Entertainment

Next Stage Arts invites the community to a powerful evening of music, history, and film with a special screening of Sing Sing Thanksgiving on Saturday, May 9 at 7:00 PM. This event is the second in a three-film series presented by acclaimed regional filmmaker Alan Dater.

Produced in 1973, Sing Sing Thanksgiving documents a remarkable live performance at New York’s Sing Sing Prison featuring legendary artists B.B. King, Joan Baez, and others. Filmed at a time when few such events were captured on camera, the concert stands as a moving testament to the power of music to transcend walls and connect people across divides. King himself later described the performance as one of the greatest of his career, while the New York Daily News called it one of the most extraordinary moments in live entertainment.

Next Stage Arts invites you to a rare and powerful evening with one of America’s most iconic artists.

Filmed in 1968, Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (1h 34m), directed by Robert Elfstrom, captures Johnny Cash at a pivotal moment in his career. Shot in an unvarnished, up-close cinéma vérité style, the film follows Cash on the road and in concert with June Carter, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins.

The film is also deeply personal. Viewers are taken inside Cash’s home life with June Carter in Hendersonville, Tennessee; introduced to his parents and children in California; and brought back with him to his childhood hometown in Arkansas. One of the film’s most moving sequences was shot at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, including footage at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) celebrates the Lunar New Year of China, Korea and Vietnam Sunday, February 8, 1:00-3:00. You don’t have to be Asian or know anything about Asia to participate! Join us at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center to usher in the year of the Red Fire Horse ushering in  a year focused on bold moves, exploration ,and potentially transformative change.

Join us for traditional Chinese Performances with Li Fei Osborne and her Mandarin language students, Chinese morning exercises and Qigong led by Cai Xi, and traditional New Year songs and crafts. We end our celebration with a Dragon parade up from the Museum towards Main Street to bring us luck for the coming year. 

If winter cabin fever has your household climbing the walls, Next Stage Arts has the perfect cure. On Saturday, Jan. 24 at 10:00 AM, families are invited to a lively, low-pressure morning event in Putney: Cereal & K-Pop: Cabin Fever Cure!

Held in the Next Stage Arts Community Room (15 Kimball Hill, Putney), this family-friendly gathering is designed to get kids—and adults—out of the house and having fun together. The morning kicks off with a build-your-own cereal bar, followed by about 30 minutes of classic indoor fun: board games, card games, and even Twister to shake off those winter cobwebs.

Next Stage Arts is thrilled to welcome back award-winning comedian and storyteller Adam Strauss for a special two-night engagement, featuring two of his acclaimed solo shows: The Mushroom Cure on Friday, January 9, and Before I Forget on Saturday, January 10.

Tickets are $22 in advance / $25 at the door or take advantage of a special $35 advance package for both nights. Tickets and details are available at nextstagearts.org.

Next Stage Arts is proud to present AfterTalk: A Play by Chard deNiord, a poetic theater work that brings a 7,000-year-old Sumerian love story to life through poetry, music, movement, and visual art.

Dates & Times:

Saturday, Nov 22 @ 7:30 PM

Sunday, Nov 23 @ 2:00 PM

Marlboro Morris and Sword will perform our annual sword dances and mummers’ play Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12. English Longsword Sword dancing is a mid-winter street performance celebrating the cycle of the seasons. The dance is often accompanied by a comic play with a death and resurrection involved, signifying the continuation of life after the winter. All performances are free.

Next Stage Arts in Putney welcomes acclaimed comedian and storyteller Adam Strauss for a special two-night run, Friday and Saturday, October 17 and 18. Each night features a different solo performance, blending stand-up, true storytelling, and fearless honesty that has won Strauss praise from critics and audiences across the country.

Friday, October 17 – The Mushroom Cure
Showtime: 7:30 pm (doors open at 6:45)
Tickets: $22 advance / $25 at the door / $35 advance for both nights

Strauss’s breakthrough show, The Mushroom Cure, is the true story of how he attempted to treat his severe obsessive-compulsive disorder with psychedelics. It’s as outrageous as it is uplifting. The New York Times called it “mining a great deal of laughter from disabling pain.” The Chicago Tribune hailed it as “arrestingly honest and howlingly funny.” Michael Pollan praised it as “brilliant, hilarious, and moving.” Time Out New York named it a Critics’ Pick, calling it “a true-life tour de force.”

Next Stage Arts invites the public to a special screening of Bills Lumber, a deeply moving 45-minute documentary that captures the final chapter of an iconic Vermont family business. The screening takes place at 4:00 PM on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

Bills Lumber tells the story of the Bills family’s 86-year-old sawmill in Wardsboro, Vermont, through the eyes of octogenarian brothers Alan and Everett Bills and their niece, Debbie Bills Bauer. Following the sale of the mill and its 433 acres of forest, the documentary chronicles the dismantling of the mill their father, Melbourne Bills, founded in 1936.

Join Next Stage Arts on Thursday, April 17th at 7:00pm for an exclusive sneak peek of Riding Home, a documentary in progress that follows longtime Putney resident Caryl Richardson as she navigates the final chapter of her life, surrounded by the horses, land and people she loves.

More than just a portrait of one woman’s journey, Riding Home seeks to crack open the conversation around death, dying, and end-of-life choices. In a culture that often avoids these discussions, this film invites us to bear witness, reflect, and engage with the complexities of mortality with honesty and grace.

Next Stage Arts presents indie rock band BETTY, plus DJ ezGirl at Next Stage on Friday, April 25 at 7:30 pm. 

The award-winning Indie Rock trio BETTY, Alyson Palmer (vocals, bass, guitar), Elizabeth Ziff (vocals, guitar, electronic programming) and her sister, Amy Ziff (vocals and cello), uses beguiling melodies, compelling lyrics and signature harmonies to create energetic live shows that mix music, performance art, politics and comedy.

BETTY sings of joy, love, longing, lust, food, heartbreak, and the universal hilarity of human existence. More than a band, BETTY uses music to channel their passion for representation, fairness and equality. From the beginning, they’ve blended their voices for causes they fight for, their talents in collaboration with other artists of every medium, and their time in support of women and girls, worldwide.