Deathtrap! - The Bridge

WEEKLY GUIDE TO ARTS, IDEAS, AND EVENTS IN CENTRAL VERMONT
Deathtrap!
Photo by Kim Bent.
Killer Comedy and Spine-Tingling Suspense
Permeate the Lost Nation Theater Stage, June 25–July 12
by Tim Tavcar
desperate playwright who hasn’t had a hit in years.
A rich wife with a heart condition. An ambitious yet
idolizing student. A dead-on Dutch psychic seeking
fame and fortune on the talk-show circuit. A trusted
friend with mysterious motives. An old house full of medieval weaponry. A dark and stormy night. These eerie elements add up to Broadway’s longest running comedythriller: Ira Levin’s Deathtrap. Deathtrap plays at Lost
Nation Theater—named “one of the best regional theaters in America” by the NYC Drama League—June 25 to
July 12.
Sidney Bruhl, a successful veteran writer with writer’s
block (reduced to living off his wife Myra’s money for
years now), uses naïve protégé Clifford Anderson to
A
jump-start his stalled career. Or does he? The plot is more
twisted than the characters it portrays. Fueled by macabre
comic touches and unmatched suspense, this classic will
take you on an unforgettable ride. Is anyone what he or
she appears? Will anyone be left standing at the end of the
play?
Deathtrap twists and turns, confounds all expectations,
shocks, and provides several spine-tingling moments
when audiences levitate from their seats and come down
screaming. Edgar Award–winning Ira Levin, acclaimed
author of classic suspense novels Rosemary’s Baby, The
Stepford Wives, and The Boys from Brazil, has shot
Deathtrap’s dark doings through with rapier sharp wit
and the blackest of humors. He skillfully reinvents every
suspenseful trick of the thriller writer’s trade to create an
JUNE 18, 2009
unforgettable evening of deliciously devilish theatrical
mayhem.
Megan Callahan, seen at LNT in last season’s The Importance of Being Earnest, directs Deathtrap with an eye
toward its haunting theatricality. The superb production
team brings together LNT’s most effective designers:
scenic wizard Donna Stafford (Miracle Worker, Henry
V); leading light John Forbes (Belle of Amherst); and costume and sound maven Shawn Sturdevant (Miracle
Worker, To Kill a Mockingbird), who, with the assistance
of technical director Robyn Osiecki and stage manager
Tara Lee Downs, put the thrill in this thriller!
Deathtrap features favorite Lost Nation Theater actors.
continued on page H.3
Page H.2 • June 18, 2009
The Bridge
HORIZONS
Three of The Sevens Highlight Traditional Music
A Concert with Sarah Blair, Mark Roberts, and Flynn Cohen
contributed by Sarah Blair
marvelously melodious evening of
Irish and American traditional music,
featuring fiddle, flute, banjo, and guitar, performed by members of the critically
acclaimed ensemble, The Sevens, appear at
Montpelier’s newest fine and performing
arts space—the Lamb Abbey—in a rare central Vermont appearance!
Sarah Blair began playing Irish fiddle in
the thriving traditional Irish music scene in
Providence and Boston. With The Sevens
and with other ensembles, Blair has played
at festivals, concerts, and dance weeks from
Alaska to Quebec to Florida. Fiddler magazine called her “simply a great fiddler.”
Mark Roberts (flute, five-string banjo) is
known for his playing with Touchstone,
The Red Clay Ramblers, and The Clayfoot
Strutters, in addition to playing with Blair,
Cohen, Stuart Kenney, and Mark Hellenberg in The Sevens. Many have heard his
music on the soundtrack of the film The Secret of Roan Inish.
Flynn Cohen (guitar) has recorded and
performed with many notable acts in traditional and contemporary acoustic music, including Halali, Cathie Ryan, Aoife Clancy,
John Whelan, Skip Healy, John McGann,
Mark Simos, and Adrienne Young, and has
A
From left, Sarah Blair, Mark Roberts, and Flynn Cohen. Photos courtesy of The Sevens.
recorded two solo albums. Dirty Linen
magazine called him “a versatile string virtuoso.”
The concert will take place at the Lamb
Abbey on Sunday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15 and includes an interactive
postperformance Irish session, where any or
all in the audience are invited to bring their
own traditional instruments and participate
in the lively music making.
