Category: Featured Content

Find art outdoors

Watch artists at work, hunt clay monsters and browse a bazaar, plus more in-person arts events

It’s been a trying year for the art world. Galleries and theaters have been closed, art shows and festivals have been canceled and artist collaborations have been forced to go remote or stop altogether. But things are looking up. As restrictions on public gatherings are lightened, some arts organizations have found a way to still hold their events, and to do so safely: take it outdoors.

Nashua International Sculpture Symposium

The sculptors for this year’s Nashua International Sculpture Symposium had already been selected by the time a state of emergency was declared. Jina Lee from Australia (originally from South Korea), Jorg Van Daele from Belgium and Taylor Apostol from the Boston area were expected to arrive in Nashua in May, but the travel ban made that impossible, and with the quarantine order in place, the Symposium’s start date of May 7 was out of the question.

Because the symposium takes place entirely outdoors, organizers and the City of Nashua were hopeful that they could still hold the event later in the year. They set a new tentative start date of Aug. 20 and invited two sculptors from the U.S. — Elijah Ober of Maine and Kelly Cave of Pennsylvania — to join Apostol and take the places of Lee and Van Daele.

“We felt that, if we could figure out a way to continue this annual tradition and do it in a way that is safe, we should do it,” symposium co-chair Kathy Hersh said. “Having it outside is the perfect way to do that, because that’s what we do anyway.”

Started in 2008, the Nashua International Sculpture Symposium was inspired by the Andres Institute of Art International Sculpture Symposium, a similar event held in Brookline every fall. It is the only international sculpture symposium in the U.S. that is held in a city, with the sculptures being placed on public property.

“The idea is that these sculptures belong to the public,” Hersh said. “There are no signs saying, ‘Fragile’ or ‘Don’t touch.’ They are made for people to see, touch, sit and climb on.”

Traditionally, the symposium brings in three experienced sculptors from all over the world. They spend three weeks in Nashua, creating sculptures that are permanently installed at different sites of their choosing throughout the city.

This year’s symposium, however, will look very different. For one thing, it will be the first time that all three sculptors are from the U.S.

“Even though it’s supposed to be the ‘international’ sculpture symposium, I think it’s really exciting to be able to give local and regional artists this opportunity,” symposium artistic director Jim Larson said.

All in their 20s, the sculptors are also the youngest to ever participate in the symposium.

“We really wanted to help out emerging artists, artists who are early in their career,” said Larson, also in his 20s and acting as the sole artistic director for the first time. “This gives them a chance to expand their portfolios with large-scale public work, and to work with new media.”

Rather than creating standalone sculptures to be placed in separate locations, the sculptors will work collaboratively to create their sculptures as a series. All three pieces will be placed together at the west entrance of Mine Falls Park, situated on a secluded wooded hill above the parking lots for a boat ramp and skate park.

“The space itself is definitely off the beaten path and doesn’t get much traffic,” Larson said, “but I think the artists are excited to make work for this forgotten little patch of woods that will surprise viewers as they stumble upon it.”

Some aspects of the traditional symposium, however, will remain the same. Volunteers from the community will still host the sculptors at their homes and provide them with meals and transportation to the worksite. The sculptors will still work six days a week, Monday through Saturday, outside of The Picker Artists collaborative, and, as always, the public will be welcome to observe and interact with the sculptors, as long as they practice social distancing.

“It’s still very much a community project,” Hersh said. “That’s the way it was designed, and that’s the way we want it to be.”

“Being able to see the artists working gives the community a better understanding of where the work comes from and what it took to get it there,” Larson added, “and being able to have that communal experience is meaningful, especially right now.”

The sculptors were all required to quarantine for 14 days before their arrival. They will be kept at least six feet apart from each other at the worksite and “are no strangers to wearing masks,” Larson said, since respirators are needed while sculpting anyway, to protect from inhaling debris.

Visitors will also be required to wear face masks and stay at a safe distance from the sculptors and other visitors.

