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Acton-Boxborough’s Potter prepares for last curtain call

Cast members of Acton-Boxborough Regional High’s upcoming production of “Footloose” are following the lead of (front, from left) music director Jeanie Furlan, director Linda Potter, and assistant director Susan Williams.

If you’ve attended a musical put on by any of the Acton-Boxborough Regional schools in the past 40 years or so, it’s likely that you’ve witnessed the creative guidance of Linda Potter. She has directed, by her estimation, about 350 performances during her 43-year career.

“I lost count after 300,” she said recently.

And though to many parents, alumni, and current students she seems like an institution, Potter is reaching the end of her career directing musical theater at the schools. She will retire later this year; next week’s production of “Footloose” at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School is her final show.

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Despite decades of putting young people in the spotlight, Potter herself likes to be anywhere but center stage. She sees her role as shaping and molding young performers to help them get the most out of their talents, and she’s most comfortable when all the attention is on her students.

“The key to my success has been surrounding myself with talented and committed people,” Potter said. “I have always had students who are kind, generous, talented, and willing to work hard. And here at Acton-Boxborough, we have an administration that supports the arts.”

She also has a small but talented corps of other professionals supporting her directing efforts.

Susan Williams, who has served as assistant director to Potter for more than 20 productions, said Potter’s greatest strength as a teacher is “in honing in on kids’ particular strengths and weaknesses.

“She knows how to help them overcome their weaknesses and develop their strengths,” Williams said. “She knows how to capture the energy of kids having fun and morph it into the energy we all need to make a terrific performance.”

Potter isn’t the only member of the high school’s musical theater program taking a final bow with the last performance of “Footloose.”

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Musical director Jeanie Furlan, who has collaborated with Potter for 20 years, will also retire this year, and Liza Levy, who joined the Acton-Boxborough team about seven years ago and has served as choreographer on productions including “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Pippin,” “Urinetown,” and “Legally Blonde,” will be moving to Nashville to work for a record label.

“I’m just so happy to be going out with a bang,” Levy said. “ ‘Footloose’ has a fabulous cast and crew.”

Potter leaves a legacy of top-quality musical theater performances at Acton-Boxborough — and also an opportunity for young people to continue their interest in the performing arts. In 2006, families from the community showed their appreciation for Potter by establishing a fund for a scholarship that will annually be awarded to an Acton-Boxborough senior who plans to study theater in college.

Performances of “Footloose” take place Jan. 31, and Feb. 1, 7, and 8 at 7:30 p.m., and 3 p.m. Feb. 2 and 8 at the high school, 36 Charter Road in Acton. The box office opens two hours before each performance; doors open 30 minutes before curtain. Tickets are $18 for evening performances and $14 for matinees, and can be reserved at www.mktix.com. For more information, go to www.abdrama.org.

‘BEE’ ON STAGE: The Woodland Theatre Company presents “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Lowell Mason Auditorium at Medfield High School, 88R South St. in Medfield.

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The show is a Tony Award-winning musical comedy that looks at the pressures of growing up through the eyes of six quirky adolescent outsiders who are competing in the spelling championship of a lifetime.

Tickets are $30 and can be reserved by visiting www.woodland-theatre.com or by calling 508-655-0687.

ALTERNATIVE HISTORY: Colin Woodard, author of the award-winning book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America,” will speak Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Carlisle Public School’s Corey Auditorium, on Church Street in Carlisle.

Woodard writes in his book that there are several Americas, each with its own centuries-old ideals, values, and religious and cultural heritage. Understanding this is essential to grasping US history, he writes, from the divisions of the American Revolution and Civil War to the “blue county/red county” maps of recent elections.

The free presentation is being sponsored by the Friends of Gleason Public Library as part of the community’s Carlisle Reads program focusing on Woodard’s book. For more information, visit www.gleasonlibrary.org/events.

MUSICAL OPTIONS: Comedy, tragedy, and musical synchronicity combine when conductor Bruce Hangen leads the Orchestra of Indian Hill in a performance Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Littleton High School Performing Arts Center, 56 King St. The “Many Moods of Music’’ program offers Schubert’s Fourth Symphony, Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” Overture, Dvorak’s Czech Suite, and French composer Emmanuel Séjourné’s marimba concerto for orchestra and strings featuring guest soloist Brandon Ilaw. Tickets are $20 to $50 ($15 for students); call 978-486-9524, ext. 116, or visit www.indianhillmusic.org to reserve seats. . . Jazz pianist, composer, and Berklee College of Music professor John Funkhouser of Needham celebrates the debut of his newest album, “Still,” with a free concert Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St. Joining Funkhouser will be Phil Sargent on guitar, Greg Loughman on bass and Mike Connors on drums. For more information, visit www.wellesleyfreelibrary.org, or call 781-235-1610.

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INSIGHTS ON AMISH: A week before its national PBS premiere on the “American Experience’’ series, “The Amish: Shunned” will be shown Monday at 7 p.m. at First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Medfield, 26 North St.

The documentary follows seven people who chose to leave their closed and tightly knit Amish communities for the outside world, knowing they could never return. Interwoven with their stories are the voices of loyal Amish men and women who explain the importance of obedience, the strong ties and traditions that bind them together, and the heartbreak they feel when a loved one falls away.

Mark Samels, executive producer of “American Experience,’’ will attend the free screening to talk about the filmmaking process and answer questions from audience members. For more information, call 508-359-4594.


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