Capitol Center for the Arts

(4.1.08) Roger Brooks, principal of Beaver Meadow School and longtime arts advocate, has earned a special guest role in the performance of THE PRODUCERS this Sunday, April 6 at 4 p.m. Brooks will join the national tour in the second act courtroom scene.

Roger Brooks is the principal of Beaver Meadow School in Concord, a trustee of the Capitol Center for the Arts, and a past chair of the NH State Council on the Arts. Roger oversees the Student Acting Program at Beaver Meadow, the Literacy Arts program in the Concord school district, and is the 2005 winner of the Governor's Arts Award in Arts in Education.

Tickets are still available for the April 6 performance of THE PRODUCERS and range from $35 to $60. Patrons can purchase tickets at the Capitol Center Box Office, online at ccanh.com or by phone at 603.225.1111. The Producers is sponsored by Bovie Screen Process Printing, Co., Inc. and Cleveland, Waters and Bass, P.A.

CCA, partners tackle teen drinking

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(3.7.08)The February 12 performance of "Wrecked" presented a unique opportunity to raise awareness about teenage drinking and substance abuse. The Capitol Center worked with three key community partners -- The Endowment for Health, New Futures and The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation -- to engage the community and fill the house. Watch the short video documentary below to learn more.

Ronan Tynan fans make an extra-long journey

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(2.22.08) Mary MaDamba was having a wonderful birthday celebration February 22 at the Capitol Center. A huge Ronan Tynan fan, she was seeing him live for the first time.

Not so unusual, perhaps, except that Mary and her husband Mark live in Destin, Florida, and had just flown up that morning - in a snowstorm - for the show. "In Forida," Mark said, "his shows sell out the second they go on sale and you can never get tickets." Mark searched online for tickets, and when he discovered that Tynan was performing at the Capitol Center along with John McDermott he signed up to become a CCA member and bought his wife two great seats for her birthday. They were flying home the next day.

How's this for a great birthday present?" Mary asked, minutes after meeting Tynan and getting his autograph on a new CD.

"Giving Matters"

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The Capitol Center for the Arts was featured in the first segment of Giving Matters, a joint venture between NHPR and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. The weekly radio series shares the stories of 26 non-profit organizations and the ways in which non-profits strengthen communities and enrich lives. The segment featured a local school teacher and her third grade student talking about the Capitol Center for the Arts' school series and aired on Weekend Edition on NHPR on Saturday, October 6 at 8:35 a.m. Click here to listen to the segment if you missed it.

Season Ticket Sweepstakes Winners

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Ben and Lucy Wilson are the lucky winners of the Capitol Center's first annual Season Ticket Sweepstakes. The couple won two VIP tickets to every show in the 2007-08 season and attended the first show of the season, Music at the Crossroads.

Cap Center picks new director

Arts leader takes Mennino's spot
By SHIRA SCHOENBERG
Concord Monitor staff (Return to Top)

Nicolette Clarke, a leader in the arts in New York and Vermont, has been hired as the Capitol Center for the Arts' new executive director, the board of trustees announced yesterday.

On August 1, Clarke will take over for Jane Berwick, who has served as interim director since the death of Mary-Therese "M.T." Mennino in November 2005. Clarke, 55, brings 17 years of experience working on state arts councils in New York and Vermont, and was selected by a committee after a national search.

"I've been a funder for arts organizations, and I'm excited to really get my hands in there, involved in programming and in all aspects of taking an arts organization to the next evolution in its development," Clarke said.

Clarke is just the second full-time director of the center, which opened in 1995. Mennino, the center's first director, who died of a heart condition at age 56, built up the theater's programming and staff, and guided it through two major renovation projects. After her death, trustees chose Berwick, Mennino's close friend and a longtime center trustee, to take over until they found a new executive director.

The board waited to search for a director until its strategic planning committee completed a vision for the center in January 2007. Erle Pierce, chairman of that committee and a member of the search committee, said Clarke seemed like the best candidate to carry out the new plan, which includes expanding programming, playing a bigger role in the community, and making the center a focal point of the redevelopment of South Main Street.

