Janis Joplin Returns To Monadnock Region

Park Theatre has exclusive one-night screening of award-winning Broadway musical about performer who performed locally in 1969

JAFFREY, New Hampshire (November 4, 2019) Janis Joplin was a one of a kind. A legend whose life and meteoric career only lasted a few brief years. Long enough for her to perform at Franklin Pierce College’s Winter Carnival in 1969. In January of 1968, Wesleyan University paid Janis (along with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company) $2,500 for a performance. By the time Franklin Pierce’s Social Committee booked her for a February 8, 1969 performance, her rate had soared to $20,000. Less than 2 years later, Janis died of a heroin overdose on October 4, 1970, at the age of 27.

On Friday, November 8, at 7:30pm, The Park Theatre will present a Stage2Screen exclusive area screening of the Tony® Award-nominated Broadway musical, A Night with Janis Joplin. The one-night-only screening will happen at the American Legion Hall in Jaffrey, located 20 Webster Street. All tickets are $15.00 each.

Janis Joplin exploded onto the music scene in 1967 and, almost overnight, became the queen of rock & roll. The unmistakable voice, filled with raw emotion and tinged with Southern Comfort, made her a must-see headliner from Monterey to Woodstock.

From Broadway to the cinema screen, you’re invited to share an evening with the woman, and her musical influences in the Tony Award® nominated Broadway musical sensation, A Night with Janis Joplin.

Fueled by such unforgettable songs as “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Piece of My Heart,” “Mercedes Benz,” “Cry Baby” and “Summertime,” a remarkable cast and breakout performances, A Night with Janis Joplin, written by Randy Johnson and directed by Emmy Award® Winner David Horn and Randy Johnson, is a musical journey celebrating Janis and her biggest musical influences—icons like Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Odetta, Nina Simone and Bessie Smith, who inspired one of rock & roll’s greatest legends.

The American Legion bar will be open for beverage sales, and food will also be sold. The American Legion Post 11 Jaffrey has generously donated the Hall for this fundraising event.

Tickets and information can be obtained by calling The Park Theatre box office at (603) 532-8888 or by visiting www.theparktheatre.org.

The event will support the new Park Theatre that is scheduled to open in 2020. The two auditorium state-of-the-art performing arts complex is currently under construction in downtown Jaffrey.

The Park Theatre will be the first community-based performing arts center to be built from the ground up in the Monadnock region in almost one hundred years. It will be a showplace for national and regional musical performers as well as plays from New England playwrights, local performing groups, school productions, and movies from new releases to independents, classics, documentaries, foreign and animation. It will also present HD screenings of The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Ballet & Royal Opera. Additionally, it will provide after school theatre craft programs and filmmaking courses. Finally, it will generate over two dozen new jobs and promote business and real estate development in Jaffrey and the surrounding communities.

Peter Jackson’s Epic WWI Documentary Shown Free For Veterans Day

Park Theatre presents “They Shall Not Grow Old” at Jaffrey Woman’s Club

JAFFREY, New Hampshire (November 4, 2019) The Park Theatre continues its yearly tradition of presenting an important film relating to veterans and war every Veterans Day, free-of-charge. This year they will present Academy Award® winner Peter Jackson’s (“The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, “The Hobbit” Trilogy) poignant WWI documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. It will be shown on Veterans Day, Monday, November 11 at 12 noon at the Jaffrey Woman’s Club in downtown Jaffrey.

Peter Jackson believes the film is essential for audiences who have never experienced WWI footage as anything but grainy black & white...and silent.

In They Shall Not Grow Old, Jackson opens a window to the past in a way that has never been seen or heard before, noting, “Restoration is a humanizing process.” The screening will be immediately followed by exclusive “making of” film offering firsthand insights into what went into this groundbreaking feat of research, filmmaking, and storytelling.

The acclaimed documentary is an extraordinary look at the soldiers and events of the Great War, using film footage captured at the time, now presented in a way the world has never seen. By utilizing state-of-the-art restoration and colorization technologies, and pulling from 600 hours of BBC archival interviews, Jackson puts forth an intensely gripping, immersive and authentic experience through the eyes and voices of the British soldiers who lived it.

