The Island is home to a lot of talent, but if you aren’t much of a barfly, you’d think homegrown musicians fly south for the winter. Tonight at 7 p.m., the Unitarian Universalist Society will turn their chapel into a dancefloor.
Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely of the group Lunasa return to the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven on Saturday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m.
Their new album, On Common Ground, was named one of the top 10 albums of 2009 by the Irish Echo, which called it “a pinnacle performance from Cillian Vallely and Kevin Crawford, two uncommonly gifted Irish traditional musicians.”
Well-loved performer Nancy Jephcote brings her classic original folk material to the Katharine Cornell Theatre along with a band of supporting musicians this Saturday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m.
An Iowa native with a rich, true voice, she appeared on Peter Simon’s The Best of the Vineyard Sound CD, rubbing virtual shoulders with Judy Collins, Richie Havens and Jonathan Edwards.
Vineyard BellyDance and Revue will perform on Friday, May 7, at the Katharine Cornell Theatre.
The troupe of seven dancers will show a variety of dance styles from the Middle East, and works by numerous choreographers. Guest performers will offer live drumming and jazz singing, salsa, ballroom dancing and the Brazilian art of capoeira.
The troupe includes dancers Suzanna Nickerson, Amy Fournier, Sheila Rayyan, Jamie O’Gorman, Betsy Smith, Rhonda Backus and Pat Szucs. Carol Loud and Sarah Nevin will be providing live music.
Come dress your best at the Best Dressed Fest at Nectar’s on Saturday, July 31. The Spoonbreakers will play and dance at 9 p.m. on the dance floor. Also on the lineup are Kahoots, the Vineyard band that has just finished recording their 12th full-length album called Play Something You Know, and Willy Mason, just returned from touring Europe with Norah Jones. Deejay Ricky Prime will spin as well. Tickets are $10 at the door.
It’s six days before opening night of the Vineyard’s first production of Rent — that’s about 8,000 minutes, for fans of the Broadway musical’s company song Seasons of Love, which poses the question, how do you measure a year, and answers it with the surprisingly catchy refrain, “five-hundred, twenty-five-thousand, six-hundred minutes..”
The jazz, funk and blues guitar of Jon Zeeman and Friends will kick off Musical Mondays at Featherstone Center for the Arts on June 28.
It’s BYO lawn chair, blanket and picnic basket to the greens of the arts campus on Barnes Road, not far from the blinker in Oak Bluffs, each Monday evening from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults or $5 with Our Island Club card; children are free.
Calling kids aged 8 to 18 who can sing and/or act: it’s audition time for the Imp production of Bittersweet, a musical that includes many singing some non-singing roles. Bittersweet is written by Ross Mihalko and Donna Swift, with lyrics by Ross Mihalko and music by Brian Weiland — the creators of Bears Beware, Goldilocks Is in Your Town; Waking Beauty; Bluebeard; and The Tall Tale Trilogy.
A grand puppet parade down Main street, Vineyard Haven on Saturday will be a highlight of the fourth annual weekend-long Martha’s Vineyard Puppet Festival. The parade will begin at 5 p.m., but anyone who would like to join the parade can bring a puppet friend and meet at Katharine Cornell Theatre at 4:30, or come at 3 p.m. to a free puppet-making event and make a parade puppet to follow the giant puppets — Mother Earth, Mother Ocean and Father Sky.
