The Civic Standard
Photo by Terry J. Allen
Rose Friedman and Tara Reese were in the early stages of starting the Civic Standard, an organization that wasn’t exactly a community center and wasn’t exactly an arts organization but a strange combination of both. Its primary mission would be to give the people of Hardwick excuses to get together. Rose and Tara were explaining this idea to Brenda at a baseball game up at the high school in Hardwick and Brenda said that what she really wanted was for them to make a mystery dinner theater show. Nobody really thought that this would happen. Mystery dinner theater shows are set in Little Italy in the 20s or mansions in France—and Rose wasn’t interested in any of that.
But then Rose had an idea. What if the murder mystery was set in Hardwick? Actually, what if it was set at a really boring development review board meeting in Hardwick, which is the sort of meeting everyone around here feels totally at home in, including people who have never been to a play?
This is a show about the making of Developed to Death, a play that was written by people around Hardwick, about the people of Hardwick, and for the people of Hardwick. It is part theater, part social science project, and in it…someone gets murdered.
Special Bonus: Right after the show is a followup interview with Civic Standard co-founders Rose Friedman and Tara Reese.
Bonus Bonus: This story is also running as a Transom Radio Special, and you can read about the making of the show here
Credits
This story was supported in part by the Vermont Humanities Council. This story is also a Transom Radio Special, which has support from the National Endowment for the Arts. You can read about the making of the show at: https://transom.org/2023/the-civic-standard
This show was mixed by Jay Allison, who is one of my radio heroes. So that’s pretty cool.
Music for this show is by Justin Lander and Charlie Lander. (Charlie is eight. Truly a boy genius.)
Special thanks to these people for their advice and patience: Amelia Meath, Tobin Anderson, Chelsea Edgar, Jay Allison, Howard Norman, Gordon Grunder, my family, and of course Rose and Tara.
