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By ALEX HANSON

Since its founding in 2004, WRIF (White River Indie Films) has held its annual festival all over the calendar.Sometimes that meant the festival happened when the weather was so nice that it could be hard to lure people out of their gardens and into a...

By ALEX HANSON

Before he founded Shaker Bridge Theatre, in 2007, Bill Coons had picked out the sailboat on which he planned to retire.Instead, he put his retirement money into starting a small theater company, from which he didn’t draw a paycheck for the first five...

By ALEX HANSON

CROYDON — Avoiding a repeat of last year, voters here turned out in relatively large numbers Saturday to approve the annual school budget.But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few proposals at the Croydon School District Meeting to alter the budget....

By ALEX HANSON

In 25 years of covering the Upper Valley, one of the most extraordinary public gatherings I’ve been to was the 2012 Bethel Town Meeting.Unhappy with how town officials handled the immediate aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene the previous year, voters...

By ALEX HANSON

ROYALTON — Making music on her own has been part of Alison Turner’s life since middle school. For a shy, self-described “reticent” child, music was an outlet.“I think I got my first Mac computer when I was in seventh grade,” Turner, a Royalton native...

By ALEX HANSON

CROYDON — Jody Underwood and Angi Beaulieu were allies on the Croydon School Board during a fierce battle over education policy that led to a major change in state law.That they are now opponents, with Beaulieu challenging Underwood, the current board...

By ALEX HANSON

Travis Ramsey’s two kids were still small when they inspired him to start writing a string quartet about childhood back in 2017.Ramsey, who teaches music at Marion Cross School, also had just read a book about Wagnerian childhood that guided his...

By ALEX HANSON

STRAFFORD — In approving town and school budgets and electing officials, voters might have been doing so for the last time at a traditional Town Meeting.Packed into Strafford’s celebrated Town House, residents opted to make all of their future town...

By ALEX HANSON

SOUTH ROYALTON — A sparse turnout of Bethel and Royalton voters didn’t have much to say at the annual White River Valley Unified School District meeting until after they’d approved all of the business in front of them.After adopting a budget of nearly...

By ALEX HANSON

ROYALTON — The Selectboard decided to put on the Town Meeting warning a proposal to hire a town manager.But the best way to pursue moving to the town manager form of government would be to vote it down, voters and town officials said at Tuesday...

By ALEX HANSON

Around 18 months ago, John Stomberg pitched the idea of curating a show at AVA Gallery and Art Center as part of AVA’s 50th anniversary year.It was not the kind of pitch AVA staff had to puzzle over. Stomberg, director of Dartmouth College’s Hood...

By ALEX HANSON

NORWICH — A change in how Vermont funds public education will lead to a big tax increase in Norwich.Act 127, approved last year, assigns greater weight to students in poverty or who are learning English as a second language.According to a study that...

By ALEX HANSON

CORNISH — After almost two years of study and debate, voters here will be able to weigh in on whether to accept the gift of a new, more accessible library at Town Meeting.Representatives of the town’s library trustees and the Connect Cornish...

By ALEX HANSON

Two longtime Upper Valley performers are each bringing to the stage productions that are departures from their past work.First, on Friday evening, Alan Haehnel opens My Ode to Joy — a performance of spoken-word poetry mixed with music — at Parish...

By ALEX HANSON

In meetings Wednesday, officials with the Hanover, Norwich and Dresden school districts considered cuts to budgets that will come up for approval by the districts’ boards in the next two weeks.Those discussions revealed two communities facing very...

By ALEX HANSON

Maybe it’s because the Christmas holiday falls on a weekend, but the next few days are as filled with arts events as a person could hope for. All the cliches about gifts under the tree apply.So rather than write a lot about one subject, it seems...

By ALEX HANSON

BETHEL — A house fire early Tuesday morning claimed the lives of a Bethel couple.Neighbors identified the residents of 2937 Christian Hill Road, Davis Dimock and Victoria Weber, both in their 70s, as victims of the fire.Fire personnel were called to...

By ALEX HANSON

Among the arts, theater might be the best at activating our willingness to be charmed by life.Well, some theater anyway. This idea came to mind after a performance of Shaker Bridge Theatre’s production of Living Together, one-third of Alan Ayckbourn’s...

By ALEX HANSON

In a further sign of the Upper Valley’s growing reach in the arts, the Thanksgiving week will offer art both global and local in scale that has ties to the area.First the global: Devotion, which can safely be called “a major motion picture,” is on...

By ALEX HANSON

The Republican tide that lifted many state and local politicians to victory in the 1994 mid term election ended up sinking a few boats, too.Yes, GOP challenger Charlie Bass defeated incumbent Democrat Dick Swett in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional...