The new performing arts season arrived in Vermont last week in much the same way it has for the past few years: with whimsy, joy and some kick-ass performance art. Under the banner of the Flynn's annual Playing Fields series, the mobile circus troupe Cirque Kikasse (get it?) wowed audiences on school athletic fields from Vergennes to Thetford, performing jaw-dropping acrobatics atop its own fully functioning food truck. Yes, you read that correctly.
Rocking the soundtrack for the nine-stop traveling sideshow — which concludes this Friday, September 13, at Winooski High School — is the West Philadelphia Orchestra, a brass band specializing in booty-shaking grooves set to everything from Balkan and klezmer music to New Orleans brass to punk to ska.
Since it debuted in 2022, Playing Fields has become the unofficial kickoff to Vermont's performing arts season. More than that, it's emblematic of the evolving approaches of theaters and arts centers around the region, which increasingly prioritize meeting audiences where they are — literally, in the case of Playing Fields, as well as figuratively.
At the Flynn, executive director Jay Wahl has made it his mission to expand the Burlington theater's programming beyond the Queen City since he came on board in 2021. Playing Fields is a high-profile example. Another is Arch, a flaming multidisciplinary performance piece that takes place both at the Flynn and in Mount Philo State Park in Charlotte next month.
"We have a responsibility to bring access across the state to the arts," Wahl said, adding that a record 160,000 people — roughly one in four Vermonters — attended Flynn shows and educational programs last year, both inside and outside the Main Street theater. Given the turmoil in downtown Burlington at the moment, getting cultured elsewhere may have a certain appeal.
Programming beyond the confines of a theater is one way to connect to broader audiences. But just as key to reaching more people is giving them what they want to see onstage.
Spruce Peak Arts in Stowe is presenting 42 shows this season, nearly double the number on its previous largest calendar. New executive director Seth Soloway, who was hired exactly one year ago, faces a particular challenge: capitalizing on tourist dollars in the ritzy ski town while also serving the needs and tastes of local communities.
He's attempting to thread a needle between marquee-topping acts — such as indie band Deer Tick; humorist David Sedaris; and Lake Street Dive vocalist Rachael Price's side project, Rachael & Vilray — and the more niche jazz and chamber music that the venue has traditionally featured.
"We have these major artists coming, and that's really exciting," Soloway said. "But I'm just as excited to have those artists help us build a larger arts ecosystem by building trust within the community."
The theory, he explained, is that people who are excited to see Deer Tick or singer-songwriter Dar Williams might then take a chance on a lesser-known act such as solo pianist Robin Spielberg or progressive chamber quartet Sō Percussion.
"I'm basing it on what I know about our community members and then hoping some of our visitors will take a shot," Soloway said.
Other presenters across the region have the same hope for their venues. And they're taking big swings, too.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary, the Lebanon Opera House in New Hampshire, has pulled out all the stops. Its season boasts a star-studded music lineup, including indie-rock royals Angel Olsen and Neko Case, rockers Blues Traveler and country music legend Marty Stuart.
The theater's comedy slate is similarly impressive, with Maria Bamford, Sheng Wang and what may go down as the booking of the year at any theater: Saw the Musical, a parody of the famous horror film franchise.
Those aren't the only arts organizations upping their game this season. From the mighty Flynn to rural community theaters, performing arts centers throughout the region have programmed diverse and provocative seasons, brimming with world-class music, theater, dance and comedy.
On the following pages, you'll find some choice performances to whet your appetite for the cultural buffet to come. Be sure to flip through the rest of the issue for more on Vermont's performing arts scene, including a backstage look at Lyric Theatre's costume sale, what goes into programming the University of Vermont Lane Series and scoring acts such as Cyrille Aimée, the debut of a black-box theater in Bellows Falls, and a worldly new option for dinner and a show in Essex.
Now sit back, relax and enjoy the shows.
— Dan Bolles
Writer, actor, director and standup comedian Patton Oswalt has been rocking the nerdy-dad vibes even longer than Minnesota governor-turned-Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz — assuming, that is, that your dad tells jokes about pornography, Denny's and his own depression. From his stints on shows such as "Seinfeld" to his big-screen roles to his award-winning Netflix special "Talking for Clapping," Oswalt is a comedic force to be reckoned with. He's also known to be a genuinely nice guy.
With 10 standup comedy specials, seven Grammy nominations and four Emmy nominations under his belt, Oswalt is back on tour with "Effervescent," which has been selling out in cities nationwide. As he told Michigan's Revue magazine in May, standup is "the one creative endeavor left where there are no network notes. It's good to have a venue left where I can blurt and bleat straight from my skull."
You're in farm country now, Patton. Bleat away.
— Ken Picard
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Here's a frighteningly familiar premise: Two victims suddenly find themselves chained to a pipe at opposite ends of a bathroom, their only means of escape a hacksaw on the floor for cutting off their own feet.
Horror-flick aficionados will instantly recognize the setup of Saw, the 2004 bloodbath-turned-blockbuster movie franchise whose villain, John "Jigsaw" Kramer, traps his victims in physical and psychological games to test their will to survive. His underlying wholesome, albeit twisted, lesson: Relish your life while you still have it, because it can be snuffed out at any moment.
Though most fans of the original Saw probably never noticed its homoerotic subtext and queer wordplay, the movie birthed a universe of online gay fan fiction. Two sweaty men are trapped in a room together in a bondage scenario. Will they kiss? Let's find out!
Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw runs with that concept, adding a bunch of campy show tunes and turning the premise into a queer horror love story. The show features pigs in wigs, a dance number with a blow-up sex doll named Carla and a dismemberment scene set to an upbeat melody while the cast sings, "It's time to saw right through!"