Lamb Abbey is a new performance and
arts space in Montpelier at 65 Pioneer
Court. There is no bar or concessions, but
folks may bring their own. The Lamb
Abbey is located off Pioneer Street, directly
behind the VFW Hall. Visit www.the
lambabbey.com/location for a map to their
location.
For more information, contact Sarah
Blair at 223-0141 or [email protected].
In Their Own Words
Stories from Refugees Living in Vermont
contributed by Tracy Martin,
Assistant State Curator
n Their Own Words, an exhibition of images and
stories created by photographer Ned Castle in
collaboration with members of Vermont’s
refugee community, will be on display at the governor’s office on the fifth floor of the Pavilion office
building in Montpelier through July 31.
A touring exhibit of the Vermont Folklife Center,
In Their Own Words pairs photographs and interview excerpts to profile the experience of families
and individuals whose lives have been disrupted by
warfare, political violence, or discrimination and
have come to Vermont as refugees. They hail from
places as diverse as Somalia, Bosnia, Burundi,
Rwanda, Vietnam, Sudan, and Uzbekistan and
share the common challenge of starting new lives in
a very different cultural setting.
The exhibit consists of sets of images, each featuring a different family or individual. The focal
point of each set is a photographic portrait, which
is accompanied by interview text presenting an im-
I
portant aspect of this person’s experience. Two additional photographs are the joint creation of photographer and subject, adding another layer of visual information to the story.
The photographs in this exhibit were all created
in 2007 and began when photographer Ned Castle
met two brothers from Rwanda. As Castle’s friendship with these young men deepened, he was drawn
into their stories and created a pairing of image and
text to honor them. Working with the assistance of
the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program and
the Association of Africans Living in Vermont,
Castle’s network of connections expanded, and the
photographic project grew from there. Ned Castle
is a 2006 graduate of Williams College and a resident of Charlotte.
In Their Own Words was the opening exhibition
for the Vision and Voice Workspace at the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, Vermont. A
public reception in celebration of the show will be
held at the governor’s office on Thursday, June 18,
at 3 p.m.
DAD DOESN’T
Title image from the exhibit. Photo by Ned Castle.
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The Bridge
June 18, 2009 • Page H.3
HORIZONS
Sky Meadow Chamber Players
Make a Welcome Return to Central Vermont
Editor’s note: This very accomplished group blends the talents of some of the best artists in central Vermont with
some of the many valued colleagues from around the country with whom they have had the pleasure of collaborating.
It is a true gift to the community to have them here and offering this free concert. Chamber music, whether local of
national or international, does not get any better than this!
Please spread the word and support our LOCAL artistic
initiatives!
—Tim Tavcar
ky Meadow Chamber Players is pleased to announce
its fifth season, with a concert in Montpelier at the
Unitarian Church at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 26.
This year, the program will include works by Beethoven,
Mozart, and Arvo Pärt and will feature Schubert’s “Death
and the Maiden” string quartet. New to the ensemble this
year is Cleveland Orchestra cellist Brian Thornton, as well
as Montpelier’s own J.D. Williams, pianist.
Returning members include David Felberg (2004), concert master of the Santa Fe Symphony; Sangeun Han
(2005), violinist of the Sarasota Orchestra; and founding
members, Mary Jane Austin-Reynolds, piano (2003, 2005,
2006), and Paul Reynolds, viola (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006),
who are both active musicians and teachers in the central
Vermont area.
The group derives its name from the Sky Meadow Retreat Center, which is located in Stannard, Vermont, and is
a beautiful, century-old, renovated dairy barn situated on
120 acres in the Northeast Kingdom. The musicians will
congregate there for an intense three days of rehearsing before presenting the concert on Friday. Longtime friends and
colleagues, they have all agreed to donate their talent for
this special event, which for many of them is a welcome opportunity to get out of the city and a chance to reconnect
with each other and play great music.
New this year, there will be a master class offered to area
cello students given by Mr. Thornton. It will take place on
S
Helga (Maura O’Brien) and Porter (Larry Lambeth) fight
over the play. Photo by Kim Bent.