An opening ceremony will be held on Thursday, Aug. 20, where the mayor, the symposium board, Chamber of Commerce members, funders and others involved with the symposium will welcome the sculptors to Nashua. The ceremony is not open to the public but will be streamed online.

The closing ceremony, at which the finished sculptures will be revealed, will take place on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the installation site. The public can attend, as long as they wear face masks and maintain social distance, or they can watch the ceremony online as it will also be streamed.

13th annual Nashua International Sculpture Symposium
Opening reception: Thursday, Aug. 20, 5:30 p.m., not open to the public but will be streamed online at accessnashua.org/stream.php at 8:30 p.m.
Visit the sculptors: Sculptors will work Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., outside The Picker Artists studios (3 Pine St., Nashua) from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4, and at the installation site at the west entrance of Mine Falls Park from Saturday, Sept. 5, through Friday, Sept. 11.
Closing ceremony: Saturday, Sept. 12, 1 p.m., at the west entrance of Mine Falls Park, open to the public and will be streamed online.
More info: nashuasculpturesymposium.org

Meet the sculptors

Elijah Ober, Maine

What do you enjoy most about sculpting?

I really enjoy how there are so many different stages to it: the conceptual thinking at the start of a sculpture, considering what a material brings to the table, seeing how the material responds. The process is often meditative.

What do you have planned for the symposium?

I’ve been letting the site inspire me. It’s right next to the Mine Falls dam, so I’ve been thinking a lot about the river as a timepiece … and how it creates a sense of time without really telling it. I want to create a work that does that in a similar way.

What do you hope to get out of the experience?

I hope to learn some new skills and get some experience working with new materials that I haven’t worked with much in the past … and [to form] new friendships, connections and a tie to Nashua.

Kelly Cave, Pennsylvania

What do you enjoy most about sculpting?

I love making things come to life, especially as public art. I love the idea of creating work that can talk to a community, introduce people to art and bring people together to admire a space.

What do you have planned for the symposium?

With Covid and so many people losing so much, I’ve been thinking a lot about memorializing loss. … I’ve been doing a lot of research about monuments and memorial markers, and how they’re incorporated into our society. … I definitely want to get there and feel the space first, though, and let the space have its effect on me, so I’m keeping things a little loose.

What do you hope to get out of the experience?

The symposium is very unique in that it’s encouraging us [artists] to talk to each other and have our work talk to each other, so I’m hoping that will lead to a lifelong connection with them, and with people in the community.

Taylor Apostol, Massachusetts

What do you enjoy most about sculpting?

I think it’s the physicality of it, especially with public works. I love making something that draws people in, that people want to touch. I love that sense of interaction.

What do you have planned for the symposium?

My piece will be very connected to the natural setting, but also brightly colored with flocking. … Right now, I’m planning one large piece with a few smaller abstract pieces emerging and scattered around, kind of playing with scale and manipulating form.

What do you hope to get out of the experience?

The experience of shifting to more collaborative work as opposed to installation-based work, and of doing something more spontaneous, taking things as they come, instead of being stuck in that focus, ‘finish-it’ mode like when I’m doing something for commission.

Greeley Park Art Show

Nashua’s 67th annual Greeley Park Art Show is still on for Saturday, Aug. 22, and Sunday, Aug. 23.

“So many art shows have been canceled already,” said Lauren Boss, co-president of the Nashua Area Artists’ Association, which hosts the event. “We didn’t want to take away another show from these artists when we know we can have it safely outside and the park is big enough to spread everyone out.”

Around two dozen juried artists from New Hampshire and Massachusetts will display and sell a variety of artwork, including oils, acrylics, watercolors, pastels, drawings, mixed media, jewelry, photography and digital art. Works will range in price from under $20 to over $1,000.

“Everyone has their own style,” Boss said. “It’s a good representation of all the talented, professional artists in our region.”

The artists’ booths will be situated 10 feet apart, and artists are encouraged to display their art on the outsides of their booths as much as possible. Visitors must wear masks (masks will be provided to those who don’t have one) and observe social distance from others. There will be hand sanitizing stations set up as well as hand sanitizer at the artists’ booths.

