Morse with Ken
at The Music Hall’s Treasure the Future campaign announcement party 2/27. More party pics inside!
Umalali singers mingle with Womenaid board members at a pre-show reception 2/19.
School Days Series: A preview of our 16th season! See page 4.
www.gregwestphotography.com
Intimately Yours Introduces:
AN EVENING OF BLUES & AFRO POP: TOSHI REAGON and BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA
Thursday, April 1 • 7:30pm • $25; $19
It’s a night of discovery! A double bill with Righteous Babe Records star Toshi Reagon, the soulful singer/songwriter who has been sharing stages with and drawing raves from Elvis Costello to Lenny Kravitz. Bassekou Kouyate and his band, Ngoni Ba, was the sensation at the World Music Expo. PRI, NPR and the New York Times are all raving about this band, touring behind their new Subpop Records CD, I Speak Fula.
SERIES SPONSOR:
PAULA POUNDSTONE
Friday, April 9 • 8pm • $35; $28
It’s impossible to attend a Paula Poundstone performance without marveling at her ability to interact spontaneously with audience members in conversations bound to garner riotous laughter. Armed with nothing but a stool, a microphone and a can of Diet Pepsi, Paula’s ability to create humor on the spot has become the stuff of legend.
“a great comic…a disarming ease in her craft…quick on her feet” – BOSTON BLOBE
SPONSORS: Barbara Henry, Hampton NH; Carpe Diem Coffee Roasting Company; Dowling Corporation; Squamscott Press; TMS Architects; WSCA
on a
JODI PICOULT – SOLD OUT!
Wednesday, March 31 • 7:30pm
Signed Book: $25.50 in advance, $28 day of
MICHAEL LEWIS
Wednesday, April 7 • 7:30pm • $13
Signed Book: $25.15 in advance, $27.95 day of
The author of The Blind Side discusses his latest work of nonfiction, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, a character-rich and darkly humorous account of how the U.S. economy “was driven over the cliff” by a collection of financial professionals. Just as Michael Lewis’ past books cast light on the businesses of baseball, football, and investment banking and trading (1980s-style), The Big Short exposes today’s world of high finance – and financial collapse. Following a brief author presentation, Lewis will be interviewed by Jon Greenberg, once a Washington reporter at National Public Radio and now Executive Editor of NH Public Radio.
SERIES PARTNERS:
SERIES SPONSORS: Calypso Communications; New England Audio Tech; Piscataqua Landscaping Company, Inc.; Popovers & Galley Hatch Hospitality Group; RMC Research Corporation; Haunted Milk Design
NTLive@ The Music Hall: THE HABIT OF ART
Thursday, April 22 • 7pm $27.50; 18 & under $15
Following the huge success of The History Boys, Alan Bennett returns to the National with a new play that imagines a meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten. Alan Bennett, author/actor/humorist/playwright, in 1960, along with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook, achieved instant fame by appearing in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, with Richard Griffiths as W.H. Auden, Alex Jennings (Charles, Prince of Wales in The Queen) as Benjamin Britten and Frances de la Tour. “May well be the biggest London show of 2009.” Contains sexually explicit language.
5 STARS “a multi-layered masterpiece.” – INDEpENDENT
SERIES SPONSOR: Seatrade International, Inc.
Peek inside the contemporary & traditional homes of these historic seacoast towns in a benefit for The Music Hall.
Tickets: $20 for members in advance, $23 not yet members, $25 day of tour
Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, romantic anti-hero Bad Blake, a broken-down country music singer who’s had too many marriages, too many years on the road and one too many drinks. As he struggles down the road of redemption with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist, Bad learns just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.
“It’s one of the year’s best, most deeply felt films.” – NEW YORK POST
THE WHITE RIBBON
RaT ed R • 144mi N • G e R ma NY • 4/11 - 4/14 daily @ 7pm • 3:30pm matinee 4/11 • discussion follows 4/13 show
Controversy-courting director Michael Haneke (Cache) earned the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2009 for this arresting drama set just before World War I. In a small German village, a number of unexplained accidents beset the schoolchildren and their parents. Though they at first appear coincidental, it begins to seem that they are not, in fact, accidents at all. In German with subtitles “among the most luminous and painterly of black-and-white films, what’s portrayed will shock or numb you.”
– TIME MAGAZINE
MY NAME IS KHAN
R aT ed PG-13 • 124mi N • i N dia • 4/16 - 4/19 daily @ 7pm • 4/20 @ 7:30pm • No show 4/17
Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that complicates socialization. Rizwan marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who mistake his disability for suspicious behavior. Rizwan then begins a journey to meet US President Obama to clear his name.
