Category: Art & Theater

One-man Christmas Carol back for final bow

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

For three decades in the United States and the past 15 years in Nashua, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens has performed his beloved novel, A Christmas Carol, as a one-man show, bringing 26 characters from the holiday classic to life, each given distinct and unique touches and mannerisms.

Alas, this year marks the show’s final trip ’cross the pond. A farewell tour begins Nov. 28 at Nashua’s Center for the Arts.

“It’s just been an incredibly wild ride … such fun,” Gerald Dickens said during a recent Zoom call from his English home in Abington, Oxfordshire. “But, for a number of reasons — family considerations at home and all sorts of things — I thought 30 years is a pretty good number to hang up the top hat on.”

When he first performed it in 1993, Dickens believed it would be the only time.

“It was an absolute one-off … I insisted I’d never do it again,” he said of the reading, held to commemorate the novel’s 150th anniversary. He used an annotated script that the author had worked from in the 1860s, a time when he was doing more touring than writing.

Dickens’ notes about his characters made them come alive for his descendant.

“You get to the first description of Scrooge,” he recalled, rising to the role. “It says, ‘he was a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. He was hard and sharp as flint, secret, self-contained.’ At the end of it, you’ve just turned into him — you can’t help it.”

One reason that so many Dickens works have been adapted for stage and screen is probably that he was an aspiring actor for many years before starting his career as a writer.

“He was a passionate theatrical man,” Gerald Dickens explained. “He auditioned at the Covent Garden Theater in London, the leading theater in the country at that time. Well, he didn’t audition. He had an audition scheduled, but he was ill on the morning of it. He didn’t have a voice, so he couldn’t go. So, yeah, that’s what he wanted to do.”

Giving readings allowed him to re-indulge that passion, he continued. “He absolutely loved … that direct contact with his audience that, of course, you don’t get as a novelist.” His final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, came in 1865. “For the rest of that decade, he didn’t write anything. He was purely on the road, touring and performing.”

Dickens had a particular affinity for New England. On a U.S. reading tour in 1867 and 1868, he made Boston’s Parker House Hotel a home base, and performed at the adjacent Tremont Temple. Gerald Dickens has also appeared at that venue.

For the past several years, Gerald Dickens’ annual Christmas Carol tour has been sponsored by collectibles maker Byers’ Choice, whose caroler figures are de rigueur holiday decorations in many American homes. To commemorate the farewell tour, the Pennsylvania company released a special edition caroler in his likeness.

In a recent blog post, Dickens wrote about “the huge sense of honour — no, I shall write honor in deference to my hosts” he felt seeing his miniature likeness. It wears a gray frock coat over a red and gold waistcoat, along with a top hat and green knitted scarf. One hand holds a wooden cane that represents Tiny Tim’s crutch, the other a gold pocket watch chain.

“They’ve done a really great job with it,” he said. It’s likely they’ll be available at his Nashua show, he added, and if not, they can be ordered direct from the company, perhaps containing a special touch. “I have no doubt they’ll have me sat in a little boardroom somewhere, signing hundreds of copies.”

He’s eager to begin the farewell tour.

“I love coming to Nashua,” Dickens said. “Over the last three years, I’ve been able to perform in the beautiful Center for the Arts there … what a facility; a great, great theater … a real treat.” For anyone with any preconceptions about the show, he shared this message.

“It’s not a stuffy, dusty old Englishman doing a lecture,” he said. “There’s a lot of chance for the audience to join in, shout out and get involved in the story. We have a lot of fun with it. There’s a lot of laughter, and a few tears. It’s a bit scary sometimes, joyous other times. You get to see me dance. No one else in the world ever sees that.”

A Christmas Carol with Gerald
Dickens – Farewell Tour
When: Saturday, Nov. 28, 7 p.m.
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201
Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $24 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Gerald Dickens. Courtesy photo.

Writing Gallery opens in Concord

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

A new space featuring works of art accompanied by text both inspirational and challenging, The Eleventh Letter Writing Gallery opened in downtown Concord ahead of November’s First Friday Art Walk. Passers-by are drawn in by a modern white nightstand stacked with books and topped by a small pumpkin, with a wooden letter K on the floor underneath it.

Hung on the wall to the left of the arrangement are collages of book covers and pages from works by different authors. In the back of the foyer room are two chairs, one with postcards and artful photos on it, the other with pencils and notebooks. They surround an alcove with a sign reading, “Kismet: Defining Patterns.”