Boss said the Greeley Park Art Show is a “Nashua staple” and an event that people look forward to all year.

“Even though it’s going to be a little different than in past years due to the pandemic, I think this is something people need right now,” Boss said. “People need to be able to get out and do something normal, and if we can help them do that safely, we’re going to do it.”

Where: Greeley Park, 100 Concord St., Nashua
When: Saturday, Aug. 22, and Sunday, Aug. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cost: Free admission
More info: nashuaarts.org

Capital City Art Bazaar

The Concord Arts Market and Concord Handmade present the first Capital City Art Bazaar on Friday, Aug. 21, outside in Concord’s Bicentennial and Eagle squares. The evening arts market will feature 10 to 13 local and regional vendors in each square, selling a variety of handmade items like jewelry, pottery, textiles, paintings, photography, home decor, fashion accessories, soaps and more.

The bazaar was originally scheduled to take place in May at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage. Instead of canceling, organizers decided to postpone the event and move it outdoors.

“Having it outside is a viable option, and it’s definitely safer,” Concord Arts Market producer Christa Zuber said.

All vendors are required to wear face masks and have hand sanitizer available at their tables. Attendees are requested to wear masks and not touch the items for sale unless they plan to purchase them. Payment will be contactless, via card.

The bazaar gives artists an opportunity to “get back in the habit” of participating in arts events and selling their work, Boss said, and art lovers an opportunity to reconnect with and support local artists.

“Artists, whether they do [art] as a living or as a hobby, do it because they love it,” Boss said. “After having so many events canceled this year, I think they are really excited to be able to get out in a safe way and talk to people about their art again.”

When: Friday, Aug. 21, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Where: Bicentennial and Eagle squares, Concord
Cost: Free admission
More info: concordartsmarket.net/capital-city-art-bazaar

More outdoor art

• The Music Hall (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth) presents two outdoor author events as part of its Live Under the Arch Series. Meg Mitchel Moore will discuss her book Two Truths and a Lie on Thursday, Aug. 20, at 6 and 8 p.m. Tickets cost $44.75. Then, Acadia Tucker will discuss her book Growing Good Food on Thursday, Aug. 27, at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $38.75. Tickets include a signed copy of the featured book. Events will be held right outside of the theater. Visit themusichall.org.

• Intown Concord’s Market Month continues in downtown Concord with International Arts Week from Thursday, Aug. 20, through Sunday, Aug. 23, with a full schedule of multicultural music and dance performances, arts and activities on Saturday; and a Sidewalk Sale from Thursday, Aug. 27, through Sunday, Aug. 30. Admission is free. Visit facebook.com/intownconcord.

• The Concord Arts Market takes place in Concord’s Bicentennial Square every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., now through Sept. 26. The juried outdoor market features a variety of art and crafts by local artists and craftspeople. Visit concordartsmarket.net.

• Monsters are on the loose again in Manchester. On Saturday, Aug. 22, Studio 550 Art Center will hide 100 small red clay monsters — each a unique and handmade piece of art — around downtown in outdoor places that are typically overlooked, such as windowsills, benches and flower planters. The hunt starts at 1 p.m. and goes until all of the monsters are found. If you find a monster, you get to keep it, and receive goodies, giveaways and discounts from downtown businesses like Dancing Lion Chocolate and Bookery. The person who finds the one colored monster will get a free workshop at Studio 550. It’s free to participate in the hunt. Also on that day from 1 to 3 p.m., Studio 550 will host outdoor low-cost monster-themed activities for all ages. Visit 550arts.com.

• Alnoba (24 Cottage Road, Kensington) will give an outdoor guided tour of its international and eclectic collection of art on its property on Friday, Aug. 28, from 10 a.m. to noon. Visitors will be able to see the art up close, touch it and hear stories about it and the artists who created it. Tickets cost $15 and must be purchased in advance. Visit alnoba.org.