“An affecting fairy tale about the perils of goodness.” – NEW YORK TIMES
KIDS RULE! MOVIE: FANTASTIC MR. FOX
RaT ed PG • 87mi N • US a • 4/18 @ 2pm • 1 Show Only!
With this animated adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic, director Wes Anderson moves from quirky films for adults, such as The Darjeeling Limited and The Royal Tenenbaums, to imaginative children’s fare, reuniting with previous collaborators Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett, and it marking his first work with Oscar winner George Clooney. (Rated PG for action, smoking and slang humor.)
“Life is full of surprises. The best one I’ve had in a good while is Fantastic Mr. Fox.” – WALL STREET JOURNAL
In 2004, two-year-old Rowan Isaacson was diagnosed with autism. The charming, animated boy suddenly ceased to say the few words he had accrued over the previous year. In 2007, Rowan’s parents took him to Mongolia, journeying on horseback from healer to healer, shaman to shaman, across the wide Steppe, and up into the forests of Siberia. A stunning documentary followed by an expert panel discussion.
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger, a member of the powerful Vanger clan disappeared. Her body was never found, yet her beloved uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is in his own tightly knit, but dysfunctional family. He employs a disgraced financial journalist and a tattooed, troubled, but resourceful computer hacker to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. In Swedish with subtitles.
“dark vitality fuels this cold case in the cold north of Sweden.” – HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
AJAMI
NOT RaT ed • 120mi N • G e R ma NY • 5/1 - 5/4 daily @ 7pm • No show 5/5 • 5/6 @ 7:30pm
The debut from Israeli and Palestinian co-directors Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti, whose location filming, use of nonprofessional actors and balanced perspective lend authenticity to a complex, cross-cultural drama set in Jaffa’s multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood, home to Jews, Muslims and Christians. The repercussions of a revenge killing reveal the cultural and religious tensions simmering beneath the surface. In Arabic & Hebrew with subtitles.
“You emerge from Ajami moved and also grateful for the heart, craft and intelligence the movie has shown” – NEW YORK TIMES
ARMIDA (ROSSINI) • Sunday, May 2 • 1pm (delayed broadcast) • $27.50; 18 & under $15
This story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers, including Gluck, Haydn, and Dvorák. Renée Fleming stars opposite no fewer than six tenors.
SPONSORS: Rudi’s Portsmouth; Tate + Foss Sotheby’s International Realty
THe meT SeRieS SPONSORS: avery insurance; Classical 99.5 Boston THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO NOT
at
20 Seacoast photographers. 20 slides each. 400 photographs. One night. Thursday, April 29 • 5-7pm Bar opens at 5pm, show begins at 5:30
In a one-night-only show, 20/20 brings into focus the thriving art of photography in the Seacoast. For this extra-special event, we’ve assembled 20 of the best photographers in the region and asked them to select 20 of their favorite Seacoast-centric images to show on six big screens in The Music Hall lounge. The result – a massive digital slide show, and probably the largest photography exhibition Portsmouth has ever seen. Featuring work by Rich Beauchesne, Emily Brackett, Abbie Chislett, phil Cohen, Deb Cram, Alexandra de Steiguer, Jennifer Goolkasian, Nancy Horton, Nick Lavecchia, Erin Molloy, Ralph Morang, David Murray, Michael penney, Jay Reiter, Bill Truslow, Jamie Wade, Greg West, Michael Winters, Scott Yates and Marianne pernold Young.
$2 cover charge (members free) SPONSOR:
The public announcement celebration of the Treasure the Future campaign was held in raw space at 131 Congress Street which will become the Loft – the Center for Performing Arts and Education. The 200 guests included donors to the Treasure the Future campaign and Music Hall supporters. Specially selected music for the evening provided by Ben Baldwin & Friends, flowers by Jardinere, and food from Anneke Jans.
Funds raised will modernize the backstage to 21st century standards, extend historic finishes into the upper lobby and modernize the concession stand, upgrade the building’s façade, windows and streetscape, and raise The Music Hall’s first endowment. The campaign will also allow for the fit up of the Congress Street space to be used for educational programs, performances, films and administrative offices.
photos: David Murray/Clear Eye photo; Marianne pernold Young
by MARGARET TALCOTT, Director of Strategic Communications
The Loft is already living up to its mission as a center for education. In one recent week, national, state and local experts gathered there for in-depth discussions on economic development and the arts.