The overall effect is warm and welcoming, as well as an invitation to the creative imagination. There are writing prompts tucked into the free notebooks. “What signs and symbols do you see all the time?” reads one, others asks for a paragraph on “an amazing coincidence” or “a wish for one thing to manifest.”

Its intent is to unify images and phrases — and build a community around them.

“We affirm that all the arts are in dialogue with each other; our mission is to start the conversation,” owner Jocelyn Winn wrote in late October. The gallery, she continued, “champions the written word and elevates the creative vibration within the … arts community through monthly text-art exhibitions, workshops, and literary events.”

It also offers professional writing and editing services, something Winn has done as owner of The Eleventh Letter since it opened in 2014. The Writing Gallery, across from the Statehouse on North Main Street, is the first retail location. In a sit-down interview during Art Walk, Winn talked about how it came to fruition.

“It’s always been my dream to have a brick-and-mortar space where people can actually come in and enjoy writing,” she said. “So this is sort of a play on the idea that writers are artists … everything here, every piece, is art, but it has to have a word or text element to it.”

There are two exhibits currently running at the gallery. One features erasure and collage works by artist in residence Laci Mosier. Many are provocative, like “Froot Loops: The Fungus Among Us,” which combines the cut-up profile of a naked woman and a boy on a tricycle with phrases like, “How much Windex do men go through to create history?”

“Kismet” is Winn’s artwork. On one piece, “Manifest,” a framed photo of cut-up lemons sits next to a few paragraphs delving into the title’s etymology — manus combined with festus, two words that respectively mean “hand” and “joy” — and how its meaning has shifted since it was first coined in the 14th century. It ends with a meditation on ellipses.

Winn is big on vision boards. She calls them “manifestation posters,” and the path to opening a writing gallery was lit by hers.

“I got very specific,” she explained. “I said I want a Main Street space. My name is Jocelyn Winn. It’s in Concord, New Hampshire, 03301. A couple months later, I could see these spaces opening up, and so I took my chances.”

An array of activities is ahead in the coming weeks, like a workshop on making holiday cards, a class on the art of letter writing, and a session on appreciating winter, perfect for folks prone to seasonal affect disorder. “It’s based on the book Wintering, about how to love winter,” Winn said. “Which is my favorite season, true.”

There are also two free events: a writing circle led by local arts writer Rachel Wachman, and Solstice Open Mic, which invites writers to read their work. “Five minutes each, and everyone is welcome, even if they’re not reading,” Winn said.

In January there will be two six-week sessions, on fiction and nonfiction writing.

“The gist is every month there’s an array of workshops for advanced writers as well as those looking to start or curiously dip their feet,” Winn said. Along with classes, the gallery will have a monthly main exhibition with a local writer-artist, with works from an artist or writer in residence showing for three months.

“I do have a lot of opportunities and plans for the future, bringing writing to the community,” Winn said. “I think a lot of people are maybe scared of writing, or they shy away from it.” She hopes her workshops, along with the writer’s utensils she’ll be selling soon, will inspire many to the impulse of turning words into art — and vice versa.

The Eleventh Letter Writing Gallery
Open: Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: 146 N. Main St., Concord
More: theeleventhletter.com

Upcoming Events:
The Art of Letter Writing – Wednesday, Dec. 3, 6-7:30 p.m., $22
Winter Is My Favorite Season – Monday, Dec. 8, 6-7:30 p.m., $33 (includes free copy of Wintering by Katherine May)
Holiday Card-Making – Tuesday, Dec. 9, 6-8 p.m., $40 (led by Art Plus NH owner Karen Hicks)
Writing Circle – Wednesday, Dec, 9, free (led by local arts writer Rachel Wachman)
Solstice Open Mic – Wednesday, Dec. 17, free (five minutes each, all welcome even if not reading)

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Icehouse is hilarious, with a heart

If Lake Wobegon had a Hallmark stage division it might come up with something like Icehouse, a Bedford Off Broadway production with three more performances through Nov. 16. Making its first New England run, the Peter Bloedel farce is a funny, heartfelt and warm look at friends helping a friend.

The end-of-the-20th-century comedy is about a Minnesota ex-pat, now living in Florida and lonesome for the cold air, and his buddies, as they try to build an epic ice chateau and keep it a secret from their wives.

There’s a great line toward the end of Act I that sums up the haplessness of five buddies trying to lure a sixth pal back for an ice fishing holiday, only to stumble due to kind-hearted incompetence.

“Every village needs an idiot,” one of them tells his suspicious spouse. “Ours just has more.”

What makes the play succeed is a solid cast that plays well off each other even while managing set changes throughout the production. The family-friendly farce centers on Oskar (Rich Hurley), trapped in Florida with Ingrid (Deb Lund) after she has coerced him to move there for her many climate-related maladies.

