Category: Art & Theater

Draw with da Vinci

Positive Street Art event includes Burns doc preview

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

The role of technology was an important element of Leonardo da Vinci’s genius, and it’s the focus of an upcoming event at Positive Street Art in Nashua. The free session will guide attendees in the use of camera obscura to create drawings. It will also include a 25-minute preview of Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary, Inside the Mind of a Genius.
First clearly described in da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume set that included diagrams of flying machines, camera obscura was a tool that employed the reflection of light through an aperture to make art in perfect perspective. The Dutch master Johannes Vermeer is said to have used it as an aid in his realistic paintings.
If an object “is illuminated by the sun and a small hole is drilled in the wall of a room in a building facing this, which is not directly lighted by the sun, then [those objects] will send their images through this aperture and will appear, upside down, on the wall facing the hole,” da Vinci wrote. “You will catch these pictures on a piece of white paper.”
Four artists will lead the proceedings: Amara Phelps, Seana McDuffie, Cecilia Ulibarri and Yasamin “Yaz” Safarzadeh.
They have diverse backgrounds; Phelps fronts alt-rock band Cozy Throne and is also a freelance writer, McDuffie is an ex-Marine and self-described “vibes stylist,” Ulibarri is Positive Street’s co-founder, and Safarzadeh is a painter, writer and the coordinator of Inspired By Leonardo da Vinci.
In a recent phone interview Safarzadeh explained the event, offered in partnership with PBS. It’s part of an ongoing series that aims to spark creativity through “watching a film of the chosen famous artist and/or joining a creative painting session to explore inspiration through the artist’s/culture’s style and history,” according to an ad on the organization’s website.
“We’ll be leading them into making these viewfinders, and then having them go find their own setting within this scene, whether it’s people or the geometry of the architecture, so they can really take these tools that scientists and Renaissance men were using, and use them themselves. Maybe these powers of observation can then influence them in their lives.”
Safarzadeh looks at camera obscura as a path to creative intersectionality. “People really do themselves a disservice by not pulling the maths and the sciences into their artmaking,” she said. “We could really strengthen our creative economy and our practices by … dispelling some of this.”
It’s wrong to call it a cheating tool, she continued. Camera obscura is a means to an end, and the human eye will always capture more than technology can.
“You look at the Vermeer, those shadows, those hues, it’s because he looked at it through this camera obscura,” she said. “This breaks down a really scary notion … a crowd of people, a person sitting, or whatever. The audience will capture in their viewfinder, in their little pinhole, break it down into a much simpler structure that they can then document.”
This method builds a bridge that goes both ways. It helps artists who are challenged by mathematics, and the more analytical types who are trying to find their way to creativity. For someone who is mathematically inclined, camera obscura can help them find their way to art by understanding the role of their discipline in art.
The event continues Positive Street Art’s mission of bringing art to a wide range of people. One reason there are four instructors is to allow groupings; each cluster reflects different outlooks, with no more than a dozen in each. “We serve so many different demographics,” Safarzadeh said. “You need to discover your own voice through the materials … it’s going to be based on the individual, what’s going to come out of it.”

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci
When: Friday, Nov. 8, 6 p.m.
Where: Positive Street Art, 48 Bridge St., third floor, Nashua
Tickets: Free (donations accepted) at tinyurl.com/3pjsvsbp

Featured image: Camera Obscura Diagram, c. 1646 by Athanasius Kircher (from WikiMedia Commons)

The Art Roundup 24/10/31

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities

• A drive with art: The Route 3 Art Trail will run Saturday, Nov. 2, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and feature “open studios, art and craft demonstrations, a free raffle” and more in towns running from Concord through Franklin. To participate, see route3arttrail.com to get the trail map and passport listing 17 locations combined in Concord, Penacook, Boscawen and Franklin. Visit at least five locations and get them stamped on the passport to participate in the raffle.

