SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
It’s a packed weekend, let’s get to it:
Friday
It’s opening day at Billings Farm. The season kickoff (10 am to 4 pm) features a free scoop of ice cream with admission, plus you chance to visit the animals – cows, sheep, goats, and chickens, see Caleb Kenna’s photography exhibition, and check out “how the Art on the Barns exhibit is transformed by early spring.”
A Little Lunch Music with the VTones. Upper Valley Music Center hosts the local a cappella group—four women and four men, all of them with extensive choral experience around the region—at noon.
“An Evening of Owls” at VINS. The institute’s educators tell owl stories (“three juicy stories about our owls that have never before been shared with the public”); talk about how they’re portrayed in film and books and where the truth really lies; reveal the stuff you probably didn’t actually want to know about owls; and what goes into owl-keeping. It all begins at 5 pm.
Howe Library Spring Soirée. Live music, catered hors d’oeuvres, complimentary drinks, “and the company of friends and neighbors”—plus a live auction. 6 pm.
The Hop presents the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and “Still/Here”. Three decades after the production broke new dance-theater ground in the midst of the AIDS epidemic (exemplifying “a form of dance theater that is uniquely American, vital and timely,” the Hop writes), the work returns to the Hop stage. Friday and Saturday in the Moore Theater, 7:30 pm. Jones will talk over the work, its origins, and its impact with performance scholar Misty De Berry in a pre-show talk Friday at 6:30 pm in the Top of the Hop.
The Anonymous Coffeehouse returns. This particular tuneful evening opens at 7:30 pm with Stu Fuchs, part virtuoso ukulelist/part vaudevillian entertainer, and, writes emcee Adam Sorscher, “the only musician I've seen who can pluck an arrangement using his teeth.” He’s followed at 8 by Ashley Storrow and Putnam Smith, old-timey multi-instrumentalists and singers who perform as The Early Risers. And at 9 pm, masterful guitarist and singer Brooks Hubbard closes things out. At the First Congregational Church of Lebanon.
Just across Colburn Park, Lucía takes the stage at Lebanon Opera House. Four years ago, the young singer became the first Mexican artist to enter the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition—and won, with her mix of English, Spanish, and zapateado dancing on “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Now based in Harlem, she crosses jazz, Latin, and pop, and is winning increasing renown as a vocalist in the mold of Samara Joy and Jazzmeia Horn. 7:30 pm.
Ska Punk Night at Sawtooth Kitchen. Steppin' Razor Blades and McAsh bring the noise starting at 9 pm.
Saturday
At the Montshire, a day of robotics and coding. It’s a chance to meet local engineers, coders, and makers who tinker and build with code and robotics, plus a showcase of projects from local clubs and classes. You can try out coding activities (no experience needed), and drop in on hands-on workshops to experiment with Robot Bees, Arduino, Tiny Touch Instruments, and more. Free for high school students with valid ID. 10am – 5pm.
Family Arts Day at The Sharon Academy. Hands-on workshops led by local artists, along with teachers and students, in everything from circus arts to jewelry making to paper airplanes and a collaborative group mural. Plus live music. 10 am to 1 pm at TSA’s high school.
A celebration of new Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Stephen Bissette at Springfield Cinemas 3. Bissette officially receives his appointment today (Thursday) at the VT State House. Saturday’s event includes a screening of the 2005 film Constantine, which stars Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, a character Bissette helped create while working on “The Saga of the Swamp Thing” for DC Comics in the 1980s. Doors at 11:30 am, film at 12:30 pm.
At Matt Brown Fine Art in Lyme, “Art Heals. How?” In this “Gathering at the Gallery,” Artistree’s Kathleen Dolan and art therapist Barbara Mason take inspiration from a Rumi poem (at the link) to talk about “how art can heal and help.” 1 pm.
Author Jennifer Duby and Belle at the Abbott Library in Sunapee. Duby, from Enfield, will talk about her novel, inspired by Belle Gunness, a notorious 19th-century serial killer “who lured men to her Indiana farm using lonely hearts ads.” She’ll discuss the book itself, how she came to write it, and the publishing process. 1:30 pm.
Hop Film screens The Battle of Algiers. Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film used newsreel film stock and actual locations to reconstruct events in Algiers after the Algerian National Liberation Front launched its war on the French. The film, Roger Ebert wrote after it came out, “may be a deeper film experience than many audiences can withstand: too cynical, too true, too cruel and too heartbreaking… [but also] passionate and neutral, concerned with both sides.” 4 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
Community Chorus @ UVMC Spring Concert: Turn the World Around. Directed by Annie Arrington and with Maureen Burford at the piano, the ensemble brings together 80+ singers of all ages from across the Upper Valley. 4 pm at Mascoma Valley Regional High School.
