MIDDLEBURY/VERGENNES — Actor and singer Jack DesBois is readying a performance of “The Western Star” for Addison County audiences twice this coming weekend and once more the following.
“The Western Star” is a transportive storytelling event, inviting its audience into a world of blinding blizzards, mysterious magi and the healing glow of one bright star. In it, DesBois weaves original verse and song into a striking tapestry of the Biblical Three Kings story. Audience members will be asked to join the kings on their journey through winter’s darkness to the Savior’s side in Bethlehem, and share in their gentle message of hope.
The 90-minute piece will be presented at 4:30 p.m. first on Saturday, Jan. 6 — Three Kings Day — at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the Green, 3 Main St., in Middlebury; then again in Sunday, Jan. 7 — the Feast of the Epiphany — at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the Green, Park and Main streets, in Vergennes; and finally on Saturday, Jan. 13, at The Abernethy Room at Axinn Center on the Middlebury College campus.
The suggested admission is $10, which will be used to support local charities including the John Graham Shelter (Vergennes performance) and The Charter House Coalition (College performance), but all are welcome regardless of ability to pay.
DesBois is a recipient of this year’s Vermont Folklife Center Flanders Award for Traditional Vermont Music. The award will enable DesBois to focus his time working with the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College.