Category: Art & Theater

Grand opening party at School of Rock

Typically, the urge to play a musical instrument begins with a song. Wouldn’t it be great to learn “Seven Nation Army” and play it at a barbecue or talent show? The School of Rock is tapped into those sentiments. Students there begin with performance and gradually fill it out with skills, going from air guitar to the real thing.

The first New Hampshire School of Rock franchise debuted in Nashua late last year.

“We work backwards,” owner Andy McKenna explained at the time — starting with a star pose, “Students learn specific songs [and] in the process, learn about the music theory that goes into the song. So they do get a full music education.”

Anyone who watched the movie starring Jack Black knows that it culminates with a concert. That’s one reason McKenna waited until the end of his first season to have an official grand opening. That happens on July 1, with live performances, jam sessions, free ice cream and a Pete Townshend guitar smashing ceremony.

There’s a lot to celebrate.

“Right now we’re well over 50 students, and we put on our first performances, because that’s the cornerstone of what School of Rock does,” he said. “Getting our students learning their instruments, obviously, but then playing together in groups and setting up gigs in the community.”

The first happened May 18 at the Shaskeen in Manchester.

“Three different groups played, and it was great, standing room only,” McKenna said. “School of Rock told me that as an owner, when you put on your first show, there will be tears. I’m not sure that there were for me, but I was definitely pretty emotional.”

For the grand opening, a house band representing the Berwyn, Pennsylvania, School of Rock franchise will visit and play at nearby Spyglass Brewing Co., joined by Nashua students.

“It’s our 8- to 12-year-old Rock 101, our performance group, which is our teenagers, 13 to 18, and then our adult group. We’re all performing.”

He learned about the craft brewery from his instructors.

“Some perform quite frequently out in the community and know all the venues,” he said. “They’re set up for musical performances indoors and outdoors. They’ve got a little stage on an outdoor patio, and if the weather’s good … we’re open to play outside.”

The staff of local musicians he recruited was McKenna’s happiest surprise in his first six months running the school.

“Playing the role of CEO and CFO and doing everything, including hiring, I didn’t have a lot of time to scrutinize or be that selective,” he said. “I took a chance on a lot of the instructors, and it’s been great. The team we’ve put together, their passion, enthusiasm, quality of instruction and their willingness to go through this journey with me — it’s been fantastic.”

School of Rock is located between Lens Crafters and the Friendly Toast restaurant on the Daniel Webster Highway. That may seem odd, but like a good power chord or a memorable riff, there’s a lot packed into it. Anyone attending on July 1 can discover what more than a few already know, and get ready to rock.

“It’s a narrow storefront … we’re kind of tucked in,” McKenna said. “But when people take a tour of the school, which extends to the back of the building, most are shocked at the quality of our facility and what we’ve built out here and just how cool it looks and how functional it is.”

Along with music and ice cream, the grand opening will offer discounts for new students.

“Anybody who’s interested in music, possibly taking lessons or has even kind of toyed with the idea or dreamed about it, regardless of age … kids all the way through adults, even retirees, this is a home for them,” McKenna said. “It’s a wonderful way to explore that interest and, frankly, not only learn an instrument, but, again, what we’re about is playing and making music together with others…. We’re a very welcoming organization.”

School of Rock Grand Opening
When: Tuesday, July 1, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: School of Rock, 225 DW Highway, Nashua
More: schoolofrock.com/locations/nashua
Performances follow at Spyglass Brewing Co., 306 Innovative Way, Nashua

Featured photo: School of Rock. Courtesy photo.

Currier hosts new works, dance group

When Juneteenth became a national holiday four years ago, many Americans learned about what had been known as Black Independence Day for the first time. On June 19, 1865, slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned of their emancipation at the end of the Civil War. News traveled by horseback then; the Lone Star State was the last to know and make it official.

Kelly Touhey-Childress, COO of the New Hampshire justice organization Racial Unity Team, was surprised to learn that a family member of hers was among those new to Juneteenth.

“I called my grandmother, who was 90 and grew up in West Virginia during Jim Crow and all of that, and she didn’t know what it was either,” she said by phone recently. “ To me, it’s a light shined on all of those untold stories … and it’s the fight to not have people’s histories erased.”