"M.T. Meninno helped us build the theater and put together a great staff, and now we need to go on to new levels," Pierce said. "Nicki has a great reputation working with people. She's a leader and convener of people and a great listener." Mary McLaughlin, chairwoman of the center's board of trustees, said the board also hopes to focus on education in coming years. "The educational aspect helped us become nationally recognized, and she has the educational background and great leadership style we felt could help launch that even further," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said she was also struck by Clarke's personality. "She has this sparking personality that just really makes the room come alive. A real enthusiasm, passion and sparkle that made her stand out."

Clarke said one area she hopes to develop is the use of Kimball House and the Governor's Hall, smaller forums on the center's property that could host more intimate arts productions than the main 1,300-seat theater. She also wants to make some physical changes, including renovating the onstage and backstage areas.

Former trustee Mark Ciborowski said he hopes Clarke will be able to bring in top programming while keeping the center financially sound. "She seemed to have the right ideas off the bat for other events to do at the Capitol Center for the Arts," he said. "I think she'll be a very enthusiastic, articulate and skilled director."

Clarke, a native of Springfield, Vt., has had a lifelong interest in the arts. She took ballet and tap dance lessons growing up and became an avid dancer after she was rejected from the gymnastics team at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

"I was hugely disappointed, trying to find comfort, and I stumbled into a dance studio," she said. "It opened a whole new world to me as a way to express ideas. I loved the notion of dance that was theater. That was where the seed got planted in trying to figure out how to keep the arts a central piece of my life."

Clarke became a physical education teacher and taught for two years at a school in Saudi Arabia for children of the American employees of an oil company. She then studied dance for a year at the Laban Center at the University of London before moving to New York, where she worked for eight years as a teacher and a performer with two modern dance companies.

She earned a master's of education from Harvard University, then moved to Vermont, where she worked for four years as the Vermont Arts Council's arts in education coordinator and another five years as its executive director. In 1996, she became executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts, where she served until 2004.

Most recently, she worked as director of development at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., a private, coed boarding school that her son attended. She and her husband split their time between Ashburnham and Quechee, Vt. Clarke's family includes her son David, 19, a Kenyon College freshman, and her stepson Noah, 33.

Now, Clarke and her husband Peter, a faculty member at Cushing Academy, are moving to Concord.

"I'm looking forward to getting there, to start to shape the organization," she said.

"Losing M.T., the organization had a certain amount of trauma and did a great job holding everything together," she said. "Now, I look forward to being the leader to pull great ideas from the board and staff, to move ahead with continued interesting programming, even expanding in different ways the programming the Capitol Center's been able to do so far."

A 7th Grade Excellent Adventure

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At the end of the school year it’s quite difficult to get students to focus on school work – especially seventh graders ready for summer vacation. What better way to channel all that energy than to have them put on a show! Working with the seventh grade team of teachers at Henniker Community School, the Capitol Center’s Education department developed a final project for the entire seventh grade. Students wrote and performed a theater production that showed all that they had learned in social studies about the Middle Ages, Ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome. Egypt’s history was told through the game show Who Wants to be a Pharaoh? with host Osiris. Contestant Nefertiti utilized King Tut as her lifeline but when he proved to be little help, her God Ahten stepped in to give her the right answer. The Caesar Assassination was highlighted when breaking news interrupted the regularly scheduled Roman Idol. Reporters Maximus Primus, Stella Minor and Glutius Maximus gave full news reports on the assassination.

Capitol Center staff and students’ families were invited to attend the final performance on Tuesday, June 19. The CCA and Henniker Community School thank the generosity of Pat’s Peak, the underwriter for this project.

Kennedy Center welcomes CCA

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The Capitol Center for the Arts and the Concord School District were officially inducted into the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Program earlier this month. Shawn Powers, Director of Education, Jane Berwick, Interim Executive Director and Stephanie LaRochelle of the Concord school district attended the five-day Partners in Education Institute at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

The Capitol Center group was one of 14 teams from across the country invited to partner with the Kennedy Center to develop professional-development programs for area teachers.

