BarnArts begins Feb. 9 with “Brighton Beach Memoirs”

BARNARD— BarnArts Center for the Arts announces a full 2018 calendar to celebrate seven years of community-based arts programming. BarnArts will stage a series of musical and community events including four theater productions, two of which will be in new venues for the organization: The Grange Theatre and Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre.
First up and currently in rehearsals is Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” being performed at the Grange Theatre Feb. 9-11 and 16-18. This pre-WW2 tale is Neal Simon’s most autobiographical play and arguably his finest. The hectic and struggling household on Brighton Beach includes a mixed family of cousins and aunts and one overworked father, Jack Jerome, played by M. Carl Kaufman. His wife Kate, played by Darby Herbert, rules the house and her sister Blanche, played by Mairin Keleher, and sons Eugene and Stanley, played by WUHS students Toby Borzekowski and Brandon Schwartz. The house is further complicated and busy with Blanche’s daughters Nora and Laurie, played by Dory Psomas and Anya Traudt.
The second theatrical production of the year will be a June open air production of Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here” to be done in conjunction with local filmmaker Teo Zagar’s production of his documentary, “It Happened Here,” about Lewis and Dorothy Thompson’s life and work in Barnard in the 1930s.
July always brings BarnArts pride and joy, the BarnArts’ Summer Youth Theater, which will this year step into the wacky and sophisticated world of Monty Python with “Spamalot,” school edition. This will be the seventh year of this full theatrical experience for local youth, which in three weeks rehearses and choreographs a full stage musical with original set and costuming. Camp dates are July 18-Aug. 5 with performances Aug 3-5.
BarnArts fourth theater event of the year will be the largest event: a community production of the Broadway sensation “The Producers” by Mel Brooks on Oct. 12-21. This will be BarnArts’ first large scale community musical at the Town Hall Theatre, a welcome opportunity for local singers and dancers.
The musical highlights of BarnArts’ 2018 season include the Masquerade Jazz & Funk Winter Music Carnival on March 10 and Music on the Farm, BarnArts’ music series held at Feast & Field in Barnard.
Other BarnArts events include a community contra dance and potluck, Friday, March 30 at the Barnard Town Hall; the Race Around the Lake 5k and 10k fundraiser for BarnArts youth programming on Sunday, May 20 at Silver Lake State Park; and an upcoming spring chorale project with conductor Michael Zsoldos, still in the planning stages.
For more information on any of these events, visit barnarts.org or call 802-234-1645.