When Oskar and Ingrid return for the wedding of Erik (Tigran Kotsinyan) and Michelle (Abby Lefebvre), his friends Arn (Glen Grimard) and Conrad (Declan Lynch) share their plan to build a structure fit for an ice-fishing billionaire, with a full kitchen, sleeping quarters and sauna, an idea they got during a fishing conversation.

Oskar’s in and the six are soon working on their respective co-conspirator tasks.

The machinations employed to get Oskar home again are comedy gold in the hands of Wilhelm (John Decareau) and Lars (Matt Bader). Conrad, Arn and reluctant recruit Erik persuade them to concoct a story to fool Ingrid, delivered from a pay phone (back when they were common) in fake voices.

Of course, the effort only makes things worse — albeit funnier.

Let’s just say that Wilhelm takes his method acting task a bit too seriously, Lars starts to share his enthusiasm, and the two have the audience thoroughly entertained. The pair’s across-the-wire shenanigans, with hilarious support from fellow cast members, are aided by the impressive set design of director Judy Hayward and Daro Fuchs.

The hallmark of a great community theater is often its ability to do a lot with a little, and BoB achieves this with Icehouse. The play opens with a spare set; a couple of hardware store bucket stools for Arn and Conrad to sit on while they fish later becomes a series of different furniture. Then the wall behind the stage moves and it’s all transformed.

The wives, first fooled out of Middle Creak, Minnesota, by Oskar, who turns out to be talented at subterfuge, will find their fury when Lars and Wilhelm’s stunt backfires. Camilla (Lisa Colburn), Helen (Deb Curtis), Rita (Natasha DaCunha-Lund) and Sarah (Julie Shea) all have great moments confronting their respective husbands.

Claire Fry, as mother of the bride Lenora, deserves praise for helping to give the play its heartfelt quality. She’s the wild card. To know what that means, one needs to buy a ticket, but rest assured the experience leaves a sweet finish.

Ultimately it’s chemistry that carries Icehouse to the finish line. It’s Judy Hayward’s first time directing a BoB show and during rehearsals in September she praised the cast while rehearsals were underway.

“One thing that’s nice about it is that everybody pretty much has an equal part,” she said. “It’s quite an ensemble show.”

The opening night crowd agreed. The smiles began with an introductory explanation that the play was being performed in a foreign language (Minnesotan) and continued as the show bounced along merrily through laugh after laugh. With a cast working at a very high level, and a script that’s new to these parts, Icehouse is a must-see.

Icehouse – A Comedy by Peter Bloedel
When: Friday, Nov. 14, and Saturday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 16, at 2 p.m.
Where: Bedford Off Broadway at Bedford Town Hall, 70 Bedford Center Road, Bedford
Tickets: $15 ($12 seniors and students) at brownpapertickets.com

Featured photo: Icehouse. Courtesy photo.

New Hampshire writer pens historical novel

Award-winning journalist and former New Hampshire Public Radio host Laura Knoy recently published her first novel, and it’s a gem. The Shopkeeper of Alsace is historical fiction, drawn from real events during the two world wars and in between. At the story’s center is Sarah Seibert, an amazingly resilient Jewish woman.

During World War I, Sarah fled her Polish village and occupying Russian forces as a teenager, first moving to Warsaw, and emigrating to France two years after WWI ended. There, she ran a shop with her family, as well as meeting and marrying her future husband, Melach Seibert. A few moves and upheavals later, they settled in Colmar, Alsace. The rumblings of a new war were beginning.

Knoy expertly pulls the reader into the menace of multiple wars in Poland, the later horror of World War II, and the stench of prejudice that spans generations and takes multiple forms. Setting the novel in the border region of Germany and Alsace instead of Paris is another aspect that sets it apart from historical fiction of that era.

How the Seiberts avoid the Nazi peril, along with Vichy turncoats and other threats, is at the novel’s heart. Knoy has a deft ear for detail, such as how the similarity of Yiddish and Alsatian dialects helped Sarah blend in. However, the greatest gift was one bestowed to her, when she was a college exchange student in Strasbourg, France, during the mid-1980s.

There she met Seibert’s real-life daughter, Annette. The two were paired together during a school-organized weekend trip to Colmar and formed a friendship that lasted decades. Knoy would hear of her friend’s childhood war experience only in fragments. That changed when she spoke with Annette’s daughter Brigitte Aumont in 2018, three years after her death.

