Meeting Norwich’s Katie Kitchel is a bit like catching hold of a rocketship. She gives the impression of fast movement even when she’s sitting down. But she focuses her attention on what she’s doing or saying – this is not a woman who indulges fog.

She obviously loves children, smiling and admiring new babies that friends bring into a cafe, and she is keenly aware of how long her own children, a sophomore, a 6th grader, and a 3rd grader, can benefit by supervising themselves and when some adult contact would be a good idea.

Katie has found jobs she loves that intersect with her interests and talents: children and performing arts. She teaches in and coordinates the Music Together program at the Upper Valley Music Center in Lebanon, and she has just begun a position with Northern Stage as Director of Outreach.

For Northern Stage, Katie will be working as part of the team with the YES – Youth Ensemble Studio – program, an ambitious and surprisingly affordable project that immerses 7th–12th graders in all aspects of stage performance. Students work over the year with experts in choreography, staging, and more to produce two smaller shows and a grand finale – this year’s spring musical will be Frozen, Jr. – which plays on the main stage. Not surprisingly, the program is already full for the coming season.

Katie will also work with Northern Stage’s BridgeUp program that brings Shakespeare and musical theater into the schools, with professional actors helping older elementary school students interpret scenes. The students present an abbreviated play for their school and also an on-the-road show for family and friends at Northern Stage’s impressive theater. It’s an experience to remember for a lifetime, not just the excitement of theater but the overcoming of challenge and risk. Finding that Shakespeare can be accessible and not intimidating gives students a bolder approach to cultural landmarks. The program began in 2016 and excitement about it continues high. It’s a good fit for Katie. Irene Green, Northern Stage’s Managing Director, praises Katie’s passion, enthusiasm, energy, and discipline.

Never Too Young for Music

What’s the youngest age it makes sense to take your child to a music class? The national program Music Together says, “At birth!”

Children have an innate sensitivity to rhythm and melody – think of all the times you’ve seen a toddler bouncing around joyfully on the edge of the dance floor at a wedding. Encouraging that innate sense by playing rhythmically with your baby makes them happy and helps their development. The Music Together program provides social contact for parents and children, and, importantly, gives parents ideas of ways to play with their child, and validates interactions that grown-ups may at first find silly as useful and connecting. MT leaders
introduce songs and chants from traditions around the world, expanding a parent’s toolkit and providing a broader base for a child’s future experience. And the group discusses ways to use music at transition times of days, perhaps with a song about bath time. “As parents we have various skills that we use to help direct our children’s behaviors in positive ways, why not use singing as one of them!?” says Katie. “Music is a language. The more it’s spoken in a household the more fluent everyone is.

“Play is how kids learn,” adds Katie. She describes a game that helps children develop their ability to maintain a steady rhythm where a circle of kids use their arms as gates that swing open and shut at a certain speed. “Because they’re playing, they’re more apt to stay
interested in repeating a motion for an extended period of time. They are having so much fun, they don’t even realize that they’re practicing how to keep a steady beat!” she explains. Other games include musical “Hot or Cold,” where the increasing volume of the group’s tapping shows a seeker they’re approaching the object. Social skills grow with sharing equipment, putting toys away.

And in Her Free Time…

Katie has worked with Perry Allison’s We The People theater company, which produces a show to spark discussion and interaction. Founded after the 2016 election, WTP produced 1776, provoking conversations about the nature of democratic government. Katie was a mill worker in Working, and played John Hancock in 1776. Coming up this spring in White River’s Briggs Opera House is Man of La Mancha, aiming to present Don Quixote’s still-timely message of hope. “Whether through the lens of world events or concerns close to home, we all want to
believe in a brighter future,” says the producing team. Katie, as Director of Audience Engagement, will be drawing out audience reactions and ideas in intermission and post-show discussions. “Even in conflict, foundations can be laid,” says Katie. She is planning ways to convey audience ideas across performances, with comment boards in the lobby and other means.

