Tisbury becomes Dublin on Wednesday night as Arts and Society — which organizes what is apparently the oldest continuous celebration of Bloomsday on the planet — presents its 32nd annual Bloomsday Celebration of Music and Drama based on the texts of James Joyce.
The program is on June 16, at 8 p.m. at Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. All tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the door.
Willy and Renée
Dropping two octaves, world class opera singer Renée Fleming sings Oxygen, the anthem of Island troubadour Willy Mason, on a new album that is a collection of popular songs sung in a range that she describes as that of her talking voice.
Spirituals by the Shelves
James (Jim) Thomas, president of the U.S. Slave Song Project Inc., will direct the Spirituals Choir in performance on Wednesday, June 9 at 7 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
Mr. Thomas has earned the American Red Cross’s National Diversity Award and President’s Award for Leadership.
The Spirituals Choir was created in 2005 as a diverse and educational choir who sing examples of the tunes presented by the narrator.
Bilingual Puppets
Bella’s Musical Puppet Show presents Arakataka’s Chorus Band/Coral do Arakataka, where everyone is invited to join in singing the American and Brazilian folk songs, on Sunday, June 6 at 11:30 a.m. in the makeshift theatre in a warehouse behind 56/58 Main street in Vineyard Haven.
“My dad has a barn,” chirped a wide-eyed, hyperactive Mickey Rooney. “And my mom can sew the costumes,” the pigtailed, pinafore-bedecked Judy Garland replied. And off they went, hand in hand, singing and dancing their way across the barnyard.
Well, it was something like that and they didn’t even live on the Vineyard where the performing arts culture has grown and grown. No more drafty barns here and mom can now sit in the audience and not have to sew costumes.
Musical Auditions