Ice Harvest & Winter Carnival

February 16, 2019 — In all the years I had been going to the Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth, New Hampshire, I had never taken a tour of the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm, just a block up the street from the theatre. When I heard the farm was having its annual Ice Harvest & Winter Carnival, I thought that might offer some good photo ops, so I headed up there.

The day was cold, but I was expecting that, and dressed in layers. There was abundant snow on the ground, something we haven't seen much of during this remarkably snow-free winter in the southern portion of New Hampshire. There was a mix of sun and clouds with occasionally gusty winds.

Activities included ice cutting from a small pond at the farm. Visitors were invited to participate, cutting ice out in blocks which were then slid along a chute to be loaded onto pallets towed by oxen to the ice house for storage. There were various demonstrations of cold weather tenting, ice boat operation, ice sculpture and, of course, a tour of the museum.

Photography was challenging because of sun glare and sharp contrast between darkly-clothed people against glistening snow. But, with a little help from Adobe Photoshop on my PC, I was able to improve upon what my camera had difficulty with. You can see the results at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/wintercarnival/

"Stage Struck"

February 10, 2019 — This play has so many plot twists the audience is repeatedly surprised as one twist after another upends everything that happened before. In a continuation of its winter season live performances, the Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire, presented Simon Gray's "Stage Struck," directed by Charles Morey and featuring a stellar cast of four, all veteran performers with wide-ranging experience. They included Kraig Swartz, one of the most prolific and popular Peterborough actors, and another frequent and equally popular performer, Lisa Bostnar, who has several TV roles to her credit and will be appearing in a made-in-New Hampshire movie, "Parallel America," in the near future. Appearing for the first time at Peterborough were Nicholas Wilder and Charles Weinstein.

The complicated plot involves former stage-manager Robert (Swartz), who has  happily given up his career to care for the household and pamper his successful actress wife, Anne (Bostnar). A visit by a gun and knife-toting friend, Herman (Wilder), ramps up the tension in this seemingly peaceful setting. Later, Robert's world is thrown into turmoil when Anne informs him she wants a divorce. It seems her psychiatrist (Weinstein) has put her up to this. Robert cooks up a scheme to get even, but of course, as in any good play, nothing works out as planned. There are counter-schemes and counter-counter-schemes that keep the audience guessing.

Of course, as you might suspect, the gun and knife become important props in the play, In fact, there's a warning in the theater lobby that there will be multiple gun-shots in the performance. Unfortunately, the gun was responsible for the only glitch in the otherwise perfectly executed play, when it misfired at a crucial point near the end. But the actors got past the malfunction smoothly, and I think most of the audience understood it was unintended.

The sumptuous living room set with its plush furniture and towering bookcase was the work of Emmy Boisvert. That ingeniously designed bookcase was the site of one of the most startling events of the play. Bethany Mullins did a great job on costume design, particularly Lisa Bostnar's.