Katie will audition for a role in La Mancha. She’s loved performing since she was young. Her mother also loved to sing, and “I shared a birthday with my mom (Halloween!),” she recalls. It was the occasion of a trip into New York to hunt up some discount tickets and finish off with a deluxe ice cream at Rumplemayer’s, then a palace of children’s sweet delights.

Katie and her family live in Norwich on Sugartop Road. Her husband, Davy, was born in St. Johnsbury and went to Marion Cross. Katie likes to run (surprise!) with “a group of amazing moms” that’s grown to about eight over the years. The women tend to meet at Marion Cross in the morning and love to head off, en masse, into the trails of Norwich, although in winter you will likely see them bundled up on the roads, even in sub-zero weather.

“They all have lives like this,” says Katie, admitting that things sometimes get a little crazed, “and they’re very supportive. It’s a sisterhood.” The women trade suggestions and encouragement as they run. Katie’s way to find time in the day? “I drink a lot of coffee
and I don’t sleep much. I’m like a shark – I gotta keep moving.

It was just one more challenge that the January night of the awards ceremony threatened a dismayingly snowy drive. But—as the award bears witness—overcoming challenges is a specialty of Opera North, the Upper Valley’s esteemed homegrown opera company. Three intrepid representatives of the company set forth for Concord, NH, to receive the New Hampshire Theatre Alliance’s Matty Gregg Award for Vision and Tenacity.

“I think of it as New Hampshire’s equivalent of the Tony awards,” says Opera North’s Director of Development (and former Norwich resident), Maria Laskaris. ON was being honored for its collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS) which resulted in last summer’s “Singers and Swingers,” a surprising blend of opera music and circus performance at the NPS site, Blow-Me-Down Farm. The property, with its beautiful views of water and mountains, has historic links to the nearby Augustus Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.

Told of the proposed blend of different arts, some people thought “Circus and opera, weird” and stayed home. Open-minded folks thought “Circus and opera, weird—let’s go find out what they’re up to.” This adventurous crowd was richly rewarded. The unique blend of circus arts and opera music bent audience brains in a pleasing way, opening people to connections they had not felt before. “You think, come on—circus and opera!?” says Jim Adler, now in Quechee after years in Norwich. Jim has been attending ON shows with his wife, Brooke, for over 20 years. “Then you have the excitement of seeing people pull off a major risk” as they display newly combined art forms.

It was the partnership with the National Park Service that tipped the scales for ON to win the Tenacity award, says Maria. The NPS has been on the lookout for an arts organization that would work with them to create a national park for the arts, and ON is poised to be that partner. While the prospect of working with a government body might give pause, ON sees a wide-open field of possibilities. They’re prepared to accept NPS restrictions such as not changing the exterior of the site’s historic buildings. “We’re experimenting with different things,” says Maria. “Some things will go better in a traditional environment [like Lebanon Opera House], “but we’re trying new venues, and looking for new audiences.” Like many arts groups, ON presenters see their audience aging, and work to engage new fans. Exposing circus aficionados to opera music fits their bill precisely.

Norwich’s Arline Rotman says, with her characteristic vigor, “We look forward to [ON] every year. We’re opera fans and we go to all the HD operas [at the Hop], but especially in these days of HD, live opera is an incomparable experience. In recent years they’ve upped the ante in costuming, drama, staging.” She and her husband went to Blow-Me-Down Farm last summer. “They blew us away,” she says, with just a slight humorous accent on the blew. “We’re excited to see what they’ll do with it.”

ON has definitely embraced the vision thing. “We were dazzled when we first heard about the venture at Blow-Me-Down Farm,” says Jim Adler. “The singers and swingers idea seemed unlikely.” But the wonderful views, the fabulous property put the couple in a hopeful mood, and what they saw, Jim says, “was truly innovative. The intimate staging was thrilling, and somehow operatic music went well with circus acts. They really pulled it off wonderfully well. If they’re able to fulfill their dreams for Blow-Me-Down Farm it will be an outstanding place.” It looks as though Opera North has the tenacity to realize their vision.

