Christmas 2017

December 24, 2017 — Forecast of wintry storms was threatening my annual 90-mile drive to Somerset, Massachusetts to celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts with my extended family. Mixed snow and ice pelted my hometown all day on the 23rd, and another storm beginning late Christmas Eve was in the forecast. But December 24 dawned clear, and the next storm was predicted to start after midnight. So I planned to make the trip, but return home late Christmas Eve instead of staying overnight as I have in the past, hoping I could beat the storm home.

My plan worked out. I got to Somerset with ample time for a buffet, gift exchange and a Yankee swap. Featured this year were a new baby experiencing her first Christmas, and a proposal for marriage (not mine). I got home safely with no interference from the weather. The storm began in the early hours of Christmas day and ended before noon, depositing four or five inches of dry, powdery snow, followed by plunging temperatures and high winds.

You can see photos and a video of our celebration, along with some storm pictures, at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/christmas17/

"Snow White"

December 16, 2017 — The pantomime performance, or "panto" originated in England. Usually performed around Christmas, it was not silent as pantomime currently implies, but was a mix of song, dance and slapstick comedy. That's exactly what we got in the Winnipesaukee Playhouse's production of "Snow White" in Meredith, New Hampshire. Small children were delighted, teens rocked to the current music, and adults picked up on the "in" jokes and double entendres.

This production was written and directed for the "Winni" by Neil Pankhurst. Judy Hayward was musical director and Bryan Knowlton directed choreography. Lori McGinley's costumes were appropriately flashy and colorful. Andrew Stuart's sets backed up the action.

In panto style, there was some gender-switching, with male actors in female roles and vice versa. Most notable was Charles Baran in flamboyant drag as Sarah the Cook. The rather stunning Lindsey Bristol barely hid her femininity in the male role of Prince Rupert the Fair. In roles matching their gender were Kelley Davies as a charming Snow White, Ken Chapman as King Stanley and Jim Rogato in video as the Magic Mirror. Ursula Minich Boutwell was a nicely terrifying Queen Belladonna. Chris Hendricks was over-the-top as Lester the Jester. Another gender-switch was Lynn T. Dadian as Hunter the Huntsman. Barbara Webb's prologue kept the action moving along smoothly. A talented group of teens and a few pre-teens were delightful in spirited song and dance numbers.

The production definitely warmed us up during an unusually cold, icy first half of December. The show was lively, with bright costumes, great music and dancing, and relentlessly awful puns and jokes that had us laughing in spite of ourselves. It was well worth the trip to Meredith, even though I had to drive partway home in falling snow over increasingly slippery highways.

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol

December 10, 2017 — In playwright Tom Mula's
retelling of the Dickens classic, Ebenezer Scrooge's late partner, Jacob Marley, becomes the protagonist and dominates the story, and is given his own path to redemption. In order to rid himself of "the chain I forged in life," Marley must find a way to redeem Scrooge.

In New Hamphire's Peterborough Players presentation of Mula's play, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, Tom Frey is Jacob Marley (and also the play's music director), Bridget Beirne is the "bogle," or guardian angel, and Kraig Swartz plays the dual roles of Scrooge and the record keeper in the strange afterlife Marley finds himself in. These three are Peterborough Players veterans and among the finest actors in New Hampshire theater. Jared Starkey plays Bob Cratchit and an assortment of other minor characters.

Directed by Charles Morey, the actors, besides portraying the characters, do their own narration to move the play along. Swartz, as usual, is over the top and hilarious in his dual roles. Frey and Beirne have the audience rooting for them in their quest to set Marley free from his condemnation to eternity in chains.

This was the first of three live plays in the Peterborough Players' second winter season. I'm looking forward to the next two, which I'm sure will be of the same high quality we've come to expect in the Players' productions. The Players also presents Arts on Screen throughout the winter and spring, this season featuring the Met Opera, National Theatre Live and the Bolshoi Ballet.