“Follow Your Art” at Lebanon Opera House. A benefit concert for New England School of the Arts featuring bluegrass from Well-Kept Men, bands from Tuck’s Rock Dojo, Julie Ness, Annemieke McLane, Kevin David Thomas and Sutton Crawford, NESA students, and a full evening of other performers. 7 pm.
A video screening of We the People Theatre’s production of the musical 1776. Filmed in 2018 at the Briggs the Tony Award-winning comedy is based on the events leading up to the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence. Hosted by Thetford’s organizing committee for the 250th, 7 pm in the Martha Rich Theater at Thetford Academy.
Mud Season Variety Show at the Chandler in Randolph. Hosted by the Chandler Players, the revived community theater group that came together to stage Our Town last year, the evening features a core group of the Players, the Chandler Children’s Chorale, cloggers from Mountain House Dance Company, dance numbers by groups from Randolph Union and Contemporary Dance Studio, boogie-woogie guitar, and more variety than you can shake a stick at. 6 pm.
Hamlet by Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare at the Claremont Opera House. “Shakespeare’s greatest work gets the full boozy treatment…” The troupe also provides this warning: “Our shows feature murder, treason, war, violence (personal, sexual, and national), suicide, regicide, incest, and blasphemy—and that is just the Shakespeare! Our drinker has been known to contribute profanity.” No one under 16 without an adult, audience members in the front row may get sloshed by beer. 7:30 pm.
Classicopia’s “The Love Triangle” in a weekend of performances. Violinist Irina Rostomashvili and pianist Dan Weiser highlight the music of Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms—and their tight-knit, complicated friendships. Saturday at 7:30 pm at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, Sunday at 2 pm at the WRJ home of Andrew Bauman, and Sunday at 6 pm in Contoocook.
Tracy Hall contradance in Norwich. Joy Factor (Gianna Marzilli Ericson, Rebecca Weiss, Henry Yoshimura) with the music and Don Veino calling. All dances taught beforehand, with a beginner/refresher session at 7:15 and the dance getting under way at 7:30 pm.
Sunday
English Country Dance at Tracy Hall in Norwich. David Millstone leading, music by Carol Compton and Thal Aylward with the Upper Valley English Country Dance Community Orchestra. 1 pm.
Hyannis Sound at Woodstock’s North Chapel. The Cape Cod-based a cappella group founded by Woodstock’s Townsend Belisle hasn’t performed in the Upper Valley since 2019, forced to cancel shows because of the pandemic and bad weather. The show will bring together some 20 singers who’ve been in the group at various times over the past three decades (it changes every year), improvising as they go. “We’re just as entertained by ourselves on stage as the audience is entertained by us,” says Belisle. For more about them, here’s Aaron Rubin’s story in the Standard. 2 pm Sunday in Woodstock, 7 pm Saturday in Dartmouth’s Filene Auditorium.
The Howe Library’s winter film series screens The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop. “This 2024 warm, character-driver documentary explores the world of modern board gaming through the personal stories of players, collectors, and creators. Rather than explaining how games work, it highlights why people play…” 2:30 pm in the Mayer Room.
Ben Kulp and Chenyu Wang with “Something Borrowed”. Two Upper Valley Music Center teachers collaborate: “Join cellist Ben Kulp for an afternoon where he explores repertoire that has been musically influential to him over the years, with Chenyu Wang on piano. Ben will revisit the first movement of the Haydn C Major concerto from his high school days, and rework classics with new renditions and interpretations.” 3 pm, First Congregational Church of Lebanon.
Hop Film screens H is for Hawk. Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson star in Philippa Lowthorpe’s 2025 adaptation of the hugely popular memoir by Helen Macdonald. 4 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
Court Street Arts presents The Mammals. The Hudson Valley-based folk-rock band was founded by Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar with the goal of “reviv[ing] the rebel soul of Americana, and giv[ing] it something real to say.” And their performances—“welcoming, unrushed, almost ceremonial—create a space where audiences can breathe again, remembering themselves in the process.” 4-7:30 pm at Alumni Hall in Haverhill.
The Brothers Breitbach and “From Street Corners to Symphony Halls”. That would be local fiddler and impresario Jakob Breitbach and his brother River Glen, with music and “stories of growing up in a family band, busking on street corners, auditioning and performing in with the local Dubuque, Iowa symphony, ballet company, and touring nationally with their respective bands.” 5 pm in the Vermont Room at the Hotel Coolidge, call 802-295-3118 for reservations.
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