Memories of Schooldays

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School was founded in 1955, making 1959 graduation year for the inaugural class. Half a century and countless diplomas later, the Class of 2009 readies itself to be the 50th class to fling their mortarboards in the air. In recognition of this, the Minnesingers annual spring show will be titled The Beat Goes On, and will feature a medley of tunes from the last five decades.

The Vineyard Playhouse will audition for its summer Shakespeare performance — this year it will be The Taming of the Shrew — on Saturday, May 16, from noon to 4 p.m. at the playhouse on Church street in Vineyard Haven. It will be directed by Johanna McKeon.

Actors may arrive at the audition any time during the scheduled hours and sign up for an appointment that day. Everyone who comes to the audition will be seen. Actors should come prepared to perform a short (under two minutes) Shakespearean monologue from any play.

M ow Crew will screen tomorrow at the Capawock, following its trium phant premiere at the Boston Independent Film Festival in late April. This semi-autobiographical romantic comedy about life on the Vineyard was written and directed by a Vineyard native ... and you can tell. In all the best ways.

Last spring, the Gazette wrote about Oak Bluffs native Taylor Toole, 30, and his crew as they were about to hold auditions for Island actors, who comprise all but the four lead roles. Since then, the Mow Crew project has sprouted.

Louisa Gould will discuss her life in photography on Tuesday, May 12, at 7 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.

Ms. Gould’s passion for art and photography began at an early age. Throughout her childhood, she was enrolled in summer art programs on Martha’s Vineyard where she developed her appreciation for art, photography and sailing.

Watercolor Workshop

Priscilla Levesque, an award-winning artist from Cape Cod, will hold a two-day watercolor workshop in at the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on May 15 and 16. Ms. Levesque will offer instruction on painting the historic Victorian cottages. The fee is $100 dollars per person. For details, call 508-564-4616 or visit priscillaart.com.

Artist Donates Work

William Ross Searle, a Cape Cod landscape painter and Vineyard native who grew up in Edgartown, recently bequeathed 58 works to the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Mr. Searle works in both acrylics and watercolor; his paintings are held in private, corporate, museum and institutional collections throughout the United States and Europe. A announcement about the gift appears in the spring edition of Spyglass, the museum’s quarterly publication.

In this year-long serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after two decades to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe fears and detests Richard Moby, the CEO of an off-Island wholesale nursery, Broadway. Convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, and all Island-based landscaping/nursery businesses generally, Abe is obsessed with “taking down” Moby.

What has 16 million bricks, the dark red ones from Maine and the remaining lighter pinky-red bricks from Pensacola, Fla., and is 90 miles from Cuba and equal distance from mainland Florida? Fort Jefferson.

Eric Brown of Edgartown has a secret.

Like many fishermen, when it comes to his favorite angling spot, Eric does not fish and tell. But, he did call last week to share a fish tale.

The star of the story is an unusual animal: an American brook lamprey, which, to be accurate, is not a true fish. True fish, taxonomically-speaking, have jaws, while lampreys are jawless. Lampreys also do not have bones, scales or paired fins.