Following on the 2/26 symposium “Performing Arts Centers as Economic Engines” (reported in March NOW), the nonprofit organization Leadership Seacoast hosted a 3/3 session “What Makes a Strong Economy and Community on the Seacoast.” On the dais were George Bald, Commissioner, NH Department of Resources and Economic Development; Doug Bates, President, Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce; Nancy Carmer, Economic Development Program Manager, City of Portsmouth; Mary Ellen Jackson, Executive Director, NH Center for Nonprofits; and The Music Hall’s Executive Director Patricia Lynch.
The top ten “takeaways” from both sessions:
• The strength of a state (NH, ME, VT) is in the strength of its communities. Good communities make good states.
• What makes a community successful: its capacity to create wealth and also social capital. A community needs to renew itself again and again to be healthy. We should continually ask ourselves, What type of community do we want?
• 58,000 people come into Portsmouth each day,
and greater infrastructure is needed to support them. With new projects and new axes of growth (Northern Tier, Congress Street), more public space is being created, boosting quality of life.
• Portsmouth has the ingredients, the “recipe,” to make it a success in the model of Santa Fe, NM, and Austin, TX: independent businesses, arts and culture, attention to natural assets/physical beauty, care for preservation, interest in sustainability, unique foodways, and art and architecture.
• We’re now in a do-it-yourself culture. Demand for arts education and participation is way up.
• Cultural organizations illuminate meaning at the intersection of American life by engaging people in experiences that connect, heal and sustain communities.
• We need to “privilege risk” – take a chance. We need to make a new history, advancing Portsmouth to a new golden age.
• The story of Portsmouth and The Music Hall is inspirational to other communities around the nation.
• To date, The Music Hall has thrived because of private investment for public purposes. Individuals throughout the Seacoast are interested in what happens to their community and invest in it.
“When the Treasure the Future campaign is completed, the opportunities for education for all ages will be boundless.”
• The Music Hall was first built in 1878 and then saved in the late 1980s through private investments. The Treasure the Future campaign continues that tradition, but with a larger pool of visionary donors.
In thanking The Music Hall for the Loft space, Leadership Seacoast Executive Director Jennifer Wheeler said, “The Music Hall has been a tremendous asset to our program….their staff continuously share their expertise and services. Using the Loft space for discussion and debate was a highlight for our participants and alumni. We are grateful for The Music Hall’s continued partnership and leadership.” Truly, the work of the Loft began with these two educational community events. When the space is fit-up as a Center for Performing Arts and Education through newly-raised funds from the Treasure the Future campaign, the opportunities for education for all ages will be boundless.
Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 10am to 3pm. Our 19th Annual Kitchen Tour, a benefit for The Music Hall, takes place in Kittery and Kittery Point, Maine this year. With a range of kitchens from contemporary to traditional, there is something for everyone on this tour! Betsy Cole, an eight-year veteran as cochair of the Kitchen Tour committee, tells us “this year we have one of the most exquisite kitchens ever on the tour. Our patrons will love this one!”
Photographer Greg West (www.gregwestphotography.com) has been capturing the Kitchen Tour for years and has previewed a few of the kitchens on the Tour this year. “Visitors to this year’s Kitchen Tour will be privy to some exciting and contrasting kitchens. Down home cottage charm, and stunning views along the Piscataqua await you.”
What could be better than spending a spring day on the Seacoast, peeking into extraordinary kitchens and enjoying all that Kittery and Kittery Point have to offer? It’s best to buy your ticket early, as there is a discount on all tickets purchased before the day of the Tour. If you don’t already have tickets, you can pick them up at The Cranberry Bog in Hampton, Greater York Chamber of Commerce in York, Beach Pea in Kittery, and The Music Hall Box Office at 28 Chestnut Street in Portsmouth. Starting at 9:30am on the day of the tour, our ticket booth will also be set up in the lobby of GreenPages on Badger’s Island West, located right next to two of our kitchens on the tour.
Guidebooks and maps will be available the week before the tour. If you buy your tickets now, we will mail them out to you once they become available. On the day of the tour, with your book and map in hand, you’ll head out to venture into these lovely Seacoast homes. You will find a variety of restaurants featured on the map, all of which are fabulous places to grab a bite to eat.
