Continuing Aug. 23-26

Dorset presents ‘Deathtrap’ to end season

DORSET -- The Dorset Theatre Festival concludes its 2012 season with their popular Murder and Mayhem Series featuring "Deathtrap" by Ira Levin, directed by Giovanna Sardelli and running through Sept. 1,

The play, which was also made into a film, holds the record for the longest running comedy-thriller on Broadway and was recently revived to rave reviews and sold-out crowds on London’s West End.

Playing the role of Sidney is Jonathan Walker who has appeared on Broadway in "20th Century" and "After the Fall," as well as on TV in such hits as "Pan Am," "The Good Wife" and "The Big C." Sidney’s wife Myra will be played by Amelia White who recently appeared on the DTF stage in this summer’s hit production of "Boeing-Boeing." Quincy Dunn-Baker stars as the young writer Clifford Anderson.

The Dorset Playhouse is located at 104 Cheney Road in Dorset. For information and tickets call 802-867-2223 or visit dorsettheatrefestival.org. Friday, Aug. 24

Immune Friction leads free Town Hall concert

BENNINGTON -- The Friday night free Town Hall Concert Series will feature local band Immune Friction, with Justine Curry, with special guests Ben Mackin and Casey Meyer, Friday, Aug. 24, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in front of the Bennington Town Hall.

The Friday night Town Hall music series concludes Aug. 31, also from 6 to 8 p.m., with the band Through Seasons. On Sept. 8, a season finale "Music Festival" is planned at parking lot of TJ’s Fish Fry. Both are free and open to the public

For information call 802-442-9169.

Supplied photo

Immune Friction will be on stage Friday as part of the free Town Hall Concert series.

Saturday, Aug. 25

VAM’s Small Gallery hosts Berta Burr paintings

CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. -- The Valley Artisans Market’s "Small Gallery" will host a free and open to the public exhibit opening reception of "Studies and Contemplations," oil paintings by Berta Burr, on Saturday, Aug. 25, from 3 to 6 p.m. The show opens Friday, Aug. 24, and will run through Tuesday, Sept. 18.

In this show of paintings, according to supplied material, closely related tonalities are used to create a sense of atmosphere. The goal is for works that meet traditional standards and address a contemporary vision. By working in a highly resolved style, Burr said that she hopes to show her respect for both her materials and her audience.

Burr’s career began as a decorator of harpsichords made by her husband, Walter Burr. This experience, she said, gave her an insight into materials and techniques of the 17th and 18th centuries that has been a leading influence on her work. She and her husband are long time residents of Hoosick, N.Y.

The Valley Artisans Market’s is located at 25 East Main St. (Route 372). For information call 518-677-2765.

Supplied photo of artwork

Oil painting by Berta Burr.

Oldcastle Theatre Company plans cabaret fundraiser

BENNINGTON -- The Oldcastle Theatre Company’s summer cabaret fundraiser, as originally planned, on Aug. 25, beginning at 6 p.m., at their new downtown location at 331 Main St.

The Oldcastle event, "Oldcastle Celebrates Downtown!", will be a celebration of Oldcastle’s new home as well as a fundraiser for Oldcastle’s theatrical season and educational programs. The evening will begin cocktails with pub fare, a live auction with wine, and a silent auction with items donated by many local businesses.

The cabaret will include performances by Oldcastle regulars and friends, including Richard Howe, Kim Turner, Peter Langstaff, Evita Cobo, Meredith McCaslind, and Liz Stott, among others.

Tickets are $50.00 each or two tickets can be purchased for $90 if bought before the event by calling Oldcastle at 802-447-0564, or by purchasing them at the Bennington Bookshop.

Leo Yucht Quartet jazz concert at VAE

NORTH BENNINGTON -- The Vermont Arts Exchange will host a night of jazz with The Leo Yucht Quartet, featuring Yucht on percussion, Elyas O’Classen, on bass, Issac Roberts on trumpet and Chris Keyes on marimba, on Saturday, Aug. 25, at 8 p.m.

The doors open at 7 p.m., on the basement stage at the Sage Street Mill (although not part of VAE’s Basement Music Series).

The set list will include a wide range of jazz, from classic standards to contemporary originals.

Tickets are $10, $5 for students. For information call 802-442-5549 or visit vtartxchange.org

BCA hosts young piano master Melemed

BENNINGTON -- The Bennington Center for the Arts host 16-year-old pianist Mackenzie Melemed, of Boston, Mass., who stunned a BCA audience in 2011 and will return for an encore performance Saturday, Aug. 25, at 8 p.m. On Saturday, Melemed will perform works by Bach, Beethove, Chopin followed by Rachmaninoff, Lutoslawski and Dorman.

Melemed has performed at the White House multiple times, and has participated in the PBS television show "From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall." He began playing the piano at the age of four and began classical training at the age of ten. Since 2000, he has performed more than 600 concerts with a highlight being a request to perform for President George W. Bush at a fundraiser in Boston in early 2004. Subsequently, he was asked to perform traditional holiday music at the White House Holiday Open House. He performed there for five consecutive years. In subsequent years he has won numerous awards and been the youngest winner or finalist in many of the most impressive competitions in the country.

