“Money can’t buy happiness,” the saying goes. Playwrights Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman convey this truism over three antics-filled acts in You Can’t Take It With You (1936).... Read more

Deep recession, rampant unemployment, disaffected youth — Road, staged this weekend by the Middlebury College Theatre Department, seems to feature ripped-from-the-headlines themes. But Jim Cartwright’s play doesn’t take place in Anytown, U.S.A., in 2009. These circumstances grip an unnamed town in the playwright’s native Lancashire, England, in 1986.... Read more

Attendance stats as low as zero — that’s as rocky a start as any performing arts group could have. Montpelier’s Tim Tavcar faced this two years ago when he founded WordStage, which brings together chamber music and staged readings around literary and historical themes. Audiences have warmed to Tavcar’s innovative scripts, however, and four shows are slated for the group’s third season.... Read more

Lyric Theatre has earned a reputation over the past 35 years for serving up family-friendly entertainment. The company’s new show, a raunchy romp about male nudity and shifting gender roles, should prove no exception.... Read more

Following last year’s run of her play Dreamtime — a fictional drama based on the 2001 murders of Dartmouth professors Half and Suzanne Zantop by Chelsea teens James Parker and Robert Tulloch — Vermont playwright Maura Campbell returns with another original work inspired by troubled youth.... Read more

10/24/09: Triptych Creations is the handiwork of special make-up FX artists Rebecca Reil and Sara Glasgow. Eva visits Triptych HQ to get shot through the face for the 4th Annual Burlington Zombie Walk. Get ready for a hefty serving of blood, guts and brainz.

Music: Aaron Reil, "Scratch Me"... Read more

Sometimes an innovative project starts with Hey, I have a crazy idea... Using an email with that opening line, Northern Stage artistic director Brooke Ciardelli got Emmy Award-winning music editor Roy Prendergast to compose an original score for her theater company’s production of Hamlet, which opens this week in White River Junction.... Read more

Many of us can say that music is one of the greatest joys in life, whether we prefer hip-hop or opera. But pursuing music professionally can be a grueling path. Classical musicians begin training as children. The few who have enough talent and grit to make it as pros face a lifetime of relentless rehearsal, travel and performance. These demands sometimes sap the passion that inspired the initial pursuit.... Read more

10/11/09: The 2nd Annual Giant Pumpkin Regatta transformed the Burlington Waterfront Sunday with crowds of cheering fans and a bevy of floating pumpkin vessels.  The money raised will go toward the Linking Learning to Life program called PILOT.... Read more

Even ardent Shakespeare fans would probably ’fess up that their initial childhood brush with the Bard was not love at first sight. He does run on a bit for young attention spans, and the archaic vocabulary feels forbidding. Despite the efforts of earnest English teachers, many of us had a tough time trying to understand, much less love, the scribe of Stratford until college or beyond.... Read more