Built on Stilts, the Vineyard’s homegrown dance festival, opens on Thursday, August 12, at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs and continues through Sunday and again the following weekend, August 21 to 23.
Each night’s program begins with drumming at 7:30 p.m. (all acoustic musicians are invited to join in) and dance performances at 8. The program is different each night.
As ever, the shows are free to the public, and audiences many come and go as they please. Donations at the door are strongly encouraged. No reservations necessary.
Taffy McCarthy is solitary on stage in the literal whole-nine-yards of white satin bridal paraphernalia; the gown is too long for her customary hopping and bopping.
In this Island Theatre Workshop (ITW) rehearsal of the first of five short original plays — banded together under the title Pick of the Crop — Ms. McCarthy portrays a hill country bride-to-be called Sis. The monologue, One Last Look, was written by the actor herself.
The authorship of all of William Shakespeare’s plays has been attributed elsewhere, to Christopher Marlowe, to the Earl of Oxford, to Queen Elizabeth’s favorite lady-in-waiting (well, that one’s a bit of a stretch). Yet even the Bard himself might have preferred his name stricken from Pericles, Prince of Tyre. In fact, modern editors maintain he wrote only the second half — or less — of the drama, the first portion almost certainly penned by second-rate dramatist and tavern buddy George Wilkins.
After 18 months of planning, rehearsing and fundraising, the BravEncore Theatre Troupe departs the Vineyard on Saturday to perform their original musical play at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. Islanders are invited to join a bagpiper in sending off the student thespians departing on the 3:45 p.m. ferry out of Oak Bluffs.
The troupe will perform Secret of the Seven Sisters (book by Kate Murray, music and lyrics by Kate Murray and Jake Estabrook) from August 20 to 23 at a theatre in Edinburgh.
Fed up with the punditocracy doing the yellathon thing day after day? Tired of watching fellow humans go frothy with the rightousness of their own ego? Whatever happened to the color gray, anyway? Or humor?
Well, this Saturday the air is being taken out of the gasbags — all of them, be they Democrat or Republican.
Auditions for A Midsummer Night’s Dream are on Saturdays, May 15 and 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days, at the Vineyard Playhouse. Director M.J. Bruder Munafo is seeking young, nonequity actors of all ethnic backgrounds, with access to housing on Martha’s Vineyard.
Arrive at the audition and sign up for an appointment that day. Everyone who comes to the audition will be seen. Actors should come prepared to perform a short (under two minutes) Shakespearean monologue from any play.
Fame was the production theme for Camp Jabberwocky’s annual July theatre performance last Friday and Saturday. Their Fame had a huge cast, lots of laughs, moments of beauty, and Darth Vadar.
The musical play Bears Beware — Goldilocks Is in Your Town answers the question “What kind of world is it were little girls break into houses that bears own?”
The Yard hosts a free, open performance from its choreographer in residence, Ana Isabel Keilson, on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the barn theatre on Middle Road near Beetlebung Corner in Chilmark.
At this year’s Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Festival the students in Kate Murray’s Theatre II class presented a new work, the brainchild of a creative collaboration between teacher and students. And this weekend, they are bringing it home, with several productions for the Vineyard audiences slated at the high school’s performing arts center.