• Enjoy some outdoor theater with Seussical Jr., presented by All That Drama and Nottingham Parks & Recreation, outside at the Nottingham town bandstand (139 Stage Road). Performances are on Saturday, Aug. 29, and Sunday, Aug. 30, at 5 p.m. There is a $5 suggested donation to see the show. Visit allthatdramanh.com.

• The 20th annual Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Classic is still on for Thursday, Sept. 3, through Saturday, Sept. 5. Head to Ocean Boulevard to watch as 10 of the world’s top sand sculptors compete for cash prizes and awards. Stick around on Saturday for the judging and to vote for your favorite sculpture from 1 to 3 p.m., and for the awards ceremony at 7 p.m. The sculpture site will be illuminated for night viewing through Sept. 13. Visit hamptonbeach.org/events/sand-sculpture-event.

• Theater and baseball come together at “Shakespeare in the (Ball) Park” on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 2 p.m., at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (1 Line Drive, Manchester). Cue Zero Theatre Company will perform a reimagined baseball-themed version of Romeo and Juliet. Tickets will go on sale soon and will cost $10. Visit cztheatre.com.

• Now, you can take a self-guided audio tour of the public art in downtown Nashua. There are two types of tours — sculptures and murals — with 10 to 15 stops on each. They are offered through the Distrx app (available for free on Android and iOS), which uses Bluetooth iBeacon technology to automatically display photos and text and provide audio descriptions as tourists approach the works of art. Visit downtownnashua.org/nashua-art-tour.

Featured Photo: “For the Love of Friendship” sculpture by Tony Jimenez, near Lovewell Pond in Nashua. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

It’s fun to lead at the YMCA

Nashua teen honored with annual Buddy Cup

Every summer, teens from New England and New York who are involved in their local YMCA’s Leaders Club attend a week-long teen conference called Leaders School. At the conference, which was held virtually this year, one teen is awarded the Buddy Cup, which recognizes an outstanding leader and role model who exemplifies the program’s core values. The recipient of the 2020 Buddy Cup is New Hampshire’s 18-year-old Asher Thomas, a 2020 Nashua High School South graduate and member of the Leaders Club at the YMCA of Greater Nashua. Thomas talked about the program, his leadership experiences and his plans for the future.

What activities and leadership opportunities have you been involved in at the Y and in your community?

I was kind of “raised in the Y,” as I like to say. My mom worked there, and I was on the swim team and all that kind of stuff. I joined the Leaders Club when I was in the sixth grade and got much more active in the community through that because we did a lot of volunteering … like at the breast cancer walk, putting on anti-bullying days at the Y and those kinds of different things. Through high school, I was also pretty involved in a lot of different clubs and stuff at my school. I was an active member of a club called Student Voice, where we went to head teacher meetings to make sure that the policies they were creating were good for students all across the board, and we worked side by side with the administration to create structures that were beneficial for everybody that was involved in the school.

What is Leaders School all about?

Leaders Clubs from throughout the region — it actually happens across the country, but I’m involved with the Northeast Regional Leader School — get together, and it’s kind of our culminating event of the year. The Leaders Club is really about personal and community development, so [at the event,] there’s a lot of self-development, figuring out your own values and that kind of stuff, as well as thinking outside of just yourself, learning how to be a leader in your community and how to create an environment that is supportive for everyone involved.

What was the event like this year, being held virtually?

For the past couple of years, it has taken place at Springfield College in Mass., so it was a lot different this year. There was definitely a much lower turnout with it being virtual, and there weren’t as many people from our Nashua club who participated. … There were a lot of different mediums [used]. There were some live calls and virtual meetings where we would kind of get together and sing songs or have object lessons where the advisor, an adult leader, would basically have an object and use that in order to teach us a life lesson in some way. People who weren’t able to attend the live sessions could still participate in various different activities and challenges on their own time.

How did it feel to be awarded the Buddy Cup?

I was definitely very honored. It was really exciting for me to be able to see that I had made such a large impact. I was also excited because the person who won it last year was actually a good friend of mine and was also from the Nashua Leaders Club, so we were able to do the actual passing of the trophy in person — socially distant, obviously.

