Entertainment

YardArt Returns in 2023, Two Upcoming Events to Help Inspire You

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YardArt Watertown”PaTRASHia” was one of the pieces made for Watertown’s YardArt. The following information was provided by YardArt Watertown:

YardArt Watertown, the popular outdoor public art exhibition featuring the work of residents, artists and art enthusiasts who live or work in Watertown, returns this year for the entire month of April. The town-wide exhibit begins Saturday, April 1st and runs through Sunday, April 30th, and features a variety of artful and whimsical projects displayed on residents’ front yards and porches. All Watertown residents, families, organizations, clubs, classes, artists, and businesses are invited to create something to be viewed from the street or sidewalk. It can be an assemblage, a sculpture, an art project, a lighting arrangement—let your imagination run free!

Entertainment

Mosesian Center Hosts Heart Truth: Mental Health Stories from the Deaf Community

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The following announcement was provided by DEAFinitely, Inc.:

The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts — DEAFinitely, Inc. and This Is My Brave (TIMB) present the groundbreaking show “This Is My Brave – Heart Truth: Mental Health Stories from the Deaf Community.” For one night only, 13 Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing storytellers will share their personal stories of mental illness and recovery to break down stigma, uncover access barriers in the mental health system and celebrate the resilience of the Deaf community using American Sign Language storytelling, art, and dance. Featuring storytellers not only from New England, but from across the US, Canada and Nigeria, this live stage production will center on the storytellers, their stories and the deep understanding that there is a significant need for an evening like this in the Deaf community. To achieve this production, the Heart Truth Production Team, led by DEAFinitely, Inc. Executive Director, Jamie Robinson and show Director, Shira Grabelsky, are working with The Mosesian Center for the Arts to design a theater experience for storytellers that is seamless in communication and accessibility. The show will be primarily in American Sign Language, with Deaf and Deafblind interpreting to ensure full access for the cast and audience members. Captioning and spoken language interpretation will also be available in English and Spanish.

Around Town

Group Seeks to Create Cultural District in Town, Likely in Watertown Square

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Watertown Square could become part of the City’s proposed cultural district. The center of Watertown may become a cultural district, which would allow the area’s arts and culture groups, restaurants and businesses to be promoted as a destination for people in and around the city, and even for tourists. Receiving approval to be a cultural district is a multi-step application process, concluding with approval by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, said Liz Helfer, the City’s Public Arts & Culture Planner. The application must include a partnership of representatives from arts and culture institutions, artists, and someone from the City. Helfer is part of the group putting together the proposal for the Cultural District.

Entertainment

New Rep Holding Tryouts for Three Plays in 2023 Season

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New Repertory Theatre will hold auditions for Local Equity actors for roles in New Rep’s 2023 Season: The Normal Heart, June 21 – July 9, and A Raisin in the Sun, September 6 – October 1 in repertory with DIASPORA! September 13 – October 15, at Watertown’s Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA.  

The audition dates are:  

Sunday, March 5: 11 am-7 pm, lunch 2:30-3:30pm 

Monday, March 6: 1 pm-9 pm, dinner 4:30-5:30 pm (Union Members Only) 

Sunday, March 12: 11 am-7 pm, lunch 2:30-3:30 pm (Union Members Only)

Call backs will be held on Sunday, April 2nd and/or Monday, April 3rd 

DIASPORA! Director: Pascale Florestal 

A Raisin in the Sun Director: Lois Roach 

The Normal Heart Director: TBA 

The auditions will be held at the Black Box Theater at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown.  Free parking is available in the garage next to the facility.  

Detailed information regarding the roles and a sign up available at: 

2023 Season Auditions

New Rep welcome Actors of all races and all gender identities, abilities, and body types. Please take this into consideration when auditioning. In addition to genders listed in character breakdowns, New Rep is ACTIVELY SEEKING TRANS AND NON-BINARY PERFORMERS for all roles. 

New Rep cannot provide local accommodations at this time, so performers must live within commuting distance of the theater.  