The documentary has been nominated for over a dozen film awards. It has a running time of 1 hour and 39 minutes. The “making of” video that follows is approximately 30 minutes in length. The presentation of the film is made possible by a generous gift from Wright Painting of Jaffrey.

The Jaffrey Woman’s Club is located at 33 Main Street in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. There is no cost to attend and, no tickets are necessary. Free refreshments will be served. For information, can The Park Theatre box office at (603) 532-8888 or visit theparktheatre.org.

”Play In A Day” Returns To Jaffrey

Matchbook Players present innovative production at River Street Theatre in Jaffrey

JAFFREY, New Hampshire (November 5, 2019) The first play produced-in-a-day debuted to a sold-out audience in Jaffrey in October of 2016. It returns to Jaffrey as Play In A Day this weekend.

This "play-in-a-day" fundraiser by Jaffrey’s first community theater company, Matchbook Players - aptly named after Jaffrey's long, history-making matchbooks and for the companies mission to "ignite creativity and passion for literature and art in the community" - will aim to raise $1,000 to secure an engraved, sponsored seat in the new Park Theatre for its seat campaign.

Matchbook Players is looking for the community’s support. If you are interested in acting, writing, directing, or technical theater, they want you. No experience required!

What is a Play In A Day?

Ever wonder what would happen if a group of theater enthusiasts had a deadline and no show? Well, this is it!

The producers are looking for the Jaffrey theater community and beyond to join The Matchbook Players for a brainstorming session/audition on Saturday, November 9th at 2pm.

Twenty-nine hours later, the show must go on, and the audience arrives on Sunday, November 10, at 7pm. All activities take place at The Park Theatre’s River Street Theatre at 6 River Street in downtown Jaffrey.

Tickets for the final play on Sunday night are $11.00 each. They can be purchased at theparktheatre.org or by calling the box office at (603) 532-8888.

If you are interested in being involved in Jaffrey's first community theater, you can show up Saturday, November 9 at 2pm, and show your support either on stage or behind the scenes.

The Matchbook Players Theater Company is a fledgling organization and they are looking to establish a board of directors of local theater enthusiasts, community members and businesses to help mold and shape the future of this group and our future productions. No theater experience required - just a passion for making our community a better one!

For more information check out The Matchbook Players Theater Company on facebook or email Matchbook Players founder and Executive Director, Paige Johnson at pjny03@gmail.com

Open House at the Village School
In the new building at 253 S. Royalston Rd. (Rt. 68)
Royalston MA
Saturday November 16
10 a.m. to noon

The Village School is hosting an Open House on Saturday November 16th, from 10 a.m. to noon. Come see classrooms, meet teachers, talk to current parents and students, meet alumni and learn about the engaging and challenging curriculum. Find out about the admissions process, financial aid, and openings in preschool, kindergarten and 1st - 5th grade for next fall.

Bring children! From 10 to 11:45 a.m., children can join in arts and crafts and science activities in the classrooms. At 11:45 a.m. everyone will gather together to meet with school director Risa Richardson. Coffee, tea and light refreshments are served throughout the morning.

The Village School is an affordable independent school for children from Preschool through the 6th grade. For more information, call 978 249-3505, or go to www.villageschoolma.org

The Open House takes place in the new Village School building, 253 S. Royalton Rd, on Rt. 68 on the Camp Caravan property in Royalston. Walk through the spacious sunlit new building.

Director Risa Richardson was asked about where learning begins. She said, "Beyond initial curiosity, the foundation of learning is relationship. Each teacher has a personal relationship with each of his or her students. Our teachers know their students well, and this relationship gives the student security to take risks and rise to a challenge. Relationship also means acceptance by your peers. The school provides a safe warm social environment where children respect each other, accept each other and work together in large or small groups easily. Learning is a cooperative, group endeavor in a learning community, doing ones personal best and working towards understanding together.

"We believe in growth mindset, the confidence that all children are mathematicians, all children are writers, all children are artists, knowing that it is through effort and practice that each child can develop his or her abilities and talents."

You can find out more about the innovative Village School education at the Open House this Saturday.

5th-6th grade class using microscopes in science class

The Village School new building, on Rte 68 in Royalston