“We are really fortunate to have so many wonderful people open their homes for us for the annual Music Hall Kitchen Tour. The kitchens are so diverse; some are sophisticated with all the newest equipment, while others seamlessly blend the old with the new. There are spacious kitchens and cozy kitchens and they are all wonderful. Some of us just dream about what we could do to our own kitchens while others actually take notes and make plans for real changes. It is a spectacular day and each year is unique and exciting,” says Ann Kendall.
Thank you to our presenting sponsors: Coastal Home Magazine; DeStefano Architects; Piscataqua Landscaping Company, Inc.; Portsmouth Blind & Shade; The Lighting Center at Rockingham Electric/The Harbor Lights; Stonewall Kitchen.
Our dedicated 2010 Kitchen Tour Committee, chaired by Ann Kendall and Betsy Cole, and including Cori McGrath, Kirsten Mahoney, Philip Marcus, Donna Lyn Tamaroff, Julia Madden, and Mary Horigan invite you to enjoy this great day out, all in support of The Music Hall.
$20.00 for members, $23.00 for not yet members, $25.00 for everyone on day of. For tickets call the Box Office at (603) 436-2400 or visit our website www.themusichall.org.
by LAUREN LENOX, Membership Manager
There are plenty of reasons to renew your Music Hall membership. Whether you like to buy tickets early, attend member parties, get free vouchers or just appreciate supporting the local arts, there is a membership level for you. This season we have managed to make the deal even sweeter by partnering with as many local merchants in the Seacoast area as possible to bring our members
more discounts than ever before…all you have to do is flash your membership card and you can save around town, from fine dining to bicycle shops and jewelry stores. If you aren’t already taking advantage of this great perk, visit our website for our ever-updating list of participating venues: www.themusichall.org/membership/discounts.asp.
Now we have a new member benefit for this upcoming season that all Met @ The Music Hall fans will love…
by CHRIS GREINER, box Office Manager
I’ve observed over the past few years as our Met @ The Music Hall shows have taken root and grown into one of our most popular series, that a great many Music Hall members are stalwart opera fans, loyally trekking to the theater on Saturday afternoons to ooh and ahh over the world class productions broadcast live from New York City. So I can only imagine they will be as excited as we are to find out that next season The Metropolitan Opera will be sending two more operas our way, including two-thirds of the legendary Ring cycle.
For our part, The Music Hall will now be offering –for the first time ever! – subscription seating at The Met @The Music Hall series. This means that Music Hall members interested in attending all the operas will be able to sit in the same seats every time.
A longstanding request from many of the opera buffs, subscription seating means that not only will members have the chance to get in early and purchase tickets before the public, but all they’ll have to do is simply choose the seat or seats they like best and we’ll make sure they have them for each and every Met show. Stay tuned for information about Members Only Subscription Sales dates.
Stay tuned! Met member on sale dates to be announced!
This new ticketing option rounds out the full-service experience of The Met @ The Music Hall, beginning with valet parking, available right at our doorstep, to the special café menu in the Founders Lobby complete with opera box lunches, beer, wine and cappuccino.
by CHRIS CURTIS, Film & Outreach Coordinator
Happy Birthday School Days Series!
We had a fun party celebrating the 15th year of educational live-theater for school groups and families this past January. Patricia Lynch, Therese LaGamma and I dressed as our favorite characters from The Wizard of Oz (also joined by the adorable and talented Mr. Buster – our Kids RULE! mascot – as Toto) and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ just before the January Kids RULE! Movie: you guessed it – The Wizard of Oz! We also threw the party to thank our SDS sponsors: Bank of America, Demoulas Foundation, French Foundation, Kohl’s, Morgan Stanley Foundation, Measured Progress, Inc., and Target!
Looking ahead to year 16, it’s about that time to reveal some of the titles which we are looking at for the 2010-11 School Days Series.
We the People: the Civics and Social Studies musical revue from TheatreworksUSA (pictured). The Berenstain Bears: Featuring The Berenstain Bears Learn about Strangers, The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food and The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble at School.
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, tells a tale of firsts: a stuffed animal’s first trip in the laundry, a little girl’s first words, and a Daddy’s first time dealing with his child going “boneless.”
Giggle Giggle Quack: This funny and colorful musical for young audiences teaches respect, compromise, and the value of friendship
Beakman on the Brain: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Brain but were thinking too much to ask!
There’s an Alligator Under My Bed: The Alligator under your bed, the Nightmare in your closet and the Thing in your attic become your best friends.
Duck for President: An all-new musical revue featuring mini-musicals based on best-selling children’s books!
And more…stay tuned for our new season brochure to be released this spring!