Racial Unity Team will lead an Arts Off the Wall Juneteenth event at Currier Museum of Art that will include an unveiling of works by Black artists along with a focus on some pieces already in their collection, as well a program of interpretive dance from the Concord-based Vibes of Style.

The group’s dancers come from diverse backgrounds, and the company is run by a Black female RUT volunteer. For the Currier event, they will perform in a mixture of styles.

“They’re all in individual pieces and some together,” Touhey-Childress said. “It’ll be a medley of dancing, and dancing from the heart, around the topic of freedom.”

Earlier in the day, curators Bruce McColl and Anastasia Kinigopoulo will lead a tour of the Currier’s African American collection.

“The works we have settled on are historical and modern/contemporary,” McColl explained recently. Among them is “Slow Murder” by Sanford Biggers. It’s a painting of black crows on a canvas made from scraps of 19th century quilts believed to have been used as signposts on the Underground Railroad.

“It’s an abstracted murder of crows,” McColl said, “a powerful piece” that evokes the history of its materials, as well as “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday’s 1939 song about lynching. The work is on loan for one year from Crystal Bridges, an Arkansas based museum of American art that both collects and interprets American art. It also actively loans major works from its collections and supports the field of museum work. It’s been especially helpful to the Currier.

Another is “Our Father,” a contemporary rendition of Jesus’s crucifixion by self-taught artist Purvis Young that’s been part of the Currier’s collection for a few years; it was recently the centerpiece of a Whitney Museum show on the Alvin Ailey Dance Company.

“Young is known for his figurative paintings, made on roughly surfaced boards and found materials,” McColl said. “The paintings are assemblages of a sort — and beautifully painted in an expressive manner.”

Fittingly, the Vibes of Style performance connects nicely with Ailey’s celebration of African-American heritage through movement.

“They’ve been focused on certain objects in the collection to interpret with dance,” McColl said. “That’s kind of a wonderful juxtaposition between one of our prized paintings with an interpretive dance experience.”

A Robert S. Duncanson painting on display is a classic 19th-century landscape that’s important both because of the artist and the work itself.

“He descended from a freed Black family from the south, who moved to the north in the early 1800s,” McColl explained. “We’re gonna start the tour with that painting. It just shows, even in the middle 19th century, that there were Black American artists who were trained and who were doing really high quality work.”

When asked what Juneteenth means to him, McColl pointed to ongoing efforts by the Currier.

“We’ve got a really beautiful, deep and rich collection of paintings and sculptures that tell the story of the emancipation of Black people in our country,” he said. “These holidays are a wonderful moment for us to stop, reflect and celebrate the history of that emancipation, but also to be mindful of the work that needs to be done.”

A Chorus Line

When: Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays at 2 & 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through June 22
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $39 and up at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: The cast of A Chorus Line. Photo courtesy of AnnMarie Lidman Photography.

A Chorus Line closes out Palace season — a review

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

When A Chorus Line opened in 1975, it upended the Broadway world. The behind-the-scenes look at casting a musical has no star; it’s a study in a shared spotlight. An impossibly massive ensemble of dancers opens the show, singing “I Hope I Get It” in unison. Each is vying for one of eight spots on the line, and half are dismissed in the first 10 minutes.

The musical ends the current Palace Theatre season, and it’s a detour from the multimedia-enhanced productions done so far. The staging is spare, set changes are minimal, and raw emotion drives the action, as Zach, the show’s director, admirably played by Justin Wolfe Smith, probes the remaining 17 hopefuls to learn more about them.

What begins with Zach asking a reluctant group about when and where they were born quickly leads to prodding the aspirants about their hopes, dreams and demons. Mike (AJ Love) recounts how he began dancing in preschool, while streetwise Sheila (Olivia Warner in a standout performance) dismisses the process.

The cracks in Sheila’s hard exterior are then laid bare in “At The Ballet,” an early musical highlight that reveals how she turned to dance as a refuge from a painful childhood. She’s joined by fellow auditionees Bebe (Alexis Yard) and Maggie (Jessie Roddy) for the poignant number, as both describe similar experiences.

