Category: Art & Theater

One-act plays in Nashua

An upcoming weekend of short plays in Nashua gives aspiring playwrights, directors and actors an opportunity to dip their toes — and pens — in the water. The yearly Celebration of One-Acts has six works, each ranging from 20 to 45 minutes long, the fruits of a community-wide call that went out last August.

All six one-acts will be performed each of the three days. Evening shows happen Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21, and a Sunday matinee closes out the event, presented by Nashua Theatre Guild. Catherine Sweet, the show’s producer as well as a writer of one play and an actor in another, promises lots of variety.

“It’s been a blast to watch six directors bring six very different original pieces to life,” she said recently. “I know each writer is proud to see their work on stage — I know I am! Every performance you will get to see six original, completely unique shows. You’ll be crying one minute and laughing until your stomach hurts the next.”

Sweet, also an NTG Board member, wrote Here Come the … Baby? Directed by Miah Rhodes, the play centers on best friends Carol (Liz Ronai Fontanella) and Susan (Pamela Thornhill) and their conversation at a family wedding, where “they excitedly spill some hot tea, trying to weave together the tangled web of gossip, as one does.”

“Humor and heart” guide Tess Hodges’ What Comes Next. Directed by Paige Lucier, it reads like a twist on the ’90s movie Ghost. As four people, including Sweet as Saidee, cope with the death of a loved one in offbeat ways, the deceased, Sarah (Morgan Mierzwa-Winters), watches from above with her “personal well-dressed grim reaper,” played by Emily Soleil.

Such Dreams as Stuff is Made On, written by Dan McGeehan and directed by Colleen Deitrich, stars Chris Hoffman, Lindsay Garneau, Bryan Hebert II and Max Von Markgraf. Its description sounds caper-ish: “How far would you go to prove that your house was the best place on the block to rob? A couple gets some sage advice straight from the experts.”

Written by Kade Shea and directed by Katie Sibley, My Better Half looks at the dating travails of May (Milo Kruczynska), who’s ended a relationship and is uncertain about the new one she’s in with the lovely Megan (Danielle Chisholm). When best friend Anna (Nicole Straussberg) becomes May’s roommate, she has a moment of truth.

Too many adverbs and plenty of laughs characterize Story Time by, written by Brian Daly and directed by Vicky Sandin, who just finished directing Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B for Community Players of Concord. In the comedy, three students conspire to frustrate a pompous writing teacher by interpreting his class outline very literally.

The elements of New Adventures in Air Travel, written by Bruce Kalter and directed by Steve Kalter, will be familiar to anyone who’s ever booked a budget flight and regretted it later. There’s an internet video with a plane full of passengers asked to pay an upgrade fee to fly around turbulence from a while back — it sounds a bit like that.

Alyson Galipeau is in the cast of the farce about paying “optional” travel costs that most would consider essential. In a recent email Galipeau said she was thrilled to be on the stage. Also an NTG Board member, she sees the Celebration of One-Acts as “a great way to showcase the talents of our community and give regional writers a chance to shine.”

It’s also a great way to recruit reluctant thespians.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for new actors to give theater a shot,” she said. “The plays are shorter in duration, which can be less daunting for people who want to try acting but might feel overwhelmed by learning the many lines of a full production.”

She’s enjoying rehearsals for her play, about the cleverly named Icarus Airways.

“Steve Kalter finds new ways to insert jokes and humor,” she said. “My castmates are particularly good at acting via facial expressions. It’s been difficult not to break character and laugh witnessing these expressions. I think the audience will crack up as much as we have been.”

A Celebration of One-Acts
When: Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m.
Where: Janice B. Streeter Theatre, 14 Court St., Nashua
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, nashuatheatreguild.org

Featured photo: New Adventures in Air Travel rehearsal. Courtesy photo.

Sherlock tale re-told in Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B

The game is afoot, and the many tropes made famous in tales of the world’s greatest detective are extant in Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B. The Community Players of Concord production, directed by Vicky Sandin, runs for three shows, Feb. 13 through Feb. 15, at Concord Civic Auditorium.

As with all Sherlock mysteries, there’s a twist. In what she calls “cheerfully desecrating the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” playwright Kate Hamill reimagines the famous sleuth as a woman, along with her sidekick. In the process, she looks at their stories through a fresh and funny lens.