“We believe the themes of these works are as timely as they are powerful, and offer a beautiful reminder that history has given us plenty of answers on how to build our future. Addressing activism in the time of an epidemic, and an exploration of home and displacement, these plays enlighten us in how to love in the face of terror, how to forgive in the face of betrayal, and how to connect in a time of isolation.” 

      - Artistic Directors Michael Hisamoto, Lois Roach, Maria Hendricks 

New Repertory Theatre (New Rep) has been an award-winning professional theatre company for 39 years, staging productions and events that speak to the vital ideas of our time. New Rep has emerged from the pandemic with a renewed commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and accountability (IDEAA) infusing every aspect of the company’s work as it seeks to build community collaborations and give voice to the diverse interests of those communities. 

More information on New Repertory Theatre at www.newrep.org. 

Entertainment

New Rep Theatre Receives 2 Mass Cultural Council Grants

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New Repertory Theatre has received two grants from the Mass Cultural Council (MCC), a state agency: one for $75,000 through its Cultural Sector Fund for Organizations Pandemic Recovery Grant Program, and a $5,000 grant Universal Participation (UPI) Innovation Grant.  

The Pandemic Recovery grant is part of MCC’s historic $51 million public investment into the Commonwealth’s creative and cultural sector to organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2021 a $4 billion pandemic recovery package was approved by the Legislature and signed into law. This Act, Ch. 102 of 2021, directed Mass Cultural Council to develop and administer grant programs to assist cultural organizations and artists recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and operate more efficiently moving forward. Mass Cultural Council received $60.1 million in surplus state revenue funds to support this effort. These funds will provide critical support to offset significant losses incurred from necessary suspension of New Rep’s productions during the height of the pandemic. 

The UPI grant will enable access to artists from diverse communities to develop new works through New Rep’s Pipeline Project, which invests directly in local performing artists, writers and performance makers, providing concrete and tangible pathways at production at the professional level. The Pipeline Project embodies core principles of New Rep’s Renewal Vision, with a renewed commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility and accountability infusing every aspect of the company’s work as it seeks to build community collaborations and give voice to the interests of those communities.   

“The arts remain an essential way for us to strengthen our communities, and I am proud to support New Repertory Theatre in those efforts.

Entertainment

Pianist Performing Benefit Concert for Helen Robinson Wright Charitable Fund

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Pianist John Kramer will perform at Watertown’s First Parish Church on Saturday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will benefit the Helen Robinson Wright Charitable Fund. The concert features music written by Black composers, including Florence Price, William Grant Still, Nathaniel Dett, Margeret Bonds, and Louis Mareau Gottschalk. Kramer is a performer, composer and arranger who has played throughout the United States and in France. He is the music director at Winchester Unitarian Society and is a member of the Berklee College of Music faculty. First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church is located at 35 Church St.

Entertainment

New Rep Theatre Announces Two New Pipeline Project Residencies

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New Repertory Theatre is pleased to announce the selection of two new artist residencies for its second round of Pipeline Projects. Selected from over 40 submissions from local artists, these artists represent exceptionally innovative and relevant works for our time. The selected artists are Nikta Sabouri, an Iranian-American freelance theater director, dramaturg, actor, and translator based in Boston and Iranian-American writer, actor and singer Isabelle Sanatdar Stevens. Nikta Sabouri’s project will be the first English translation of the 60-minute play Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh, a dramatic account of the fall of the Vizier to Yama, the King of Persia. This high-ranking official constructed a magical cup to give Yama infinite knowledge and absolute power, which ultimately led to their mutual downfall.  

The Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh is the third play in the “Naqqali Trilogy” book by Bahram Beyzaie.

Entertainment

Two Watertown Artists Instrumental in Bringing Teen Exhibit to ICA Boston

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Watertown’s Shivani Sharma, left, and Ruth Henry, center, speak withy Liz Rodgers at the opening reception for “The Stories that Make Us.” The following information was provided by Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin:

Friday evening Jan. 27 saw the opening of The Stories that Make Us, an exhibition of artwork by high school students that explores personal stories about migration, belonging, and overcoming adversity. Key organizers of the event were 2022 Watertown High School grad Shivani Sharma and former-Watertown Middle School teacher Ruth Henry. They represented of the I Learn America Initiative (www.ilearnamerica.com).