Beethoven's 250th Birthday Will Be Running Theme It’s been a long few months of silent stages and empty performance venues across Cape Cod, but now it’s time to mark your calendar for a musical treat. In September the Cape Symphony, led by Artistic Director and Conductor Jung-Ho Pak, hopes to emerge from the pandemic shadows to take the stage at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center with an unforgettable comeb...

HARWICH – As a former educator, Dr. Donna Bender has always had a soft spot in her heart for young people, which is why, when she saw signs announcing the homes of seniors from Monomoy Regional High School, she was struck by all that the pandemic had taken from them. She decided to do something to lift their spirits. “I don’t want to sound like a Pollyanna, but I am most happy if I do something for someone oth...

When I sat down at the computer to write my column this week I found myself gazing out the window at nothing in particular in a sort of stupor. My brain had gone silent, my thoughts had vacated and even my eyes didn’t seem to be working right. I had the energy of a sloth and to be fair, that may be underestimating the poor sloth. This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced ennui in the last few months but w...

My walks in the woods are getting pretty buggy. This is usually what stops me from my weekly forays into the woods that I love so much, and it always happens right about now. I tend to walk in areas that have water nearby so mosquitoes, deer flies, gnats and other bugs I can’t identify swarm around me as if greeting a long lost friend. To be honest, some days it gets to be too much. I do use bug spray if I...

One of the fun annual events you’ve crossed out on your COVID-19 socially distanced summer social calendar may soon be possible once again. The folks at the Payomet Performing Arts Center are exploring options for a series of safe, drive-in style outdoor concerts which, though not exactly what we’re used to in a summer concert, is sure to hit the spot for audiences who have become a bit too familiar with the insi...

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of walking out in the woods or on the beach and I’ve discovered that no matter where I go, the sounds of cars, sirens, planes and boat motors are ever present. Even in this time of reduced traffic, a certain level of noise has continued unabated. There may be stretches of time where the natural sounds of nature alone can be heard but they are rare and short, if you really stop to li...

“ What did you miss the most during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020?” Someday in the future, someone will ask you this question. For many Cape Codders, the answer will be easy. We missed warm, breezy evenings spent gathered with our friends, families and neighbors on blankets or in beach chairs. We missed the sound of laughter, the sight of suntanned children chasing each other across the green grass...

Had enough of the quarantine blues? Chatham Drama Guild is cooking up the antidote to all of those quiet nights at home, and when the coast is clear and conditions are safe to avoid transmission of the COVID-19 virus, a welcome night of laughter is on the horizon, perhaps as soon as late July. Back in January, director Anna Marie Johansen, who was preparing to depart for Europe for the month of February, held ...

  The sun was only recently out of bed, her rays stretching low across the landscape in sheets of golden light. The path I chose for my morning walk was through the woods, around a pond, and the light on the new baby leaves was breathtaking. There was a mist of lacy lime green wherever I looked. Yellows and greens and pinks, oh my. An ovenbird called from the woods while a kingbird watched over t...

Back in August 1936, Walter Raushenbush accompanied his parents, Elizabeth and Paul Raushenbush, to the Chatham Theater on Main Street. They were not interested so much in the movie — at age eight, Walter had not yet seen a movie — as in the March of Time newsreel that would be shown before the main attraction. Someone had told them that Paul was featured in a newsreel, and they wanted to see him on the silver...

Sometimes when we observe nature we see things that seem surprisingly disorderly, even disruptive. After watching cute little chickadees for years, one day I witnessed one trying to kill another. It was spring, hormones were probably running high and these two birds were fighting so fiercely I was sure they were fighting to the death. One bird had the other on the ground on its back and was pounding on it whi...

As summer approaches, local theaters have had big decisions to make. Many local performance venues have gracefully adjusted to the social distancing demands of COVID-19 to provide remote classes, readings and auditions via online platforms like Facebook Live and Zoom. However, there is a big difference between these types of interactions and the typical theater’s summer schedule of rehearsals and performances ...