This is Sandin’s second Hamill production for Community Players. She previously directed her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 2023.

“I just know the vibe that she’s going for,” Sandin said by phone recently. “Kate Hamill and I are very tight in my eyes.”

Despite gender bending, familiar pieces are in place in Hamill’s play.

“What she did was modernize the canon,” Sandin explained. “Anybody who’s a Sherlock fan or who has read the stories will recognize tidbits from Conan Doyle’s original stories; she’s put those in there into the play as well.”

As Sherlock (a girl’s name too, but don’t call her Shirley), Suzanne Watts shines.

“This part was written for her, it’s just her all over,” Sandin said, adding that audiences will love her RP, Queen’s English accent. “I’ve always been so impressed by her acting charms, so I really wanted to work with her.”

Watts evokes the frazzled demeanor of television lawyer turned “cop-sultant” Elsbeth, with a distinct difference. “Our Sherlock is very much like that in the sense that she is able to put things together like Elsbeth and arrive at the solution sooner than everybody else,” Sandin said. “But she is not modest about her talent.”

Julia Kehr plays Ms. Watson, an American who’s moved to London for what one critic termed “an adult gap year,” who becomes Sherlock’s codependent flatmate. Sandin worked with Kehr in Pride and Prejudice. “She’s a very funny, comic, physical actor, and I just love watching what she brings,” she said.

Together they crack cases, all while Holmes is nagged by a crime she can’t quite name. “She’s solving all these little mysteries with Watson and she’s finding out that there’s a larger force at play … Holmes goes a little mental,” Sandin said. “When she figures out who’s doing all of this, it’s from the canon, but it’s not how you expect it to turn out.”

Travis Laughlin, who played the arch Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, is bumbling Inspector Lestrade. It’s a world away from his Masterpiece Theatre character, said Sandin. “There’s a whole level of amusement and laughter he’s brought to this part that I never knew existed … he is just laugh-out-loud funny.”

Rounding out the versatile cast are Heather McFadden playing Irene Adler with what Sandin termed “a lot of sexiness and suave,” Players veteran Karen Braz as Mrs. Drebber, Griffin Stuart as Texas tech billionaire Elliot Monk (the play happens amidst 2021’s late pandemic jitteriness), and Linda Pilla as grieving widow Mrs. Hudson.

Apart from the two Americans, everyone on stage uses different accents, but Pilla’s is genuine. “She was actually born and raised in Scotland, and in his books Conan Doyle made Mrs. Hudson a Scotswoman,” Sandin said. “She brings her native brogue from Glasgow … and does a wonderful job.”

As rehearsals have progressed, Sandin’s casting decisions have been reinforced.

“They know these characters more than I do,” she said. “They’ve started to interpret them in ways that are refreshing and new, which bring ideas on how to enhance the characters that they’ve built … that, to me, is the funnest part.”

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson –Apt. 2B
When: Friday, Feb. 13, and Saturday, Feb. 14, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2 p.m.
Where: Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord
Tickets: $22 and up at communityplayersofconcord.org

Featured photo: Suzanne Watts (Sherlock), Julia Kehr (Watson). Courtesy photo.

Theatre Kapow performs What The Constitution Means To Me

When Theatre Kapow put together its current season last spring, the selection for early February looked to be a good one. The independent company leans toward plays that engage, challenge and provoke audiences. What The Constitution Means to Me, Obie-winning playwright Heidi Schreck’s account of the document’s impact on her life, fit that bill.

As a teenager Schreck was an evangelist for the Constitution. “It was like a Bible to me,” she said in a 2018 interview. At 15 she toured the country earning college tuition money by winning Constitutional debate competitions. Much of her play looks at the document’s impact on women’s lives, beginning with her great-great-grandmother and moving forward.

No one could have predicted Theatre Kapow’s prescience in choosing What The Constitution Means to Me, however. While Carey Cahoon, who plays Schreck, and director Emma Cahoon certainly knew its themes were timely and important, the past several months have made them even more impactful.

“One of the amendments that Heidi talks about quite a bit is the 14th,” Carey said in a recent Zoom interview that included Emma. “Many of us have been thinking about that particular amendment a lot lately, because that’s birthright citizenship; due process, equal protection under the law.”