• Folk cafe: The Wilton Folk Cafe will present Anayis “AJ” Wright at the Wilton Collaborative Space (21 Gregg St. in Wilton) on Friday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m. Wright is described as “distinctive voice in the traditional folk genre who captivates audiences and scholars alike with their connection to maritime music, English folk, shape note, and early music,” according to a press release. Admission to the show is free (doors open at 7 p.m.); reservations are suggested via Sandy Lafleur at strumma@aol.com or 654-1245.

• Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya: A Conversation with Kathryn Grody & Mandy Patinkin will take place on Friday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitol Center for the Arts (ccanh.com) at the Chubb Theatre (44 S. Main St., Concord). Tickets cost $58 through $95. Mandy Patinkin is a celebrated film and theater actor known for his range of characters and famously played Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride among many notable roles. Grody is a writer and actress whose screen credits include 1981’s Reds and 1990’s The Lemon Sisters. According to People magazine and the Hollywood Reporter, the couple, who married in 1980, gained Covid-lockdown era fans from videos posted by their son. See a video called “Movie Night” of them watching, commenting on and dealing with their dog during a movie (possibly Aquaman) on the Cap Center’s website. Tickets cost $58 through $95.

• Artistry of beading: Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum (18 Highlawn Road in Warnter; indianmuseum.org, 456-3600) will host BeadStock, which celebrates Native American beading “traditions with bead and beadwork vendors, demonstrations, speakers, and more” on Saturday, Nov. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according the website, where you can find the schedule of workshops and lectures. Tickets, which include museum admission, cost $18. Tickets include the lectures but workshops are extra and can also be purchased online.

• Art show: The Hollis Art Society will hold its 2024 Art Show & Sale on Saturday, Nov. 2, and Sunday, Nov. 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lawrence Barn, 28 Depot Road in Hollis. See hollisartssociety.org.

• In the beginning: Retired news reporter David Tirrell-Wysocki will give a lecture titled “The New Hampshire Primary: A Light-Hearted Look at the Long Shots” on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 2 p.m., offering a nonpartisan look at New Hampshire’s presidential contest. Admission is $7. No registration required.

• Meet the artist: Dan Dailey, the New Hampshire glass artist whose work is currently on display at the Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org), will talk with exhibit curator Kurt Sundstrom at an ARTalk on Sunday, Nov. 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. Tickets are available via the Currier’s website and cost $30 for adults, $20 for 65+ and students and $10 for ages 13 to 17 (children under 13 get in for free) and include museum admission, according to the website. The exhibit, “Dan Dailey: Impressions of the Human Spirit,” is on display through Sunday, Feb. 2.

• Meet the artists: “October 9th – November 9th Show” will display the unique work of local artists Sharon Boisvert, Darren Taylor, Mark Ruddy, Pamela Tarbell, Kevin Kintner, Paul Gilmore and Robyn Whitney Fairclough as well as the art of curator Christina Landry-Boullion at Glimpse Gallery (Patriot Building, 4 Park St., Concord, theglimpsegallery.com, 892-8307). The final reception for the exhibit will be held Saturday, Nov. 2, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

• Art, eats and music: Join artist Carmen Verdi for a solo exhibit titled “Daydreamer,” which will showcase his newest works at Cucina Toscana restaurant in Nashua (427 Amherst St.) on Monday, Nov. 4, from 6 to 9 p.m. Participants will enjoy appetizers, live music, raffles and a bar while they view his latest creations. Free admission. Visit carmenverdi.org.

—Zachary Lewis

Usher tale goes to 1930s Boston

Edgar Allan Poe’s thriller gets a detective thriller adaptation

By Zachary Lewis
zlewis@hippopress.com

Jack Neary is an experienced playwright who has adapted many horror stories for the theater, like those of Frankenstein and Dracula. His resume is filled with film and television experience, including Law and Order and the film Black Mass.

Neary spoke to the Hippo about his upcoming adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher presented by the Players’ Ring in Portsmouth starting Thursday, Oct. 31, and running until Sunday, Nov. 17.

