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Curtain calls
By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com
• Good cause: Eve Ensler fashioned interviews with more than 200 women into Vagina Monologues, the play that is central to the V-Day campaign to end violence against women, now in its 11th year (www.VDay.org). It’s normally produced around Valentine’s Day, but another traditional college performance is scheduled for Friday, April 3, at noon and at 4 p.m. in Room 100 of Manchester Community College, 1066 Front St. It’s also MCC’s first play. Donations benefit Emily’s Place at the YWCA (tdunn@ccsnh.edu, 428-3544).
For something different, area actors perform pieces from A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls, by renowned authors and playwrights edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle. This is the second year it’s been performed as a V-Day event for Bridges: Domestic & Sexual Violence Support of Nashua and Milford. The Bridges tradition started in 2003 with Vagina Monologues, said director Deborah Shaw. Using A Memory offers something new to attract audiences, and those producing it can choose what to use from the anthology. Shaw’s selections differ from 2008’s, and she aimed to put together a night that is entertaining, educational and “speaks to issues in a way that is not offensive or intimidating to men,” she said. Nashua Theatre Guild sponsored this in the past.
A Memory is Saturday, April 4, at 9 p.m. at the Janice B. Streeter Theater, 14 Court St., Nashua, and tickets cost $15. Why so late? Previous to the V-Day event, a non-V-Day performance is scheduled there at 7:30 p.m. to benefit Bridges. Actorsingers presents Vital Signs, monologues by Jane Martin. It’s the first time the community group has performed it in Nashua, although they have taken it to theater festivals at state and regional levels. Tickets to Vital Signs also cost $15, but check www.bridgesnh.org for discounts, call 889-0858, or buy tickets at the door. Shaw and Mari Keegan are coordinating these fundraisers.
V-Day event actors include Tajoura Davis, Maria Barry, Renee Macneil, Mariah Sefel, Keegan and Shaw. Chosen A Memory authors include Kathy Najimy, Susan Miller, Edward Albee and Alice Walker.
Gina Carballo, Holly Countie, Melissa Groff, Sasha Kuftinec, Pat Lawrence, Jackie MacDonald, Erica Newhall, Cheryl Stocks, Betty Thomson and Eric Skoglund perform in Vital Signs, directed by Amy Friedman. Pieces discuss facets of womanhood from 20 women with one actor portraying the men in their lives.
• Jodi Picoult story on stage: A southern New Hampshire professional theater company premieres a new play based on work by popular Hanover-based novelist Jodi Picoult.
“When I read Jodi’s book, I was so moved by the story that I couldn’t put it down,” Yellow Taxi Productions artistic director Suzanne Delle stated about The Pact in a press release. Delle pitched the idea to Picoult, who actually writes children’s plays for her community, according to the release.
YTP commissioned Cape Cod novelist and playwright Jeannette Angell to adapt The Pact, in which a teen is found shot in a New Hampshire town. This play follows her boyfriend’s murder trial. Delle directs. Actors include Maria Barry, Susan Berkowitz, Gina Carballo, Tajoura Davis, Andrea Defeo, Becki Dennis, Larry Pizza and David White.
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m., opening Saturday, April 11, and running through April 25, at 5 Pine St. Extension at Mill Annex #6 in Nashua. Tickets cost $15 and $25. Tickets for the preview performances, Thursday, April 9, and Friday, April 10, at 8 p.m., cost $10. Call 791-4558 or visit www.theatermania.com or www.yellowtaxiproductions.org.
Angell talks about adaptation with help from The Pact actors at YTP’s free monthly Lunch Box lecture Thursday, April 16, at 12:10 p.m., at YTP.
• Let your light so shine: Kids Coop Theatre produces Godspell, score by Stephen Schwartz, Saturday, April 4, at 1 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 5, at 1 p.m. Tickets cost $9 and $12 at Daren’s Music Center in Derry and at www.kids-coop-theatre.org. Hooksett’s Jason Berk plays Jesus, and Jacob Pantazis of Manchester plays John/Judas in the youth cast. Jude Bascom directs with Blake Leister and Nikki Aubert.
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