I’ll never forget when I first read about The Black and White Ball. It was in a caption of a picture of Jackie Kennedy’s sister Lee, in one of the many biographies that I had devoured on the First Lady. I wondered what exactly a Black and White Ball was and who could throw such a fabulous party so I decided to find out. This was the early days of the internet and many years before google, so I made my way over to the library where I discovered Truman Capote, Katherine Graham, Babe Paley, and the Society Swans.Read More
Read More
Writers on a New England stage is a thrill and a challenge because it’s an exploration of both a writer’s creativity and audience adoration. I want to represent the audience and use their questions to learn more about an author of works they love. I also try to anticipate the broadcast audience, which may not know their work, but might wish to if the interview leaves them wanting more.Read More
Read More
There have been so many fabulous moments in the production of this series …. I couldn’t name just one. Needless to say, we do much work behind the scenes for months leading up to each writer’s event, identifying writers/books to feature and then negotiating and organizing with appropriate contacts in New York. It’s like any other business or product - you work hard to get it just right and then you put it out into the marketplace - or, in our case, on stage. It’s great fun and a great challenge getting to that point, a mix of “big game hunting” and administrative and marketing execution. Read More
Read More
When I first created Writers on a New England Stage it was scary. We didn’t know if it would work and no-one knew us. I wrote all the first scripts, helped pick out the chairs for the “set,” went to New York to pitch the series, and was asked repeatedly where Portsmouth, New Hampshire was exactly. A lot has changed since then, but much has stayed the same: We still have our wonderful broadcast partner, New Hampshire Public Radio, and our house band Dreadnaught; and we are still using the same chairs and tables that we started out with. Margaret Talcott has come on as a producer, we’ve all started tweeting, and we now have the help of some wonderful interns from the graduate program in Creative Writing at UNH. Read More
Read More
Full disclosure: Having lived in New York City for much of my adult life, I’m somewhat of a culture snob. It has been an unexpected thrill during the past several years to experience the depth and breadth of the thriving arts scene in Portsmouth—and a privilege to work with The Music Hall helping to spread the word. Read More
Read More
Some of you may have noticed this week that our online ticketing system was down as we transitioned into a new, more user friendly software. We are now back up and running and working on making buying tickets online even easier.Read More
Read More
Telluride by the Sea is crouching at the end of the week like a golden retriever waiting to give us a joyously enthusiastic Welcome Home! It’s certainly the peak of the cinema year at The Music Hall.Read More
Read More
Jared Diamond is one of America’s most celebrated scholars. His arrival at The Music Hall on January 17 coincides with the release of his latest work, The World Until Yesterday. Diamond is a Professor of Geography at UCLA whose groundbreaking work, Guns, Germs and Steel won the Pulitzer prize in 1997.Read More
Read More