In the same 2018 BUILD Series interview, Schreck called the amendment an impetus for writing the play. “I was looking for ways my own life had been personally affected by the Constitution,” she said. “The 14th amendment is very powerful, and they used it to decide a lot of cases having to do with female bodies.”

Re-reading the script to prepare for her role reminded Carey of its relevancy. “What’s more important to understand is the impact on our daily lives,” Carey said. “What does it mean to live it?” Emma described cathartic preparations, as events in Minnesota, Maine and other places demanded attention.

“We come in at the top of every day and spend 15 minutes being like, ‘Oh my God, the news since we last met,’” she said. “Then we just dive into something that feels productive. We get to step outside of ourselves without ignoring the big thing; instead, really processing the big thing.”

Emma stressed that addressing vital issues isn’t the only reason they’re doing the play.

“It’s very vulnerable and also very dark, and its historical language can be very specific, but it’s also very funny,” she said. “As we continue to deconstruct this play I think we’re still finding a way to have fun with it in spite of everything.”

The cast includes Nick Meunier playing a Legionnaire who helps a young Schreck during her debates, and two students from New Hampton School, Adia and Inaya Robinson-Wood, who alternate as high school debaters. The play concludes with a debate, on whether the Constitution should be abolished, with audience participation encouraged.

What The Constitution Means to Me opens with three shows at Winnipesaukee Playhouse and concludes with three more the following weekend at Concord’s BNH Stage. Following each of two Sunday matinees, anyone who wants to stay is invited for a conversation with the cast and director, with the hope of personalizing the production.

Carey noted that native New Englanders have a unique perspective.

“Revolutionary and Constitutional history is the local history,” she said. “You’re talking about it starting in your elementary school, because those things happened right here. If you grew up in a different part of the country, you’re not necessarily so well-versed in that period of American history.”

Both urge audiences to arrive with a willingness to engage in active listening — but also to enjoy the play as theater.

“I’m finding it fun, and I’m finding it layered — and I’m finding it cathartic,” Emma said. “I’m hoping that’s the experience people have in the room with us as well. I hope the spirit we’ve found in the rehearsal room is exactly what it feels like to then join us as an audience.”

What The Constitution Means To Me
When: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Feb. 15
Where: Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith (Feb. 6–8) and BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord (Feb. 13–15)
Tickets: $30 and up at tkapow.com
Advisory: Contains references to and discussions of domestic violence, sexual assault, abortion, and generational trauma

Featured photo: Carey Cahoon & Nick Meunier. Photo by Claire Gardner

Local actors, directors and more will be honored at the New Hampshire Theatre Awards

Granite State stages were quite busy last year, and the ballot for the upcoming New Hampshire Theatre Awards is proof. There are 236 semifinalists from 80 productions done by 25 youth, community and professional companies on a list of 31 categories. Additionally, three special awards will be presented at the ceremony, on Jan. 30 at Concord’s Capitol Center.

There’s more to the event than who wins, however. Attendees are promised a night of entertainment, with an emphasis on comedy. It will be provided by an ensemble directed by Ro Gavin, whose eponymous company’s production of Seussical! is up for three awards. Breanne Aria Battey serves as Musical Director.

Winning is rewarding, but it’s not everything, Irene Cohen, President of the New Hampshire Theatre Alliance said in a recent phone interview.

“The feeling in this gigantic room, with over 800 people participating, is one of community and collaboration and support,” Cohen said. “We have something so special.”

That said, a few companies stood out on this year’s semi-finalists list. Actorsingers, Arts In Motion and Ovation Theatre Company each had four productions that received multiple nominations. Andy’s Summer Playhouse, Barnstormers, and Theatre Up each had three. Several companies had a dozen or more individual nominations.

Special award winners include Dr. Alan Kaplan, founder and outgoing artistic director of Manchester Community Theatre Players. He’ll receive the Francis Grover Cleveland Award for Lifetime Achievement. “He’s created this legacy,” Cohen said. “It’s an example of people doing it for the love of theatre, and the benefit of what it can bring to the community.”

Ryan Kaplan, also a nominee this year for his supporting role in Ovation’s Spamalot: Youth Edition, will be recognized for Special Achievement in Youth Theatre. “He started a theatre group when he was 12 years old, which has evolved to producing plays,” Cohen said. “He does it for the love of it, and it’s extraordinary what he has inspired among his peers.”