Saw the Musical spares its audience from the splatter and gore of the Saw movies, though the show comes with a parental advisory. While Jigsaw's original catchphrase was "Live or die! Make your choice!" this play's motto is "Live the life you love." As the lyrics of one song promise, "If you don't fucking die, you'll be glad you're alive."
Going out on a limb here, but we're going to say this one will leave you in stitches.
— K.P.
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Choreographer Sean Dorsey has won acclaim for telling stories from LGBTQ+ history through modern dance. In Uncovered: The Diary Project, he drew on the diary entries of transgender activist Lou Sullivan; The Missing Generation was inspired by interviews with survivors of the AIDS epidemic; and The Secret History of Love explored the underground venues where LGBTQ+ people found love when it wasn't safe to be out, from speakeasies to cabarets.
Now, Dorsey looks toward the future with his latest work, The Lost Art of Dreaming. The performance asks audiences to envision a queer utopia and imagine a better world. Five LGBTQ+ dancers take the stage in long, flowing dresses, moving their bodies slowly and sensually to meditative music.
KQED, the San Francisco Bay Area's NPR and PBS member station, described the show as marking "a new, forward-looking phase of Dorsey's artistic life, focused on encouraging trans and nonbinary people to claim their right to a life they love."
Based in San Francisco, Dorsey is the first openly transgender choreographer to appear on the cover of Dance Magazine and one of a handful of transgender artists to win Emmy Awards. He founded Fresh Meat Productions, a festival that showcases transgender and queer performers.
"So many trans people are discouraged from dreaming, finding love, community," Dorsey said in an episode of the KQED series "If Cities Could Dance." "This is my invitation for you to dream wildly about your future."
— Hannah Feuer
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A true cult classic, the 1986 film Labyrinth continues to dazzle viewers 38 years after its release. Maybe it's the iconic performance of David Bowie, combining fairy-tale whimsy with rock-star charisma. Or the coming together of generational talents Jim Henson and artist Brian Froud (the pair who created The Dark Crystal), Monty Python's Terry Jones, and even Star Wars mastermind George Lucas. Or perhaps the movie just speaks to kids who wouldn't mind shipping off their younger siblings to live with a goblin with Def Leppard hair?
Whatever it is that keeps the film alive in the hearts of so many, Labyrinth's legend has only grown to the point where it now warrants the full Rocky Horror Picture Show treatment. Back on the big screen, the film is touring with a live band that rocks out Bowie and Trevor Jones' score behind the original vocals of the Goblin King himself — because, seriously, who could compete with Bowie but Bowie?
— Chris Farnsworth
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Angel Olsen's music is like a meadowlark: sonorous and rarely still. The St. Louis-born singer-songwriter hit the scene in 2011 with her EP Strange Cacti, a gorgeous collection of sparse indie folk featuring only Olsen's reverb-laden voice and acoustic guitar. In 2014, Burn Your Fire for No Witness found her shifting toward edgier, rock-adjacent territory before she pushed into synth-laden new wave — along with a 14-piece orchestra — on 2019's All Mirrors. Olsen's most recent effort, Big Time, is a proper brokenhearted record on which she returns to her alt-country roots and big ballads with giant vistas.
Whatever the genre or level of production, Olsen's music always carries uncommon depth and an emotional intimacy that cuts to the bone. Whether singing about falling in love again, the death of her parents or coming out as queer (as she did in 2021), she pulls the listener directly into her world.
Olsen is currently touring solo, as she did at the start of her career. It's a rare chance to see a songwriter in her prime exploring every era of an ever-shifting catalog — just her and her guitar.
— C.F.
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Sō Percussion is not your typical chamber quartet. For one thing, you won't find a violin, cello or viola here. Instead, as their name implies, the four players produce an astonishing array of sounds and rhythms through percussion instruments both traditional (snare drums, cymbals, marimbas) and otherwise (a roll of duct tape). The result is an "exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam," according to the New Yorker.
The New York City-based group has made noise with a who's who of contemporary classical musicians. Most recently, the quartet won a Grammy for its partnership with composer Caroline Shaw. The winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music had worked with the likes of Spanish pop singer Rosalía, American opera singer Renée Fleming and violin virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma before teaming up with Sō Percussion.
The quartet's third album with Shaw, Rectangles and Circumstance, released in June, is inspired by — and sometimes quotes — the works of pre-21st-century poets such as Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and William Blake. But it's doubtful Dickinson or Blake ever heard anything quite like the album's lead single, "Sing On," or the moody and industrial title track. As Chris Ingalls of Pop Matters put it in a review, "Rectangles and Circumstance conveys a contemporary musical feel without ever really seeming overly anachronistic."
— D.B.
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The term "vegan chitlins" might seem like an oxymoron, given that chitlins are a traditional Southern soul food made from pig intestines. For choreographer and performer Trebien Pollard, however, it captures the nuances of the Black experience. He envisions a Black student who goes to college and becomes vegan, only to return home and find the family still enjoying chitlins.
The second part of the title plays on "the artist formerly known as Prince," the term media outlets used for the singer after he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Pollard's version is "referencing back to a time when, you know, nobody cared about what your name was," he told Seven Days. "They just saw you as a Black person."
These themes converge in Pollard's performance piece, which explores the question "What does it mean to be Black?" As a solo dancer, he incarnates a shape-shifting character named "BLACK" who journeys through key historical moments. Costume changes illustrate the character's transformation, as Pollard sheds layers of black clothing throughout the show.
Pollard conceptualized the piece after being deeply affected by the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who became a symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement. Pollard said Martin reminded him of his younger brother.
Throughout the show, Pollard chants poetry he wrote about Black identity and racial violence.
"A fate unknown, nothing's clear," he recites. "Year after year after year after year, innocent souls disappear."
— H.F.
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