With sweet harmonies, songs both charming and funny, a guitar, mandolin, banjo and accordion and more talent than you can fit on the band bus, the boys of PigPen Theatre Company will unpack their latest work for all ages this week, outdoors at Featherstone Center for the Arts.
Runaway With Me, You Beauty
Ever wonder what Pleiades are? Nymphs of course, daughters of God’s strong man, Atlas, and mama nymph, Pleione. Beginning this weekend, and running until July 17, they’ll be helping everyone get in touch with their inner rock goddess at the new musical, Runaway Beauty Queen or The Lost Pleiad, at the Vineyard Playhouse on 24 Church street in Vineyard Haven.
Curry simmering in the kitchen, a guitar strumming down the hall, World Cup on the television, the quiet tapping of keys on a laptop, impromptu concerts on the porch, papier mache, laughter, singing, conversation, debate and a giant puppet named Emmett Jones. These are just some of the memories we have of the first week of New Writers. New Plays., an idea we planted in the still of winter that has now blossomed into reality along with the roses of Edgartown’s picket fences.
The folks responsible for the musical Witness Uganda were seated in a circle of folding chairs in a large mirrored Vineyard Arts Project studio Tuesday afternoon, taking a needed break from their rehearsal schedule to talk about the origins of their project. Writer and director team Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews offered tales of their travels to Africa, shared stories of the Ugandan university students around whom the script is based, and introduced two of their star actors, Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson.
Three plays in development will debut with pay-what-you-can performances this weekend at the Vineyard Arts Project in Edgartown. Each play runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday, in a rotating schedule so viewers can see three different plays in one day, or one each day, or any other combination.
Children’s Theatre
Island Theatre Workshop’s Children’s Theatre summer program opens for the season on Monday, June 28, at the Sailing Camp Park on the Lagoon in Oak Bluffs. There will be four two-week sessions for ages 6 to 18 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Nurturing self-expression with immersion in voice, movement and acting training in a unique and supportive environment, students rehearse and perform an original play at the end of each session, with the support and guidance of experienced staff.