakoa. You’ll want to call for reservations ((603) 526-6899).
The Thetford Historical Society presents former VT Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy. There’s a brief annual meeting of the society first, and then Amestoy will discuss his recent book, Winter's Time: A Secret Pledge, a Severed Head and the Murder that Brought America's Most Famous Lawyer to Vermont. That lawyer, of course, was Clarence Darrow, and he defended Cone Automatic machinist John Winters of Windsor, who’d been convicted of the brutal killing of Cecelia Gullivan, the company’s treasurer. Things get going at 3 pm in the Martha Jane Rich Theater at Thetford Academy.
Randolph Singers holiday concert at the Chandler. A mix of old and new, sacred and secular, program at the link. 4 pm.
Hanover Center tree lighting and carol sing. Outside the Hanover Center Church, with songs and cocoa. 5 pm.
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