Spell Check! A Spelling Bee for Grown-Ups - Take 4!

Last year and the year before that, Brattleboro Arts Initiative brought Spell Check! A Spelling Bee for Grown-ups to town. Set on the main stage of the glorious Latchis Theatre, these events were more fun than we even imagined!

BAI is bringing Spell Check! back on April 14, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. and we're putting out the call for eighteen 3-person teams.

Host Tom Bodett, Judge Archer Mayor, and Beekeeper Jim Maxwell return to announce, pronounce, denounce, and generally keep the spelling mayhem under control. Tom Bodett weaves a tapestry of hilarious stories and running jokes with the list of spelling words.

The victorious team will enjoy the ever popular Bragging Rights, plus their team's name or other brief saying displayed on the Latchis Theatre marquee!

For the Spell Check! registration form and more information, please click here: Spell Check! registration form and more information.

P.S. Spell Check! is an important annual fundraiser for Latchis Arts and we thank you for your support. If you don't form a team, find one to sponsor!

Memories, anyone?

Brattleboro has been enjoying a lot of good press these days and it's gratifying to see the Latchis right in the mix. The Latchis was listed as one of Country Living Magazine's "8 Reasons to Visit Brattleboro." And we were reminded recently that the Latchis was mentioned in a New York Times article in March 2010.

Happily, we know first hand that Brattleboro and the Latchis are memorable - and truly, can you imagine one without the other? Not me.

I moved to this area 39 years ago and remember driving into town thinking, does this town really exist? Now mind you, I grew up near one of the country's first enclosed shopping malls, and living in the suburbs away from a town center, the mall became the town square. So, call me a mallrat, but I'm here to tell you that as much fun as that might have been, it's NOTHING compared to living in a real town with a real Main Street, and a real historic movie palace and downtown hotel.

We at Brattleboro Arts Initiative have been thinking a lot lately about memories and the Latchis. This landmark has been here for 73 years and we just know there have to be remembrances of first dates, gala dances, graduations, honeymoon nights, New Years Eve parties, even spitballs in the balcony! Actually, we do know - we collected a lively bunch of them in 2007 and retold them at our Party of the Decades. We're ready for new stories, large or small, current or vintage, from the young and the less young... Won't you share with us a memorable experience you had at the Latchis?

Here are ways to do it: E-mail me back, call 254-1109 x3, write to 50 Main Street, or drop something off at the hotel desk. We ask that you include contact info. with your story, so we can get back to you.

Like the Graffiti Time Capsule party we held before Latchis 4's renovation, there's a lot of local history in these old walls. Help us shine the light!

Cheers,
Gail

PS Feel free to share this around to friends and family. Thanks.

To the Golden West!

Puccini's La Fanciulla del West is riding into town this weekend.

The Met's revival starring Deborah Voigt and Marcello Giordani commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the opera's 1910 World Premiere at the Met. Giancarlo Del Monaco's "brilliant staging" (Financial Times) "allows this remarkable score to come through beautifully" (The New York Times).

The story of the Girl of the Golden West is rife with heroes, semi-heroes, cheating at poker, and true love. Puccini whips it up but good!

If you haven't seen any of the MET Live in HD operas at the Latchis yet, you are in for a real treat. The sound is wonderful and the images are vivid. The backstage chatter during intermission is intriguing. Reports from the corps of dedicated Latchis attendees is that the fun quotient is "SO much!"

And let's not forget Jim Anderson Talks Opera at 12:00 before the Saturday opera, for about 40 minutes. Jim, who performed opera in Europe for 20 years, tells tales to entertain and enlighten.

Saturday's opera starts at 1:00. Sunday's opera starts at 11:00. Running time is approx. 3.5 hours. There are two intermissions.

Advance reservations for both the Opera and Jim's talk are encouraged.

So many ways to get tickets: Visit brattleborotix.com; call Brattleboro Arts Initiative at 254-1109x4 or our Partners in Opera, the Brattleboro Music Center at 257-4523; email LatchisMetTix@gmail.com; or purchase at the door.

Have fun at the Opera!
Gail

It's a wrap!

Here we are, at the end of another year in the arts in southeastern Vermont.  Jon Potter of the Brattleboro Reformer did a stellar job wrapping it up in today's Ovation

It was a big year for new things at the Latchis Theatre. Latchis 4, a new space in the old NEYT location, opened officially on June 8 after a $260,000 facelift by the Brattleboro Arts Initiative. Not long after, the Latchis Theatre added 3-D technology and screened "Despicable Me" as its first 3-D offering. In October, the fat lady -- and all her friends -- started singing when the BAI and the Brattleboro Music Center teamed up to present live HD broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. Long wished for, the opera broadcasts came about thanks to a timely fundraising campaign. Of course, the Latchis continued to serve as the venue for really big concerts, among them Jonathan Edwards, the A Cappella Show, John Sebastian, Childsplay, Nowell Sing We Clear, Bush Mango and even "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Yes, it was a big year for us, as they all have been since Brattleboro Arts Initiative took the helm.  In March of 2011 it will be 8 years of what we call "relentless incrementalism," a collection of small steps that amount to a great deal of positive change. In 2011 we will be taking more steps along this route, working toward getting new seats and restoring the ceiling in the main theatre, ladies room improvements, more Met Live in HD programming, and who knows what-all else.  Always on the wish list is funding for facade restoration and a new marquee. And, as always, we will work hard to maintain the Latchis as a central part of the community and the arts.

From Brattleboro Arts Initiative and Latchis Corp. to you, heartfelt thanks for being our cherished donors, loyal audience, and moral supporters. We ascribe to two truths at the Latchis: "Something for everyone." and "We wouldn't be where we are without you."

Thanks, and Happy New Year,

Cheers,
Gail

along with --

Brattleboro Arts Initiative Board of Directors:  
Ben James, President, Lisa Bloch, Carol Schnabel, Anne Latchis, Gordon Hayward, Rich Perra, Heddy Pomazi, Andy Shepard, Andy Yoder

Latchis Corporation Board of Directors:
Rick Hashagen, President, Elizabeth Catlin, Becky Day, Dan Yates, Jeremy Coleman, Richard Gale, David Hiler, Pam Matweecha, Phil Steckler