“Many people have read The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe,” Neary said, “and it’s a very dense, spooky, just the kind of story that you can take many, many different ways, and there’ve been many variations of it on film, on stage, so I decided to make it accessible to a theater audience.”

By placing the story in a familiar world Neary is able to bring the audience in at the beginning. “Which I think is very important,” he said. “By setting it in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1930s and making it a bit of a detective thriller … I’m able to tell the story and take advantage of all the very horrific aspects of the story that Poe created.

Do not expect goblins on this Halloween opening night, but the horror will still be real.

“It’s not really a supernatural story. It’s not that kind of a Halloween story. The horror is very personal, very human,” Neary said.

His Poe adaptation had been alive for some time before Neary decided to devote time to it again. “It’s been around for a while, but I haven’t worked on it myself for about 20 years. I haven’t directed it myself for a long time.”

Neary understands the craft inside and out. “I’ve adapted. I think, because I started out as an actor and then evolved into directing, and in the meantime I started as a playwright, I think I have a pretty good understanding of how to tell a story on stage. And if the story has already been told by a writer, I think I have a pretty decent awareness of how to take what the writer had in mind, what the intention was, bring it to the stage and then provide it with the kind of tension and suspense that these stories need.”

He has also adapted a lot of children’s plays. “I think I’m more a man of the theater than I am of anything else.”

He feels at home at The Players’ Ring. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work with folks who, while they do have day jobs, they really could be professional actors. For some reason I just have been able to work with folks who are that good,” Neary said.

He mentioned The Players’ Ring’s leader, Margherita Giacobbi, who is the Executive Director. “What Margherita has been able to do at The Players’ Ring is to create a really diverse schedule of plays,” he said. “They do a lot of brand new things. She has been able in the two or three years of her stewardship to bring a variation of audience demographics to The Players’ Ring,” he said.

Neary likes to put on his plays for everybody.

“The stuff that I write is really mainstream audience oriented. I don’t go out on a limb too, too far in terms of experimentation or anything like that. Although Usher kind of does take a couple of steps in that direction in terms of the storytelling.”

The Fall of the House of Usher
Where: The Players’ Ring Theatre, 105 Marcy St., Portsmouth
When: Thursday, Oct. 31, through Sunday, Nov. 17. Halloween opening night: 9 p.m. Shows at 7 p.m. on Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Tickets: $29 general admission; $26 for students, 65+, military and first responders.
Info: playersring.org
A Players’ Ring email described the show as PG-13.

Featured image: Jocelyn Duford and Thomas Carnes in The Fall of the House of Usher. Photo by Ben Bagley Media.

Tour the galleries

Concord’s November First Friday will feature arts

By Zachary Lewis
zlewis@hippopress.com

Concord will be hosting its second annual Art Walk on Friday, Nov. 1, from 4 to 8 p.m.

“This is our second year doing the Concord Art Walk,” said Jessica Martin, Executive Director of InTown Concord. “We do this under the First Friday umbrella.”

But Concord Art Walk is a tad different from a regular First Friday.

“We put out a call to all the different businesses and galleries. Each participant will get a flag, and then they get to be on our map … we have 14 different participants this year, so we’ll be mostly in downtown Concord. We have a couple that are not exactly downtown, but are still participating, which is great,” Martin said. “Concord has a lot of arts and culture, and this is a way for us to highlight it and give people an opportunity to see, you know, real-time all the different varieties of art that we have downtown and businesses that we have in the downtown.”

The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce are two of the participants. “The League is a gallery, and the Chamber hosts artists from two different art organizations out of their office,” she said.

Wine on Main will offer a free wine tasting of a Frida Kahlo red blend from Chile. Kimball Jenkins will show off the sculptures from the city’s recent Sound and Color event. The New Hampshire Potters Guild will have its “Hands on Earth” exhibit.

This is an elevated First Friday according to Martin. “That will definitely be the vibe on Capitol Street. Capitol Street, but also you’ll see throughout the downtown the Art Walk flags for the participating businesses so that’s going to be a little different than our typical First Friday,” she said.