Next summer, July 12-14, will see five shows of “Hoedown at Blow-Me-Down,” with circus performers and American music by Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers.

They call them “Kindness Rocks.” Small (usually), smooth (for ease of painting), brightly colored (mostly) painted rocks people make and leave for others to find. Painters create an image or upbeat message hoping to cheer the person who finds the rock. Locally, a big fan of the project is Christine Tullgren, the owner and operator of Little Feet Children’s Center in Thetford.

The project started with Megan Murphy, a Cape Cod resident who wanted to increase kindness and inspiration in the world by putting encouraging messages on beach stones. Now there are Facebook groups where people post messages or photos of placing rocks somewhere. Christine has been hiding rocks – “probably several hundred” she estimates – since July. She started a Rivendell Rocks FB page. “I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the rocks,” she says. “It’s fun when someone finds one and takes the time to post.”

Christine’s daycare children painted rocks. One boy, Bryce, was somewhat reluctant to hide his rock – he really liked that rock! – but did leave it near a favorite tree in a Danville campground. Two little girls found it and sent a picture to the FB page; later one of them left the rock on a beach.

Some people feel that leaving more human traces in wild places is littering, even when the intent and the offered messages are kindly. “I realize that people who are participating in this have the best of intentions,” says Laura Friesen, writing on the Hike Like a Woman website. “They’re looking to form a community and brighten someone’s day. Which is great! But if you’re looking to make the world a more positive and kind place, there are many ways you can do this without infringing on [the principle of Leave No Trace]: Smile and hold the door for someone. Buy a coffee for the next person in line. Donate to your favorite charity. Help out with a trail cleanup project. Shop locally and get to know the business owners. Participate in a community garden project. Shovel your neighbor’s sidewalk. Volunteer. The possibilities are endless.”

“I’ve thought about this,” says Christine. “I haven’t had any negative feedback, but sometimes I wonder. I try to be mindful where I put them. I would not go to a mountain top and leave one.” She has seen a post of a message sprayed on top of a mountain, a nice word, she says, but an inappropriate place. National parks and even Disneyland have forbidden rock placements.

Still, Christine and others find it hard to abandon the pleasure of creating hopeful messages, thinking all the while of who might find them and how they might be cheered. And stories from rock-finders egg on the rock-hiders. Christine tells of a post that gave her goosebumps. A woman had lost a beloved nephew who would have been 13 years on a day she took an unusual zigzag route through the parking lot, and found a beautiful butterfly rock. Hmmm…

In some traditions, it all begins with the Word. In keeping with the power of words, and with the relative rarity of the skill, many ancient cultures revered writing, and honored those who could write and read. Now we’re living through changes that find writing reduced to texting. For words we may substitute acronyms or emojis. Some lament the lack of penmanship training in school, but others say, “Who needs it?” Even keyboarding on a QWERTY typewriter is losing out to double-thumbing on a screen-ette.

And then there’s Laura Di Piazza. An artist with an MFA from Goddard College in Plainfield, Laura has bent her artistic interests and talents primarily towards calligraphy. The word means ‘beautiful writing,’ and that’s an exact description of what she mainly does.

“I was exposed to calligraphy purely by chance in seventh grade,” Laura says. “I was in an inner-city school in Brooklyn that offered an Italic calligraphy course for only one academic year. My teacher was very kind, patient and she provided me with plenty of guidance and encouragement to pursue calligraphy beyond her class.” Laura continued her interest in calligraphy, keeping it as a hobby into her twenties, while she engaged in the common post-college mix of jobs. In her case,i the mix included working in a sleep lab, and doing publicity for SAG (the Screen Actors Guild). “I offered calligraphy on the side,” she recalls cheerfully, “and it kept growing. After a while there was no time for a day job.”

