The board of directors at the Garfield Center for the Arts are proud to announce the theatre’s 2019 annual gala fundraiser; Broadway by the River! Hosted by New York’s drag queen sensation, Marti Gould Cummings, and featuring an evening of intimate performances and conversations with cast members of various Broadway shows; Emily Trumble of The Sound of Music, Jack Scott of Newsies! and Kristina Nicole Miller of The Preacher’s Wife. Featuring special guest Shannon Whittaker and musical director Blake Allen, Broadway by the River promises to once again deliver some of that “Big Apple” theatre magic to Chestertown on Friday, April 5th at 8pm.

Limited VIP “Broadway Pass” tickets are $100 each and include main level table seating, hors d’oeuvres, a complimentary themed cocktail and after party with the performers at The Kitchen at the Imperial. Tickets for the front row of the balcony are $75, general admission is $50 and tickets to the upper balcony are $25. Tickets can be purchased online at www.GarfieldCenter.org, by calling 410-810-2060 or in person at the Garfield Box Office, located at 210 High Street in Chestertown.

It’s that time of year again! The Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre is embarking on the exciting annual adventure in theatre known as “Short Attention Span Theatre”!  (For those not in the know, that’s our annual 10-minute play festival!)  Performance dates are June 21-23, June 28-30, and July 5-7. Members of the Live Playwrights’ Society (LPS) and non-members are encouraged to submit their work.

We are seeking scripts for 10-minute plays and 1-minute plays from local playwrights.

• Please send your submissions to sastplays@garfieldcenter.org
• Non-LPS members may submit up to two 10-minute plays and two 1-minute plays.
• LPS members may submit up to three 10-minute plays and five 1-minute plays.
• Please include a cover sheet with your contact information (email, phone, mobile).
• We anonymize submitted scripts before they are read by our panel of judges, so please refrain from putting your name on each page.
• If possible, please send your scripts in PDF format.
• Your play will fare better if it is well formatted. Look for links on the Live Playwrights’ Society site for tips on formatting (www.liveplaywrightssociety.org).
• The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, April 3, 2019.

Here is our process:  Submissions are anonymized and then read by our panel of judges.  Our panel of judges selects a number of submitted plays which are then offered to our group of directors.  Our directors select from this list (in addition to a list of published plays).  We will announce our final selections by June 1st.

Good luck & get to typing!

Visit the Garfield Center for the Arts website for more information on Short Attention Span Theatre and all of our upcoming events and productions (www.garfieldcenter.org)!

About Short Attention Span Theatre (SAST): Short Attention Span Theatre offers an evening of 10-minute plays, designed to hold your attention for just long enough. The plays will feature a multitude of actors, directors and authors, as well as the world premiere of original works by local playwrights.

About Live Playwrights’ Society: Live Playwrights’ Society (LPS) is a local writers group which was created in 2009 through a collaboration between former Church Hill Theatre Executive Director Steve Arnold, former Prince Theatre Executive Director Lucia Foster, and local writer Mark Sullivan. LPS aims to foster a community of playwrights, actors and critics.

The photo above was from the first weekend of The Curate Shakespeare’s As You Like It, our two weekend partnership with the Shore Shakespeare Company. Written by Don Nigro and directed by Earl Lewin, the final performances of this fast-paced play-within-a-play are this Friday, January 18th at 8pm, Saturday January 19th at 8pm and Sunday, January 20th at 3pm. Tickets are $15 general admission and can be purchased by calling 410-810-2060 or by emailing the box office at boxoffice@garfieldcenter.org

On December 15th at 3pm bring a comfy pillow and blanket to snuggle and listen as Kent County Public Librarian Natalie Lane reads holiday stories for the annual Gather ‘Round at the Garfield Center. Cookies, cocoa and candy canes are provided! Also joining in the fun will be the Chester River Youth Choir, who will lead everyone in some classic holiday carols. Admission is FREE, with donations supporting the Kent County Public Library.

For more information please call the Garfield Center at 410-810-2060 or email thogans@garfieldcenter.org

The Garfield Center for the Arts is located at 210 High Street in Chestertown.

Photo by Walter Bowie

Celebrate another year of high-quality local entertainment at the Garfield Center for the Arts! On December 15th, local favorites The High & Wides are sure to pack the Garfield for an 8pm concert that will close the theatre’s 2018 season with a bang.

The High & Wides, like the large-haul trains for which the band is named, project a big, driving sound—mountain musical traditions re-imagined for a new century. Formed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 2015, they write music about arson and hourly motels, dystopian love songs, and ballads of violent history.

The High & Wides draw from their members’ extensive backgrounds in bluegrass and take the music to a place all their own, recalling an era when old-time, rockabilly, and proto-rock’n’roll coexisted in a murky soup of hillbilly string band music. Members include Marc Dykeman (guitar, vocals), Sam Guthridge (banjo, mandolin, vocals), Nate Grower (fiddle), and Mike Buccino (bass).

The theatre will close for the holiday season from December 17th – January 2nd, so be sure to get your tickets for what promises to be a rollicking good time with The High and Wides. The Garfield will then kick off the 2019 year with a partnership with the Shore Shakespeare Company’s production of The Curate Shakespeare’s As You Like It, playing at the Garfield from January 11th – 20th.

Tickets to The High & Wides are $15 and can be purchased at the Garfield Center box office, online at www.garfieldcenter.org or by calling 410-810-2060. The Garfield Center for the Arts is located at 210 High Street in Chestertown.