An award will also be presented for Excellence in Playwriting. “For an original play or script,” Cohen said. “That’s not given every year, because there isn’t always a work that gets submitted, but we had three this year. It’s exciting to honor the efforts of people producing original work.”

A handful of professional companies, those whose actors are paid for their roles, are up for awards. They include The Barnstormers Theatre, whose founder Grover Cleveland is the namesake for the NHTA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Peterborough Players, Firelight Theatre Workshop and Weathervane Theatre.

The majority of semi-finalists are in it for their passion for acting, but that does not discount their efforts, Cohen believes.

“There’s a thought that you only get quality with professional productions, and that’s just not true,” she said. “There are some extraordinary actors and actresses and youth performers in this state who participate in a production and deliver a performance that is very believable and convincing and artistic and individualized.”

She further urged folks who’ve thought about attending in the past consider coming to this year’s event.

“We’re infusing a little more humor in it, so it’s a good time to give it a try,” she said, adding both levity and solidarity are good responses to 2025, a year that was filled with challenges. “We’re at a juncture where, especially in this state, we need to speak loud and clear about the role of the arts in life and in our state.”

21st New Hampshire Theatre Awards
When: Saturday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $54 at ccanh.com

Featured photo: New Hampshire Theatre Awards. Photo by Chuck Swierad.

Ukrainian ballet tour comes to New Hampshire

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

The Grand Kyiv Ballet Company was forged through the crucible of two crises. In 2014, Russia occupied Eastern Ukraine, forcing dancer Oleksandr Stoianov and his ballerina wife Kareryna Kuhkar to move to Kyiv. Once there, Stoianov formed a ballet company consisting solely of his fellow countrymen and women.

“Before this we worked with the Russian companies, promoting the Moscow Ballet or the Russian Ballet,” Stoianov said in a recent phone interview. “Many people didn’t know that they were about 50 percent Ukrainian. It was my main idea to create the Grand Kyiv Ballet with a Ukrainian name, and with Ukrainian dancers.”

In 2022, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine forced another turning point. When the war began, Stoianov and Kuhkar were performing across Europe. They quickly put together a solidarity tour in France and Scandinavian countries, along with working to get dancers and students to safe places.

Government officials, including Scandinavian royalty, attended performances. Ballet became a voice for grief, resistance and national identity.

“We did speeches from the stage about weeping for our country,” Stoianov recalled. “It was a most difficult and terrible time.”

Theaters in Ukraine were closed. Jobs disappeared overnight, and for dancers, life without rehearsal and performance is unimaginable. Many were young, only in their teens, and forced to start from zero in foreign countries. Others were caring for children or elderly parents. Homes were destroyed, and stability vanished.

Some paid a much higher price. Oleksandr Shapoval, who’d danced with Stoianov and Kuhkar, volunteered for service and died in September 2022. Artem Datsishin, another principal dancer from Ukraine’s National Opera, died from injuries sustained from Russian shelling.

In response, larger and more frequent tours were created to provide work, income and purpose for displaced performers. Its scale has grown steadily and adapted to shifting challenges. The company is now a global presence, appearing across Europe, Scandinavia, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and more recently China.

Each tour and performance reinforces the visibility of Ukrainian culture on the world stage.

Stoianov, Kuhkar and their two daughters now live in Seattle. Stoianov oversees Grand Kyiv Ballet’s many projects, like two upcoming New Hampshire stops. Giselle, with principal dancers Victor Tomashek and Ekaterina Malkovich, will be performed in Nashua on Jan. 22, and Swan Lake is at Portsmouth’s Music Hall Jan. 25.

These days, the two dance infrequently. An injury stopped Stoianov in 2024, but he hinted, “perhaps a grand return is still ahead” on the company’s website. In the interview, he shared that a world tour of the ballet Carmen will happen next year. “We’ll start class and rehearsals this summer, and then in 2027, we’ll say goodbye to everybody from the stage.”

Giselle is a tale of love, deception and betrayal. Malkovich said in a late December Instagram post that it’s among her favorites to perform.

“When the curtain falls, you leave the stage not tired, but drained,” she wrote. “It’s a ballet after which you don’t want to say anything because there’s nothing left to say.”

Stoianov agrees, adding that its themes resonate with audiences. “All people feel sometimes in their lives in a situation like Giselle, a young girl who was in love, was betrayed and became crazy,” he said. “I’ve seen this ballet a thousand times and my eyes still become wet — but they are happy tears.”