While most of the festivities will be easy to find, a map is provided for attendees in case they need one. The tour is free and self-guided. Concord Art Walk is another way for people in the community to participate in an artful shared experience. “We’re trying to create, with First Friday, more opportunities for people, maybe young professionals … to connect and interact in different ways,” Martin said.

Concord Art Walk
Capitol Copy, 100 N. Main St.: 5 to 9 p.m. Sunny Days Illustration featuring a Ty Meier art show.
Concord Arts Market, Capitol Street: 4 to 8 p.m.
Detailed Stained Glass, 24 Pleasant St.: 4 to 8 p.m. Stained glass demonstration.
DIY Craft & Thrift, 46 N. Main St.: noon to 8 p.m. Small artists market and free kids’[ coloring craft corner.
Firefly Crystal & Tarot, 146 N. Main St.: 4 to 8 p.m. Broom-making activity, drop-in class, $45 all materials provided.
Go Native Gallery, 23 N. Main St.: 4 to 8 p.m. Explore the new downtown gallery.
Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, 49 S. Main St.: 4 to 8 p.m. View Yildiz Grodowski’s exhibit “Where will I take you?” and pieces by Jon Brooks (NH Furniture Masters) in the Capital Region Visitor Center.
Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St.: 4 to 8 p.m. View the current exhibition, “Hands on Earth” presented by NH Potters Guild. Light refreshments will be available to enjoy within the Carriage House. Featuring NH Music Collective musician Ariel Strasser from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
League of NH Craftsmen, 49 S. Main St.: Gallery open 4 to 8 p.m. Reception with refreshments 5 to 7 p.m. Opening reception for new exhibition “Crafting Joy: The Art of Optimism.”
Penumbra, 10 N. State St.: 4 to 8 p.m. Guest artists, demos, snacks.
Pillar Gallery Projects, 205 N. State St.: 4 to 8 p.m. Artist Residency Tracy Hayes demo and talk.
Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St.: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monthly artist exhibit, “Blue Ridge Mountain Delights” by Laura Aldridge (Richards), formerly of Bow, N.H.
Viking House, 19 N. Main St.: 5 to 8 p.m. Featuring two artists.
Wine on Main, 9 N. Main St.: 4 to 7 p.m. Free wine tasting with M.S. Walker. One of the wines will be the Frida Kahlo Red Blend from Chile. The bottle bears her image and proceeds from sales go to the Frida Kahlo Foundation.
Salon Lotus, 2 Capital Plaza: 4 to 7 p.m. Free face painting.

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Oh, what a night!

Jersey Boys is latest Palace musical

Gritty and dark, Jersey Boys isn’t a typical stage musical. The story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, it’s marked by crime, domestic strife and bad decisions. But the songs are fantastic, and in the hands of the Palace’s Artistic Director Carl Rajotte and Music Director John Tengowski, classics like “Rag Doll,” “Big Man in Town” and “Walk Like a Man” soar.

Early in the show, Four Seasons founder Tommy DeVito explains that people from New Jersey have three options in the world – the Army, the mob or becoming a star. Sadly, his band will blur the lines between the last two. Initially, Tommy and his brother Nick are half of the quartet, until Nick goes to jail for a botched robbery and Bob Gaudio joins.

Gaudio’s songwriting, with help from flamboyant producer Bob Crewe (a rock history figure deserving of his own show), helps launch them into the charts, via their first hit, “Sherry.” Rough sledding is ahead, though, as Tommy’s vices threaten to sink the band.

Those problems are compounded by various heartaches in the lives of the other three. Valli is constantly estranged from his daughter and fighting with his ex-wife. A side deal between two band members and a romantic betrayal cause further divisions, all of which eventually erupt.

During moments when the music stops, however, it’s not all heaviness. When Gaudio loses his virginity and telegraphs the meaning behind a song he’d write over a decade later, “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night),” it’s a hilarious romp, and rich with fine choreography. Comic relief also comes from Nick Massi’s ongoing threats to leave the group and go solo.

