Curtains going UP!
February 3, 2025 | By Waterbury Roundabout
Local stages will be busy this month with productions spanning comedy and drama, fiction and non-fiction.
Mark your calendars for shows presented at the Grange Hall Cultural Center in Waterbury, the Valley Players Theater in Waitsfield, and Montpelier City Hall Arts Center.
New Stage Players poster image. Courtesy photo
Waterbury: An Evening of Comedy
At the Waterbury Center Grange Hall Cultural Center, the New Stage Players will present “The New Stage Play Festival 2025: An Evening of Comedy,” weekends Feb. 7-16.
The community is invited to enjoy local directors and performers in a variety of comedic storytelling to both lift audience spirit and raise funds for this new community theater group, the New Stage Players in Waterbury. Ten plays of comedy were chosen out of 330 that were submitted nationally from a call for new short plays.
The playwrights hail from Vermont, around the United States, and Australia. Local directors Jeanne Beckwith, Louis Bronson, Monica Callan, Paul Cavaliere, Bob Carmody, and Stephanie Seng are heading up these original plays. Content is PG-13 (some language).
Local actors are: Rick Boyle, Dan Comeau, Kohl Comtess, Ramona Godfrey, Chris Hagdis, Jacquelyn Kelleher, David Klein, Clarke Jordan, David Lagala, Evan Lewis, Jennifer McCabe, Dennis McSorley, Fred Patchen, Cynthia Seckler, Mo Seivwright, Mary Scripps, Augie Stevens, Lila Stratton, Meredith Vaughn, Janice Gohm Webster, and Mary Woodruff performing the roles. Silas Vaughn will be the festival’s emcee.
Showtimes: Feb. 7-16, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 suggested donation, or on a pay-as-you-can basis. Buy online in advance at: sevendaystickets.com. Seating is limited, so reservations are appreciated.
For information, call 802-244-4168 or email info.acrossroads@gmail.com.
The Grange Hall Cultural Center is located at 317 Howard Avenue, Waterbury Center.
Waitsfield: ‘Wake Up, Gloucester’
Valley Players cast members Stefanie Seng, Susan Loynd and Sarah DeBouter work at the bar in a scene from 'Wake Up, Gloucester.' Photo by Doug Bergstein
The Valley Players present a world premiere staged reading of “Wake Up, Gloucester” by Jeanne Beckwith also on weekends, Feb. 7-16, at the Valley Players Theater.
This fully staged reading where actors will appear in costume on set with scripts, will be directed by Doug Bergstein from Waitsfield.
“There is nothing like creating a new production,” Bergstein said. “We get to take the playwright’s words and create a world with a group of people that has never been seen by anyone before.”
The story takes place in late August 1939 and deals with the lives, hopes, loves, and fears of a group of people who come together at The Dancing Duck, a tavern in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The depression is ending, but dreams that have been on hold still seem beyond reach. Rumors of a war abroad are coming closer to home every day. The owner of the tavern is starting up a new radio station attached to the tavern. His friends, who are also his employees and customers, are supportive, but life is complicated. The future seems cloudy, and there just might be a sea serpent off the coast.
Cast members Sarah DeBouter, Stefanie Seng, and Hunter Hague rehearse a scene from The Valley Players' 'Wake Up, Gloucester,' on stage Feb. 7-16. Photo by Doug Bergstein
Danielle Dukette and Victor Guadago have a chat in a scene from The Valley Players presentatin, 'Wake Up, Gloucester,' Feb. 7-16. Photo by Doug Bergstein
In addition to Bergstein, the cast includes Sarah DeBouter from Berlin, Susan Loynd and Danielle Dukette from Fayston, Hunter Hague of Williamstown, Maeve McCurdy and Vic Guadagno from Montpelier and Stefanie Seng of Waterbury. This will be the first Valley Players show for Hague, McCurdy and Guadagno.
Showtimes: 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $14 for all shows available in advance online at valleyplayers.com.
The Valley Players Theater is located at 4254 Main Street (Rt. 100), in Waitsfield.
Montpelier: ‘The Vagina Monologues’
The cast of Lost Nation Theater’s upcoming run of “The Vagina Monologues.” Courtesy photo
Lost Nation Theater presents “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler, on Wednesday and Thursday, February 12-13, to benefit Mosaic Vermont, Central Vermont's service organization for survivors of sexual violence. Now nearly 30 years old, the show remains sadly relevant.
The award-winning professional theater company will share a staged reading of this hilarious and heartwarming play that gives voice to a chorus of powerful, lusty, outrageous, poignant, and thoroughly human stories. Ensler takes audiences into “the forbidden zone” leaving all forever changed.
The performances start at 7 p.m. and run approximately 75 min. without an intermission. The show is recommended for mature audiences of all genders. Lost Nation Theater encourages audience members to wear masks in addition to the theater’s air purification system.
Since summer 2023, the elevator at Montpeler’s City Hall has been inoperable, requiring climbing stairs to attend shows in person in the theater space. The play will be streamed to make the show accessible to those unable to physically join.
Tickets: By donation, $12-44 recommended. Tickets and more information online at lostnationtheater.org. Montpelier City Hall Arts Center is located at 39 Main St., Montpelier.