Hudson teen cast in The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial

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A Hudson teen will join acclaimed Hollywood actors Edward Asner and John de Lancie in The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial when it comes to the Capitol Center for the Arts April 29 and 30. Anthony Clements, a student at Hudson Memorial School, was chosen from among more than 20 young actors who auditioned for the role of Howard Morgan, a key figure in the famed Scopes Monkey Trial, the subject of The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial.

Voted 2006 Readers’ Choice Award for “Favorite Local Actor to Watch” by the Nashua Telegraph, Anthony performs primarily with the Peacock Players in Nashua, NH. Starring as Edmund in Narnia and JoJo in Seussical, Anthony has also played lead roles in The Music Man, Flowers for Algernon, Stuart Little and Jane Eyre, The Musical. Performing since age six, Anthony is a member of the Swing Choir at Hudson Memorial and maintains High Honor Roll status.

2006-07 Annual Meeting

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The CCA bid farewell to four very active Board of Trustees members this year. Board Chair Byron Champlin, Treasurer Bruce Burns, Rebecca Ewing, M.D. and Brian Grip have all completed their terms of service and were honored at the April 5 annual meeting of the Capitol Center. Mary McLaughlin, Senior Vice President of TD Banknorth, will now serve as board chair. Kathleen Walker, Director of External Affairs of Northeast Delta Dental, and David A. Jensen, a private consultant, will serve as vice chairs, while William B. Morrison, president of Cambridge Trust Company of NH, and Keith Harrison, a professor at Franklin Pierce Law College, were elected treasurer and secretary respectively. John Swope and Martin Gross will serve as emeritus trustees.

New additions to the board include Douglas Black, M.D., a retired obstetrician; Rene Drouin, president and CEO of The NHHEAF Network; Derek Hunt, a retired professor with extensive background in stagecraft; Clayton “Skip” Poole, vice president of Bank of America and Private Client Consultant; Ron Reed, vice president of information technology at Lincoln Financial Group Foundation; Richard Y. Uchida, Esquire; and Michael Wilson, director of finance at the NH Charitable Foundation.

Volunteer of the Year

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For the past three years the Capitol Center has named the Volunteer of the Year at the Annual Meeting. This year the title went to Cecile Wester, who is an absolute pleasure to work with and who goes above and beyond in her volunteer work. Cecile is an exemplary usher who offers pleasant customer service to patrons, rearranges her schedule to meet our needs, volunteers to stuff playbills and make calls at the annual phone-athons all the while with a big smile on her face. You can always count on Cecile to usher at the school series and engage the children in conversation about the show or to comment on how polite and well-behaved they are. Cecile is just an absolute delight and our staff was pleased to name her Volunteer of the Year.

CCA Casting Call

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The Capitol Center for the Arts (Concord, NH) is casting a local male actor for the upcoming production of L.A. Theatre Works’ “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial” starring Edward Asner (“Lou Grant”) and John de Lancie (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”). Seeking -- young male actor to play Howard Morgan, 14-year old student who testifies in the Scopes trial. This is a semi-staged production done in the style of a radio drama with all actors carrying scripts. The role is NON-UNION and appears in one scene. Actor must be confident, an excellent reader and experienced either through training or local performance. Actor must be available for Concord performances on Sunday, April 29 and Monday, April 30. Rehearsal involves approximately 1 hour of one-on-one on the day of first show; actor will then be added to company tech. Open call to be held at the Capitol Center, 44 South Main Street, Concord on Thursday, April 19, 2007 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. For audition, actors will be asked to read from script. Please contact Shawn Powers, spowers@ccanh.com or 603-225-1111, x.108 with questions.

Tickets on the go

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Sometimes, good customer service is all about getting rid of the annoyances. Like when you came to the Capitol Center on the night of a show and tried to purchase tickets to a different show, and were told that you couldn’t. (There’s a valid technical reason why. Honest.)

Now you can purchase tickets any time the Center is open at our convenient ticket kiosk, located in the vestibule just to the right of the box office window. All you need is a credit card and a finger (to operate the touch screen).

The vestibule is open weekdays at 8:30 am, two-and-a-half hours before the box office opens. Please note, however, that on the day new shows go on sale, they won’t be available on the kiosk until the box office opens at 11 a.m. – the same time they’re posted on the internet.

