WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — When I stepped into Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, an arts cooperative in the Tip Top Media Arts building, on Tuesday afternoon, it was clear that the work on display was not based on the Vermont landscape.

Varied as they were, each of the 30 or so prints that hung from the studio walls used a similar briny gray-blue palette that felt foreign to Vermont, with its lush greens and rolling hills.

The prints represent the fruit of a nine-day workshop with experimental printmaker Catherine Farish that five studio members participated in last May at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in the remote town of Ballycastle, Ireland.

Situated in the west of Ireland, Ballycastle is a 25-minute walk from the sea, and many of the works in the exhibit, entitled “Inspired in Ireland,” pull inspiration from daily trips to the coast’s scraggly beaches.

“It’s the first place I’ve been where the seacoast isn’t fully developed,” Megan Clark, one of the studio members who participated in the workshop, said in an interview at Two Rivers.

Several of Clark’s prints incorporate the bright gold petals of the gorse bush, a prickly shrub that grows in abundance on the Irish coast. In the monotype “Ballinglen Blue 1,” Clark pressed the petals directly onto the print, leaving behind a shadow of yellow that she contrasted with layers of mud-red and deep blue pigment. The work is displayed as part of a diptych, with a fainter “ghost print,” the second and final iteration of the monotype, hanging to its right.

One of the printmakers who joined Clark was Two Rivers’ studio manager, Janet Cathey. The Randolph resident was familiar with Farish’s work from past classes she’s taught at Two Rivers and has participated in the Ballinglen workshop once before.

At the workshop last May, Farish, who’s based in Montreal, would start the day with a series of demonstrations on different printmaking techniques, but for the most part, she gave her students free rein.

“She didn’t show us her own work. She wanted us to be experimenting with our own styles,” Cathey said.

Cathey was drawn to the polka-dotted rocks that accumulated on the shoreline. She depicts a handful of the speckled forms in “Esky Beach,” a square print that uses woodblock and cardboard plates to create a sense of contrast between the black and white stones and the print’s pockmarked gray background.

Unlike Cathey, Clark is fairly new to printmaking. She signed up for a workshop at Two Rivers a year and a half ago. “I got hooked immediately,” she said.

Even though she was a beginner, her fellow printmakers at Two Rivers welcomed her from the get-go. “They took what I was doing seriously before I did,” she said.

Those nine days in Ireland forced Clark to push through a lot of the uncertainties she held about her work, she said, and she often looked to her fellow printmakers for support.

“There’ll always be someone here who will boot me out of that (mindset),” she said. “Everyone’s really excited about what other people are doing.”

“Inspired in Ireland” is on view through Monday, July 7 at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction. Visiting hours are 12 to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. For more information, visit tworiversprintmaking.org.

Flags, kingsand the Constitution

This Saturday is a significant one when it comes to American politics. In addition to being Flag Day, it’s also President Donald Trump’s birthday and a day of national “No Kings” protests, which are scheduled in response to the military parade Trump has planned for his 79th.

White River Junction’s Shaker Bridge Theatre is throwing its hat in the ring, too, with a reading of “What the Constitution Means to Me,” Heidi Schreck’s autobiographical play in which the playwright recreates speeches she gave as a high school student about the founding document and its significance in her life. In doing so, she explores how the Constitution has shaped the lives of previous generations of women in her family, and how it will affect generations to come.

Schreck breaks the fourth wall from the outset, and as the play progresses, the lines between character and actor become increasingly blurred. Like the Constitution itself, the script is a fluid document, with alternative characters and notes encouraging directors to improvise specific sections and update statistics to reflect current times.

The play made its Broadway debut in 2019, and landed Schreck on the list of finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a TONY nomination for Best Play and Best Actress the same year.

In Saturday’s version, Andover, Vt., actor and Shaker Bridge regular Susan Haefner will star as Schreck, alongside Richard Waterhouse as the American Legion member who facilitates the debate and later undergoes a transformation of his own. Haefner has played Schreck once before, in a 2023 production at Vermont’s Weston Theatre Co.

For Haefner, the play invites audiences to consider “What is the Constitution doing for us? How can we interpret it in new ways?” she said in an interview on Tuesday.

Shaker Bridge Theatre’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” will run at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 14 at Briggs Opera House in White River Junction.

The show is a fundraiser to support the theater’s 18th season. For tickets ($20) and more information, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org.

Learn to move;enjoy some grooves

This Saturday, experimental composer and Dartmouth assistant professor César Alvarez will host a night of Latin dance at Babes Bar in Bethel. Packed with dembow and neoperreo rhythms (two off-shoots of reggaeton) curated by DJ Miel, Saturday’s dance party will kick off at 7 p.m. with a one-hour dance class led by Alvarez.

“A lot of people are intimidated by Latin dancing because they think it means that they have to partner,” Alvarez said. “The dance class I teach is really trying to meet that anxiety and help give people access to the music with their bodies.”

Originally from North Carolina, Alvarez, whose father is a Cuban immigrant, started hosting Latin dance nights a couple years ago after attending a similar event at the Black Lives Matter House in South Royalton.

“It felt healing,” said Alvarez, who found themselves missing the Latin community in New York City after relocating to the Upper Valley in 2021. “I was really touched by how much everyone seemed to appreciate Latin music,” they said.

The class, and the party, are free and open to all with a suggested donation of $5. For more information, visit the bar’s Instagram @babesvt.

Marion Umpleby can be reached at mumpleby@vnews.com or 603-727-3306