Members of the 2004 players rehearse at Sky Meadow. Photo courtesy of Sky Meadow Chamber Players.
Friday, June 26, from 3 to 4:30 p.m., also at the Unitarian
Church of Montpelier.
The master class and recital will be offered to the public
free of charge, as a gift to the central Vermont community.
Donations will be most gratefully accepted at either event
and will help to defray the costs of lodging, meals, and
transportation for the musicians.
Deathtrap!
cursion into the depths of the devilishly devious mind of Ira
Levin, a true master of the macabre.
continued from page 1
Deathtrap plays Thursdays through Sundays, June 25 to
July 12. Curtain times are: 7 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays—except Friday, July 3, which is at 2 p.m. (to make
room for Montpelier’s Independence Day parade); 8 p.m.
Saturdays; and 7 p.m. Sundays—except Sunday, July 12,
which is at 2 p.m. There is also an additional matinee on
Saturday, June 27, at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $25 Friday to Sundays and $20 Thursdays.
Special $15 tickets are available for the preview on Thursday, June 25, and the Saturday matinee, June 27. Students
and seniors receive a $5 discount. For ages 6 to 11, tickets
are always $10. (Children under 6, including infants and
toddlers, are not admitted to the theater.) Lost Nation Theater, at Montpelier city hall, is wheelchair accessible and offers assisted listening devices and large-print programs.
Please inform the box office of access needs when purchasing tickets.
For tickets and information call the box office at 2290492, or purchase tickets online at www.lostnation
theater.org. Tickets are also available at the Montpelier city
clerk’s office on the first floor of city hall. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
Actors Equity members John D. Alexander and Maura
O’Brien play writer Sidney Bruhl and psychic Helga Ten
Dorp, respectively. Seen in LNT’s Miracle Worker, Bully,
and The Tempest, Alexander embodies the panicked, near
penniless playwright Bruhl. O’Brien’s turns in Macbeth,
Lost in Yonkers, and Laughing Wild laid the foundation for
prescient eccentric Helga. Elizabeth Wilcox (Stone and I
Never Sang for My Father) is Sidney’s fragile wife, Myra,
and Larry Lambeth (Mockingbird, Importance of Being
Earnest) is the Bruhls’ loyal legal-eagle, Porter Milgrim.
Chris Corporandy (Primary Stages, Irish Classical Theatre,
and The Public) joins Lost Nation Theater for the first time
as Clifford Anderson, the eager protégé.
Comedic and creepy, Deathtrap takes you on an eerie ex-
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Page H.4 • June 18, 2009
The Bridge
HORIZONS
Four Vermont Playwrights Prove Their Moxie
An Evening of Light Contemporary Theater
contributed by Moxie Productions
ermont’s Moxie Productions, directed by Vermont and NYC mistress of all things
theatrical, Monica Callan, presents four new plays by Vermont writers at the 2009
Vermont Contemporary Playwrights’ Forum, held next Wednesday through Friday at
Harwood Union High School, Route 100 in Duxbury/Moretown. The plays will be presented onstage, with the audience seated on the stage as well.
The second season of this mini new-play festival will feature the comedic “diamonds in
the rough” highlighted in the sidebar at right.
Moxie Productions and the Vermont Contemporary Playwrights Forum, dedicated to
the support and development of new works from Vermont-based writers, present plays in
various stages of development to the public. Through highly interactive postperformace Q&-A sessions, the playwrights experience immmediate audience reactions to their work,
which provides valuable insight while the works are still in progress.
V
2009 Vermont Contemporary Playwrights’ Forum
A Lion in the Streets
Light
by Jeanne Beckwith
What’s a librarian to do when a man
breaks in yelling “There’s a lion in the
street!”?
by Kim Ward
Where is the lamplighter’s cry, the dark
sky full of stars? What makes us strive to
improve upon nature herself?
Applicant
Lies an Angel of Death May Tell You
by Jordan Gullickson
One applicant’s nightmare is another applicant’s dream.
by Luc Reid
Two grim reapers meet some newly dead
souls, but what is truth and what is a lie?
Wednesday, June 24, to Friday, June 26, curtain time at 7 p.m. Suggested donation, $15
at the door. For information or reservations, call 244-4168.
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