Once, during a public reading, Robert Frost was asked why he so frequently recited his poems from memory. “If they won’t stick to me,” he replied, “I won’t stick to them.” On Friday, March 29, Town Hall Theater and The Vermont Book Shop honor Robert Frost’s 150^th birthday with a celebratory literary event that pays homage to Frost’s greatest work. The evening showcases “Robert Frost – Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart,” a new keepsake edition of Frost’s greatest works curated by acclaimed poet and biographer Jay Parini.

“The goal of this little book is to encourage readers to slow down—to listen to Frost’s words and phrases, to locate their deepest rhythms, and hear the tune of each poem as it unfolds,” Parini writes in his introduction. To share the poetry’s resonance with an audience, Middlebury College Associate Professor of Theatre Michole Biancosino directs 16 community members, including Alex Draper, Vanessa Dunleavy, Naja Irvin-Conyers, Peyton Mader, Madison Middleton, Mark Saltveit, Phineas Knowles, and Jeremy Holm, in the presentation of each poem live on THT’s stage.

“Audiences will get to experience these poems performed aloud, and then have the gift of hearing Jay’s vast trove of stories about Robert Frost interspersed throughout the evening,” Biancosino said.

The event includes a Q&A session with author Jay Parini, which provides a glimpse into the book’s accompanying commentaries on one of our most beloved and enduring poets. “Memorizing a poem can teach us much about a poem’s structure and argument, and about the resonance of particular words. And best of all, memorization makes a poem part of our inner lives,” Parini said.

Producer: MCTV