WOODSTOCK, Vt. – Pentangle Arts welcomes acclaimed comedian, writer, and television host Roy Wood Jr. to the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., for “Strangers: Live with Roy Wood Jr.,” a one-night-only performance combining comedy, conversation, and spontaneous interviews with people from the community and strangers from the audience.
A former correspondent for The Daily Show and current host of CNN’s “Have I Got News for You,” Wood has built a career around finding humor, humanity, and unexpected connections in the stories people tell about themselves and the world around them.
In “Strangers: Live,” Wood brings that curiosity directly to the stage. The evening will feature live comedy alongside interviews with members of local Vermont community. Unscripted and shaped by the people in the room, the result will be an evening that can only happen once, and only with the audience gathered in Woodstock that night.
The performance is part of Pentangle Arts’ “Rediscover Pentangle” season, a renewed effort to reconnect the organization with the community while expanding what audiences can experience at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre.
Through a growing mix of performing arts, film, education, community programs, partnerships, and artist residencies, Pentangle is working to make the theater more than a place to see a show. The organization is building a space where visiting artists and local voices can meet, audiences can participate, and experiences can be created specifically for the community gathered in the room. “Strangers: Live” puts that idea into action.
“This is exactly the kind of work we want Pentangle to make room for,” said Matthew Robert, executive director of Pentangle Arts. “Roy is an extraordinary entertainer with a remarkable ability to turn comedy into connection. He can take a room full of strangers, get them laughing together, and then open the door to conversations. With “Strangers: Live,” the people in the room aren’t simply watching the evening unfold; they become part of what makes the evening possible.
“For us, this season we are asking our community to ‘Rediscover Pentangle,’ which is about reconnecting this organization with the community while also expanding what people can expect to experience here. We want the Town Hall Theatre to be a place where nationally recognized artists and local voices come together, where audiences can be entertained, challenged, surprised, and invited into the creative process. Just as importantly, we want those experiences to remain accessible. We’ve intentionally kept tickets for this event [affordable], because bringing extraordinary artists to Woodstock only matters if our community has the opportunity to be in the room with them.”
At the center of Pentangle’s work is a simple idea: The Woodstock Town Hall Theatre should be a place where community, entertainment, and education meet, where people come not only to experience the arts, but to participate, connect, learn, and create together.