Actor and director Gary Smith has performed in multiple productions of “A Christmas Carol” around the country. He’s seen many, many more. And he was quite sure he knew what it was about — then he ran across the original novella by a guy named Dickens.

George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” is perhaps the most universal piece of music, being performed at Christmastime nearly everywhere on Earth — though the oratorio is perhaps more appropriate for Easter.

Handel’s “Messiah” is a Christmas tradition throughout the world, but Grace Church in Rutland may be presenting the only performances in Vermont this year. And to its annual performances, the church is adding a Christmas cantata by Handel’s colleague Johann Sebastian Bach.

Handel’s “Messiah” is a Christmas tradition throughout the world, but Grace Church in Rutland may be presenting the only performances in Vermont this year. And to its annual performances, the church is adding a Christmas cantata by Handel’s colleague Johann Sebastian Bach.

“Almost every song in this show I have never performed live,” Irish singer-songwriter Maxine Linehan said. “We recorded the album last year but, we didn’t ever get to perform the songs. So the backbone of the show is the album, and the catalyst for creating the album was always that someday …

Thanksgiving diners were back on Thursday although dinners hadn’t gone away.

Sen. Patrick Leahy has announced he will not seek re-election, saying, “It’s time to come home.”

Ann Clark Cookie Cutters want to color the cookies it cuts.

Larry Gordon, who likely brought community singing to more Vermonters than anyone in our state’s history, died last week at the age of 76 as the result of a tragic bicycle accident. The accident — with no car involved — occurred Nov. 1, near his Marshfield home, and resulted in serious brain…

The holidays are right around the corner, and if you’re looking for something artsy to do, here’s a roundup of what’s happening in the area.

A week before Thanksgiving, the gift-giving season got an early start in Rutland on Thursday with Operation Dolls & More providing 10,000 items to local nonprofits that are expected to be given to area children during the holiday season.

The Rutland County Parent Child Center is investing in its Brandon facility thanks to a recent grant.

AROUND TOWN

Mid-November serves up a slew of compelling live music options. Here’s a look at some hot concerts to heat up chilly nights.

Stephen Goldberg is back! And for the first time ever the 82-year-old highly pedigreed jazz trumpeter will appear on stage with his daughter. Not only that, perhaps Vermont’s most daring playwright has written a new book sharing some of his more interesting — and outrageous — work.

Deep in the woods in the middle of the night, a white-haired man, maybe in his 70s and his dog set out to find what they determine together to be a good spot. They’re in search of the white Alba truffle, an extremely rare and prized delicacy.

Otter Valley Union High School’s fall musical promises to be mysterious and spooky and altogether “ooky.”

PITTSFORD — The Navy wasn’t ready for Cathy Rider when she joined in 1971.

When the Rutland Herald first contacted us to ask if we’d like to write a column, the first reaction was, “Wow! What an opportunity!” So, the first thing is to thank the editors for asking. After all, the Poultney Area Chamber of Commerce isn’t the largest in the state. It doesn’t make news …

Ripton-based singer-songwriter Sarah King represented Vermont well at the 2021 New England Music Awards last month in Malden, Massachusetts, taking home the award for Songwriter of the Year.

One of Vermont’s most established and compelling bands, lauded blues-soul-pop group Dwight + Nicole — guitarist Dwight Ritcher, singer Nicole Nelson and bassist Ezra Oklan — takes it up a notch on a new five-song EP, “Further.” Released Oct. 22, it’s one of the best EPs to ever come out of t…

The first year Laine Hardy auditioned for American Idol it wasn’t his year. He didn’t make it very far into the season, and returned the following year only to play guitar for a friend’s audition. But the judges remembered him, got him to play a song, and wouldn’t let him leave before he agr…

During interviews, one refugee talked about how he wore out his shoes just from walking. Another man talked about his mother, who fled her village with only seconds to decide what she was going to take with her — a 50-pound bag of flour, so that wherever they wound up she’d have something to…

When Tommy Hyde was a student at Middlebury College 10 years ago he took a class called “Adventure Writing and Digital Storytelling.” In it, students went out into the community for a month and followed around a local character, wrote something about them, and made a short film.

Almost two years after speaking to the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce on the same stage, Stefanie Schaffer had another walk-on role at at the Paramount Theatre.

Akiko Fujimoto sees herself as the representative for the music she is conducting.

There are lots of ways to make an album these days. But, “Back in the day when we started, the old-fashioned way was to get a record label to come down to see you at a club,” Eric Bloom recalled.

Rutland County boasts Vermont’s latest teacher of the year.

Electric vehicle sales in Vermont are increasing in sales but only when models are available from local dealerships. In recent months, a shortage of computer chips used in all new vehicles has led to a slowdown of deliveries of cars and trucks at many car dealerships nationally and Vermont i…

Spend any time at Rutland City Public Schools’ Allen Street Campus, and you’ll learn a thing or two about recycling and composting.

The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, after a year online in collaboration with Burlington’s Vermont International Film Festival, returns in-person to Town Hall Theater for the 2021-22 season. This year’s MNFF Selects theme is “Humans and Animals: Shared Experiences, Intersecting Worlds.”

When Brandon’s Barn Opera House “officially” opens next weekend, it will be with one of the most beloved gems of the repertoire, Giuseppe Verdi’s “La traviata.” And the audience will be invited to share in the festivities — even on stage.

Whether or not you believe in fate, moments of destiny seem to happen to us all. That’s where we meet two soulful strangers with secrets in “The Tangled Skirt.” Playwright Steven Braunstein’s noir crime comedy begins at a dimly lit bus stop in the middle of nowhere, just past midnight when t…

The museum introduces a scientific way of looking at art. Instead of examining aesthetic qualities of isolated sculptures, canvases and images, it examines groups of artwork as formally interrelated emotions that lead predictably to conflict resolution totalities.

They’re performing in a new play presented by the Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance (VSCA) about the history of women’s suffrage, “The Suffragist Reenactment Society,” directed by Laura Roald, that will tour the state Oct. 2-30, including West Rutland (Oct. 9) and Montpelier (Oct. 30).

Julia Dorr now gazes upon downtown from the lawn of Rutland Free Library.

Steve Halford’s latest exhibit is solely raku clay pottery, the one-of-a-kind pieces you won’t find in Target or T.J. Maxx. “Silent Spring Revisited” is currently in the Chaffee Art Center for its new exhibit with the Rutland County Audubon Society, “Nature Revealed, A Wildlife Art Show.”

When Annie Rosen plays the role of Joan of Arc in the Opera Company of Middlebury production of Tchaikovsky’s “Maid of Orleans” next week, few audience members will have anything to compare her performance to.

Gloomy certainly describes many Irish-American plays, comedy or drama. And gloom certainly sets the stage for “Outside Mullingar,” John Patrick Shanley’s romantic comedy about a most unexpected couple in rural Ireland — or perhaps not so unexpected.

Della Mae is headlining an outdoor end-of-summer celebration at Okemo’s Jackson Gore Inn courtyard in Ludlow with a beer garden from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, for a new event called Okemo Mountain Taps & Tastes.