One by one, each has their moment. Tone-deaf Christine (Palace veteran Emilee Clapp) and her supportive husband and dancer Al (Matthew Quintero), too short Connie Wong (Madeline Falco), Mark (Kevin Bowman), struggling with sexual identity, and others respond to the Oz-like Zach, who stays offstage for most of the show.

As Diana, Camille Theriault shines in her solo of “Nothing,” a song that reveals a primary theme of A Chorus Line, the line separating those who perform in search of acclaim from others who simply seek a sense of belonging. Spoiler alert: Everyone here belongs to the latter group.

“One,” the most well-known song in the show, is performed twice; the first time is a rehearsal, the second fully fleshed out and splendid. The initial run-through reinforces the tone raised by Diana, when Zach tells the dancers to move in perfect synchrony, commanding, “I don’t want anyone to draw my eye.”

The Act Two spotlight closes in on two characters who clearly don’t want it. During a tense interaction with Zach, Maggie pleads for a spot on the line as she performs “The Music and the Mirror,” a showstopper that brings her past to the surface, and finally shows a bit about the mysterious Zach.

Director Carl Rajotte does a solid job of bringing A Chorus Line’s many elements into focus, particularly in the first act. With help from Assistant Choreographer Sebastian Goldberg (who doubles as Zach’s number two in the show), an enormous cast is distilled fluidly, meeting the show’s biggest challenge of making many into one.

The show has many memorable and expertly performed songs, including AJ Love’s wonderful reading of “I Can Do That” and “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three,” a comically NSFW number done by Brooke Cox as Val. In “What I Did For Love,” Camille Theriault is joined by the full cast to testify everyone else longs to belong to the family of dance. The final number, brimming with the Palace’s signature flash and verve, is a great payoff. This production of A Chorus Line is by all means worth seeing, with a solid cast, wonderful music and a vital message.

A Chorus Line

When: Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays at 2 & 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through June 22
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $39 and up at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: The cast of A Chorus Line. Photo courtesy of AnnMarie Lidman Photography.

Grant winner showcases new works

As a child growing up in Houston, Texas, Aris Moore was fascinated by creatures.

“I spent a lot of time with toads and cicadas and lizards, just looking at small things and finding comfort in them,” she recalls. “Looking at a frog … was just so different than looking at another human. There was something so pure about it. I always found them wise and beautiful.”

Moore leaned in to her childhood impulses and made them a successful career. Her drawings of both invented creatures and people that resemble what Diane Arbus might have done had she been a sketch artist and not a photographer have hung in galleries and appeared in publications like New American Paintings and The Creative Block.

Though her creative spark started in Texas, Moore has lived in the Granite State for most of her adult life, raising twin daughters here. She’s currently a Teaching Artist at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC).

Recently she received a $25,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, part of their Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement program. “This grant enables artists to advance their work and careers while remaining in the area, mutually benefiting individual artists and the region as a whole,” NHCF said in a recent statement to promote Moore’s exhibit to celebrate the award at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth.

Moore will show larger works at the exhibition, something the award allows her to do.

“I really wanted to work large, and I really didn’t have the time to take that on … this afforded me that,” she said. “I could worry a little bit less about selling my work and just really immerse myself in making these larger drawings. It definitely gave me time and, honestly, it gave me confidence. It was really amazing to feel supported like that.”

A unique aspect of Moore’s art is the way it combines drawing with assemblage. In her classes, students work in layered sketchbooks, laying noses, eyes, ears and such onto a face, sketching and experimenting to find a form.

“I like it content-wise, and then I also just like physically the look of it,” she said. “Things sort of coming together but being disjointed, but then also sort of seamless. I think it’s an interesting place to play.”

Play is a concept that informs all of Moore’s work.

“The best work I make is when I don’t feel like I’m working,” she said. “I don’t have a goal in mind, and I’m just really at a point where I’m like a kid and I’m just playing and just moving things around. I guess that’s what being in flow would be. That’s the truest place where I create from. ”

She looks forward to unveiling her new works at 3S Artspace. The June 6 event is also part of the regular First Friday Art ‘Round Town happening throughout downtown Portsmouth.