What have you gained from participating in the Leaders Club and Leaders School?

I feel like I have definitely grown as a person through this program. It’s a program that really lets you be yourself, no matter who you are, and over the past few years especially, I feel like it has helped me grow into who I am, and to be comfortable with myself. It has also shown me how to have meaningful interactions with other people, how to be more empathetic in those interactions and how to just be a good person in the world who is helpful to others.

Is there an experience you had through the Leaders Club or community service that was especially impactful or memorable?

A couple of years ago, with the Leaders Club, I went down to New Orleans for a service trip where we were rebuilding houses that were devastated … by Hurricane Katrina. Being able to be a part of an organization that is rebuilding houses for those less fortunate who lost their homes in the hurricane was definitely a very impactful experience.

What are your future plans?

This fall, I’m actually taking a gap year and traveling across the country in a van that I’ve been converting. After that, I’ll be attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Do you know what you want to pursue, career-wise?

I think I want to go into the medical field.

What words of wisdom do you have for the young leaders you’re passing the torch to?

Never underestimate your power. I think that oftentimes younger people are overlooked, but we have the ability to change the world. If you believe in yourself and have the support of others around you, you can do anything.

Asher Thomas. Courtesy photo.

News & Notes 20/08/20

Covid-19 updateAs of August 10As of August 17
Total cases statewide6,8407,004
Total current infections statewide326279
Total deaths statewide419423
New cases180 (Aug. 4 to Aug. 10)164 (Aug. 11 to Aug. 17)
Current infections: Hillsborough County137127
Current infections: Merrimack County1311
Current infections: Rockingham County10381
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Covid-19 news

On Aug. 11, Gov. Chris Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 63, an order requiring face coverings for scheduled gatherings of 100 or more people in the state. The order does not apply to children under the age of 2, nor to day-to-day operations for schools, local or state governments or nonprofits, or to gatherings where attendees are seated and separated by at least six feet from any person except that they are a member of that person’s household, party or table.

Although the daily number of new cases of and hospitalizations from Covid-19 continues to fluctuate up and down, the testing positivity rate in the state has remained low, state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said in an Aug. 11 press conference. Chan said the rate has stayed at around 1 percent, while the most recent three-day averages prior to Aug. 11 had been below 1 percent. “We do not believe we’re seeing another surge of Covid-19,” he said, but added that Granite Staters should continue to take all precautionary measures necessary.

During an Aug. 13 press conference, state Department of Health & Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette announced new reopening recommendations for long-term care facilities in the state. “The goal is to gradually reduce restrictions so that our residents can get back to regular visits from their loved ones,” she said. All non-outbreak facilities had been in Phase 1 since July 1, but on Aug. 13 they entered into Phase 2, which adds limited indoor visitation for the first time. Phase 3, Shibinette said, will begin for long-term care facilities in counties that see a drop in cases over a 14-day period. “Once we get into this phase, we open it up a little bit more to visitors, which are up to two visitors per resident for each resident in the facility,” she said. “Communal dining … and group activities with physical distancing is also allowed.” Shibinette added that there is the possibility that the reopening guidelines will need to be pulled back should case numbers start to go back up.

On Aug. 13, Sununu issued Exhibit P to Emergency Order No. 29, which had been issued on April 9. Emergency Order No. 29 requires state agencies, boards and commissions to submit recommendations to Sununu if any regulatory deadlines should be adjusted in response to the state of emergency. Per Exhibit P, Section Ed 306.18 of the New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules has been modified to include “distance education,” meaning correspondence, video-based, internet-based and online courses, or remote instruction. The term also includes hybrid instructional models utilizing both distance education and traditional instruction in any combination. The local school board is responsible for all approval, coordination and supervision of “distance education” courses offered by the school district.

Also on Aug. 13, Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 64, which requires school districts to continue to adhere to all state and federal special education laws, no matter the model they are reopening under, and Emergency Order No. 65 authorizes assessments of civil penalties against all businesses, organizations, property owners, facility owners, organizers and individuals who violate any emergency order. Fines of up to $2,000 per day are issued for those who fail to comply with any emergency order, or up to $1,000 per day for those who fail to cooperate in an investigation of a potential violation of an emergency order.