She produced material for corporate events, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and so forth. “That kept me very busy, but I cut back when I became a mother,” she says. Her daughter Alice was born in 2005, and her twins, Harry and Lucy, in 2007. The family moved to Norwich in 2008.

Teaching There and Here

In addition to producing calligraphy, Laura teaches classes and workshops. She’s spread her skills over a wide area in this way, though the classes are necessarily small. In the Upper Valley, she’s taught calligraphy at Dartmouth, Artistree, POST and AVA, and has given workshops in Europe, but mostly she teaches in New York, for Society of Scribes, commuting down for a weekend. She enjoys getting a fix of city life, but she likes returning to the Upper Valley. She says, “It’s very relaxed here. You don’t ever have to worry about crime, and the air is so clean! And here people aren’t as showy.” (We certainly don’t pretend to dress in a league with the New York art scene!) Laura herself radiates a winning combination of style and the hominess of a mom and of a special needs teacher, a calling she also pursues. Herself a mix of cultures – her father is an Italian-American from Brooklyn, and her mother is Eritrean – she blends the beauties of both races.

Taking Time, Creating Focus

“There’s a movement to ‘slow’ activities,” Laura points out. “People are so immersed in the fast-paced digital world, but they want a respite. There’s definitely a comeback to pen and ink.” Ironically, that digital world provides access to slow arts like calligraphy. “Lots of people are learning online,” she adds. “The internet has made this ancient art form popular. Video is very important. It’s helpful to see it being done.”

Modern calligraphers use an oblique penholder that enables them to set the nib at the appropriate angle for pointed pen calligraphy. Laura mostly letters copperplate, a flowing style characterized by thicker down-strokes (written with more pressure on the nib), and delicate fine hairlines elsewhere. The script offers great opportunities for decorative flourishes.

Exhibiting and Curating

Sometimes Laura’s calligraphy is part of a show by another artist. For example, in a recent exhibition called Office of Unreplied Emails – by international artist Camille Henrot, exhibited in Berlin, Germany, and Paris, France – Laura created calligraphic versions of the poetic and philosophical responses that Henrot designed as answers to alarmist fundraising emails.

Laura occasionally mounts a show of her own work, both calligraphic and abstract. Some of her paintings include words, and other pieces seem to convey information in an unknown script, as though they were maps or chip designs. She currently has an exhibition, Vox Somnium, at Northern Stage (through May 23). “My point,” she says, “is to showcase work that is not ordinary, that you could possibly see in a dream, and in a dream it would make sense.” In November and December of 2018, the Norwich Library will host a display of Laura’s calligraphic work.

Laura also curates exhibitions of other artists’ work. “I like someone’s work, so I say ‘Let’s show it somewhere.’ I kind of match-make artists with venues and media outlets, selecting works and how they’re displayed. It’s so much easier [for the artist] when someone else is doing this, or helping.” She has curated exhibitions at, for example, UVM and Vermont Law School.

Passing on the Gift

“My favorite show,” says Laura, “was the one I curated last spring at the Norwich Public Library. It was a display of work by elementary school students in Vermont and New Hampshire.” Students from as far as Lempster and Woodstock saw their work professionally displayed, thanks to a grant from the Byrne Foundation to help with framing costs. The opening reception didn’t need champagne to have plenty of fizz – and Laura knows from her own experience how taking a young person’s artistic efforts seriously can change lives.

When I was a student, I avoided history. Both my brothers and my dad are dyslexic, and sometimes I feel like I am, too, says Heidi Fishman of Norwich. “I never aspired to be a writer.” So how did she come to be the author of a compelling historical novel about surviving the Holocaust? The story that so strongly moved her beyond her experience as a student, and her practice as a psychologist, was the tale of her mother, Ruth ‘Tutti’ Lichtenstern Fishman, a child survivor of the Holocaust. The result of Heidi’s work is Tutti’s Promise.  Heidi gathered the anecdotes her mother had told her and her brothers as they grew up, and conducted research in Holocaust archives. The book is aimed at middle-school readers, but is a worthwhile read for adults as well. It is told largely through Tutti’s eyes. She was almost five years old when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands; her family had moved there from Germany in 1936 to avoid Nazi rule.

