NATURAL SELECTIONS An Earth Day Celebration Held At Town Hall Theater

The earth is out home - the only one we've got. An Earth Day Celebration at Town Hall Theater explores how writers and songwriters through the years have thought about our relationship to this beautiful, challenged planet.

Natural Selections: An Earth Day Celebration in Prose and Song will be presented at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater on Saturday, April 16. It features the well-traveled folksinger Geoff Kaufman and students from Middlebury College.

The event pairs readings from Thoreau, Henry Beston, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Farley Mowat and N. Scott Momaday, with songs chosen by Kaufman to compliment and amplify the writings. Many of the songs are traditional. Others come from such folks as Richard Fariña, David Mallet, Malvina Reynolds and Tom Paxton.

Kaufman finds an awe-inspiring synergy between the prose and the songs. The audience can expect to be engaged and moved, and to come away with a deeper, enduring understanding of their relationship with this earth.

What brings a 1969 Middlebury grad back to do this?

Geoff Kaufman turned to folk music in 1975 after completing graduate studies at Rutgers. With academic jobs scarce, he became a founding member of Stout, a quartet that sang for crowds of thousands at Fraunces Tavern in downtown Manhattan during the 1976 bicentennial celebration. Soon thereafter Kaufman discovered the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, built by Pete Seeger and friends to draw attention to environmental issues and by 1977 Geoff was a member of the Sloop Singers, performing with Pete and an inspiring collection of activist musicians. This Clearwater experience led to Geoff's acclaimed 1992 live recording, Tree of Life: songs of celebration and concern for life on Earth.

Kaufman's maritime music brought him to Mystic Seaport where he became Director of Music Programs for fifteen years and where he has continued to sing part time while pursuing his solo touring career. It is there that he met Dan Brayton, Middlebury professor who at the time was teaching maritime literature for the Williams/Mystic Program. For five years, Geoff has been returning to Middlebury to sing for Dan's classes and do concerts. Three years ago when Dan offered a class called "Nature's Meanings," Geoff was inspired to read the entire syllabus and create a concert of songs that related to the readings.

Three years of refining and reshaping has resulted in the performance that will be presented on April 16 at Town Hall Theater. The show begins at 8 pm. Tickets are $15, with a $6 ticket for students. Tickets may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 802 382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, noon-5 pm) and at the door, if available.

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