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Date: 2/11/2020
HUNTINGTON – The Historic North Hall, located on 40 Searle Rd., is one of the two oldest buildings in Huntington. Built as a school house for the town of Norwich in 1795, it is also one of the oldest buildings in the state that has had continuous use for over 200 years.
Classes were hosted until 1934 in the schoolroom on the first floor, where the original beams are still visible. Sometime in the mid 1800's, an addition of an upstairs meeting hall and extra room were added, and electricity was installed in 1929. Since the school closed, the building has been used for public and private community functions under the watchful eye of the North Hall Association, formed in 1900.
In 1999, the North Hall Association became a non-profit organization, and leveraged a Community Development Block Grant to add an elevator to the second floor performance space, handicap bathrooms, outside railings and handicap parking, for which they have been recognized by the Stavros Foundation for handicap accessibility.
Today, most people know the Historic North Hall for its outstanding summer music and arts festival, which has featured local, national, and internationally recognized musicians, singers and actors.
Recently, North Hall Association co-presidents Nancy Kaminski and Peri Sossaman sat down to talk about this year’s plans for the festival.
Sossaman said the association held its first meeting of the year in January to officially begin planning the season, although they are actually looking for acts throughout the year. By the end of February, the schedule is completed. “We try to get it hammered down. Publicity has to start early in the spring,” she said.
“It gets to be like a big puzzle, and takes a lot of coordination,” Kaminski added. She said the majority of programs take place on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m., beginning at the end of May through September.
The season is always launched with an Annual Opera Concert performance on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, and closes with Old Country Road, a Country & Bluegrass band, near the end of September.
The season also always includes a staged reading by celebrated actors and Huntington residents and friends Ken Tigar, Ellen Barry, Marjorie Shaw and Mitch Giannunzio, often of original plays by Giannunzio and others. This year, the troupe will read the 1944 play, “Harvey,” by American playwright Mary Chase on Aug. 16, followed by the annual after-party celebration.
Kaminski said a new offering this year is a one-woman show by Kandie Carle, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Right to Vote, on June 7. Carle, of K&C Enterprises in Haddam, CT. has been performing historical pieces since 1996 throughout New England and beyond.
Other programs this year whose dates are being finalized are Latin music with Jose Gonzalez, a Baroque trio with historical instruments, and the Bob Sparkman Jazz Trio.
Multi-instrumentalist Khalif Neville will also bring his trio, blending traditional jazz forms with derivative styles of funk, R&B, and hip-hop, to the North Hall this year. Neville, the son of saxophonist Charles Neville, grew up in Huntington, and played at North Hall with his father and brother in the New England Neville Bros, before Charles Neville passed away in 2018.
Some of the performances in the Arts Festival are free, some are by donation, and some have a ticket price ranging from $10 to $15. Students and children are always free.
Every year, for example, the first Fridays in June and July feature free open mic jams, where anybody can show up to play. Kaminski said she’s been there with seventeen musicians on the stage, twelve, and two, which happened to be a mandolin and piano, and were wonderful. “It’s really fun, totally free. They love playing there,” she said.
Another aspect to the Arts Festival are the local Hilltown artists who are featured in the downstairs gallery, the site of the original schoolhouse. “We curate two visual art exhibits during the festival season; the first half from May to mid-July is one artist, the second half, mid-July to September the other one,” Sossaman said.
Sossaman said all of the scheduled performers are paid, unless they donate their services. “That’s part of what we believe in, supporting the arts. We’re not asking for freebies. We have a range of professional performers, local, regional and international with a connection to our area. They share their talents,” Sossaman said.
Ticket prices do not cover the expenses of the summer series. Sossaman said the North Hall Association sends out fundraising letters, and often they receive donations during the summer after-party following the play readings.
“Whatever monies are in excess of our expenses go to maintain and preserve the Historic North Hall,” Kaminski added.
Sossaman said the actual festival started happening 2008 and 2009, instigated by Huntington resident Ruth Pardoe, after years of sporadic use by various community organizations.
“It was Ruth’s dream to have a festival; it’s something she and Dave (Pardoe) always wanted to accomplish,” Kaminski said. She said the Pardoes enlarged the board, and the Historic North Hall Arts Festival began in 2010.
Both Sossaman and Kaminski were on the board at the time. They recalled highlights from the past ten years, including an original play by Giannunzio, “A Smaller Place” that started at the North Hall, went to the Chester Theatre starring renowned actress Kim Hunter, and then became the movie, “The Hiding Place,” starring Hunter and Timothy Bottoms.
Another Giannunzio play, “Lizzy Borden at Eight o’Clock” starring Ellen Barry, went to off-Broadway. Kaminski said Ellen Barry performed for twenty years with the New York Shakespeare Company.
“We have had musicians say that the acoustics in that hall are beautiful and wonderful. If you enjoy music, that’s the place to go where you don’t need mics and electronics,” Sossaman said.
Kaminski said musicians who perform there for the first time are amazed at the acoustics. “They all want to come back,” she said.
More information and the complete 2020 performance schedule of The Historic North Hall Arts Festival may be found at www.northhallhuntington.org.