In the wings
: MRT GRANT: Merrimack Repertory Theatre — the Lowell-based MRT — recently received a Cultural Organization Economic Recovery grant of $100,000 from the Mass Cultural Council.
The program, administered by the Mass Cultural Council in partnership with the Executive
Office of Housing and Economic Development as part of the Baker administration’s Economic Recovery Plan, helps to support cultural nonprofits impacted by the pandemic.
The funding is essential to MRT’S survival as it nears the one-year anniversary of its shutdown. “We need this funding to survive until we can reopen,” Executive Director Bonnie J. Butkas said in a press release expressing MRT’S thanks.
She noted that the funding will help pay artists and arts workers who have been impacted by the pandemic. MRT hopes to produce a limited series beginning in late March. Visit www.mrt.org for updates.
: LOADING UP CANNON: Littleton’s Cannon Theatre, which has been dark for almost a year, is excited for its next foray — and it’s out of this world. Coming in the spring is “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show” by Douglas Adams.
To set up an audition, email Jerry Mcmahon, the director, at jmcmahon@thecannontheatre.org. He will send cast hopefuls a portion of the script to the radio show, and they, in turn, will record the part they want and email it back to him.
Contact Mcmahon via email with questions.
: A DOGGONE REMINDER: Don’t forget the virtual performances of “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” on Friday-saturday, Jan. 22-23, at 7:30 p.m. It’s being produced by Lowell-based Dramatically Incorrect Theater Group & Dance Company. For more info, visit www.facebook.com/ events/2617933421831894.
: N.H. SCENE: Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth opens its Mainstage season Jan. 28-March 21 with two short plays by Najee Brown, available live and live-streamed. “Stokely & Martin” is an imagined depiction of a real-life discussion between Martin Luther King
Jr., the recognized father of the civil-rights movement, and a young Stokely Carmichael, who challenged King with a confrontational call for “Black power” and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Brown’s second play, “Nevaeh’s Brother” depicts the familial love between an Africanamerican woman and her younger brother, who’s in trouble and on the run. The plays, when staged together, represent a whole that could be entitled “Black Nobility, Black Identity,” Brown says.
Tickets are $30-$48. Visit www.seacoastrep.org for details ... Peterborough Players revives its popular Playgroup, a series of interactive, online workshops that “pull back the curtain” on theater-making by exploring essential elements of the art form.
The series begins Feb. 12 and 19 at 7:30 p.m., with Bridget Beirne sharing insight into musical theater. Free but space is limited and registration required. To register, email info@peterboroughplayers.org and indicate “Playgroup – Beirne” in the subject line. Upcoming sessions include Theatrical Design, March 5 and 12, and another, TBA, on March 26 and April 2.
Nancye Tuttle’s email is nancyedt@verizon.net.