area collaborations bring the arts to uncustomary venues

An upcoming event at The Red Door in Portsmouth will stir booze, superheroes, comedy and literature into one potent cocktail of entertainment. As part of a new reading series co-sponsored by RiverRun Bookstore, the State Street bar will present humorist G. Xavier Robillard, author of the new superhero satire “Captain Freedom,” on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

It’s not every day that a Port City bar hosts an author reading, but RiverRun events coordinator Michele Filgate hopes it will be “the perfect mix of booze and books.” Filgate modeled the idea after a similar literary series in Massachusetts called Four Stories. She attended a recent installment of the series at a martini bar in Boston.

“I was sitting there and I thought, ‘Why can’t we do something like this on a smaller scale in Portsmouth?” Filgate said. She later approached Red Door manager Cresta Smith about hosting the series, and a new arts partnership was born.

The joint venture between The Red Door and RiverRun is one of many Seacoast collaborations aimed at supporting the arts by thinking outside the box. Area businesses, organizations and artists have been uniting to present a spectrum of arts events in unconventional venues, including live music in diners, art exhibits in bars, author readings in churches and concerts on theater stages. In the end, they hope these symbiotic relationships will prove mutually beneficial for everyone involved, helping the arts community weather tough economic times. 

RiverRun hosts regular author readings in its store on Congress Street. But Filgate and owner Tom Holbrook have also brought writers to a variety of other venues. “I’m all about encouraging the literary scene in Portsmouth for not just people who already come to the bookstore, but people who might not even think of going to a reading,” Filgate said.

She believes The Red Door will offer a looser, more relaxed social environment, where guests can mingle and sip drinks while interacting with the author. And perhaps the martinis will embolden people to ask some intriguing questions (prizes will be awarded to guests who come up with the best queries).

The series continues on Tuesday, March 10, when The Red Door hosts Jedediah Berry, author of “The Manual of Detection.”

RiverRun has also presented writers in other alternative settings. The bookstore partnered with South Church on State Street to host “Deep Economy” author and environmentalist Bill McKibben last year, as well as “Getting a Grip” author and activist Frances Moore Lappé.

The highly successful Writers on a New England Stage series represents a three-way partnership between RiverRun, The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio. The Music Hall provides the stage in Portsmouth, while NHPR provides interviewer Laura Knoy, and local band Dreadnaught provides live music. The series has presented a number of high profile writers, including Ken Burns, Dan Brown, John Updike, Gregory Maguire and Anita Diamant.

“I’m all about trying to bring in community partners, because I believe in the power of collaboration,” Filgate said.

A future collaboration could bring outdoor author events to Prescott Park this summer. Although nothing has been set in stone, Ben Anderson, executive director of the Prescott Park Arts Festival, said he hopes to work with RiverRun to put an author on the stage this year. “These collaborations are key for the arts in this kind of economy,” Anderson said.

Prescott Park is also developing a partnership with Portsmouth’s Seacoast Repertory Theatre. The Rep will present four Monday night concerts at Prescott Park this summer, while Anderson is organizing events to host at the theater on Bow Street.

Last summer, rain foiled 18 scheduled events in the Prescott Park Arts Festival, doubling the previous record for rainouts. Craig Faulkner, associate artistic director for the Rep, said he wanted to help the festival bounce back from its tough season. “I was trying to think of ways that I could help them offset some of their financial losses for the summer,” Faulkner said.

But when the economy began its downward skid, Faulkner realized that the festival could help him, too. He agreed to hold festival events at the Rep on nights when the theater had no previously scheduled shows, while Andersen agreed to let the Rep bring a concert series to Prescott Park. “We thought that was a perfect marriage,” Faulkner said.

The Rep will present a performance of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” featuring Greg DeCandia with Bedbug Eddie, in Prescott Park on Monday, July 6. Other concerts will follow on July 20, Aug. 3 and Aug. 17, although the acts have not been finalized.

With the option of the Rep’s indoor stage, Anderson can expand the festival’s season and add shows in the spring or fall. He hasn’t finalized a schedule, but he said anyone who becomes a festival member will receive two free tickets to a show at the Rep. Likewise, season ticket holders at the Rep will get a free table or chair rental at the festival.

“For me, there’s no such thing as competition in the arts,” Anderson said. “I’m a firm believer in that. We all have the same objectives, and the more we work together, the more we can offer back to the community.”

The Seacoast Repertory Theatre is also hosting a concert this spring organized by the newly formed Seacoast Music Alliance. Local Americana band Wooden Eye will headline the event on April 5, along with a number of other area bands. In yet another collaboration, the Rep will partner with Seacoast Local to present Kevin Phillips, author of “Bad Money,” on April 15. Marketing director Stacy Chilicki said the theater is open to just about anything.

“The Rep is trying to bring new and exciting things into our space on our dark nights,” Chilicki said. “Anything that we can do to help anything locally is a step in the right direction for all of us.”

Another venue that has stepped up to help the Prescott Park Arts Festival is The Press Room on Daniel Street. Last summer, The Press Room hosted bluegrass band Crooked Still after their scheduled show at Prescott Park was rained out at the last minute.

Press Room owner Jay Gardner said supporting the area’s music scene is one of his top priorities. The Press Room hosts live music seven nights a week, but Gardner said there’s not as much interest in local bands as there used to be. “I don’t think that there are enough indoor venues anymore like the town used to be back in the ’70s and ’80s,” he said. 

During a recent meeting of the Seacoast Music Alliance, held on the upper floor of The Press Room, Gardner proposed an unusual outdoor concert series. “One of the thoughts that I had was finding different parking lots around the city that are empty after 5 and having local groups play in these lots,” he said.

The idea is still in the brainstorming stage, but Gardner said he hopes to get other local restaurants and retailers to sponsor biweekly shows in places like the Bank of America’s downtown parking lot or Vaughan Mall. Having sponsors would enable organizers to pay the bands without charging a cover, he said.

The Press Room has long been a bastion for the arts in Portsmouth. In addition to nightly music, the restaurant incorporates spoken word poetry during its monthly Beat Night events, held on the third Thursday of each month, and during the Jazzmouth festival each spring. The bar also shows rotating art exhibits. The current exhibit features manager Bruce Pingree’s assorted costumes and props.
Gardner said offering a variety of art forms is an obligation. “We have to. That’s our identity,” he said. “I think we have to support the arts.”

Pingree’s exhibit at The Press Room replaced a January display by local painter Jocelyn Toffic. When that exhibit came down, Toffic moved her work across town and hung it on a wall at Gracie’s Diner on Deer Street. The diner is also currently hosting a photography exhibit by Nancy Grace Horton.

Gracie’s owner Jonathan Ury said art is an extra draw to attract customers. On Feb. 12, the vintage diner also hosted its first ever live band. Local keyboardist Larry Garland and his River City Jazz band played softly while guests ate their dinner at tables. “I don’t have time to go out and see bands, so I just have them come here,” Ury joked.

Even GreatWaters Bank, a new business on Congress Street, is getting in on the arts, hosting local musician Ted Sink’s CD release show on Feb. 13. Art and business, it appears, increasingly go hand in hand. And, with the economy threatening both, Seacoast art supporters are looking out for one another.

“Our theory is, without each other, none of us really matter,” Craig Faulkner said. “Ultimately, that helps all of us.”