"The Bennington" Center for the Arts is located on Route 9 West, just past Old Bennington. Concert tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. For information call 802-442-7158 or visit TheBennington.org

Sunday, Aug. 26

Museum changes date of Farm to Table event

BENNINGTON -- The Bennington Museum has rescheduled its annual Farm to Table Benefit Dinner, a benefit for the Museum and the Bennington County Meals on Wheels Program, and it will now take place on Sunday, Aug. 26, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

To avoid what was originally having both the Oldcastle Theatre Company’s summer cabaret fundraiser and Bennington Museum’s Farm to Table dinner event occur on the same evening, the Museum moved its event to the next day.

The gastronomical adventure, according to the Museum, is a Tuscan-inspired, elegantly casual, seven-course tasting dinner that showcases dishes prepared from the bounty of farm fresh foods from our region and available from the many local farmers represented at the Walloomsac Farmers’ Market, Bennington. The dinner will be accompanied with fine wines. Introductory remarks will be given by Ellen Ecker Ogden, author of "The Complete Kitchen Garden" from which many of the evening’s recipes are taken. Tickets for the Farm to Table Dinner are $75, and reservations are requested by Aug. 20, by calling 802-447-1571.

The Museum also announced that if patrons purchase tickets to both the Oldcastle fundraiser and the Museum’s benefit, the price for the Museum dinner on Sunday will be $50, instead of $75. The difference will be covered by the anonymous donation allowing the museum still to benefit the full $75 ticket price, according to the Museum.

For information visit benningtonmuseum.org.

Through Aug. 30

Canfield Gallery hosts opening of Johnston’s paintings

ARLINGTON -- The Canfield Gallery at the Martha Canfield Library hosts an solo exhibition of oil paintints by local artist Lydia Johnston, titled "Seduced By Color," through Aug. 30.

For this exhibit, Johnston will be showing paintings from a number of her recent series. There will be some of her "Sky Sonata" paintings, flower paintings from the "Garden of Desire" series, and a number of her newest more abstract landscapes. The common theme running through all of these paintings is her use of color.

The Martha Canfield Library is located at 528 E. Arlington Road. For information call 802-375-6153 or visit marthacanfieldlibrary.org.

Through Aug. 31

Gardenworks opens mother, daughter ‘Points of View’ exhibit

SALEM, N.Y. -- Gardenworks hosts an opening reception for "Points of View, an exhibit of new works by mother-daughter artists Virginia and Annie McNeice and their friend, Helen Young, on Sunday, Aug. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m.,

The reception and the gallery is free and open to the public.

Virginia McNeice’s work in oil and pastel is inspired by nature. Born in New York City, McNeice attended Pratt Institute of Art and has studied at the Art Student’s League, SUNY Albany, Skidmore College and the Vermont Studio Center. She lives and works on an old farm in Cambridge. Annie McNeice studied art at the College of St. Rose in Albany. She creates pastels and oil paintings of landscapes. She is a teacher of high school art at Mount Anthony in Bennington, she has shown her work at the Valley Artisans Market and Bean Heads in Cambridge. A Ukranian born in Siberia, Young emigrated with her parents to the United States in 1950. She grew up in upstate New York and received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Syracuse University in Syracuse. She paints landscapes and still lifes.

Gardenworks is a located on Route 30 (also West Broadway). For information call 518-854-3250 or visit gardenworksfarm.com.

Sept. 15-16

Quilt Festival coming to Mt. Anthony Middle School

BENNINGTON -- The Quiet Valley Quilters’ Guild presents its 19th annual quilt show, The Bennington Quiltfest 2012, Sept. 15-16, at the Mount Anthony Middle School.

The show will have many quilts; new, vintage, challenge and special exhibit, also, demonstrations, consignments, and, specially featured quilter, George Siciliano. The Guild will raffle a queen sized quilt, "Autumn in Vermont," which was made by its members.

Mount Anthony Middle School is located at 747 East Road. For information call 802-823-4631 or visit benningtonquiltfest.com.

Through Sept. 15

Dorset Green hosts Vermont art, artists ‘Then and Now’

DORSET -- The Dorset Green Gallery is currently hosting "Vermont Artists Then & Dorset Artists Now," a show of artists who once and still worked in Vermont, through Sept. 15.

"Vermont Artists Then" features the work of artists no longer alive who were active in Vermont mainly through the end of the 20th Century. A special tribute is being paid to Virginia Webb, a longtime Manchester resident and contributing artist to both the Southern Vermont Arts Center and the community at large. The show also presents a broad selection of illustration, including work by Saturday Evening Post artists Meade Scheaffer, John Clymer and Norman Rockwell, as well as Churchill Ettinger.

"Dorset Artists Now" features the work of artists who currently live and work in Dorset.

For information call 802-366-0590.