“I always wanted to tell your mother’s story, but now it’s too late,” Knoy said while the two had dinner in New York City. It wasn’t — she learned there was an uncle, still living, who “remembered everything.” So she flew to France and met 95-year-old Jacques Seibert. Later, she listened to an oral history compiled by the family in 2005 that included Annette.

This treasure trove of information, along with dogged research and truly stellar skills for a first-time novelist, makes for a lively, entertaining and frequently harrowing read. The facts of the story are true, but Knoy chose to write a novel as a way to give it color, shape and depth. What results is a page-turner that’s satisfying throughout.

In a recent Zoom interview, the former host of NHPR’s The Exchange said much inspiration for her novel came from The Blue Bicycle (La Bicyclette Bleu), a series of wartime books by French writer Régine Deforges.

“I didn’t realize until I read Régine,” she said, “just how big, and complicated, and awful, and messy, and difficult it was.”

The Alsatian people were tempest-tossed by war for generations, she continued. One of the book’s characters was born a French citizen in 1870, became German in 1871, was again French in 1918 with the end of WWI, then became German in 1940 when Alsace was annexed. “And you’re French again in 1945,” she said.

Knoy expertly weaves that history into her novel. “I think that’s what makes my book different,” she said. “It’s a World War II story, but it starts in World War I — because I would contend that’s really where World War II starts…, It’s about a war-torn region, Europe.”

Some of the historical documents she cites, like a xenophobic newspaper left in Sarah and Melach’s Colmar shop, serve as reminders of the axiom that while history doesn’t repeat, it often rhymes.

“A lot of the language that the Nazis and French fascists used,” Knoy said, “is the same language that was used in Rwanda.”

The newspaper warned that “Jews, and mixed-race mongrels” would destroy France. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 was preceded by warnings of “bugs, cockroaches and dogs” posing a similar threat.

“Language skillfully used is a great way to divide people,” Knoy said. “And again, once you divide people, you can do whatever you want.”

Knoy is embarking on a short book tour to support her book. It begins Wednesday, Nov. 12, at BNH Stage in Concord, an event sponsored by Gibson’s Bookstore. She’ll be joined by Rick Ganley, host of NHPR’s Morning Edition, with a book signing following their conversation.

Authors On Main at the BNH Stage – Laura Knoy
When: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $30 includes copy of The Shopkeeper of Alsace, $15 admission only at ccanh.com
More: lauraknoy.com
Also Monday, Nov. 15, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester and Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth

Interactive mystery show at Majestic Theatre

Last year the Majestic Theatre staged Murder’s In The Heir, a comedic mystery about a billionaire, a will and an untimely demise, with the audience voting via secret ballot to name the perpetrator. The show was a hit, so when time came to pick a show for the 35th season, Majestic director Robert Dionne looked for another work from that play’s writer, Billy St. John.

He found Southern Fried Murder. It hews to the idea of “where there’s a will, there’s a play,” but with a difference. The story centers on a dinner party in a hotel dining room organized by a matriarch named Magnolia Capote. She’s devised a sort of scavenger hunt that’s detailed on the last page of her will. It will reveal who gets her money.

Magnolia dies early, killed with her walking stick. The so-called fourth wall dissolves as cast members wander through the audience to look for clues, about the money, and her murder. Interactions begin when patrons are seated by actor/ushers; in character, they begin dishing on fellow cast members.

That back-and-forth continues throughout the performance, as the cast veers away from the script into a blend of improv and standup crowd work that includes accusing audience members of committing the crime. Occasionally, they wander into the crowd, looking for clues and asking for input.

At the end, there isn’t a vote to name a killer; the deed-doer’s identity is already known. The challenge for the audience is to guess it correctly. One other twist not in last year’s production is that someone from the crowd will be drafted into the cast and given a script to play the small but important role of Terry, the hotel’s manager.

It’s directed by Becky Rush, who also helmed Murder’s In The Heir. In a recent phone interview, Rush explained that it’s a choose your own adventure show that can be done as dinner theater or something else. Majestic chose the latter, more or less.

“We’re passing out recipes and serving refreshments, bottled water, after-dinner mints and whatnot,” she said.

An observant person will be able to glean a clue or two while they quaff, but Rush was careful to withhold any details.

“Billy St. John always has some really interesting audience twists,” she said. “So this is another way that he gets them involved with his shows.”

Four actors from Murder’s In the Heir are returning this year: Natasha DaCunha Lund is Maggie St. Lawrence, Matthew Davis plays Ben Parker, the lawyer, Ilana Pete is Stump, and Katie Davis is Magnolia Woods. “They just really enjoyed the Billy St. John last year,” Rush said.

