Events

The 2025 Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing, known as the Thoreau Prize, will be awarded to Robert Macfarlane. The Thoreau Prize is a literary award granted annually to an accomplished writer in English who, with a comparable intensity, wishes to speak for nature and embodies the spirit of Thoreau as a gifted writer, insightful naturalist, and ethical thinker. Join the Thoreau Society for a presentation by this year’s award winner, Robert Macfarlane, on June 7, followed by a book signing.

Celebrate the art of gardening with the 2025 Concord Museum Garden Tour! The annual tour, organized by the Museum’s Guild of Volunteers, has been a tradition for more than 30 years. This year’s tour includes gardens that have a range of features, from gazebos and greenhouses to sweeping lawns, large trees, and views of meadows and woodlands. New this year, gardens will also feature live music in partnership with Concord Conservatory and plein air painters from Concord Art Association.

June 6–7

While his mother struggles to earn money in New York City and his father waits alone in Manila for their daily phone calls, six-year-old Eddie learns English from his imaginary friend. Between the War on Drugs in the Philippines and the anti-immigrant movement in the United States threatening their humanity, will this undocumented family be able to pursue their dreams and address unspoken truths? A musical and multilingual journey of childlike wonder, Gaven D. Trinidad’s “Learning How to Read by Moonlight” is equal parts playful, poignant, and hella Pinoy.

Join local actor Stephen Collins for " A Lovely Light," a lecture/performance about the life and poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Born in 1892 in Rockland, Maine, she spent her last years at Steepletop, her farm in Austerlitz, N.Y. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, when she was thirty-one years old.

Stephen Collins grew up in Cambridge and received a BA in Literature from UMass Boston. After twenty-plus years in a sales career, he is back doing what he truly loves—performing and teaching.

Enter the fascinating world of bird watching with the Friends of Minute Man National Park. For many bird watchers, spring migration is the most exciting time of the year. Observe birds in their colorful breeding plumage, listen to their songs, and learn which are passing through on their way north and which will stay to nest right at Minute Man National Historical Park.

June 5

The Concord Orchestra presents “Dreaming With Your Feet” at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1 at 2:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden. The orchestra, conducted by Music Director Zeke Fetrow, performs a program of Michael Kurth’s Everything Lasts Forever, Arturo Marquez’s Danzon No. 2, and Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome. 

Emmy and SAG-nominated TITUSS BURGESS has quickly emerged as one of the entertainment industry’s most versatile and dynamic performers, with his work in television, film, and theater generating both critical and commercial acclaim. Tituss most recently starred as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway. He was seen on TV in Season 2 of the hit Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!. Tituss starred in the hit Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (nominations for four consecutive Emmy Awards, a SAG Award, and two Critics’ Choice TV Awards).

The spring palette unfolds into the colors of summer with our fourth show of the year. Represented artist Brenda Cirioni returns with textural abstract paintings that carry the memory of a garden. Contemporary figurative paintings by Joan Hanley speak to the everyday curiosity of life. Concord-based guest artist Christiane Corcelle shares dynamic mixed media paintings with a bold palette and composition. The show also features new works by represented artists Cindy Crimmin, Joe Faria, Jennifer M. Johnston, Joan Kocak, and Bethany Noël, and guest artist Jill Goldman-Callahan.

Enjoy the best of classic, independent, and foreign films curated by The Concord Film Project, with pre-show dinner options.

In this acclaimed satire, Monk is a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own -- a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

Tickets: $10.  Optional pre-ordered dinner at 6:30. Film tickets and additional concessions available at the door. Delicious meal options are available as an add-on from Adelita!

The Umbrella Arts Center with Five Sisters Productions and the Tufts University Half the History Film Project presents a program of three locally shot short films about impactful women in Concord history.

The featured films will be:

• Margaret Lothrop and the Wayside (Premiere screening with new score)
• Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist Life (Return engagement)
• Women of the Old Manse (Sneak peek)