Antique Track-Driven Machines

February 24, 2018 — For the second year in a row, I'm beginning my antique car show season in February. Last year, it was at the Audrain Museum in Newport, Rhode Island. Of course, you can have an indoor show any time of year. But this year, the show was outdoors on a snow-covered field and featured track-driven machines and snowmobiles that couldn't be used on highways.

The field where the Antique Track-Driven Machines Show was held, in Thornton, New Hampshire, had a generous covering of snow, as did the surrounding area. The road up to the field was snow and ice-covered. There was quite a contrast between this area on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest in the northern portion of the state, and southern New Hampshire, left almost snowless in this unusually mild February.

Featured were vehicles designed for use on snow, from snowmobiles up to huge four-track machines used for grooming ski trails, opening mountain passes and military excursions. The show drew a large crowd, and machine owners cheerfully took spectators on rides over trails surrounding the show field. Thornton Boy Scout Troop 58 did a great job of preparing and serving a variety of hot lunches.

Photos and videos of the event can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/trackdriven/

"Ripcord"

February 15, 2018 — When Gus Kaikkonen, artistic director
of the Peterborough Players in Peterboroough, New Hampshire, saw David Lindsay-Abaire's "Ripcord" in New York, he knew he had to stage it at the Players. He also knew exactly who would be perfect for the two female leads, and he got that right. The two roles were tailor-made for Players' veterans Lisa Bostnar as Abby Binder and Kathy Manfre as Marilyn Dunne.

In this comedy, directed by Kaikkonen, the cantankerous Abby values her privacy in her spacious, brightly-lit two-bed room with a view, which she presently has to herself, in the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility. When upbeat, energetic, garrulous Marilyn bounces in as Abby's new roommate, Abby's world of sullen silence is destroyed.

When all Abby's appeals to get the relentlessly cheerful Marilyn removed fail, the two women make a bet, based on Abby's assertion that nothing scares her, and Marilyn's claim she never gets angry. The winner gets to take over the side of the room next to the picture window, currently Abby's half. The tests conceived to win the bet are hilarious, often dangerous and sometimes downright cruel. They lead to more than one surprise, and a couple of drastic scenery changes, expertly executed by Scenic Designer Charlie Morgan and Jessica Ayala's props, abetted by Sam Fleming's costumes and Emily Allinson's wardrobes and makeup.

Will Howell (who was also sound designer), Cory Buffaloe, Tyler Richardson and Bridget Beirne fill out the superb cast. This was the third live play in the Players' winter series. The theater was less than half-filled for this night's performance, on a mild evening when fog produced by melting snow made travel difficult. But the small audience was big on enthusiasm and thoroughly enjoyed this excellent production.

Who won the bet? Who ended up next to the picture window? Did anyone? Did Abby regain her privacy? And what's with the title "Ripcord"? What does that have to do with anything? You have to see it.

2018 Begins With Record Storm

January 6, 2018 — Early forecasts called for "snow showers" in New Hampshire on Thursday, January 4. What we got was a nor'easter with a foot of blowing, drifting snow and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour. Those are pretty impressive "showers." The storm was officially declared a blizzard on the coast, where wind and an astronomical high tide produced flooding. All this came during a stretch of weather that tied a 100-year-old record for cold and duration.

Farther south on the Massachusetts coast, the storm was even more severe, with snow depths well over a foot and devastating flooding in some areas. The city of Boston was brought to a standstill. The storm, officially named Grayson, also earned such descriptive names as "Bomb Cyclone" and "Bombogenesis." Record low temperatures and snow extended into the south all the way to northern Florida.

I shoveled out twice, once during the storm and again when snow ended, but had to do a little more Friday when drifting snow filled in areas I had shoveled before. It was still very windy Friday and I was wondering how much longer this relentless, punishing wind could go on before something gave way and the power went out. Fortunately, that never happened.

This morning (Saturday) temperature was 1 degree. Wind chill in most of New Hampshire was around 20 below. Tomorrow is forecast to be the coldest yet, with actual temperature below 0 and wind chill 30 below in  some areas. Later Sunday the cold is finally supposed to ease, with temperature in the 40s later in the week.

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.

"The Halloween Trilogy"

October 21, 2017 — The Winnipesaukee Playhouse in Meredith, New Hampshire, presented its annual pre-Halloween Radio Variety Hour, a staged reproduction of an old-time radio drama, always one of the spooky variety, complete with commercials for Lifebuoy Soap, Carter's Little Liver Pills, and other products from the 1940's. This presentation, three plays in an hour without intermission, was entitled "The Halloween Trilogy," assembled by Cecilia Fannon and John de Lancie, directed for the Playhouse by John Piquado, and featuring the Winni Players Community Theatre actors, each playing multiple roles.

The three dramas were "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde, and "Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling. The actors are seated on folding chairs at the back of the stage until called to the microphone to speak their parts. The host (Pat Jansen) introduces each drama and signals the actors to come to the microphone where they wait for her cue to speak. Off to the left, the foley artist, or sound technician (Lord Adam Young), provides background sound with a surprising variety of noise-making equipment.

Actors appearing in this performance were David Bownes, Andrew Burke, Steve Copithorne, Gail Ledger, Delaney Andrews, Jim Gocha, Dana Gardner and Valerie Kimball. I suspect good actors welcome an opportunity to ham it up and over-act, as they did with marvelous results in this presentation. When the actors are having fun with the material, their enthusiasm tends to spread to the audience, and the audience was delighted with this night's performance.