Category: arts

Anderson gives 19th-century opera a sexy new twist

Posted on June 14, 2012 |

• Middlebury
• arts
• review
• Town Hall Theater

By Sue Small

I don’t know Doug Anderson that well but I learned something new about him this past Friday; he’s not afraid to take on a challenge. To stage a production of a complex opera written in the 19th century, about a repressed monk and a promiscuous courtesan from ancient Egypt, and make it appealing to a modern audience, takes vision and some serious nerve.

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College museum closes for plumbing work

Posted on June 7, 2012 |

• Middlebury
• arts
• Middlebury College

By Andrea Suozzo

MIDDLEBURY — This summer, those looking for art won’t find it at the Middlebury College Museum of Art.

The museum’s sprinkler and plumbing system is undergoing significant repair work, which began in May and will continue until August, said Douglas Perkins, operations manager for the museum.

The museum, which is housed in the Mahaney Center for the Arts, will reopen Sept. 4, and the main exhibit for the fall, “China Modern,” will go up Sept. 13.

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Tall tales welcome in Middlebury

Posted on May 31, 2012 |

• Middlebury
• arts
• events
• Featured
• storytelling

By John Flowers

MIDDLEBURY — Len Rowell well remembers the good ol’ days, when families or friends used to sit down and tell stories at the dinner table or around the proverbial potbellied stove at the local general store.

But the weaving of yarns, Rowell lamented, is fast fading from a society increasingly spoon-fed entertainment through televisions, computer monitors and even cell phones. Storytelling, especially for the younger generation, is now done in impersonal staccato through texts and tweets.

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Film documents a boys' rite of passage

Posted on May 10, 2012 |

• Middlebury
• arts
• Featured
• film

By Andrea Suozzo

MIDDLEBURY — Picture this: 12- and 13-year-old boys heading into the Catskill Mountains to tend a fire alone for 24 hours.

It might sound like a rite of passage from an earlier age, a challenge set for boys who might one day live on the animals they trapped or the edible plants they gathered.

This scene, though, takes place in August of 2009 and forms the central narrative of Peter Ferland’s documentary “Tending Fires,” which he will screen at Bridge School in Middlebury this Saturday at 7 p.m.

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