On Sunday, Sept. 28, there will be tryouts for two original one-act musicals about Vineyard history:
Nancy Luce, The Musical was originally produced in the summer of 2007 as part of Children’s Theatre Workshop summer program, with a book by Dana Anderson and music by Linda Berg.
An Island of Women, Life on the Vineyard, 1850-1852, written by E. St. John Villard, takes place at a time when much of the male population was at sea whaling. Philip Dietterich has written the music and lyrics.
Looking for easy-to-digest entertainment after stuffing yourself on stuffing? Tonight and tomorrow night, Shakespeare for the Masses will present a free, script-in-hand performance of the Bard’s spiciest “problem play,” All’s Well That Ends Well at the Vineyard Playhouse.
A series of events are scheduled this weekend and next week as culminating activities of the year for the visual and performing arts departments at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.
Between the Lines, an original play written for the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Competition, will be performed at the Grange Hall at 7:30 pm. today, Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17 in West Tisbury.
Rachel Stein’s dad, Arthur (Adam Heller), after 9/11, had a freak out beyond everyone else’s freak out, but he had a certifiable right to it: One of the infamous planes flew into his office at the Twin Towers. While Arthur somehow muddled into a stairwell and was shepherded out by a fellow with a flashlight, the 65 employees who worked under him were not so lucky. Since then — and the action of the play takes place in 2003 — Arthur has not changed out of his pajamas and he’s starting to, well, stink.
In their last camp show of the summer, staff and campers of IMP All Things Theatre Camp have spent two weeks creating an entirely new and original show based of the theme of Transformation. This show will feature Shakespeare, story theatre, fables, music and dance as well as a unique improvised plot. Fun for all ages, the show is enjoyable even if you have never heard of IMP Camp before.
No artistic medium asks us, the audience, to bring our imagination to the table as much as a staged theatre reading. So when a work such as Kim and Delia is presented by Vineyard playwright and filmmaker Brian Ditchfield — on Saturday night, May 31, under the aegis of the popular Island Interludes program of New Works by Island Writers — and when the play itself is a homage to imagination and its infinite possibilities, well, the audience shares in the creation.
In the lull between the primaries and the conventions, get a double dose of political satire on the Vineyard this weekend. Skip the fundraisers (they are so last weekend) and see musical satirists the Capitol Steps Saturday at the Tabernacle at 8 p.m., before catching comedian, political satirist and author of The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing, Will Durst, at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown on Sunday, July 27, at 7 p.m.
There’s an old Rabbinic saying that in every generation we are Adam and Eve in Eden, able to begin again. Considering the current state of global affairs, we can certainly take heart that, like the original couple, we too can survive the Fall with grace and optimism. No less an inspiration than the American master of humor himself, Mark Twain, has provided us with a life lesson worth heeding.
The two-character play drawn from Mark Twain’s Diaries of Adam and Eve is now on stage at the Vineyard Playhouse.