Theater and art groups rally in 2021
Well, it was better than 2020 — that’s the sentiment that many in the art community had about 2021, as they continued to try to evolve among the ebbs and flows of the pandemic.
“All arts organizations have faced tremendous challenges in bringing live performances and art experiences to the public,” Alan Chong, Director of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, said. “We have all learned to adapt and be flexible.”
Here’s how some artistic groups fared in 2021, and a look at what they think 2022 might bring.
Art
For some organizations, 2021 meant bringing back some sorely missed in-person events. The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, for example, was able to hold its annual fair in Sunapee, with a few modifications that prioritized social distancing.
“We were really delighted that the fair was a total success and people felt comfortable coming,” said Miriam Carter, executive director of the League.
Carter said the artists did very well, with an increase in sales from $2.35 million in 2019 — the last time the fair was held in person — to $2.74 million in 2021.
“People came ready to buy,” Carter said. “It was incredibly heartening.”
The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester has faced financial challenges from being closed for most of 2020 and much of 2021, according to Chong, but it was able to reopen in 2021 with a special exhibition called “The Body in Art,” which looked at images of nudes from different perspectives, like gender, culture and time period.
“The museum also acquired a second house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright just before the pandemic,” Chong said. “We were so happy to be able to open both houses to the public in 2021.”
The museum is now offering free admission for all on Thursday nights, with live music, tours and refreshments.
Joni Taube, owner of Art 3 gallery, also re-opened her studio to the public this year, changing her hours to 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with other times open by appointment. Taube, who does art design consulting for individuals and businesses, said that at the beginning of the pandemic she had to adapt how she showed the work in her gallery by hosting virtual show openings, and that has continued in 2021 because her space is too small for gatherings. She said she may have 70 to 80 artists showing at one time, with the majority of the works being paintings, along with some glass, ceramics and metal pieces. In working with so many artists, Taube has heard a range of reactions to the pandemic.
“Artists are doing more experimenting because they’re in their studios all the time now,” she said. “Some are frustrated because the galleries are closed. Many of them have way too much work in their studios that they’d like to find an outlet for. … Some are hunkered down and painting and happy. … I think that’s how a lot of them coped.”
Taube said she thinks it has been difficult financially for artists, which is one of the reasons she started posting work online.
“You try different things for them [like] social media [and putting] shows online so the artists feel like their work is getting exposure,” she said.
The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen was able to reopen its smaller galleries, and Carter said the artists who display their work there have been well-supported by the public.
“Shopping local has really started to stick,” Carter said. “There seems to be a mindset to support the local talent. … [I think] that’s a direct impact of Covid.”
Looking ahead, Carter said the League is already preparing for the 2022 fair and will be ready to adapt if needed.
“At headquarters we’re really excited to be returning to opening our exhibition gallery, [which has been] closed since [the start of the pandemic],” she said.
The gallery will open Jan. 20 with a three-day exhibition of Art & Bloom by the Concord Garden Club. It will then open for regular hours starting Jan. 25 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 4 p.m. A new exhibition called “Setting the Standard,” featuring new work from League jurors in all media areas, will be on display at that time.
At the Currier, Chong said they’re watching the omicron variant situation carefully and will make decisions based on keeping the community safe.
“We are continuing to push experiences [like] remote art classes and educational resources,” Chong said.
A new exhibition featuring the work of Arghavan Khosravi is scheduled to open in April, according to Chong, and the Currier will also be showing Warhol Screen Tests: “short film snippets made in the 1960s that prefigure our selfie culture,” he said.
Art 3 Gallery currently has a show that will be up for another few weeks called “Artful Escapes.”
Taube is hoping to have some in-person opening receptions next year but knows that as with this year, everything can change at any time.
“I don’t know what 2022 is going to bring,” she said. “I’m hoping that people start coming out more and looking again at art, thinking about spaces, decor and how they want to live and have an appreciation of what people go through in terms of forming a piece of artwork.”
Theater
Still reeling from a huge loss of income after the months-long shutdowns in 2020, New Hampshire performance companies and venues spent 2021 recuperating and trying to regain some stability.
Salvatore Prizio, who became the Executive Director of the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord last fall, said financial difficulty is the biggest challenge to come with his new position.
“One of the major issues CCA and all performing arts centers are facing now is getting back on their feet [financially],” he told the Hippo in November. “They have a lot of fiscal issues from being shut down for months.”
As restrictions on public gatherings were eased, many performance companies and venues saw an opportunity to increase revenue by expanding their programming options as much as possible, to accommodate people with all levels of Covid safety concerns.
“New Hampshire Theatre Project moved to a variety of alternative formats last year, including livestream and on-demand programming as well as in-person and outdoor performances,” said Genevieve Aichele, executive director of the Portsmouth-based company, which had lost 75 percent of its income in 2020, according to Aichele.
The Hatbox Theatre in Concord reopened with its first in-person mainstage production of the year in early summer. With masks required and seats distanced, the venue was able to operate at around 85 percent capacity.
“[Having in-person shows] enables us to … get to a point where productions not only break even but might actually come out ahead a little for their next production,” theater owner and operator Andrew Pinard told the Hippo in June.
Manchester-based Cue Zero Theatre Company was one of a number of local companies and venues that utilized a hybrid format for its performances, allowing people to attend in person or watch from home via livestream.
