WILMINGTON- Tropical Storm Irene last August caused MHCA (formally Memorial Hall Center for the Arts) to lose all of its equipment that was stored in the basement, including all the costumes, props, sets, furniture, spare lighting fixtures and packs, replacement bulbs, and dressing room/green room appointments that had been acquired and/or built over the past 15 seasons. To produce a full season of events again, MHCA needs to replace much of this. Thus, in its 16th season, MHCA is devoting itself to recovering and rebuilding. Seven events are planned for this summer and fall to help this along, each produced in different venues throughout the Mount Snow valley.

This season there will not be a physical box office. Patrons can find an order form at memhall.org. Order forms are also available at the Mountaineer Inn, Handle Road, West Dover and at the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce, Main Street. Patrons may also leave a message at (802) 464-8411, with their name and a phone number, and a person will return the call within 24 hours.

The seven events planned are Tuesday, July 17, an opening gala dinner at the Inn at Saw Mill Farm, Dover, beginning at 6 pm. The cost is $45/person. On Tuesday, July 24, at 7:30 pm. “Love Letters,” at Dover Town Hall, with Don Albano and Diana Stugger in a fundraiser reprise of their 1998 performance of this 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama-nominated-play by A. R. Gurney. The cost is $12/person, $8 students through high school. On Saturday, August 11, at 7:30 pm, August Dulcimer Daze, at Memorial Hall. The cost is $15/person, $10 students through high school. On Tuesday, August 14, at 5 pm, dinner and a show fundraiser at the Mountaineer Inn, Dover, with jazz from the swing era with Bruce Krasin, woodwinds; Phyllis Isaacson, piano; George Adair, bass; Richard Mayer, drums; and Charlie Schneeweis, trumpet and vocals. The cost is $45/person, seating limited to 50. Call (802) 464-5404 for dinner selections. Saturday, August 18, at 7:30 pm, Village Light Opera Group, at Memorial Hall, benefit concert for MHCA and Village Light Opera Group.General admission is $25/person, $17 student through high school; balcony seating general admission is $20/person, $14 student through high school. Saturday, September 1, at 7:30 pm, “A Night Of The Legends” – a tribute to the music of Paul Anka, Neil Diamond, Bobby Darin, Dion, and Bobby Rydell, at Memorial Hall, with drums, bass, guitar, piano, and vocal. Main floor seating general admission: $26/person, $17 students through high school. Balcony seating general admission is $21/person, $14 student through high school. Saturday, October 6, at 5 pm, dinner and a show fundraiser, at the Mountaineer Inn, Dover, jazz and blues standards and originals with with Samirah Evans, vocalist, and Eugene Uman, of the Brattleboro Jazz Center, piano. The cost is $45/person; seating is limited to 50. Call (802) 464-5404 for dinner selections.

MHCA is not able to offer the usual 20 complimentary seats per event to Vermont students through high school, nor assigned seating, nor discounts to members and seniors.

Be assured that MHCA is still a viable organization, and does plan to be back in 2013 with a full season of events.

To satisfy a lease promise, the MHCA is using the acronym of its legal name this season but, it’s the same 501(c)(3) charitable arts organization.