Details of all of Sununu’s Emergency and Executive Orders can be found at governor.nh.gov.

Mask enforcement

Last week, the New Hampshire Retail Association, the New Hampshire Grocers Association and the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association submitted a letter to the Nashua aldermen regarding the amendment they are considering to their mask ordinance that would require businesses and employees to enforce the requirement that customers wear masks. “Retail workers are not law enforcement professionals who receive specialized training to enforce public laws and deescalate confrontations,” the letter reads. It says instituting such a policy could create conflicts and make it unsafe for employees and customers. It notes that current ordinances allow businesses to say that masks are required, and that law enforcement can step in if customers become belligerent or violent. “But there is distinct difference between a requirement that allows the business owner or employees to tell a customer that it’s the law, and putting them in the position of being the enforcement arm,” the letter reads. “We respectfully request that you reject the proposed amendment to the current ordinance and leave appropriate law enforcement personnel to enforce the order.”

Manchester Clean-Up Day will take place Saturday, Aug. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon, according to a press release. Four city parks will have stations with trash bags, masks and plastic gloves for all volunteers: Livingston Park (156 Hooksett Road), Rock Rimmon Park (264 Mason St.), Sheridan Emmett Park (324 Beech St.) and Sheehan-Basquil Park (297 Maple St.).

A new patriotic mailbox at Phaneuf Funeral Homes’s Boscawen location has been decorated to match the mailbox at its Manchester location, and now anyone who wants to retire a torn or tattered American flag can leave it in either mailbox. According to a press release, Phaneuf will “give it a proper retirement, per the U.S. Flag Code,” which says a flag in bad condition “should be destroyed in a dignified and ceremonious fashion, preferably by burning.”

DraftKings Sportsbook at The Brook in Seabrook has opened, giving sports fans the chance to bet on major professional and collegiate U.S. sports at a retail location, according to a press release. The sportsbook is the first retail location of its kind in New Hampshire, and it offers betting kiosks and video walls within The Brook’s stadium sports entertainment space, according to the release.

A ribbon cutting ceremony to recognize the completion of the Manchester Road Pump Station in Derry was scheduled to be held Wednesday, Aug. 19, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Drinking Water and Groundwater Advisory Commission and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. The release said the pump station is “a significant construction milestone in the Southern NH Regional Water Interconnection Project,” and that it will increase water flow capacity for Derry, Windham, Salem, Plaistow, Atkinson and Hampstead.

Neither snow nor rain

If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can recall the very sound our mail slot at home would make as the letter carrier deposited our day’s delivery. My sister and I would race to be the first to gather the mail and plop it on the kitchen table. Its delivery was as much a fixture in our childhood as was the sound of the milkman’s bottles on the back step or the thud of the evening paper as it sailed across our lawn and landed on the porch.

Later, when I started collecting stamps, I learned the different classes of postage. “First Class” meant just that: it had priority. And if I had any questions about mail or postage or stamps, I could always go downtown and ask my uncle who was the postmaster. He once gave me a tour of the post office, introducing me to all the staff, including Sandy, the carrier for our route. What he and his fellow workers exemplified — and I greatly admired — was pride in their work and the integrity of the U.S. Postal Service. One of my earliest pieces of memorization was the Service’s motto: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these carriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Well, so much for that if the new Postmaster General’s recently implemented procedures result in major delays of the mail. What we thought we were buying with a First Class stamp just a few weeks ago may now not be the same service we have come to expect. The impact of those changes, according to postal workers themselves, is demoralizing and a challenge to their commitment to their historic mission.

The president’s oft-repeated judgment that vote by mail is rife with fraud has been disproved by so many secretaries of state — some of whom are Republicans — that it is irrational, if not virtually felonious, on that basis to tamper, albeit indirectly through a major donor political appointee, with the integrity of one of our most trusted institutions. That the Postal Service must find its way in an ever more competitive environment is obvious, but it cannot be a party to any political effort to influence a free and unencumbered election.