Through Sept. 22

VAE hosts exhibit of Traci Molloy’s images

NORTH BENNINGTON -- The Vermont Arts Exchange continues its exhibit of "There You Will Always Be," an exhibition of the works of Brooklyn-based artist Traci Molloy -- a native of Shaftsbury who returns to Southern Vermont for a showing of works with deep ties to the region and her experiences here -- on view through Sept. 22.

At the heart of "There You Will Always Be" is a series of six large (30"x42" up to 40"x90"), unframed images from Molloy’s evocative "White Dandelion" series. Other recent work is also on view. The underlying photos of the "White Dandelions" images were taken during her tenure working and coaching at Mount Anthony Union High School (1992-94).

For information call 802-442-5549 or visit vtartxchange.org.

Through Sept. 23

BCA hosts Laumeister Fine Art Competition winners

BENNINGTON -- The Bennington Center for the Arts is currently featuring the winners of the Laumeister Fine Art Competition -- led by the moody, translucent first prize winning work, "Foggy Evening, Brooklyn," a night scene of the Brooklyn Bridge, by Michael Budden of New Jersey -- through Sept. 23.

This year’s juror, Scott Christensen, is one of the most highly respected landscape artists in the country, Second Place in the competition went is "Alone in Warsaw," by William Schneider of Illinois; "Awaiting the Decision," by Jonathan Stasko of New York, received Third Place. Christensen also awarded two Honorable Mentions, to Betsy Arvidson of New York City and Jennifer Hoffman of Jackson, Wyoming.

The show includes still lifes, landscapes and portraits and florals, interpreted in many a variety of ways. There is a male figure done in sepia while across the gallery is a very soft portrait of a little girl that appears to be out of a dream. A very tight oil painting of a rock formation in Utah, a serene landscape of a New England hillside and a vibrant portrayal of Acadia National Park contrast and compare. The exhbit can also be viewed online.

"The Bennington" Center for the Arts is located on Route 9 West, just past Old Bennington. For information call 802-442-7158 or visit TheBennington.org

Friday, Sept. 28

Williams art museum hosts ‘Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series’

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Williams College Museum of Art last week opened its show "Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series" -- the first time the Greenheads series, created between 1996 and 2005, will be shown as a comprehensive body of work -- and it is on view through Nov. 25. The museum is free and open to the public.

The exhibit will be part of the museum’s new season celebration, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. There will also be a gallery conversation on "The Greenheads Series," on Thursday, Nov. 15, at 4:30 p.m.

The figures inhabiting Ali’s works -- the Greenheads -- are, according to supplied material, "enigmatic round-headed beings of indeterminate sex and race who inhabit a regimented, dystopian world where odd and menacing, though sometimes strangely humorous, encounters prevail."

The Williams College Museum of Art is located on Main Street. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For information call 413-597-2429 or wcma.williams.edu.

Through Oct. 20

Museum hosts USS Bennington exhibit

BENNINGTON -- The Bennington Museum, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the construction of the USS Bennington (CVA-20), currently has an exhibit of items commemorating the early period of this ship’s history and reflecting the community on board, on display in the orientation gallery. The exhibit will be on display through Oct. 20.

The exhibit is curated by Blair L. Williams, intern in the collection department of the museum. As an unofficial repository, the museum maintains in its collection a number of archival and manuscript documents relating to the USS Bennington

Since being launched in 1944, the USS Bennington and the town of Bennington have formed a close relationship. The ship’s bell currently resides outside the town offices in recognition of the relationship the town holds with the ship.

Bennington Museum is located at 75 Main St. Regular admission is $10, $9 for seniors and students over 18. Admission is free for younger students or to visit the museum shop. For information call 802-447-1571 or visit benningtonmuseum.org

Through Oct. 30

Bennington Museum hosts Rockwell Kent’s ‘Egypt’

BENNINGTON -- The Bennington Museum’s featured summer exhibit, "Rockwell Kent’s ‘Egypt’: Shadow and Light in Vermont" -- first exhibit to focus on Kent’s life and work in Vermont, 1919-1925 -- continues on view through Oct. 30.

Kent purchased a hill farm called "Egypt" on the slopes of Red Mountain in Arlington, 20 miles north of Bennington, in the spring of 1919. There, he made use of the landscape, the mountains and valleys of the Green Mountains, to create a series of powerful paintings including "Autumn" and "Nirvana." These, along with over 50 works of this artist, including many rarely seen paintings created in Vermont, prints and drawings are on view in this exhibit.

A focused examination of the artist’s time in Vermont, according to a museum press release, "uncovers a complex, psychologically probing body of work that indicates an artist who found much inspiration in both the awe-inspiring physical landscape that surrounded him at "Egypt" and in his own internal musings on life, death, and man’s place in the world.

The Bennington Museum is located at 75 Main St. (Route 9). It is open Thursday through Tuesday, and every day July through October, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students over 18; younger students are free, as is a visit the museum shop. For information call 802-447-1571 or visit benningtonmuseum.org.

To have brief items included in E-Week entertainment calendar send them to knorris@benningtonbanner.com.