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Learn About the Upcoming 2026-2027 Performance Series starting November 10, 2026!
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Finding Abigail

by Amanda Artsea
February 23, 2027 | 6PM Reception, 6:30PM Performance

Description: Amanda Artsea will go into the family tale that made Abigail Hinman famous, the historical sources and the choices she had to make to bring this beloved New London ancestor to life.    

Featured Performer:
Amanda Artsea is a local living historian, educator and performer.

Where: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Schedule: Reception at 6:00 pm in Hendel Library, performance at 6:30 in Lehman Auditorium

Women of the Revolution

by Bev York
February 9, 2027 | 6PM Reception, 6:30PM Performance

Description: Meet six heroines including a soldier, a spy and a seamstress. Though women’s stories and their documented contributions to the war for independence are few, they represent what thousands of women probably did do. Women ran the family farms and businesses while men were away. But they also were camp cooks, laundresses and nurses, participating in resistance efforts and, surprisingly, they were also spies and soldiers. To get a real sense of women’s lives and their war efforts, Bev will present these women by wearing different hats, accessories and she will use various vintage props. She will walk her audience through the empowering evolution of women during the Revolution. And what of the courageous women who raised a house frame in Hampton after the men left to join the ranks? Molly Pitcher, whose real name was Mary Hayes, who manned the artillery and Private Robert Shirtiff who was Deborah Sampson Garrett and who wore a military outfit although women were barred from joining up. And the stories keep coming.

Featured Performer:
Bev York is a historian and artist in the Windham area. She teaches and gives presentations on local and national history as well as early American crafts and tasks. Her programs are often interactive, illustrated, and utilize primary source materials. York has education degrees in History and Art. She has taught history and humanities at Quinebaug Valley Community College (CT State) for over twenty years. She has also taught in public schools and home school classes. York is a museum professional, having been the director at the Nathan Hale Homestead and the Mill Museum in Willimantic.

 

Where: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Schedule: Reception at 6:00 pm in Hendel Library, performance at 6:30 in Lehman Auditorium

In Their Own Words: Songs of Our Seafaring Heritage

by Rick Spencer and Dawn Indermuehle
January 26, 2027 | 6PM Reception, 6:30PM Performance

Description: Rick Spencer & Dawn Indermuehle will perform a program of songs that describe life on and around the sea, from the perspective of seafarers themselves.  For generations, scholars and hobbyists recognized the value of the songs that were created and passed down by seafaring people.  They collected these cultural artifacts and saved them in books, diaries, manuscripts and, later, recordings.  This program is an entertaining and informative selection of these songs.

Featured Performer:
Dawn Indermuehle and Rick Spencer develop and present theme-based music and history programs, performing songs that give cultural insight into interesting times, places and events in American history.  Rick and Dawn carefully craft their vocals and accompaniment to sound as true to a song’s era or style as possible.  Their vast repertoire includes music from the colonial era to the present day.  Rick and Dawn use these songs to illustrate the evolution of our nation’s culture and history in an informative and entertaining way.

Where: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Schedule: Reception at 6:00 pm in Hendel Library, performance at 6:30 in Lehman Auditorium 

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Aunt Hattie’s House

by Emma Palzere-Rae
January 12, 2027 | 6PM Reception, 6:30PM Perfomance

Description: “Aunt Hattie’s House”  is written and performed by Emma Palzere-Rae. This solo play looks at what compelled Harriet Beecher Stowe to pen  Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 

Where: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Schedule: Reception at 6:00 pm in Hendel Library, performance at 6:30 in Lehman Auditorium

Featured Performer:
Emma Palzere-Rae  is a playwright, actor, director, producer and non-profit administrator based out of Norwich, CT. Emma is the Associate Director at Artreach, Inc. (Norwich, CT), an arts and mental health agency. Advisory committee: CT Theatre Women Network; Board: Mystic Film Institute; co-chair: New London Arts Council. Member: Actors Equity Association, Dramatists Guild (where she serves as the regional representative for New England). B.F.A in Acting with minors in Creative Writing and Speech from Emerson College, Boston. In 2021, Emma was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the CT Office of the Arts.

Tempest in a Teacup

by Diana Dunlap and Natalie Livingston
Date: December 8, 2026 | 6PM Performance, Historic Tea Party to Follow

Description: Watch a lively discussion between two ladies with diverging opinions on the taxes, boycotts, and protests that led to the American Revolution. Learn about the politics of tea in the 18th century, as well as the tea table manners that were so important in a polite society. After the presentation, guests will be treated to a delicious tea party, featuring treats baked from historic recipes. You will have to decide whether you will declare independence by pouring a cup of Liberty Tea or remain loyal to the Crown by drinking taxed English tea. The reception with tea and refreshments will follow the performance, as it will all take place in the Hendel Library.

Where: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Schedule: Performance at 6PM in the Hendel Library with a Historic Tea Party to follow

Featured Performers:
Diana Dunlap is an actor, writer, public historian, and theatre-maker based in Salem, Massachusetts. Diana combines arts and historic interpretation through first-person programs. She works as the Lead Writer at Intramersive Media and co-created Daemonologie: Smoke and Mirrors with the Peabody Essex Museum and Creative Collective. Diana previously interpreted at sites like the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and Faneuil Hall’s Print Shop. She has performed and directed local theatre groups, founded Upstart Crows Shakespeare, and serves as a Trustee for the Salem Historical Society.
 
Natalie Livingston is a staff member at the Avery-Copp Museum, a historic Victorian house museum located in Groton, CT, where she works as a Museum Assistant and tour guide. Natalie lives in Ledyard, CT.
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