The late John Lewis called on us all to vote, reminding us that it is the most powerful act we can perform in a democracy. We must ensure that our other fundamental institution is able freely to play its role in that process.

Just laugh

Will Noonan on doing comedy post-quarantine

Perspective is one big thing that comic Will Noonan took from his time in lockdown. In the new normal, he realized, an edgy bit won’t bring groans like it once might have, and it shouldn’t. “We’ve all stared death in the face just to go to Stop & Shop,” Noonan said recently. “Why not laugh at a joke that makes us feel slightly uncomfortable in our bellies?”

Noonan was back on stage the moment live comedy returned to New Hampshire. Like more than a few standups, though, he took a few tries to find his old form.

“Everyone started getting it back at different levels and paces,” he said, “so that was one weird handicap.”

To his surprise, audiences had to adjust as well.

“A comedian would say something like, ‘Me and my wife have been married for 25 years,’ and normally the crowd would just clap automatically,” Noonan said. “But there would be these weird pauses. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re rusty too; they don’t even remember how to clap when the guy said he’s been married a long time.’”

For Noonan, this was better than a recent corporate Zoom gig. His half-hour set lasted 17 minutes, when a miffed manager pulled the plug.

“It was like an episode of Black Mirror. … I’ve done shows like that where you can kind of hear them laughing, or even see their faces. But this one was just me and the cameraman, doing jokes to an empty space,” he said.

It ended in the middle of a long bit, when the guy who hired him walked into the room and said Noonan was done and could bring in the next comic. But there were no hard feelings.

“You’re like a birthday clown — they paid you, so they can send you home after five minutes if they want, or they can get the whole hour. It’s really up to them,” he said.

Another realization for Noonan as he returned to performing live was that audiences craved regular comedy.

“We all came in thinking everyone’s gonna want to hear these crazy thoughts I have about the coronavirus,” he said. “You can talk about it, but it’s not necessarily the only thing. … They want jokes to be about things they’ve always wanted them to be about — relationships, families and the stuff that drives you crazy. That material is hitting the hardest because it’s just kind of nice, like watching baseball or the NBA. It’s nice to just forget about it for a time.”

In early August, Noonan went to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for his first NASCAR race.

“It truly was awesome,” he said. “All the things that NASCAR fans say are true. … On TV it’s kinda cool, but it doesn’t feel much like a sport, but when you’re there you kind of understand it has a rhythm to it, a pace. There are times you can tell they’re just going around in circles biding time, and other times they’re fighting to win. … it’s long but it kind of just flies by. The sound is incredible; I could still hear it in my head when I was coming home. It made me want to drive faster.”

Seeing the race with a socially distanced crowd was a bit surreal, but it was still “extra special,” Noonan said.

“It kinda had a Children of the Corn, Rob Zombie vibe to it,” he said. “That was something I never experienced before. … like Woodstock and a Trump rally mixed together.”

Featured Photo: Will Noonan. Courtesy photo.

Will Noonan
When: Friday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m.
Where: Riverside Pavilion, Amherst Country Club, 72 Ponemah Road, Amherst
Tickets: $20 at playamherst.com

At the Sofaplex 20/08/13

*Black Is King (TV-14)

Beyonce writes, co-directs and stars in this visual album whose music and story are based on 2019’s photorealistically animated The Lion King, to which she lent her voice, and which inspired the album The Lion King: The Gift (the songs from which appear here). 