Special thanks to Capitol Commons, whose kiosk sponsorship helped to offset the cost.

Usher-ing in the new year

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More than 150 Capitol Center volunteer ushers gathered January 18 for our semi-annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. This is a tradition that started several years ago as a pot-luck event, grew into an order-in Italian dinner, and in the last two years has reached new heights as an elegant plated affair, thanks to the generosity of the Common Man of Concord, which donated all the food, and whose servers truly made the ushers feel special and The Red Blazer which catered the dinner last year.

Capitol Center Front of House Manager John Caruso orchestrated the event, which included naming this year’s Usher Superstars – those who volunteered to work six or more shows during the fist half of this season. Earning the distinction were Cecile Wester, Lucien Valade and Pauline Healy. (And for the record, Cecile worked 20 shows, Lucien 19 and Pauline 18.)

The evening’s comic relief was provided by House Manager Leslie Alcorn and usher Tom Poirier, who demonstrated the do’s and don’ts of usher attire. Tom, who owns Mr. Tux of Concord, fittingly demonstrated the proper attire, which includes a white tuxedo shirt and black bowtie, dress pants, socks and shoes. Leslie, in the role of the improperly dressed usher, wore a white collarless shirt, gold bowtie, black jeans, white socks and orange sneakers.

If all this fine dining and jocularity has you considering joining the usher crew, visit our “Get Involved” web page or email John Caruso.

Remembering M.T. Mennino

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Nearly 50 people gathered in The Kimball House recently to mark the one year anniversary of the death of former CCA Executive Director M.T. Mennino. There were a few moments of sorrowful reflection, but M.T.’s “Get On With It” spirit ruled the day, for the gathering’s primary purpose was to launch the M.T. Mennino Legacy Fund, an endowment that will sustain the CCA for generations to come.

Legacy Fund co-chairs Martin Gross and Ann McLane Kuster encouraged potential donors to consider designating the CCA in their will or making a gift of stock or other assets. The Legacy Fund, which is being managed by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, has already received a number of gifts, including the nearly $50,000 in cash donations made in M.T.’s memory in the weeks following her death on November 30, 2005.

One of M.T.’s final acts as executive director was to begin the process of creating an endowment. She took great pride in the growth of the CCA’s education programming, and advocated for a permanent funding source to ensure continued success.

To learn more about the M.T. Mennino Legacy Fund, please email Katie Goodman.

And one further note: The search for a new executive director will begin in earnest early next year. The Board of Trustees will soon pick a national search firm to narrow the field. Meanwhile, Acting Executive Director Jane Berwick has pledged to stay on until the permanent director is on board.

Show us the way

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Have you noticed M.T. pointing the way to the Capitol Center? The City of Concord recently assigned the alternate name of M.T. Mennino Way to Theatre Street, the short street across from the CCA that leads to Storrs Street. Special thanks to recently elected City Councilor Mark Coen for helping push through the initiative.

Oh, and we think M.T. would find humor in the fact that her street sign is positioned less than three feet from a neon sign that says “Concord Billiards.”

George Stephanopoulos makes a (Kimball) House call

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Democratic Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack earned himself a spot on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos when he brought his nascent presidential campaign to New Hampshire December 1. In the process, he also earned the Capitol Center a little national exposure.

That’s because This Week’s producers needed a quaint New Hampshire setting as a backdrop for Stephanopoulos’s taped interview with Vilsack. Vilsack’s advance team had discovered The Kimball House at the Capitol Center, and the arrangements were quickly put together.

The interview, which aired December 3, was mostly close-ups of the handsome ABC newsman and, um, the guy running for president, but there were a couple of nice wide shots of The Kimball House dining room that showed off its new hues, the product of recent restoration work. Stephanopoulos was as pleasant as he looks on TV, taking time to greet staff members and pose for Christmas-card photos.

On stage with Ian Anderson

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Kayla Bosela, a student at Kearsarge Regional High School in Sutton, had admittedly never heard of Ian Anderson when she was invited to join him on stage at the Capitol Center prior to his September 28 concert. But she shared the Jethro Tull star’s passion for flute, and was game for an adventure.