“Being able to offer streaming alongside the in-person performances created new opportunities for us to reach both a wider audience as well as keep our local audiences feeling safe and comfortable,” Cue Zero artistic director Dan Pelletier said, adding that the company “had a successful 2021, all things considered.”
The New Hampshire theater community also took time in 2021 to celebrate the technology and experimental forms of performance that have kept them going through the pandemic.
“The pandemic has truly redefined the way theater artists make work,” said Matt Cahoon, artist director of Theatre Kapow in Manchester. “We feel very fortunate to have found ways to innovate.”
Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative in Laconia, for example, teamed up with the Community Players of Concord in April to host a Zoom Play Festival, featuring a series of new short plays by New Hampshire playwrights, written specifically for performance over the Zoom video chat platform; and the theme of New Hampshire Theatre Project’s annual Storytelling Festival, held in the spring virtually and in person in Portsmouth, was “What Are You Waiting For?” — a theme inspired, Aichele said, by the innovation of the arts community during the pandemic.
“It’s a new world; we can’t do art the way we used to,” Aichele told the Hippo in April, “so why not use Covid as an opportunity to reinvent ourselves? What are we waiting for? That’s really what these stories are about — not waiting to act or make a change.”
Heading into the new year, performance companies and venues are hopeful that they can continue to present shows in person, but are at the ready to go fully virtual again, should restrictions on public gatherings be reinstated.
“We are well aware that we may need to return to virtual performances at some point in the future, but truly feel prepared to make that transition if need be,” Cahoon said, adding that Theater Kapow is “also working hard to incorporate many of the lessons we have learned and the technology we have acquired into our in-person performances.”
Some companies and venues have had so much success with their virtual programming that they plan to offer it, in addition to their in-person programming, indefinitely, regardless of the Covid situation.
“Digital media … is going to be a long-term component of performing arts centers,” Prizio told the Hippo in November. “That’s going to be critical for us down the road. It’s a way we can reach a wider audience and allow people who might not have the opportunity to get to our physical space, like some of the folks living in senior centers, for example, to experience art from the comfort of their own home.”
Many theater directors are optimistic about the future of community theater, even in the face of uncertainty.
“2021 brought new challenges, but also new opportunities, and we are a stronger company because of it,” said Rob Dionne, artistic director of Majestic Theatre in Manchester. “We are looking forward to seeing our audiences grow again in 2022.”
“We know the challenges of Covid are not going away,” Pelletier added, “but we look forward to traversing them with our audiences into a new landscape where we can continue to create our brand of theater and art.”
Things to look forward to in 2022
ART
• “Setting the Standard”: A new exhibition at League of New Hampshire Craftsmen headquarters in Concord that will feature new work from League jurors in all media areas will be open to guests Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to 4 p.m. starting Jan. 25. Visit nhcrafts.org.
• Arghavan Khosravi exhibition: The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester will host an exhibition featuring the work of Arghavan Khosravi, “an immensely talented artist whose challenging images have a striking surrealist quality,” according to museum director Alan Chong. The opening date will be announced soon. Visit currier.org.
THEATER
• The Majestic Academy of Dramatic Arts presents a Young Performers’s Edition of The Wizard of Oz at the Derry Opera House (29 W. Broadway, Derry), with showtimes on Friday, Jan. 28, and Saturday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 30, at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $12 for seniors age 65 and up and $10 for students age 17 and under. Call 669-7469 or visit majestictheatre.net.
• Glass Dove Productions presents Mary and Me at the Hatbox Theatre (Steeplegate Mall, 270 Loudon Road, Concord) from Jan. 28 through Feb. 13. The original play by Irene Kelleher, inspired by a true story, follows a pregnant 15-year-old girl and her search for understanding while growing up in 1986 Ireland. Tickets cost $22 for adults and $19 for seniors and students. Visit hatboxnh.com or call 715-2315.
• The Riverbend Youth Company will perform The Lion King Jr. at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts (56 Mont Vernon St., Milford), with showtimes on Friday, Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 5, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 6, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets will go on sale in early January. Visit amatocenter.org/riverbend-youth-company.
• Cue Zero Theatre Co. presents Deadly, an original movement-based theater piece by Crystal Rose Welch, at Granite State Arts Academy (19 Keewaydin Drive, No. 4, Salem), with showtimes Friday, March 4, through Sunday, March 6. With a nine-person ensemble, Deadly uses movement to explore the modern-day seven deadly sins. Visit cztheatre.com
• The Franklin Footlight Theatre presents a production of Little Women at the Franklin Opera House (316 Central St., Franklin) with showtimes on Thursday, March 10, through Saturday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 13, at 2 p.m. Based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1869 novel, the play follows the adventures of four sisters living with their mother in Massachusetts while their father is fighting in the Civil War. Tickets cost $16 for adults and $14 for students and seniors. Visit franklinoperahouse.org or call 934-1901.
• The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester) presents a mainstage production of Bye Bye Birdie from March 11 through April 3. The musical comedy, set in 1958 small-town America, centers around teen heartthrob Conrad Birdie, who has been drafted into the Army and announces that he will give one girl from his fan club a goodbye-kiss before reporting for duty. Tickets range from $25 to $46. Visit palacetheatre.org or call 668-5588.
Featured Photo: Untitled by Arghavan Khosravi. Courtesy photo.