Not surprisingly, Black Is King is vastly superior to the 2019 movie that served as its creative prompt. Even the song “Spirit,” which felt flat to me in the 2019 movie, feels fresh and cinematic and joyous as used here. The visuals of this movie blend images of Africa (the people, the culture, the land, the flora and fauna), with eyeball-grabbing high fashion and, just, like, Beyonce awesomeness. Each song fits into the overall narrative, which is sort of Lion King-ish in its examination of children and parents and ancestors and duty. Some songs are more literally connected to the throughline than others, but each also offers up its own set of ideas. In particular, the song “Brown Skin Girl” and its accompanying visuals and presentation are so sweet and lovely I feel like I’ll be thinking about its ideas and message long after I’ve stopped thinking about the overall project’s Lion King comparisons. (There are graduate theses to be written on that video’s use of the female point of view in praise and honor of Black and brown beauty.) It’s so cool that this much artistry exists in such a mainstream-accessible way. A Available on Disney+.

Radioactive (PG-13)

Rosamund Pike, Sam Riley

Marie Curie gets the biopic treatment in this movie directed by Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novels Persepolis and Chicken with Plums, among others. Her background (she also directed the movie adaptations of those books) makes sense here because this story is specifically adapted from the graphic novel Radioactive and it has an overall graphic novel feel. In between more straightforward depictions of Curie’s life, we get scenes from Hiroshima in 1945, Chernobyl in 1986, a nuclear testing ground in the American West, a hospital in the 1950s where a boy is getting cancer treatment. This narrative choice doesn’t always work great but it also doesn’t not work — it shows the wider ripples of Curie’s work, along with the things she saw in her lifetime (like the use of X-ray technology to help treat soldiers injured during World War I).

Of the more conventional parts of Curie’s life, I liked how Pike shows us how Curie is desperately in love with her husband and fellow scientist Pierre Curie (Riley) but also struggles with the way her field is more comfortable with lauding him for their work than praising them together. We also, delightfully, get a fair amount of that “great scientist, less than great co-worker/boss/parent” element of Curie, which is so common in stories of Great Men. Curie is, at times, an awkward, single-minded person uninterested in the squishy emotional or career-diplomacy side of things. B Available on Amazon Prime.

Animal Crackers (PG)

Voice of John Krasinski, Emily Blunt.

Circus family drama and a box of magical animal crackers are at the center of this very plot-stuffed animated movie that I first heard about on a Cinema Sins Sincast podcast episode (“The Curious Case of Animal Crackers”) a few years ago. That podcast, with this movie’s co-director Scott Christan Sava (who returned to a recent Sincast episode), delved into not only the making of the movie but also the strange and at the time ongoing process of trying to get it distributed. It was an interesting tale and I went into this movie pulling for it.

But…

Owen (Krasinski) grows up loving the circus run by his uncle Bob (voice of James Arnold Taylor) and aunt Talia (voice of Tara Strong). Regular circus goer Zoe (Blunt) grew up loving the circus too — and Owen. When he proposes, she blissfully accepts but her father (voice of Wallace Shawn) wants her to follow in his footsteps at the dog biscuit factory. He bullies Owen into leaving circus stuff behind and coming to work for him. Years later, Owen, an official dog biscuit taster, is miserable in his job. And yet, when offered a chance to run the circus after the death of Bob and Talia, he doesn’t jump at it — Zoe does. On the way home from the funeral, Owen eats one of the strange animal crackers left to him by Bob and Talia and, poof, turns into the hamster whose cookie form he just ate. While his young daughter, Mackenzie (voice of Lydia Taylor) is delighted with her animal-daddy, Owen is at first reluctant to assume the role of “animal performer” that is the true secret to Bob’s successful circus.

There are a lot of other subplots: a dog-biscuit-factory inventor (voice of Raven-Simone) looking to create biscuits that taste like people food who is constantly undermined by a suck-up ladder-climber (voice of Patrick Warburton); Bob’s jealous bad-guy brother Horatio (voice of Ian McKellen), who still thinks the animal crackers and Talia should have been his, and the various exploits of Horatio’s not totally competent henchman Zucchini (voice of Gilbert Gottfried). It’s all a lot, and a serious streamlining of story would have benefited this movie that does have a lot of good elements. There is also a bit of adult “what am I doing with my life” stuff in here that felt like it would just be a lot of action-slowing blah-blah-blah to the kids who should be this circus and funny animal movie’s core audience. B- Available on Netflix.

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