Salem News – Page 9 – Salem Main Streets

10 Minute Turnaround on Plays at STC

Jul 092014

Ten minutes to see a play. No, not 10 minutes to get there. We are talking about a play from start to finish, enter stage right to exit stage left. And not just one play, the Salem Theatre Company is producing seven such plays with its popular Moments of Play (MoP) festival of original ten-minute plays, Wednesday, July 9 through Sunday, July 13.

What makes these productions even more admirable is that the words come from New England playwrights. Over 200 plays are submitted each year. The festival also features directorial and STC acting debuts alongside STC “regulars.”

The seven 10-Minute Plays to be performed this year are:

Zeno’s Arrow by David Susman of Saco, ME,
The Accidents of Bread by William Orem of Newton, MA,
Baby, It’s Cold Outside! by Jeana Hackman Grady of Rockport, MA,
Crooked Fork by Jonathan Yukich of Hamden, CT,
Just Your Imagination by Lesley Anne Moreau of Allston, MA,
Triumphs of the Heart (Sphere) by Cassie Seinuk of Somerville, MA,
Video Death Chat by Libby Schap of Chelsea, MA

But that’s not the entire package of the Festival. On Saturday, July 12 at 7:30 p.m., three nationally recognized playwrights will gather on the STC stage to discuss and review the seven plays presented this year. The public is invited to this free event featuring Richard Dresser, Ronan Noone and Kate Snodgrass.

The seven selected plays for the Eighth Annual Play Festival will be presented Wednesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday & Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available online at www.salemtheatre.com. The STC Theater is located 90 Lafayette Street in downtown Salem.

Hoop Over to Salem Arts Festival

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Jun 072014

Photo Credit – Karen Scalia

You are now joining our program already in progress— if you are coming to Salem Ma. this Saturday or Sunday to participate in our annual Salem Arts Festival. But that’s ok. There are more than enough events and creative arts presenters to satisfy your viewing interests.

Now in its sixth year, the Salem Arts Festival boasts attendance numbers in the thousands and celebrates all the arts: painting, photography, sculpture, dance, music, writing, film, new media, performance, theatre, poetry, culinary, and more.

This year’s event also includes a street fair, plus live entertainment on two performance stages (located in Derby Square and on Artists’ Row).

One of the more colorful events, which already took place, but you can join in progress is

the HulaArt project. “Re-use of recycled materials to create diverse art expressions” is one way used to describe what essentially was the presence of “over four hundred hula hoops, a fifth of which were transformed into HulaArt, form a colorful canopy above Salem’s Artist Row.”

But true to this being a part of an Arts Festival, even the delivery and installation of the hoops to create the canopy was performance art. You can walk under the canopy of hoops. You can look up and marvel at the circles and shapes. And you can even try your hand (or waist) at hooping yourself.

We feel this is a great representation of our hopes for the Arts Festival, it is something you can participate in as well as just view.

Kylie Sullivan, Manager of Salem Main Streets comments “The amount of love, imagination, and hard work that has gone into the HulaArt is absolutely incredible, especially on the part of our partners at the Salem Public Space Project and the Phoenix School, in addition to our sponsors and the support of the City of Salem.

She adds “This project exemplifies so much of what we’re trying to accomplish with this year’s Arts Festival – collaboration, community, and transformation of space.”

No need to bring your own hoop, we have plenty to spare and share.

Salem State University and Salem Arts Festival

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Jun 022014

Ponyfish with Priscilla Swain, SSU ’10

Many partners contribute each year to the final production that we call the Salem Arts Festival. At Salem Main Streets we appreciate each and every one of them.

Steve Jones, SSU ’14

Take for example, Salem State University. Granted SSU is not part of Salem’s Downtown district, but it is an important part of Salem. During the academic year, its creative and performing arts departments present more than 100 events on campus, all open to the public. Karen Gahagan, Director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts at SSU explains, “This year dozens of Salem State visual and performing artists are bringing that creativity downtown and will be participating in the festival. They include students, faculty, staff and alumni from a range of artistic disciplines.”

Among the Salem State participants in this year ‘s festival which takes place June 6-8:

Aurora Borealis Dance Company

Aurora Borealis Dance Company is founded by Salem State dance student Katie Pustizzi. Katie is also a Presidential Arts Scholar at Salem State and was a 2014 Creativity Award winner, the highest honor Salem State bestows on a student in the arts;
Molly Pinto Madigan – Molly is a Salem State alum, class of 2013 and a 2013 SSU Creativity Award winner, in both creative writing and music. She might be providing some of her wonderful original music at the opening reception but have a chat with her about her newly published book, Black Apples: 18 New Fairytales;
YMCA Theatre Company – led by another Salem State Alum, Nicole Leotsakos ‘09, the Y’ s Performing Arts Director;
Only Human – is a musical about a small town, a movie star, humanity, death and pigs. Salem State connections include writer JD Scrimgeour (professor of English), director Peter Sampieri (professor of Theatre), musical director Karen Gahagan (Director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts), plus a cast packed with Salem State theatre students;
Chalk: A Play – This is a 10 minute play written by SSU English professor Michael Jaros, and starring SSU theatre alum Maryanne Truax ‘13 and current BFA theatre major James Wechsler, a 2014 SSU Creativity Award winner;
The Upstart Crows – a new classical theatre company based in Salem. Many of the actors are students or recent alum of Salem State University or Gordon College, as well as alumni of local theater strongholds Cry Innocent and Rebel Shakespeare. They will be performing Love’s Labour’s Lost on Salem Common each night of the festival;
Ponyfish is an acoustic trio that features Salem State alum Priscilla Swain ‘10;
Machine 475 – This group is a Salem mainstay and includes Richard Lewis, SSU professor of Art & Design, and Salem State alumni Danielle Meara ’11 and Jim Forrest ‘01
The Old Town Hall art exhibition includes works by Scott Dalrymple and Andrea Jenkins, current Salem State students and alum Steve Jones ’14, yet another SSU Creativity Award winner.

We think that Karen Gahagan put it nicely, “The Salem Arts Festival is now well-established and people recognize it as ‘our arts festival’ if one is part of the Salem community no matter what the relationship. The SAF also did an excellent job getting the call for artists out there this year which raised awareness. I think that people at Salem State and elsewhere have started to take notice of this festival and that more and more artists from all over the region will look to participate as it moves forward.”

Mark your calendar, June 6-8 downtown Salem, MA, and go Vikings!

Only Human: A Musical

Reaching Out to the Community After Tragic Fire

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May 072014

We discuss Salem fun activities and developments on a regular basis, but this time out, the spotlight falls on a tragic event involving an early morning house fire in our city.

In response, on Tuesday, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll posted this to her Facebook page:

As you may know, an early morning fire at 60 Dow Street has left several families in need of assistance. At present, seven units have been affected by the fire, resulting in the displacement of 45 individuals, including 16 children.

In the aftermath of the fire, which broke out early this morning (approx. 1am), the families were placed at the Council on Aging building on Broad Street with the assistance of the Red Cross. As of this afternoon, the Red Cross has provided vouchers for up to two-night stays at a local hotel and families have been transported to this location for the night.

In terms of needs, housing is the top priority at the moment and we are working with a number of organizations to help in this regard, including the Salem Housing Authority and our local Veterans Department. We are hoping that some of the units that were minimally damaged can be made habitable again within the next week, but we still expect there will be residents in need of housing. Anyone interested in renting a housing unit in Salem to one of these families should contact the Mayor’s Office at mayor@salem.com and we’ll forward your information to the prospective families.

In addition, many families lost a majority of their possessions, including clothing, furnishings and other household items. We are working to set up a fund at Salem Five Bank where charitable donations can be made to assist families financially with purchasing items they need. Anyone wishing to make a donation should make the check payable to the ‘Dow Street Fire Victims Fund’. Donations can be mailed/dropped off at Salem City Hall, Mayors Office 93 Washington Street, Salem, MA 01970.

Lastly, we are putting together a list of clothing needs for those affected and will be setting up a drop off location for a clothing drive for families. Details on the clothing needs are below.

Call for Clothes (Children and Adult size shoes, pants and shirts):
– One 6-month old
– 7 Boys & Girls 5-10 years-old
– 9 Boys & Girls 11-19 years-old
– 9 Men & Women 20-30 years-old
– 17 Men & Women 30+

As you can imagine, this has been quite traumatic for many of the folks involved and I want to recognize and thank the city departments and outside agencies who have stepped up to help out, in particular the Red Cross, who was on the scene early along with our own Salem Fire Department (great stop by our firefighters).

We have received offers of assistance from near and far – including the Governor’s Office and several local individuals – and I am hopeful that we can provide some level of assistance to those most in need. Salem is great at coming together in a time of need and we’ll provide additional updates and ways you can help over the next several days.

Poets and Poems to be Honored in Salem

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Apr 292014

Letters become words, words become phrases, and phrases become ideas. Then gifted writers craft it all into messages for poems. Those writers, words and poems will be honored later this week as the annual Massachusetts Poetry Festival will be held from May 2 – 4 in downtown Salem.

Participating poets include Kim Addonizio, Lucie Brock-Broido, Rafael Campo, Oliver de la Paz, Carol Ann Duffy, Cornelius Eady, Rhina Espaillat, Forrest Gander, David Ferry, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Marge Piercy, Susan Rich, Vivian Shipley, and C. D. Wright.

But more than just poems though, the Festival also offers workshops, panels, readings, music, visual arts presentations, and a book fair featuring small presses and literary magazines.

As stated on the Mass Poetry website: “It’s a perfect time to celebrate poetry, meet up with old friends that share your love of words, and make new friends.”

To find out more about the Festival go to their website.

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