A birthday to remember

It is not often that I get the chance to wish a one-yearold “Happy Birthday.” As an octogenarian, our little ones are graduates now, either from high school or college. So here goes:

Happy First Birthday Marblehead Current

It was on June 16, 2022, that we launched our online news site that is the predecessor to the Marblehead Current.

Six founders spent the bitter pandemic winter of 2022 meeting every Wednesday on Zoom and planning the steps that took us from concept to online and later a printed newspaper.

Our local news site was rushed onto the internet just before the town elections

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Marblehead Current’s June 21 edition went to print before the June 20 Marblehead municipal election results were available. For comprehensive coverage and updates on the election, visit the newspaper’s website, marbleheadcurrent.org.

because we knew there was a thirst for information about the candidates. The Marblehead Reporter, owned by the Virginiabased Gannett newspaper conglomerate, had abandoned local coverage and pulled its talented reporters out of the community.

Founder and consulting editor Kris Olson burned the midnight oil to get the news site up and running while our founding writers Will Dowd and Leigh

School celebrates mosaic

mentored students during the project, which is on display at Devereux’s Marblehead campus.

Profit Spotlight

BY MELISSA STACEY

The following is an interview with Marblehead Little Theatre at 12 School St., conducted by Discover Marblehead. To learn more about MLT’s upcoming shows and workshops, go to mltlive.com

Tell us about Marblehead Little Theatre and how it got started. In the fall of 1954, Terry Hale became the chair of the Marblehead Women’s Club drama committee. Eight women of the drama committee performed the one act play “The Charm Racquet” for the Woman’s Club on the occasion of their annual meeting in May of 1955 at the Old North Church parish hall. It soon became evident that a much larger group was needed and so husbands, sons, daughters and friends were invited to an organizational meeting in September

1955. Hale continued to lead the new group as its first president through its formative first three years. The newly formed Little Theatre group presented its first production, the threeact play, Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky” at the Women’s Club Guest Night. The show opened on January 18, 1956, at the Marblehead Junior High School auditorium. And so, Marblehead Little Theatre was born and now over six decades later has proven to be one of the oldest community theatre groups in New England, as well as one of the few to have continually-produced shows each year.

Who are the people involved with MLT behind the scenes?

Andrew Barnett is MLT’s technical director and the doer of all things related to keeping the building running and in good shape. Andy has been involved with MLT for over 20 years as a producer, designer, builder and board member. He designed and built his first set at the Marblehead Middle (Village) School in 1992 for “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Andy has built scenery for Marblehead Middle and High Schools, Salem High School, Rebel Shakespeare Company, Stage 284, Endicott College, Gordon College, Opera Boston, Gloucester Stage, Roxbury Center for the Arts, MassJam, Perkins School for the Blind, Boston Center for the Arts, Mssng Lnks, The Summer Revels, Riversing and The Christmas Revels. His work is a tribute to the many dedicated artists who believe in making live theater great.

At present, we have a 14-member board of directors. This includes President Julie Menard, Vice President Trudi Olivetti, Treasurer