Other performers include Krystal Timinski, Chad Boutin, Aimee Baker, Jordan Gagan and Jeff Caron, who’s a veteran of the company.

“He’s been around The Majestic for many, many years; I actually was in a show with him in February, Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” Rush said. “So Jeff is no stranger to The Majestic stage.”

Boutin is, Rush continued, “sort of a surprise, playing both the role of the mother who gets killed and the son, Lou. So he’s doing some really cool stuff. We’re trying to get some nuance to this character, where the mother stands a certain way and then Lou stands in the exact same way, but with a little twist …mirroring those two characters.”

Rush has been with the company for 30 of its 35 years and is enjoying the current anniversary season.

“I’m so proud to be affiliated with The Majestic,” she said. “Even though we’ve lost our space a couple of times, we just keep getting back up and fighting the good fight and being an active part of the community. I believe 100 percent in this organization and what we do for the community.”

Southern Fried Murder
When: Friday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 1, at 2 and 7 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 2, at 2 p.m.
Where: Majestic Theatre, 880 Page St., Manchester
Tickets: $15 to $20 at majestictheatre.net

First-timers gather for Not Afraid to Fail Fest

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Stepping out of one’s comfort zone to try something new is daunting, often frightening. However, at the upcoming Not Afraid to Fail Fest, it’s the whole point. Hosted by Manchester-based Queerlective, it’s billed as “a celebration of queer expression, risk-taking, and community care,” and a reflection of the nonprofit’s core values.

Among the first-time performers on stage Oct. 24 at BNH Stage in Concord are Ann Kinne, a farmer, woodworker and slam poet who will sing and play guitar, and Alysa Hemcher, who works by day as an operations director for a regional nonprofit and plans to cross standup comedy from her bucket list.

A pair of spoken word artists will try to up their game. Avery Bondra left the stage a decade ago, but they’re back to share some poems “that capture the essence of love and vulnerability,” according to a press release. Cory MacEachern has done open mics before but plans a much more personal performance that addresses the death of her brother last winter.

Both Cecilia Kiely and Star are taking the stage for the first-ever time. Star, who works in special education, will perform the Ethel Cain song “Janie” and accompany herself on guitar. Kiely is an aspiring writer who hasn’t revealed what she will share for her debut, but promises “a unique blend of humor and heart.”

The comedy-packed night continues with Michelle Rebidue, who mixes standup and animated storytelling for an act called Life In a NutChelle. Kelso & Aoife are a married couple with a skit that begins with an attempted handshake and devolves into a chaotic stew of awkwardness. Jay Galloway’s standup set will focus on being a New Hampshire newcomer.

The bold cast is rounded out by two members of the Queerlective working board. Jason DeYoung coordinates large events for the organization. A member of the New Hampshire Gay Men’s Chorus, he will step into the spotlight to sing “Who’d I Be,” one of his favorites from Shrek The Musical.

Executive Director Randall Nielsen doesn’t have a performing slot, but is making his debut in another way. “Somebody asked about me having my own thing, and I’ve never emceed an event,” he said in an interview that included DeYoung recently, adding, “and Queerlective has never put on an event like this before.”

The spark for the effort came from strategic planning sessions last January. They discussed ways to reflect the boldness that was required to form an organization in 2022. “Not being afraid to fail was very key to us, starting from scratch and not knowing anything about nonprofits,” DeYoung said.

Nielsen spoke of his interest in using art as a tool for community building.

“I just had too many ideas, so I thought, ‘let’s just let people bring their own ideas as well.’ If you’ve ever wanted to try something, or need a reason to learn a new skill, that’s kind of what we were thinking of as well when we were putting this together.”

A call for participants went out, and all who applied will perform in the show.

“That’s a goal for this project, along with encouraging the community to be more adventurous,” Nielsen said. “We see a lot of hesitation and anxiety from people just to even go out and attend an event, let alone to put together something on their own.”

In late September, everyone attended a workshop led by a local clown to work on stage presence and getting comfortable in performing a show that Nielsen described in a Facebook post as “part open mic, part talent show, part joyful mess and one hundred percent about showing up with courage, creativity and the community behind you.”

To that end, guidelines will be spelled out when the show commences to foster an environment of encouragement and support for performers who are taking a big risk.

“That’s one of the big things,” Nielsen said. “No matter what happens, we’re clapping, we’re cheering, we’re supporting these people. If they mess up, it’s OK. We’re all going to mess up at one point or another. That’s life.”

Not Afraid to Fail Fest

When: Friday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $18 at ccanh.com