Spellcheck is for wussies. Plus it’s boring. A right answer every time. Where’s the drama in that? How about backing away from the keyboard and heading to where the real action is, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Starting July 22 and continuing through August 8, this Tony Award winning musical will be moving into the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven, courtesy of the Island Theatre Workshop.
Like her on-stage vaudeville persona, Angel Russell herself is a variety act.
A barista, herbologist, florist and painter — most recently she has been painting large, close-up portraits of chickens — Ms. Russell is first and foremost a musician.
She currently lends her nimble fingers to four Island bands, playing piano, guitar, trumpet, drums and bass.
Bella’s Musical Puppet Show presents Arakataka’s Chorus Band/Coral do Arakataka, where everyone is invited to join in singing the American and Brazilian folk songs, on Sunday, June 6 at 11:30 a.m. in the makeshift theatre in a warehouse behind 56/58 Main street in Vineyard Haven.
Sublime tribute band Badfish is performing at Nectar’s in Edgartown on Thursday, August 5. Doors open at 9 p.m. for ages 18 and over; tickets are $17 in advance or $22 at the door.
Tonight longtime Island musicians Rob and Dave Myers will reunite for a special concert at Che’s Lounge in Vineyard Haven.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; there is a sliding scale donation for admission.
The two brothers, who performed on the Island together in the early 1990s in the alternative pop punk band the Inskirts, will perform material from their individual catalogues, as well as from their work together.
Go Gaelic or go home this Saturday when Paddy Keenan takes the stage at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. Mr. Keenan has been described as the Jimi Hendrix of the uillean pipes. John Coltrane also comes to mind. But both comparisons, impressive as they are, pale in light of his actual accomplishment. He was a founding member of the Bothy Band.
The 100 voices that make up the Island Community Chorus will fill the warming spring air of Edgartown with two performances this Saturday and Sunday, April 17 and 18, at the Old Whaling Church.
The spirit of the human voice and its capacity to bring people together with melody and rhythmic movement is a big part of Jim Thomas and his spirituals choir. They perform tomorrow night at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. The program is called Songs from the Field: the Mystery of Spirituals, and it includes songs and stories going back to the Civil War era.
As in the past, the 28-member choir will have the audience swaying and clapping along. The choir sings slave songs that carry a message and tell a story crossing the generations.
The musical play Bears Beware — Goldilocks Is in Your Town answers the question “What kind of world is it were little girls break into houses that bears own?”
James (Jim) Thomas, president of the U.S. Slave Song Project Inc., will direct the Spirituals Choir in performance on Wednesday, June 9 at 7 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
Mr. Thomas has earned the American Red Cross’s National Diversity Award and President’s Award for Leadership.
The Spirituals Choir was created in 2005 as a diverse and educational choir who sing examples of the tunes presented by the narrator.