Knowledge and Points of View

An adult reading the book hears the child’s voice which whined for more and nicer food, for time outside and trips to the park, and also understands the anger born of fear and frustration which drove Tutti’s father, Heinz, to snap at his family. Tutti’s mother, Margret, astounds the adult reader with her seemingly bottomless strength and calm. The parents’ obvious tension penetrates their daughter, stifling her complaints and leading her to help entertain her younger brother, Robbie.

The family’s situation was unusual and fortunate in two ways. Heinz was a metals trader, and his expertise and connections were especially valuable in the war. Furthermore, he had become good friends with Egbert de Jong, the Dutch minister of non-ferrous metals. The Nazi commissioner of the office of Reichs Metal wanted de Jong to stay at his job, and confided to him the Nazi plans for eliminating all Jews from the Netherlands. De Jong was not Jewish, but he was horrified by the Nazis’ plans, and, like a small-scale Schindler’s list, did what he could to get some of his Jewish friends declared essential workers as scrap-metal traders. The commandant of the transit camp was eager to turn it into a work camp for sorting scrap metal, since he knew most of the Dutch Jews had been shipped out, and he feared he’d be sent to the front if the camp closed.

This system worked for a while.

As you read, you can’t help thinking of the genocidal wars of the current era. Will help come from the outside if sufferers hold out long enough? Is escape to a safe zone possible? The parents’ efforts to hide the deadly reality of the situation from their children heightens these thoughts, by pointing out the ignorance of the big picture – and of the historical outcome – of the people involved.

Tutti’s Promise provides an excellent model for young writers. It is illustrated with relevant photos and images of documents, all usefully captioned. It has historical notes and references to further sources. It has pronunciations and translations of words from Dutch, German, and Yiddish.

Finding a Publisher

Heidi worked on her book for five years, visiting sites in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Germany, and researching archives in Europe, Israel, and the US. Eventually her thoughts turned to looking for a publisher, but she was given the usual advice to find an agent first. She began this daunting process in September 2014.

About a year ago, Heidi was trying to track down the yellow star which Tutti remembered giving to a high school boy who was interviewing her in 1975. There was some thought that he’d donated it to a historical society… How to find out? The boy’s name… Was it Cutler? Confusion reigned. Heidi’s father was listening to this discussion, and interrupted to say the name was Catler, and he’d worked with the boy’s father, who was a manager for a heating and air conditioning company who had retired to Florida. Heidi hunted around and left some phone messages. Not much later, she was staying at her mother’s house, and her mother came bursting in waving the phone when Heidi was in the shower. “There I was, standing in my childhood bedroom, dripping wet,” talking to the former high school student. Heidi continues, “He remembers the story, the house, the doll, but not the star. And then he starts asking some really pointed questions, and I can hear a voice in the background saying, ‘Ask her…’” The voice belonged to the man’s partner, Margie Blumberg, principal of MB Publishing, which publishes books aimed at middle grade students, and had recently published a Holocaust book. It was an excellent match.

Heidi has been careful to keep the reading level of Tutti’s Promise appropriate for middle grades. “My mother tells the stories as she remembers them as a child, so that helps keep the level good for kids,” Heidi notes. “I had to be careful in the part about the metal dealers.” While she found fascinating the machinations of de Jong and the Jews he helped, she recognized that most children would not want too much detail on this topic. She’s starting to plan for a book she thinks of as Scraps of Hope to delve into the topic.

A Good Message to Take Away

Some of the wisdom Heidi’s mother hopes to impart with her visits to schools closes the book. “Don’t judge,” she says. “Don’t bully. Help when you can… When you see bad things happening in the world, step up and do something. Even if that thing is small. We all have to work to make this world better.… [M]y story… reminds us that we must never forget what prejudice and hatred can lead to if we don’t confront them together.”