Spring 2008
Community Destination: Joy in Mudville
Soggy season showcase builds community spirit in Randolph
By M. Dickey Drysdale
Photographed by Robert Eddy
Now a tradition of 13 years standing, "The Mud Season Variety Show" touches every generation in the town of Randolph, pulling the community together for a showbiz extravaganza that fills the 575-seat Chandler Music Hall for two consecutive nights in April. It's a heartfelt release from the imprisonment of winter, a diversion from the soggy transition season before full spring, and a genuine celebration of the talents of friends and neighbors.
The Mud Season show — a crisp, well-produced package of music, skits, comedy and dance — also serves as the perfect introduction to Randolph for people who are new in the central Vermont town. The Rotman family, for instance, moved to Randolph three years ago, and right away took in a performance. "It was awesome," said Scott Rotman, the father in the family, who immediately began planning to be part of it. He eventually performed an a cappella blues number, while his wife, Tracey, revived her high school dance skills and appeared on stage for the first time since she was 18. Seven-year-old Ethan joined in with a storytelling sketch.
The annual event — and the weeks of buildup preparing for it — has also changed the fortunes of the Chandler Music Hall itself, with a new, more intimate relationship being forged between the venue and the community. Each year the show raises thousands of dollars for the hall's restoration and programming, and the good feelings encouraged by the Mud Season shows likely helped Randolph voters agree to a $750,000 bond to upgrade the hall. That's an enormous amount for a town of 4,800 people, but the vote was 2-to-1 in favor.
"Mud Season's great gift was opening the doors to the community, making Chandler a resource for everyone," says Rebecca McMeekin, executive director of the Chandler Center for the Arts.
The weeks before
"What happens behind the curtains is as important as what happens before the lights," says community outreach manager Betsy Cantlin, who has produced the last 12 Mud Season shows and puts in an estimated 100 hours for each one.
The process starts in December with auditions and rehearsals, and community members find many ways, including offstage roles, to get involved. There are a half-dozen high schoolers, for example, who work to learn all they can about lights, sound and stage management.
These young techies, says technical director Mimi Burstein, look forward to the show all year and even build their social calendars around it. It's also the best learning event of the year for them, she says.
The night of the show
It is shortly before showtime, and all three floors of the 100-year-old arts complex are pulsing with activity. In the dressing rooms below stage, a volunteer make-up crew is smearing color onto excited faces. Shrieks emanate from a cubicle where a comedy routine is being perfected. A troupe of teenage girls, who have created their own revue of songs from "Rent," are bubbling with excitement. "Our community is so cool," one girl says. "People are open to everything. It's a big family out there."
One floor up, three techies have set up equipment for the recording and eventual broadcast of the show on Comcast Channel 15. Nap Pietryka is making punch. He and a dozen other members of the Randolph Senior Center are preparing the intermission food sales. Early arrivals eye the goodies wistfully while they circulate through the Chandler Gallery, which is hung with the annual "Local Artists Show."
On the top floor, a big cake in the corner suggests a celebration to come. Snacks for the cast are the project of the high school Music Boosters; the cake is donated by Gifford Medical Center. Practicing at the piano is Craig Smith, a burly former innkeeper from Brookfield with an amazing talent for jazz improvisation. In another corner twin 12-year-old brothers, Alexander and William Sharpe from Sharon, practice Celtic fiddle tunes. Seated quietly at a table are accomplished pianist Cynthia Huard and her 16-year-old daughter Sarabeth Hamberlin of Rochester, who will absolutely bring down the house at the end of the first act with her performance of "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" from the musical, "Songs for a New World."
When the curtain opens at 7:30, the hall is full of people. Some of the 20 acts are terrific; some are not quite so terrific. But Randy Garner, a local funeral director who serves as emcee, keeps the evening rolling along with his entr'acte bits and the help of the Rev. Tom Harty, who happens to be a former deputy commissioner of agriculture for Vermont. The 500 folks of all ages in the audience roar and stomp and whistle their approval, regardless of how polished the act, and the amateur performers on stage bask in it all.
How to Go
- What: "The Mud Season Variety Show"
- When: April 11 and 12
- Where: Chandler Music Hall in Randolph,
located on Main Street about three miles from Exit 4 on Interstate 89. - Tickets: call 728-6464
- Website: www.chandler-arts.org