That said, much of Jersey Boys is a study in contrasts between bright, buoyant, happy songs and the stark world they came from. Ultimately it wrestles triumph from tragedy, and the Palace does a great job of conveying how much music can lift lives. In its early days, doo-wop groups on the corner, teenagers with songs in their heads, and big breaks that came from chance encounters and dogged persistence, really did change the world.

Similar to last season’s Beautiful, the show deftly uses multimedia to evoke the classic rock era, synching vintage footage of television appearances with onstage performances. There’s real talent from the four lead players, who lock in harmonies and the spirit of many timeless songs. Director Rajotte explained why in a phone interview after opening weekend.

One big difference between this production and others like September’s Oliver! is that the four leads are new to the Palace stage. Critically, each has been in Jersey Boys previously. Zane Zapata is superb as Valli, his third time in that role. Kevin T. Mazur (Bob Gaudio) is also a veteran of past shows, and a week before rehearsals began Matt Michael and Bobby Guenther, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi respectively, were both in a Pennsylvania production.

“I knew that I wanted to cast four guys who have done the show before, so they at least came in knowing their harmonies,” he said. “I found this wonderful quartet [who] came in knowing it probably better than me. They knew exactly where the lines were supposed to be for the underscoring.”

Rajotte decided to do the show after watching the movie with his father, who poignantly took out a photo of his wife from his wallet and sang quietly to it during a few favorite songs. There is, he continued, a moment in the show where Guardio talks about the fans of a group, whose big moment came just before pop music’s British Invasion.

“We weren’t a social movement like The Beatles, our people didn’t put flowers in their hair and try to change the political climate,” Rajotte quoted. “They were the guys who shipped overseas, and their sweethearts, and the factory workers, and the truck drivers, the kids pumping gas.”

In that moment, Rajotte knew why the Palace should do Jersey Boys, darkness be damned. “I looked at my father thinking, that that was kind of his life, and this music was important to him,” he said. “It changed my whole view on the show itself. Music can really help … move a generation.”

Jersey Boys
When: Thursday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m., Fridays, 7:30 p.m., Saturdays, 2 & 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, 2 p.m. through Nov. 10
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $45 and up at palacetheatre.org

Featured image: Jersey Boys. Photo by AnnMarie Lidman Photography.

The Art Roundup 24/10/24

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities

• Dracula comes alive: PUSH Physical Theatre, described as displaying “intense athleticism, gravity-defying acrobatics, and soulful artistry,” will bring its adaptation of Dracula to Stockbridge Theatre (5 Pinkerton St., Derry, pinkertonacademy.org/stockbridge-theatre) on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 to $35. “PUSH Physical Theatre’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel Dracula is like nothing audiences have ever seen. By combining PUSH’s speechless artistry with traditional dialogue-driven theater, the collaborators have created a ground-breaking, thrilling, and unforgettable ride into the warped world of one of literature’s most famous villains,” according to a press release. Get a look at the show at pushtheatre.org.

• All about the kids: Disney’s Descendants is presented by Epping Community Theater (38 Ladds Lane, Epping, eppingtheater.org) on Friday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 26, at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 27, at 2 p.m. “Based on the popular Disney Channel Original Movies, Disney’s Descendants: The Musical is a new musical jam-packed with comedy, adventure, Disney characters, and hit songs from the films!” according to the website. Tickets cost $20 for adults, $17 for seniors and $15 for ages 12 and under.

• 10 years of theater: [title of show], presented by Cue Zero Theatre on Friday, Oct. 25, through Sunday, Oct. 27, at Arts Academy of New Hampshire in Salem, is a metamusical about artists creating musical theater, and its production marks a celebration of 10 years of Cue Zero, according to a press release. The play is “a love letter to the musical theater — a uniquely American art form — and to the joy of collaboration,” according to cztheatre.com. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets cost $15 (plus fees) and are available at cztheatre.com or at the door.

—Zachary Lewis

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!