Spot On is a series of community conversations designed to illuminate the major themes of selected plays in Northern Stage’s main stage season. Featuring artists, academics, community leaders, and inspirational figures you will want to hear from, these conversations are curated to spark resonant dialogue among our community members.
Spot On conversations are free and open to the public, but you are recommended to reserve your seat by contacting the Box Office at boxoffice@northernstage.org or by calling (802) 296-7000.
2024-2025 Season Spot On Series
Sunday, October 13th, following the 5 PM Performance
Farming & Creative Process Talkback
Join us after the show for a conversation with director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, Kate Duesterberg (Co-Founder, Cedar Circle Farm) and Danielle Allen (Owner, Root 5 Farm). Hear from them about the process of bringing our farm to stage musical to life, and the challenges and joys of farming now!
ADMISSION TO SPOT ON IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC.
Kate Duesterberg is a founder and former operations director for 22 years of Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center in East Thetford, Vermont. Along with her husband Will Allen, she helped develop the community-based organic vegetable and flower farm and its accompanying educational programs; all with the aim of raising awareness about the relationship between organic, regenerative farming and healthy food, the environment and consumers. Before coming to Central Vermont, Kate worked at UVM as the co-creator and program director of the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
Sunday, October 13th, following the 5 PM Performance
Spot On: Humans and Machines: Boundaries and Relationships
Join us after the 5:00 PM show for a conversation with Dartmouth Professors Dan Rockmore, Emily Finn, and Jeremy Manning on a discussion of Humans & Machines: Boundaries & Relationship.
ADMISSION TO SPOT ON IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC.
Emily Finn is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. She completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Yale, and her postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health. Before that, she received a B.A. in linguistics, also from Yale. Emily’s work is focused on individual variability in brain activity and behavior, especially as it relates to appraisal of ambiguous information under naturalistic conditions. Her lab is also interested in questions of subjectivity and subjective judgments in artificial and natural intelligence.
Jeremy Manning is an Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, where he runs a research lab studying how we think, communicate, learn, and remember. He also teaches courses on data science, cognitive models, experimental methods, and computer programming. Prior to Dartmouth, Jeremy trained in computer science and neuroscience at Brandeis University (undergraduate), University of Pennsylvania (doctorate), and Princeton University (post-doctorate).
Dan Rockmore is the William H. Neukom 1964 Distinguished Professor of Computational Science, Director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science, and Associate Dean for the Sciences at Dartmouth College. He holds appointments in two academic departments — math and computer science — and is deeply committed to interdisciplinary study. He has worked at Dartmouth since 1991. He completed his undergraduate work at Princeton University and earned his Ph.D.in Mathematics at Harvard University. Dan directed SFI’s Complex Systems Summer School 2005-2009. His most recent book is the edited volume What are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious (UPNE 2018). He is also co-editor of the book Law as Data, soon to be published through SFI Press. In addition to his scientific work he is the co-producer of four documentary films, most recently The Birth of BASIC on the origins of the BASIC programming language.