If the word Hamlet makes you think, Mel Gibson; if you’ve heard of Othello but never seen it; if you know there are witches in Macbeth but aren’t sure what they do ... then the gang at The Vineyard Playhouse has a tempting offer for you: give them an evening and they’ll give you the Bard — free of charge.
The Vineyard Playhouse invites everyone to a seasonal gathering for drinks and good cheer, with a small awards ceremony, on Sunday Dec. 7 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the playhouse on Church street in Vineyard Haven.
The playhouse will be offering soul-warming libations in the form of tempting treats, fortified wines and a selection of fine teas. Entertainment will be provided.
The members of performing arts classes at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will be participating in a performance day on Thursday, Oct. 30 from 8:15 to 11:15 a.m. at the high school. Parents and the public are invited to this concert.
Here’s how to prepare for It’s A Wonderful Life: The Radio Play (by Phil Grecian), based on the 1946 movie by Frank Capra, now showcasing at the Vineyard Playhouse: Bring tissues because you’re bound to cry at the end (happy tears), even if you don’t normally well up at theatre events. The second piece of advice is to view the production twice. That’s right, you’ll want to sit through two performances.
Island Theatre Workshop is celebrating Linda Berg’s achievements as director of the Children’s Theatre program for the past three years and as music director for the 13 preceding years. Festivities will take place at the Sailing Camp on Barnes Road on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008 from 2 to 5 p.m.
Island Theatre Workshop, Inc. is searching for new stage directors join the company for its third annual Short Play Festival to be performed in March, 2009. Anyone who has a short play, either classic or contemporary, that she or he would like to direct should contact artistic director Lee Fierro to discuss possibilities. Please call 508-693-5290 by Jan. 6.
First-time directors will be considered. Material can be between 5 and 30 minutes in length. Both dramatic and musical submissions are welcomed.
To every play there is a season, and Halloween is the perfect season for Shakespeare’s creepiest, witchiest play: The Tragedy of Macbeth. And so, tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m., The Vineyard Playhouse’s Shakespeare for the Masses project will offer a free, script-in-hand presentation of “the Scottish Play,” as actors superstitiously refer to it.
Many Islanders are unaware that Helen Keller often visited Martha’s Vineyard decades ago as the guest of Katharine Cornell. She stayed at Chip Chop on Tashmoo, where, according to a 1968 letter written to former Gazette editor Henry Beetle Hough by Ms. Keller’s nurse-companion Winifred Corbally, she “loved to bathe in the ‘sea.’”
West Tisbury native Juliet Lynn Benoit is in Orlando Florida this week to compete in the world-famous Millie Lewis Actors, Models and Talent Competition, which runs from Dec. 30 to Jan. 4. Ms. Benoit was one of only 24 performers selected to participate in the competition out of an audition pool of 400.
