Performance
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Staging Bishop’s Letters
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Bishop, one of the finest poets of the twentieth century. One of my favorite things about her is how she wandered up and down the Western Hemisphere throughout her life: born in Massachussetts and raised largely in Nova Scotia, she traveled widely in Europe,…
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“Queen City Radio Hour” Returns
One of the many things that Vermont (where I’m from) and Quebec (where I now live) have in common is a deep desire to preserve local culture. It’s true, this impulse can sometimes lead to divided politics (Bill 101 anyone?) and xenophobia (flatlanders will know what I mean), but it also means that the people…
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A Franco-American Weekend
June 24th is La Fête Nationale here in Quebec, also known as the feast day of St-Jean-Baptiste, the patron saint of the French in North America. So it’s fitting that I’m spending this weekend getting in touch with my Franco roots. Vermont History Expo On Saturday, June 26, I’ll be performing excerpts from my solo…
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The Solo Workshop: “Significant Others”
Although the products of their labor are often public, most of the work artists do is private and solitary. The actor in rehearsal, the painter in his studio, and the writer at her keyboard must all overcome the silence of the room or the blankness of the page in order to create. Art can be…
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The Painted Word
Next Wednesday, March 31, I’ll be taking part in The Painted Word Poetry Series at the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum. Growing up near UVM in South Burlington, we were often bussed over to the Fleming on field trips; I remember most vividly the 6th century mummy that is still part of the museum’s collection.…
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Thank You!
The Vermont Tour of my solo show Piecework: When We Were French concluded this past weekend with a pair of sold-out shows at Burlington’s Main Street Performing Arts Center. My heartfelt thanks to all of you who came out to see and support the show’s Vermont run! It was such a delight to share the…
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A Kind Review to Lead into Closing Weekend
When I was a teenager, I was fortunate to see Vermont poet David Budbill‘s play “Judevine” performed on the main stage of the Flynn Theater in Burlington, Vermont. If you’re not familiar with the play, it depicts a small, impoverished Vermont town and the people who inhabit it, lovingly but without illusions. For me that…
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“Piecework” Featured on Vermont Public Radio
The Vermont Tour of Piecework: When We Were French continues this weekend with performances at Marlboro College’s Whittemore Theater on Friday and Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater on Saturday. The Times-Argus called the show “fun, funny,” “fascinatingly entertaining and authentic,” and Seven Days said it was, “poetic and powerful…[Abby] Paige has assembled a patchwork of stories…
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“Piecework” on Vermont’s Own WDEV
The Vermont tour of my solo show, Piecework: When We Were French, is underway! Just before opening the first weekend of performances at Montpelier’s Lost Nation Theater, I was able to visit with Vermont radio man Mark Johnson at WDEV. WDEV is that increasingly-rare media animal: a locally-owned and broadcast radio station, and it’s a…
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Reading at Montreal’s Lawn Chair Soiree
Between the Vermont tour dates for my solo show, I’m pleased to be doing a little bit of performing in my own neighborhood. This week I’ll read some new poems at Jan Jorgensen’s Lawn Chair Soiree in the Plateau. Come out and warm up by the fire of three local writers’ words — and stay…
ABBY PAIGE 