Grand Kyiv Ballet presents Giselle
When: Thursday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m.
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $46.75 and up at etix.com
Sunday, Jan. 25, 4 p.m. Grand Kyiv Ballet presents Swan Lake at The Music Hall, Portsmouth, themusichall.org.

Featured photo: Giselle. performed by The Grand Kyiv Ballet. Courtesy photo.

Moth & Wren Handwork Studio now open in Manchester

A few months ago, a new yarn shop opened on Bridge Street in Manchester. But owner Shannon Welsh envisions Moth & Wren Handwork Studio as more than a store.To begin 2026, for example, she launched Dry January: Knitters Edition to encourage makers to pick up and finish their existing works-in-progress.

While it may cause less yarn-buying in the short term, Welsh believes it reflects the shop’s deeper mission, of community. Most crafters can empathize with a pile of half-finished projects, each carrying both potential and guilt. She aims to create a welcoming space for people to meet, stitch together, and complete them, among other things.

“What we’re trying to promote is not just selling stuff retail,” she said by phone recently. “That’s less than half of it.”

Science supports the idea that when people become immersed in a hobby they often find an escape from daily pressures, Florida psychologist Patricia Dixon told Good Housekeeping magazine last March. “Participating in a shared interest can lead to meaningful social interactions, enhancing feelings of belonging and connection,” she said.

The story cited a resurgence of “cozy pursuits” like knitting, bird-watching and gardening, with a shared name that Welsh heartily agrees with. “Grandma hobbies are in,” she said. “When we are having mental health issues, if we’re anxious or depressed, or feeling stuck, the worst thing to do is be alone with that.”

Moth & Wren’s soft opening last November was shaped by practical realities — permits, renovations, even waiting for the heat to be turned on. During this period the shop opened its doors mainly to friends and local stitching groups, creating an opportunity to listen and learn.

Key to this phase was understanding the kind of projects people were interested in doing.

“Are they knitters or crocheters, do they do embroidery or mending? That’s a big part of it when you’re making a space for a community,” she said. “It’s not just stocking it up, it’s stocking it up with things that people want.”

The shop plans to offer a range of classes focused on foundational skills and specific techniques, like how to knit, how to master certain stitches, and project-based workshops, with participants working on the same item over multiple sessions. A workshop to make Sailor Slippers happens Jan. 23. “People can buy kits at the shop,” Welsh said.

For now Moth & Wren is only open on weekends, but by the end of January the goal is to expand hours to include two evenings per week: one for a free stitch-along and another dedicated to a class or workshop. Welsh plans for the schedule to rotate depending on interest and demand.

Outreach is also important. Monthly Sip and Stitch events are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month at To Share Brewing, creating a relaxed, social setting for makers. Every Saturday morning, a stitching group meets at Honey Cup Café and Tea Room next door — a natural partnership that blends tea, conversation and crafting.

Aware that fiber arts are expensive, Welsh also aims to be economically inclusive. She’s working on a “D-stash wall,” for makers to bring in yarn from skeins they no longer plan to use, and sell them on consignment. This allows other makers to purchase quality yarn at a lower price, while the original owner recoups some of their investment.

Another effort, inspired by traditional little free libraries, is The Fibrary. At it, people can swap drop off unwanted supplies and take others at no charge; Welsh developed it with her daughter. There are also plans to use it for charity knitters, “so if people have blankets or hats or something they want to distribute to the community they could drop that off.”

Of course, there’s plenty of yarn for sale, along with knitting needles, crochet hooks, books and gifts for makers.

The store’s name comes from Mary Oliver’s poem “Messenger,” a favorite of Welsh’s. “The last line [asks], ‘How do we live forever; how do we tell the world?’ The line about the moth and the wren is about being grateful — for having a body, being in this life, and giving gratitude for living.”

For her, it ties to the idea of people crafting for hundreds of generations.

“When we make something with our hands, we’re connected to them as well,” Welsh said. “We’re connected to our ancestors … that’s how they’ve lived forever through us, through teaching us their skills and passing those on to our children.”

Moth & Wren
When: Open Saturdays & Sundays, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: 154 Bridge St., Manchester
More: mothandwren.com

Featured photo: Shannon Welsh at Moth & Wren. Courtesy photo.