Concord is home to some great performance spaces, and during Saturday’s Capital Arts Fest, you’ll have your pick of some impressive shows.
The only thing is that you’ll have to make some tough decisions. The main stage shows are all in the evening, so it will really come down to what you’re in the mood for.
If you’re not familiar with the spaces, Hatbox Theatre just celebrated one year of operation in Steeplegate Mall that can house an audience of 99 and is set up to have the audience on all three sides of the performance area.
The Concord City Auditorium, famously known as the Audi, is owned by the city and run by a group of volunteers with a capacity of 850.
And the Capitol Center for the Arts’s Chubb Theatre has more than 1,300 seats, while there’s also the Spotlight Cafe for a more intimate setting for smaller shows.
The Audi
Each year, The Community Players of Concord puts on four performances, including one from its Children’s Theatre Project, and this weekend will be the final group of shows for the 2016-17 season.
The Players will put on a rendition of Other Desert Cities, which is a relatively new play as it premiered in 2011 and was followed by a seven-month run on Broadway.
Other Desert Cities takes place in the upscale Palm Springs home of Lyman and Polly Wyeth, who were highly regarded in old Hollywood circles and admired by Republicans for their service to the party and their friendship with Ron and Nancy Reagan. Their far-right political views are not shared by their grown children, Brooke and Trip, who are in town for a rare visit at Christmastime, back in 2004.
Polly’s sharp-tongued, aging hippie sister, Silda Grauman, is also in residence, broke and broken following a stint in rehab. She disdains and resents her sister and brother-in-law’s politics and their almost cloistered lifestyle among their rich and like-minded friends. There is love in this family, but personal demons and contrasting world views make them prone to cleverly humorous but sharp teasing, and as the story unfolds, we begin to realize that this family suffers from some deep-seated troubles.
In addition to Saturday’s performance at 7:30 p.m., there will also be a show on Friday at the same time and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors and students. For more info and to buy tickets, visit communityplayersofconcord.org or go to the Audi box office.
Hatbox Theatre
At 9 a.m., all you actors and actresses out there will have a chance to put your talents on display. There will be open auditions for Hatbox shows this summer, Main Stage productions in the 2017-18 season, and next summer. All the producers will be there scouting talent, so this might be your big break.
At 2 p.m., Hatbox will host its performance lab workshop covering sound effects, ambient soundscapes and control with examples from Hatbox’s current production of The Truth Will Spring Yuh. Cost is $10.
And at 7:30 p.m., New World Theater will perform the original play, The Truth Will Spring Yuh.
It uses the backdrop of a women’s prison pre-release facility in rural Georgia to explore the light and dark of human nature. It asks us to question our versions of the truth and how knowing other people’s truths can radically change our own perceptions.
Tickets are $16.50, and $13.50 for Hatbox members, seniors and students. There are also performances on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2. For tickets, visit hatboxnh.com or call 715-2315.
Capitol Center
It’s only appropriate that a celebration of Concord would be capped off by one of New Hampshire’s funniest people.
Comedian Juston McKinney returns to the Granite State with lots of new material that will keep you laughing all night long.
He’s been using the state for material since he was humoring perps as a deputy sheriff on the New Hampshire/Maine border in the 1990s. McKinney has two Comedy Central specials including his own one-hour special, and has appeared on The Tonight Show and Conan O’Brien multiple times.
McKinney will take the main stage at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $27.50 and available at ccanh.com/events/juston-mckinney.
Insider staff