“I’m interested in how people are going to relate to larger figures,” she said. “Are they going to be more unsettling, or are they going to go to the point of being sort of humorous because they’re larger? It’ll be interesting to see. I live in a small condo, so I don’t have them all hanging up. I’m excited to see how I’m going to feel about them in a larger space.”

NH Charitable Foundation Artist Advancement Grant Exhibit by 2024 recipient Aris Moore
When: Friday, June 6, 5 p.m.
Where: 3S Artspace, 319 Vaughan St., Portsmouth
More: 3sarts.org

Featured photo: Jonathan Vail, resource manager of the electronics department at MakeIt Labs, on the Lobster Roll Kinetic Vehicle.

See and learn at 2025 MakeIt Fest

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

An upcoming free event in Nashua will showcase creations from a group of dedicated tinkerers, DIY-ers and crafters. However, the 2025 MakeIt Fest isn’t just about buying hand-thrown pottery or admiring contraptions like the kinetic vehicles that will be on display. Although who doesn’t want to see two people power a giant lobster?

“Craft fairs and flea markets, things of that nature, are typically about showing people what exhibitors have done, and what you can buy,” MakeIt Fest organizer Bradley Goodman said recently. “We’re an organization of artists and engineers and mad scientists … and that’s a lifelong thing.”

Thus, the event’s aim is that folks don’t just marvel but are inspired to get involved. “The goal,” Goodman said, “is to show off what you can do, not what we have done.”

That could mean learning a skill like woodworking or even changing a car’s oil. Someone with a particular talent might consider teaching at event sponsor MakeIt Labs, or somewhere else. Representatives from makerspaces in Manchester, Claremont and Lowell, Mass., will be on hand, along with robotics nerds and the team behind the self-propelled lobster.

Though memberships are limited to adults, MakeIt Labs does outreach, like working with the local First Robotics team; members will have a booth at the festival.

“Even though our members have to be 18 and up, we have high school kids that come and use us as a workshop,” Goodman said. “We also support organizations for things like Eagle Scout projects, and we’ve done stuff for Boys & Girls Clubs.”

To that end, “we’re also going to have a lot of other age-appropriate stuff” at the festival,” he said. “Everything from static displays to arts and crafts, like making a little soaps and cosmetics, to hands-on screen printing, where people can get their names engraved on little metal keychains … interactive things not just for adults … it’s definitely a wide age range.”

MakeIt Labs first opened in Worcester, Mass., then moved to Lowell and then Nashua. Goodman got involved after reading a news article that described Nashua officials showing up at the organization’s first building to shut it down due to safety issues, but eventually finding money in the city’s budget to bring it up to code.

“I’m looking at it and thinking, wow, this is pretty interesting,” he recalled, adding he received his first membership as a Christmas gift. “I started going knowing very little about what they actually did, just taking some classes on some new things. That’s the first time I ever saw or used a 3D printer or a laser cutter. I just started one by one taking classes and learning things. That’s how I became involved, and that was about 14 years ago.”

Among the engaging activities at MakeIt Fest is the Sumo Robot Competition. Anyone who had a Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots game as a kid will recognize the concept, but this is much more high-tech. Robotics enthusiasts can bring their own entries, but attendees also have an opportunity to program one themselves.

There’s the MakeIt A Thing contest, which Goodman explained is limited solely to one’s imagination. “If you’ve made it, you think it’s cool and want to show it off, and if you think other people are going to look at it and say hey that’s really cool … then it’s probably something you should bring in and enter,” he said.

“A neat thing about MakeIt Labs and other makerspaces is they’re a very multimedia type of organization,” he continued. “Whether it’s fabric, sewing, textiles, pottery, metal, wood, 3D printed stuff … every type of technique and media you can think of is game for the type of things that people create. Electronics, music, sound, whatever it is.”

Additional attractions include the Caddy Couch, a battery-powered “cozy-cruising-creation” built at MakeIt Labs, an old-school demo on worldwide radio communications from the MakeIt Labs’ Ham Radio club, along with workshops, hands-on classes and guided tours of the facility.

