Culture - Marblehead Current

Marblehead Little Theatre’s ‘Tuck Everlasting’ opens Friday

22Feb

By Linda WerbnerNo Comments

Culture, Entertainment, Local News, Top Stories

Marblehead Little Theatre’s ‘Tuck Everlasting’ opens Friday

“We are in the home stretch,” said Trudi Olivetti, director of the Marblehead Little Theatre's production, "Tuck Everlasting: The Musical" as she prepared to head out for one of the final rehearsals before the premiere on Friday, Feb. 24. “We’re doing full runs in costume, figuring out where the furniture will go, and especially the lighting.” As Olivetti explained, the lighting is a crucial element in the MLT production. “It helps identify a location, the time and tells the story.” The musical is based on Natalie Babbitt’s timeless children’s classic written in 1975 about the friendship between an 11-year-old girl, Winnie Foster, and the Tuck family who live nearby. The Tucks drank from a magic spring which made them immortal. Jesse Tuck, who is17, asks Winnie to drink from th...

12Feb

By Leigh BlanderNo Comments

Culture, Nonprofit corner, Press releases

MRJT: Soundtrack of the civil rights movement

Hear the stories of three people involved in the 1960s civil rights movement and how singing influenced their lives at the Marblehead Racial Justice Team meeting on Monday, Feb. 27, 7 p.m. This meeeting, during Black History Month, will reveal ways that music played different roles at different times in the southern freedom movement. Music energized and motivated people, creating a “beloved community” of the protesters who demanded that all Americans have equal access to public venues and to voting and legal systems. Many of these college-age activists adapted popular songs, advertising jingles and ballads, as well as gospel songs and spirituals. In them, they expressed their hopes, fears and frustrations. Some of the most iconic songs include “We Shall Overcome,” "Lift Every V...

Franklin Street firehouse needs $2.3M worth of work

9Feb

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Culture, Local History, Local News, Municipal Matters, Public safety, Top Stories

Franklin Street firehouse needs $2.3M worth of work

The Marblehead Select Board’s 2023 warrant articles will include a request to override Proposition 2 1/2 to finance the restoration of the Franklin Street firehouse. The Select Board took its vote on Feb. 8 after architects Ryan Foster and Erik Christensen summarized an assessment of the condition of the historic building that the town commissioned last year. Fire Chief Jason Gilliland briefs the Marblehead Select Board on the Franklin Street Firehouse renovation. CURRENT PHOTO / WILLIAM J. DOWD "The firehouse is a wood structure built in 1886, and it has been continuously used as a fire station since its construction," Foster told the Select Board. "It is one of the oldest continuously operated fire stations in the commonwealth." Today, the firehouse at 3 Frankli...

Marblehead gathers to mourn Tyre Nichols

6Feb

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Culture, Local News, Public safety, Top Stories

Marblehead gathers to mourn Tyre Nichols

Members of the Marblehead community converged Sunday afternoon for a Seaside Park vigil to grieve the police killing of Tyre Nichols last month in Memphis, Tennessee. The Rev. James Bixby of Clifton Lutheran Chruch speaks to a crowd at an afternoon vigil for Tyre Nichols on Sunday, Feb. 5. CURRENT PHOTOS / WILLIAM J. DOWD On Jan. 7, five Memphis Police Department officers beat Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, following a traffic stop. He died three days later. Nichols’ death is another incident of longstanding police brutality against Black men in the United States. The officers have since been fired and charged with second-degree murder. "Why is it that we continue to gather again and again in the same fashion? Why do Black and Brown people always seem to be the victims of...

Town marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day

6Feb

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Community resources, Culture, Local News, Religion

Town marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Dozens of community members gathered outside Abbot Hall on Jan. 27 to observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Rabbi David Meyer of Temple Emanu-El speaks outside Abbot Hall during the town’s first International Holocaust Remembrance Day observance on Jan. 27. COURTESY PHOTOS / JAMES MURPHY The United Nations designated the day of remembrance in 2005, and it commemorates the systematic mass murder of 6 million Jews and millions of other minorities by the Nazi regime. “The date recognizes when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in 1945,” said Helaine Hazlett, who co-chairs the Marblehead Task Force Against Discrimination. “It is critical to honor the memory of all those whose lives were lost during the time of these unimaginable, inexplicable murders.” Th...

Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead displays Fogle’s playful, eloquent art

4Feb

By Linda WerbnerNo Comments

Culture, Entertainment, Life Style, Local News, Nonprofit corner

Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead displays Fogle’s playful, eloquent art

With its striking black-and-white palette, Jean Fogle's bold and dynamic work, now on display at the Stetson Gallery, defies categorization or labels. The multimedia exhibition showcases several decades of Fogle's vibrant and unconventional acrylics, drawings, collages and ceramics. Stroll into the compact and sunny gallery inside the Unitarian Universalist Church, and your eye is pulled to her diverse and energetic work in various media. On one wall is a large canvas entitled “First Date” with two whimsically “nervous” chairs sitting side by side. Flanking “First Date” are two painted ceramic plates with folk art images of a strutting rooster and flowers. On another wall is a collaged wreath of entwined hands made from antique gloves entitled “Friendship Wreath.” Building a ...

Banner year for the Glover’s Regiment march

31Jan

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Culture, Local History, Local News, Top Stories

Banner year for the Glover’s Regiment march

It was a chilly and clear night for Glover’s Marblehead Regiment’s annual march from the Old Town House to Old Burial Hill to pay homage to Gen. John Glover. As the sun retreated, Capt. Seamus Daly led the march as a banner-year crowd of about 150 people trailed behind the single-file line of reenactors. Members of Glover’s Marblehead Regiment tell the story of how the famous Marblehead general helped George Washington cross the Delaware River in the Revolutionary War. : Locals join Revolutionary War reenactors as they march in the annual funeral procession from the Old Town House to the former home of General John Glover on Sat., Jan. 29. Reenactors prepare to march outside Gen. John Glover’s former home during the Glover’s Marblehead Regiment funeral march...

Marblehead Little Theatre’s ‘Party?’ delivers a funny, bittersweet punch

26Jan

By Linda WerbnerNo Comments

Culture, Entertainment, Local News, Nonprofit corner, Top Stories

Marblehead Little Theatre’s ‘Party?’ delivers a funny, bittersweet punch

Stella Adler, the founder of the prestigious Stella Adler Studio of Acting, whose alumni include Robert De Niro, Salma Hayek and Marlon Brando, famously observed that "the theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time." "Party?," the new ensemble comedy which opened at the Marblehead Little Theater on Jan. 20, does just that. This wicked, witty romp, which the play's author and Marblehead resident, Anne M. Lucas, aptly describes as a cross-pollination of Ibsen's "A Doll's House" meets Neil Simon, packs a bittersweet punch as it takes the audience on a rollicking spiritual and social X-ray of three marriages — couples in their 20s, 50s and 70s. With its spot-on comic timing and spitfire exchanges, "Party?" nimbly captures multiple relationship crossroads in a funny, take...

Dynamic duo: Ashley, brother-in-law with Down syndrome team on striking images

25Jan

By Kris OlsonNo Comments

Culture, Local News, Nonprofit corner, Top Stories

Dynamic duo: Ashley, brother-in-law with Down syndrome team on striking images

Michael is shown as a pensive hunter in the first of a series of images in which he sports one of his beloved Superman outfits. COURTESY PHOTO / RICK ASHLEY Nearly five decades ago, Marblehead photographer Rick Ashley quickly forged a tight bond with his brother-in-law, Michael. There was a memorable trip to Disney World. Other times, they would just hang out. But that Michael, who has Down syndrome, would come to serve as the centerpiece of a series of images that would gain national acclaim is something of a happy accident. Residents can see many of those same images on display in the Larrabee Gallery at the Marblehead Arts Association through Feb. 26. The project with Michael began when Ashley learned from his neighbor, accomplished photography editor, author and publish...

The Dixey Collection: Meet the keeper of 5,000 Marblehead photographs

18Jan

By Leigh BlanderNo Comments

Culture, Local History, Local News, Top Stories

The Dixey Collection: Meet the keeper of 5,000 Marblehead photographs

The Marblehead Current is proud to partner with photographer Dan Dixey, who will be sharing photos from his extensive collection, along with information about each shot, in our print and online editions. “Each picture is a frozen moment.” So says Dan Dixey, who has collected more than 5,000 photographs of Marblehead dating back to the 1860s and chronicling life here in town. Photographer Dan Dixey has collected more than 5,000 pictures of Marblehead. COURTESY PHTO / MELISSA DIXEY “Each picture makes me wonder what else was going on around it and how my family was a part of what was going on,” Dixey told the Marblehead Current. Dixey is an 11th-generation Marbleheader. “William Dixey sailed over on one of the first English ships and settled in Salem in 1629, when Salem en...