Park concerts

• Concord holds concerts in Eagle Square on six Thursdays at 7 p.m., and the Nevers’ Band performs at different parks throughout the summer.

• The Londonderry Arts Council plans Concerts on the Common, mostly on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the bandstand on the Londonderry Town Common at Mammoth and Pillsbury Roads. They also run the monthly open mic Nutfield Sessions.

• New Boston’s Recreation Department organizes summer concerts on alternate Sundays at 6 p.m. (New Boston’s Blues Association’s “Barnful of Blues Festival” Aug. 1 is at the county’s 4H Youth Center.)

• Derry uses their MacGregor Park bandstand for Tuesday and Thursday night summer concerts.

• Milford’s “Sounds on the Soughegan” concerts run Wednesdays for about 10 weeks this summer at Emerson Park.

• Merrimack holds concerts mostly Wednesdays at 7 p.m. through Aug. 26 at the Abbie Griffin Park bandstand. (The form to request use of the bandstand is here.)

• Community Events, LLC, is running outdoor family film series at Veterans Park in Manchester and Greeley Park in Nashua this summer.

• New Thalian Players produces Disney’s High School Musical at Veterans Park and Nashua Theatre Guild produces Shakespeare’s The Tempest at Greeley Park (July 17-July 26). (The application to use Veterans Park is here.)

• For information about concerts and other events at Nashua’s Greeley Park’s bandshell see Nashua’s “SummerFun” calendar and check for updates here.

• For more downtown Manchester events, also see Intown Manchester.

• Not outdoors, or in a park, but still free, the SummerSundays Concert Series is at the Hillsborough Center Congregational Church.

~Let me know what else to list…

Ikebana

Ikebana, “living flowers,” is a Japanese style of artistic floral arrangement. Antoinette Drouart, who owns Ikebana Flower in Nashua, demonstrates Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., 589-4610). The photo is an Ikebana arrangement created by Drouart.

Jodi Picoult play in the works

Yellow Taxi Productions has commissioned a play based on The Pact by New Hampshire author Jodi Picoult. Jeannette Angell is doing the adapting, and you can hear a staged reading of the set-in-New-Hampshire story Sunday, March 1, at 7 p.m. , at YTP at 5 Pine St., Extension, Mill Annex #6 in Nashua (follow the signs). It’s free. Stay after the reading for a talkback. YTP’s full production is in April.

On living

Yellow Taxi Productions closes their run of Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom Feb. 28. See it at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday or Sunday at 2 p.m. at 5 Pine St. Extension in Nashua. Tickets cost $15 and $25 for the professional show.

Plays in bars, my favorite

a.k.a. YTP at SFK

This should be a good one. Yellow Taxi Productions is producing three short plays in a bar — as if you needed a reason to go to San Francisco Kitchen in Nashua. “The Angels and Alcohol” event is a fundraiser for the nonprofit professional company. Find out more at YTP, or reserve seats through City Arts Nashua. As I understand it, you don’t have to buy a seat to check it out.

Be part of Nashua Art Walk

If you want to include your gallery, studio or some other variety of downtown or millyard location on the fall Nashua Art Walk, visit a planning meeting, Monday, June 23, at 6:30 p.m. at Gallery One. RSVP to carol.eyman @ nashualibrary.org or call 589-4610 by Monday, June 16. Here’s a story on a past Art Walk if you aren’t familiar with it. If you are familiar with it, keep in mind that only one is planned for 2008, not four.

Sunday in Nashua

In Nashua on Sunday, Chimera Gallery in the Picker Building is holding a show opening for “Women on Fire” from 2 to 5 p.m. The exhibit features work by potters Paula Barry, Gayle Joseph and Alene Sirott-Cope. On the walls, Art Ferrier is showing a series of his photographs called “Orange.” A few blocks away from the Picker Building, the sculptors are leaving the city’s first international sculpture symposium, and a closing event is planned to start at Railroad Square at 2 p.m. and “promenade” across Main Street to Water Street where Le Parc de Notre Renaissance Francaise sits along the Nashua River. Bring a picnic lunch and chat with the artists.

But where will they go?

I had a lovely chat with a few of the sculptors at Nashua’s first International Sculpture Symposium yesterday. The theme is “Footprints”– the idea is that we all leave footprints in life, I think. The event is modeled after the Andres Institute’s symposium (which will be in its tenth year this fall), but there’s a glitch. At Andres in Brookline, there’s plenty of land to place sculptures, and they don’t need permission, John Weidman explained. He’s the executive director there and is creating a “Footprints” piece. The concept with the Nashua symposium is to place the finished work in public space around the city. Fabulous in theory, but apparently problems are popping up on that front. Something to do with liability concerns and pouring proper foundations for the pieces. It’s unfortunate, because the artists are set to leave on Monday, and may not be able to see their work installed.

(This is an absolute crap photo I took of James Gannon of Ireland and the stone he’s working on. Apparently they had just turned it over, and it acquired some stains in the process that he wasn’t thrilled about. Albert Wilkinson in the Picker Building has taken some much better pictures of the sculptors at work. Perhaps he’ll allow a few to go up here.)

(P.S. Two of sculptures have been sponsored as of June 10, and those behind the project are still hoping to find sponsors for the other three pieces.)

Weekend of theater

There are a bunch of shows that look cool this weekend, but some are bit of a drive, depending on your starting point. I highlighted a few in the current issue of The Hippo, May 15-21, which is out now. Image Theater’s short plays and the two Brecht performances are in there. The Pavilion looks cool to check out, mainly because you get to take a trolley to the venue and there’s seacoast involved – but it’s Maine seacoast, which is also not nearby.

Closer to home, however, All Access is scheduled to do a staged reading of Closer in Nashua. The Peacock Players are promising impressive special effects in their Peter Pan performance, and there’s a mystery dinner show to raise money for 14 Court St. Theater renovations happening in Hudson. Acting Loft closes a run of Taming of the Shrew in Manchester.

A little help

Nashua is set to host it’s first international sculpture symposium between May 18 and June 8 in the millyards. Five sculptors will create pieces that can be sited in public areas around town. It’s a grassroots effort, and organizers are still looking to raise about $37,000 for the project. Help out by shopping at Barnes and Noble in Nashua today, (Wednesday, May 7). Pick up a Bookfair voucher there to present with your purchase so a donation will be made. Meet Brookline sculptor John Weidman there at a program that starts at 6:30 p.m. He’ll talk about the Andres Institute of Art, which conducts an annual sculpture symposium and has partnered with Nashua for this project. Kids can help create a mural tonight that will be given to a school class in another country and a Chinese dance performance is planned.