Anderson invites a student flutist to join him for a duet prior to every concert he plays. Kayla was suggested by Howard Hoke, owner of Echo Communications, the sponsor of the concert. Hoke has long been an advocate and sponsor of arts education programs, and saw this as a great opportunity to inspire a young musician.

So how’d Kayla do? Though she claimed to be nervous, she absolutely nailed her part in Griminelli's Lament, a lovely duet that Anderson composed. She got a rousing ovation from the backing orchestra, who clearly recognized her talent.

Said Kayla later, “I am beyond glad I was picked for this and think it is such a great thing for (the Capitol Center) to put together. It has made me love music even more. I will never forget this experience. Thank you!”

Spotlight on Education

Spotlight on Education: Capitol Center, Concord School District partnership earns national recognition

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The prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has selected the Capitol Center for the Arts and the Concord School District as one of 14 collaborative teams from across the nation to join the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education program.

The program honors formal partnerships between arts organizations and school systems and provides valuable training and resources to participants. Representatives from the Capitol Center and the school district will be inducted into the program at the Kennedy Center’s week-long Partners in Education Institute in May.

The Institute – funded by the US Department of Education, the National Committee for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, and the Bank of America Foundation – promotes partnerships in communities across the nation between arts organizations and local schools, focusing on the development of arts-related education programs for teachers.

The Capitol Center and the Concord School District have had an ongoing partnership for over 10 years, linking the Center’s School Series performances to classroom curriculum. They are currently the only Kennedy Center Partner in Education in New Hampshire.

“We have enjoyed a highly integrated partnership with the Concord School District since the Capitol Center’s inception,” noted Shawn Powers, the Capitol Center’s director of education. “The partnership has included the district’s guidance in our School Series show selections as well as projects in the community. This opportunity to work with the Kennedy Center will establish a plan to build an effective professional development program for Concord and all New Hampshire teachers that is embedded in district goals.”

The Capitol Center currently offers nine hours of professional development programs each school year that are used by teachers throughout the state. These programs provide educators with strategies on how to integrate the arts into the classroom. With the Kennedy Center’s training, these programs will be more effective in addressing the needs of teachers in Concord and the region.

“The arts must be at the heart of every student’s learning experience,” says Darrell M. Ayers, Vice President of Education at the Kennedy Center. “The education of teachers is an essential component of any effort designed to affect the artistic literacy of America’s young people. The Kennedy Center Partners in Education program lends opportunities to reach this goal.”

The 14 new teams will join the 92 teams from 42 states and the District of Columbia already participating in the Partners in Education program, now in its 16th year. At the Institute, participants will examine the variety of educational offerings for teachers developed and refined at the Kennedy Center since 1976. The newly selected teams met the criteria for selection by effectively demonstrating the potential for the arts organization and school system to initiate or expand programs for teachers and the stated commitment by both partners to collaborate on developing programs.

The Kennedy Center’s workshops for Washington, D.C.-area teachers serve as a focus for the Partners in Education Institute. Institute participants will see events in action, examine how they are planned, implemented and evaluated, and have the opportunity to explore program designs.

Established in 1972, the Kennedy Center’s Education Department believes the inclusion of the performing arts in a broad based curriculum improves the quality of a child’s educational experience. The Kennedy Center’s Education Department is committed to its leadership role in promoting higher standards of national performing arts education programs and policy.

In other education news...

Students in the Heritage Homeschooling program extended their unit on puppetry with a timely visit to the Capitol Center November 29. The group enjoyed a performance of Cinderella by Enchantment Theatre, a renowned puppetry company from Philadelphia. After the show, students got a chance to meet with the actors and see the inner working of the life-size puppets. For the kids, the best moment, surely, came when one of the actors, prompted by a particularly inquisitive student, demonstrated how to remove one of the puppets’ heads.

The Capitol Center is once again partnering with Maple Street School in Hopkinton for the “Opening Doors” program. This initiative provides underprivileged fourth- and fifth-grade students an intimate peek behind the scenes. Students attend School Series performances, post-performances workshops with CCA Education staff, and meet-and-greets with visiting artists. The program kicked off November 6 at a performance of Amber Brown is Not a Crayon, and will continue throughout the school year.