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INSIDE THE KINGDOM April 19, 2017 the Chronicle Section B – 20 Pages Hazen students preview Highland Center with abridged Shakespearian romp by Joseph Gresser GREENSBORO — The Highland Center for the Arts gave a sneak preview of its recently finished theater to local students and other community members on April 13. The occasion was an abridged production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream put on by students from Hazen Union High School in Hardwick. Leanne Harple, the theater arts teacher at the high school, shared directing credits with Eric Love, an actor and director who works as education director for Northern Stage, a professional theater company based in White River Junction. Ms. Harple said many of her actors had no stage experience before inaugurating the Highland Theater. At the second of their three performances, the performers had the benefit of a sympathetic audience made up of classmates from Hazen Union. They welcomed junior high students at the first show. The students were joined onstage by Mr. Love, who gave an over-the-top performance as Thisbe in the play-within-a-play that concludes the comedy. His antics were easily matched by those of Meghan Rublee, who played Bottom, a weaver who is transformed into a jackass by the Eric Love (kneeling) offers the audience a slice of premium ham as he stabs himself with a wooden sword at the mischievous sprite Puck (played by Raymonda conclusion of the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Meghan Parchment). Rublee, who played Bottom the Weaver as well as Pyramus, struggles to stay dead as her fellow player carries Ms. Parchment glided across the stage in on. Mr. Love took the role of Flute and Thisbe in the production at the last moment when one of the Hazen Union magical style aided by a pair of sneakers with student actors could not perform. He co-directed the production with Hazen drama teacher Leann Harple. wheels cunningly concealed in their heels. She Photos by Joseph Gresser was kept busy throughout the hour-and-a-half- long production doing the bidding of Oberon quartet of lovers, as its magic influence causes the production and their efforts were rewarded by (Lydia Wright), the king of the fairies. the two men to fall in love with the wrong the audience with laughter and applause. Oberon is not getting along with his wife, partners. As it is a comedy, the show ends with Hazen’s production drew its costuming and Titania (Brianna Hislop) and has Puck use a everyone properly matched and enjoying a music from the 1970s, but its simple set, created magic flower to get her to fall in love with hilarious tragedy enacted by Bottom and his by students working with Marc Considine, jackass Bottom. fellow amateur players. utilized a classic arch to represent Athens, the The same flower sows confusion among a Ms. Harple’s students put themselves fully into location of much of the play, and a thick nest of hanging streamers to indicate a forest. After the show, Mr. Love said his involvement with the show is part of his company’s Shakespeare in the Schools program. He said he has been doing similar work with students in the White River area, before being invited to bring the educational program to Hardwick. Valdine Hall, one of the small team that is managing the theater until the Highland Center can hire an executive director, said her organization believes it is important for local students to experience live performances of Shakespeare’s works. The theater will make its formal debut with a three-day celebration running from June 2 through June 4, but it opened early to present the school production, sponsored by the Highland Center in collaboration with Northern Stage. Highland signed an eight-month partnership deal with Northern Stage that, in addition to the Shakespeare in the Schools program, which concluded with the April 13 performances, will result in a full-scale production of the same Shakespeare comedy featuring a mix of local and professional actors. According to Ms. Hall, Northern Stage will help guide her and her colleagues at the new Cast members from the Hazen Union High School performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream gather on the theater as they learn the ropes of organizing and stage of the Highland Center for the Arts before a performance. The hall, which was inspired by Shakespeare’s presenting live arts events. Globe Theater, seats around 220 people, depending on how the stage is configured. (Continued on page 7B.) IN THIS WEEKLY SECTION, YOU’LL FIND: BIRTHS l WEDDINGS/ENGAGEMENTS l OBITUARIES l KINGDOM CALENDAR l CLASSIFIED ADS l RESTAURANTS & ENTERTAINMENT l REAL ESTATE & AUCTIONS l YOURS FROM THE PERIMETER l RUMINATIONS l AND MORE! Page 2B the Chronicle, April 19, 2017 Ruminations From wedding rings to tales of terror by Elizabeth Trail My daughter and her fiancé drove up from Boston for the weekend. We’re making their wedding rings. The original idea was for me to carve the delicate wax models to be cast in gold. That’s what I did for a living until the recession of 2009 drove gold prices through the roof and me out of business. So when Claire and Bryon got engaged, we agreed to dust off my now-rusty jewelry design skills one last time. The past few weeks we’ve ordered wax and tools for the project and tossed ideas back and forth by e-mail. An outdoor person, Claire wants rings that look like twining vines and leaves. They’ll be set with heirloom stones from a ring that belonged to Bryon’s great-grandmother. As busy as I am these days, making a weekend of it seemed like the best way of avoiding having the project get buried in my to-do list. But as we set up an impromptu workspace on the dining room table, Claire picked up a tool and some wax, and within a few minutes was on her way to creating her own design. She’s a natural. Claire Trail and Bryon Musante work on their wedding ring designs, part of a weekend of good food, good My children grew up playing with wax and all conversation, and family memories. Photo by Elizabeth Trail the associated tools. They earned pocket money straightening my wax drawers and doing inventory. truck, and clip the other end around a tree. Each I just prayed that the puppies wouldn’t wake Still, I was surprised at how much Claire had dog went out on a leash hanging down from one up and bark, and that the drunks wouldn’t see absorbed. Once she saw what she could do, it of the cables. Then I’d set up the puppy’s pen in their pen in the dark under the trees. was obvious that she and Bryon ought to make whatever shade I could find. Blessedly the puppies slept on, and their own rings. The first day heading out from California, I eventually the men gave up and wandered off. Claire twisted the vines, Bryon cut and stopped way too many times. So I was driving I must have set a world speed record for shaped the tiny leaves. I’ll do the technical work through a remote stretch of the Arizona desert rolling up those cables and loading gear and at the end, like smoothing seams and making the when night fell. puppies. In the dark, or in my panic, I missed little prongs to hold the stones. There was no one else in the campground one of the cables. It ripped a turnbuckle off the So that’s how we came to spend the weekend when I tied out the big dogs, put the puppies in camper as I pulled out of the parking area, but sitting around the dining table, chatting, eating, their pen to play, and cooked dinner, feeling quite we escaped to the open road and didn’t stop ’til and working on the ring designs. smug about the ingenuity of my arrangements. I’d put a hundred miles between us and that One night the conversation turned to the When I brought in the adult dogs for the campground. crazy things each of us has done that we’d never night, I noticed a distant campfire and heard the Thirty-five years later, it’s a funny story. It told our mothers about. It’s definitely a sign of indistinct murmur of voices and bursts of held its own with anything the kids had to tell. entering a new phase in the relationship with laughter. And while we were telling our stories and adult children when they are ready to tell all It seemed sort of comforting. working on the rings, we made cobbler with the those hair-raising stories. I decided to read a while, and since it was last of last year’s rhubarb, and maple baklava It’s a wonder anyone lives to grow up. stuffy in the camper, I left the sleeping puppies with the first of this year’s syrup. It probably wouldn’t be the best use of that outside in their pen a while longer. There’s only so much that four people could newfound trust to run straight to the newspaper In a movie, it would be time to cue the actually eat over a weekend, but that didn’t stop with those stories. Maybe 30 years from now. ominous music. The story line would be us from planning a month’s worth of treats we Besides, I’m not in any position to judge.

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