Vermont Pride Theater will present a staged reading of The Laramie Project. This is VPT’s eighth annual winter benefit, with the proceeds this year going to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, whose mission is to erase hate by replacing it with understanding, compassion, and acceptance.

On October 7, 1998, young Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked, tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die because he was gay. In the weeks following his death on October 12th, Moises Kaufman’s young NYC-based Tectonic Theatre Company traveled to Laramie to begin answering a central question raised by this tragedy: how would Laramie change as a result of Matthew’s death?

The company’s work on this project encompassed 18 months of interviews of over 200 residents of Laramie. From these interviews, 100 of the most compelling and diverse stories were chosen to weave together the script we now know The Laramie Project, a play in which 10 actors voice these 100 narratives.

The play has generated rave reviews wherever it has been produced. “A pioneering work of theatrical reportage and a powerful stage event.” Time Magazine. “There emerges a mosaic as moving and important as any you will see on the walls of the churches of the world…nothing short of stunning…you will be held in rapt attention.” New York Magazine.

Directed by Williamstown resident Cher Laston, the cast features Rowly Brucken (Northfield), Samantha Loesch (Waitsfield), Gina Logan (Braintree), Susan Loynd
(Fayston), Rae Merrell (Brookfield), Hilary Mullins (Bethel), Zoe Newmarco (Rochester), Ramsey Papp (Randolph), Kris Rowley (Brookfield), and Amy Elizabeth Shalvoy (Chelsea).

Sponsors of this reading are the Gay & Lesbian Fund of Vermont, the Samara Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, and the Vermont Conference United Church of Christ. Media supporters are Vermont Public Radio, The Point, 105.7 The Beat, and WDEV.

The Campbell Brothers mine a rich vein of music from the African-American gospel repertoire, albeit with a rollicking twist: the growling, wailing, shouting, singing, swinging voice of the steel guitar as you’ve never heard it before. Pedal steel guitar master Chuck Campbell a National Heritage Fellowship award winner for his contributions to preserving the legacy of African-American music — and his lap steel-playing brother Darick are two of the finest exponents of this vital but little-known tradition, rooted in the sacred spaces of the House of God Church, where steel guitars long ago replaced the organ as the primary means of “playing the word.” One listen and you’ll understand why Real Bluesmagazine calls Chuck Campbell “the Jimi Hendrix and the Django Reinhardt of the pedal steel guitar.”

Video: “Live at The Kennedy Center, 2018” –

This event has been cancelled. We hope to reschedule in the 2019-2020 season.

Blues guitar maestro Ronnie Earl is a three-time Blues Music Award winner as Guitar Player of the Year.  An associate professor of guitar at the esteemed Berklee College of Music, rockin’ Ronnie has played alongside such blues legends as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Junior Wells, and Eric Clapton. He was a lead member of New England blues icons Roomful of Blues and this year celebrates his 30th year at the helm of the Broadcasters, who individually and collectively have also added their considerable chops to the music of many a blues legend. Savor this evening of gutsy, howlin’ blues.

Video: “A Change Is Gonna Come” (Live at B.B. King’s Blues Club, NYC, 2017) –

Video: “Double Trouble” (Live at B.B. King’s Blues Club, NYC, 2017) –

Vermont’s own a cappella jazz septet, Maple Jam wowed a Chandler audience in September 2017, opening for vocal music legends the Persuasions. The snazzy vocal masters return to warm up a winter’s eve with jazzy vocal sounds, spotlighting classic love songs in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Now well into its second decade, the annual event affectionately known simply as “Mini Mud” has become a community institution, celebrating the talent of youths from across the region in song, dance, theater, and other surprises. The performers range in age from 6 to 18. A competitive audition for the Mini Mud Youth Variety Show is set for Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

Longtime Chandler favorites Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy continue to bring their fans on a musical and personal journey. For this special visit to Vermont on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, they’ll feature their children alongside dancers and singers from the Celtic-flavored traditions of their Cape Breton and Ontario homelands. This spirited evening highlights the unique talents, influences, and stories of the first family of traditional fiddling through dancing, singing and, of course, world-class music-making.

Video: Natalie MacMaster, Donnell Leahy & Family (Live at Canada’s East Coast Music Awards, 2017) –