MakeIt Fest isn’t a fundraiser, Goodman stressed.

“It’s something we are doing for the sole purpose of raising awareness about what we do and what other makerspaces, clubs and maker organizations do. We want to say hey, this is the kind of thing you should get involved with if it fancies you.”

MakeIt Fest

When: Saturday, May 31, noon to 5 p.m.
Where: 25 Crown St., Nashua
More: makeitfest.com

Featured photo: Jonathan Vail, resource manager of the electronics department at MakeIt Labs, on the Lobster Roll Kinetic Vehicle.

Manchester market hosts author event

A collection of new books written by local authors isn’t something one expects to find in a crafts store, but the Manchester Craft Market is not typical. Along with titles like S.M. Stevens’ award-winning novel Beautiful and Terrible Things and a history of New Hampshire’s soda industry called Granite Fizz by Dennis Sasseville, the store also offers food, delicacies like artisan granola and charcuterie board meats. There’s even fresh sourdough bread for sale.

How does this explain the upcoming “Meet Our Local Authors” event, where writers will gather to discuss their many varied books?

“They’re creating something, and they’re local,” store owner Jessica Moores said in a recent phone interview. “A lot of their titles are based in New Hampshire. We have a few different guides for things to do in the area, that sort of thing. There are some history books…. It’s bringing all that local creativity to the written word.”

Moores opened the store in 2016 with a mission to sell only items made locally. She’s stayed true to it.

“I don’t let anyone bring in imported things or resell stuff. No antiques. All handmade in New England. They pay a membership fee to get a space in the store. They get their own section on our website. They can teach classes in our classroom. We have an online shopping group with close to 18,000 followers … lots of little perks and bonuses.”

Among the wares on offer are home décor products, clothing, jewelry, food items, arts and crafts, beauty products, crafting kits, greeting cards and stationery, pet items, toys and more. The store also features regular crafting classes and workshops led by its artisans and artists, like a recent Paint Your Jenga event.

Originally it was located in an empty storefront on the outside of the Mall of New Hampshire. By 2023 it had moved inside, a couple of doors down from Macy’s. It also evolved, from a humble shop to something that resembles Etsy on steroids, or at least a three-dimensional version of the online superstore that allows customers to touch the merchandise.

That aspect is reinforced on MCM’s website, which recreates the store so customers can virtually walk through it, stop to inspect things, and click to learn about vendors. In the case of the book section, located in a corner next to the register, it’s possible to find out about a title, glance at a few pages, and read the author’s biography.

“That was a big goal of mine to get done one day; that was a lot of work,” Moores said, adding that the effort was a blend of envisioning and delegating. “I can see what tech can do, and I’ll say to someone, ‘This is what I want’ and then connect with the right person to help me. I added logos and links … someone else did the actual footage.”

Most sellers have dedicated spots, but when Moores introduced her “Read Local” section last year around the holidays she took a different approach.

“The model of renting a space doesn’t work as well for someone who only has one or two things to offer,” she said. “So I kind of combined all of our authors into one area to give them a shared space so they didn’t have to worry about that.”

Authors participating in the event include Stevens and Sasseville, along with Karen Coulters, Stefanie Jolicoeur, Dawn Reno Langley, John Clayton, Darcy Cates, Marti Suerst, Connie Evans, Jennifer Hallock, Walker Hound, Emily Kordas, Ellen H. Reed, David Rouleau, Killarney Traynor and Jim Wilcox.

For Moores, one of the benefits of running the store is being able to read new writers when their wares arrive. She expects the Meet Our Local Authors event will include a few new titles.

“I come to know and appreciate them through the store,” she said, “There’s definitely a lot to choose from…. I get to check them all out and find something new all the time.”

The book corner is a relatively new initiative at the store. Moores is encouraged by the initial response.

“It’s growing,” she said. “We’re getting a lot of interest in new authors coming in to join us. So I think once it’s grown a little bit more it will be almost like your little bookshop in the mall.”

Meet Our Local Authors
When: Saturday, May 24, 11:30-1 p.m.
Where: Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of New Hampshire, 1500 S. Willow St., Manchester
More: manchestercraftmarket.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.