ASHBURNHAM — New Dawn Arts Center, at 84 Main St., will present one night only of “America at 250: Then and Now,” a staged reading created and directed by Kevin Scott Hall that will include musical guests and singalongs of the well-known patriotic songs on Wednesday, July 1, at 7 p.m.
Hall, who grew up in Ashburnham, moved back to town a few years ago after spending 35 years in New York City. There, he was best known as a nightclub singer and occasional actor, and was also an entertainment reporter for Edge Media for several years. He also authored a memoir and a novel.
Although he has directed singers in their nightclub acts, this is Hall’s directing debut with a theater piece.
“This is just something I wanted to do for the 250th,” Hall said. “I had talked about it with a couple of local theater companies, but their schedules were already booked up. So, at the beginning of April, I decided I just needed to do it myself and, luckily, New Dawn Arts Center was available.”
Hall contacted his former history professor at Oakmont Regional High School, Bob McGowan, now retired. McGowan quickly got on board and provided helpful sources to get Hall started on his search.
“When Kevin and I first met, I felt it was a huge undertaking,” McGowan said. “We saw we had certain limitations, trying to wrap our heads around doing our country’s history in two hours.”
While pursuing the arts, Hall’s day job has often been an editor — publishing, law and medical material over the years. “But this time, the editing was fun!” Hall said. “The first day I started reading it was about 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning. At some point, I got hungry and I looked up at the clock and it was nearly 5. I was so engrossed.”
It was important for the team, which also included some input from the current Oakmont history chair, Dana Altobelli, to let the history do the talking, without partisan commentary.
“There is some controversial stuff in the show,” Hall said. “But we’re only repeating what our men and women leaders have said before. Let people listen to their words and judge for themselves. People may be surprised, as I was, that so much of what was said years — and even decades and centuries ago — is still relevant today.”
Local actors and speakers in the show are the following: Traci Bartlett, Pinkie Evans Liao, Samantha Kender, Noel McGonigle, Carolyn Salter, Sherisa Sterling, Jakki Therrien, Lucas Cardwell, Travis Fox, Fred Gerhard, Jerry McMahon, James Niles-Joyal and Oliver Wessels.
Musical soloists will be Cassie Swartz, Tom Hopkins, and Derek D’Ambroise. Patricia Frederick (of the famed Frederick Piano Concerts) will accompany, and renowned international organist Malcolm Halliday will play a prelude and an intermission interlude.
Halliday has performed in the United States, Mexico and Europe, both as a soloist, conductor, and in collaboration with singers, instrumentalists, and orchestra. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Malcolm Halliday retired in 2017 as artistic director of the Master Singers of Worcester and Minister of Music at the First Congregational Church in Shrewsbury, where he served for nearly 30 years. Since then he has divided his time between his principal residence in San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico, and his lake house in Ashburnham. Currently he is artistic director of Chorale San Miguel in Mexico and returns frequently to do concert work in New England.
Admission is free, but donations will be accepted. Anyone interested in seeing the show is encouraged to make reservations on the New Dawn website at https://tinyurl.com/nhd86ze9. All proceeds will benefit the center.
To learn more about New Dawn Arts Center and what they offer, go to www.newdawnarts.org.
For more information, contact Emma Liddle at New Dawn at [email protected] or Kevin at [email protected].
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