On November 30th director Bonnie Hill will be opening a new show at the Garfield Center for the Arts; Ken Ludwig’s reimagining of a holiday classic, Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol. A veteran actress and director on local stages, Hill has directed the recent Garfield productions of Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike, A Delicate Balance and Sylvia.

In this version of Dickens’ classic, Tiny Tim hatches a plan to get his father home for Christmas day. With the help of some kindly sellers at the market and his friend Charlotte, Tiny Tim stages a spectacle filled with ghosts and Christmas cheer to convince Scrooge to give his father the day off. It all seems to be going according to plan until a little bit of real Christmas magic catches everyone by surprise.

The cast is as follows:

Tiny Tim………….……………….…………………………………………………………….…John Crook
Charlotte…………………….……..……………………………………………………….……Raven Miller
Scrooge………………………………….…………………………………………………Jim Landskroener
Puppet Seller………………….…………………………………………………………….…….Jane Jewell
Pie Seller……………….……………………………………….………………………………….David Ryan
Book Seller……………………..……………………………………..…………………Bryan Zajchowski
Gravedigger, Fred, Stevens………………………..…………….…………….………… Robbie Spray
Young Girl …………………………………………..……………………………………….Alden Swanson
Boy………………………………………………..……………………………………………………Caleb Ford
Carolers…………………………..……………Kathy Jones, Cornelia Fallon, Michelle Genovese

The show runs for two weekends, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm, November 30 – December 9.

Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol is sponsored in by Eastman Chemical Company and is a proud partner with the Chestertown Dickens Festival.

Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for seniors 65+and members of the US Military, and $10 for students. They are available online at www.garfieldcenter.org or by calling the Garfield Center box office at 410-810-2060.

Auditions for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee will be held at the Garfield Center for the Arts on Thursday, November 15th at 6pm, Saturday, November 17th at 10am and Tuesday, November 20th at 6pm. Directed by Gil Rambach, the play runs three weekends from February 8th-24th.

George, a professor at a small college, and his wife, Martha, have just returned home, drunk from a Saturday night party. Martha announces, amidst general profanity, that she has invited a young couple—an opportunistic new professor at the college and his shatteringly naïve new bride—to stop by for a nightcap. When they arrive the charade begins. The drinks flow and suddenly inhibitions melt. It becomes clear that Martha is determined to seduce the young professor, and George couldn’t care less. But underneath the edgy banter, which is crossfired between both couples, lurks an undercurrent of tragedy and despair. George and Martha’s inhuman bitterness toward one another is provoked by the enormous personal sadness that they have pledged to keep to themselves: a secret that has seemingly been the foundation for their relationship. In the end, the mystery in which the distressed George and Martha have taken refuge is exposed, once and for all revealing the degrading mess they have made of their lives.

Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play.

Actors needed:

Two Women, Ages 18-60

Two Men, Ages 25-50

Familiarity with the play is beneficial, and scripts will be available at the Garfield for your perusal. Be prepared to do cold readings from the script. Anyone interested in assisting backstage and with costumes or props is also encouraged to come to auditions.

If you have any questions about the production, please contact the Garfield (410-810-2060) or Executive Director Tess Hogans at thogans@garfieldcenter.org. The Garfield Center for the Arts is located at 210 High Street in Chestertown.

The Garfield Center for the Arts celebrates it’s 90^th anniversary on October 25^th with a lecture and book-signing with author Amy Davis and her book, Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theatres. The Garfield has undergone many transformations in the last ninety years. The New Lyceum and The Prince Theatre are so engrained in local history that people frequently come into the theatre and share their memories of the space as it used to be.

As we remember our own history, Davis will take us on her photographic journey through many of Baltimore’s incredible 129 theatres, from 1896-2017. About the project, Davis writes: “In 2008, I embarked on a hunt for Baltimore’s forgotten movie theaters. Many were forlorn ghosts, unrecognizable but still standing on faded streets in every corner of the city. My search led me to 72 theaters, each entreating me to reveal its history. Flickering Treasures unspools these stories, decade by decade, through the voices of filmgoers, movie exhibitors and theater employees. Their recollections about the magic of film, the business of movie presentation, and neighborhood loyalties bring each theater back to life. A broader narrative of one American city, Baltimore, is revealed through the social, cultural and architectural prism of its movie theaters.”

Davis, an award-winning Baltimore Sun staff photographer since 1987, brings her artistic eye and photojournalistic perspective to this homage to Baltimore. Amy received her BFA from The Cooper Union in New York City. At her first newspaper job at a weekly in Brooklyn, NY, Davis climbed to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge twice. This balancing act prepared her for the hazards of shooting inside decaying theaters and leaning precariously over rooftops for the perfect shot. After seven years at The Record in northern New Jersey, Amy headed south to Baltimore, and a rewarding career at The Sun covering politics, education, breaking news, social issues and features.

This event is co-sponsored by Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. The Bookplate will have a table in the lobby and will be selling copies of Flickering Treasures for purchase that evening.

Tickets are $10 general admission, and the event begins at 7pm on Thursday, October 25^th. To purchase tickets please visit www.garfieldcenter.org, call 410-810-2060 or stop by the Garfield Center box office at 210 High Street in Chestertown.

Flickering Treasures represents the real success of the Garfield. That our community has sustained a small performing arts center, that the doors are open, the lights are on and that we have events almost every weekend of the year with growing audiences is a tribute to the dedication of theatre staff and volunteers alike. How lucky we are to have this historical gem in our community. Here’s to the next ninety years!