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By NICOLA SMITH

JAG Productions, the White River Junction theater company that has championed the work of Black, queer and trans artists, announced last week that it is closing in June after eight years of bringing groundbreaking work to the Upper Valley.Jarvis...

By ALEX HANSON

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — In its relatively short history, We the People Theatre has specialized in sweeping musical theater projects, starting with productions of “1776” and “Working.” The coronavirus pandemic put an end to the company’s momentum,...

By ALEX HANSON

Like any art form, theater can carry a lot of ideological freight. Mercifully, sometimes it just entertains and amuses.And sometimes, it entertains so thoroughly that you forget everything but the present spectacle. That’s what Northern Stage’s...

By ALEX HANSON

Having spent untold hours in selectboard and city council meeting rooms around the Upper Valley, I’ve often joked that it would be more fun to write about the meetings held in them as if they were theater, rather than just the mostly humdrum work of...

By CAOIMHE MARKEY

Oscar Wilde wrote in his play “A Woman of No Importance” that “after a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” Replace “dinner” with “dessert,” and you’ve nailed down the sentiment of Shaker Bridge Theatre’s newest showpiece,...

By ALEX HANSON

HANOVER — During a rehearsal at Hanover High School a couple of weeks ago, a handful of young actors recited lines an Upper Valley audience wouldn’t expect to hear spoken on a high school stage.“That’s when I had my first panic attack.” “The scariest...

By ALEX HANSON

There is something humbling, and a bit exciting, about seeing one’s work turn into a period piece during one’s lifetime. It’s a reflection not on the work but on the pace of change.Thirty years ago, life was very different for LGBTQ Americans. “Don’t...

By CAOIMHE MARKEY

Ah, yes, “A Christmas Carol,” a quintessential wintertime tale that reminds us what the holidays are truly about: sending ghosts to guilt trip your mean relatives into coming to dinner.This season, Northern Stage debuts a fresh take on Charles...

By ALEX HANSON

The lights come up on a man alone in a small apartment. Dressed in a T-shirt and tracksuit pants, he’s young and on edge, checking the television and messing with his laptop and a balky router. Given the state of the world, he could be anywhere,...

By ALEX HANSON

At 7 on Friday evening, a group of six would-be playwrights will receive writing prompts and then spend the night in the library at Thetford Academy, churning out short plays.At 5 the next morning, they’ll hand off their finished plays to directors,...

By CAOIMHE MARKEY

CHELSEA — On Monday afternoon, nestled in a humble copse of trees to take advantage of a brief spell of good weather, campers in the Chelsea “Get Thee To The Funnery” Shakespeare Program were running lines. The annual two-week summer camp for kids...

By CAOIMHE MARKEY

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Before I attended Friday’s performance of “Sense and Sensibility,” the closing show of Northern Stage’s 25th anniversary season, I refreshed my memory of the story by watching Ang Lee’s faithful 1995 film adaptation, starring...

By ALEX HANSON

Dancer and choreographer Lucia Gagliardone grew up hearing stories about her paternal grandmother, Margaret, who died before Lucia was born. Like many 20th-century Margarets, she was known as Peggy, and to young Lucia she was “Angel Peg.” “Everyone...

By ALEX HANSON

During her upbringing in the Netherlands, Ria Blaas didn’t have Bertolt Brecht on her reading list.Come to think of it, who does? Even among theater aficionados, Brecht seldom rises to the top of the list when a season series is assembled.“He’s not...

By ALEX HANSON

The late Joan Didion published hundreds of thousands of words but is likely still best known for a single short sentence: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” The weight of that line varies depending on the circumstances of the storyteller....

By ALEX HANSON

Before he founded Shaker Bridge Theatre, in 2007, Bill Coons had picked out the sailboat on which he planned to retire.Instead, he put his retirement money into starting a small theater company, from which he didn’t draw a paycheck for the first five...

By ERIC SUTPHIN

It’s 2008 and a tough but caring parole officer named Evan (played by Greg Alvarez Reid) meets with two recent parolees. Chris (Christopher B. Portley) is a mild mannered young Black man who once aspired to study education in college. Jason (Robert...

By LUKAS DUNFORD

Renowned essayist John D’Agata’s new piece is set to move the world. Its 15 pages portray the life and death of a Las Vegas boy who died by suicide. All it needs is a glance at the names and dates.Pushing against the weight of the world, fact-checking...

By LUKAS DUNFORD

Set in a professor’s office at an elite Northeast university, The Niceties displays racial and generational conflicts through a brave student and her pressure-hardened history professor. This play is not for the faint of pacemaker. Directed by Grant...

By DAN MACKIE

“The show must go on” is a tried-and-true slogan in show business, where all good things come to an end, and flops end even faster. For Dorothy Stanley, the shows have gone on and on. And there’s still more ahead. Stanley, now in her 60s and settled...