through a separate entrance<\/a> on the Canadian side of the border.<\/p>\n\u201cNow you\u2019ll be arrested if you go across those rocks,\u201d he said standing near the new entrance, which is still under construction. \u201cSo, what can you do? It was like this for how many years? Hundreds of years, you know. So, everybody\u2019s gotten along. Never bothered anyone else, but, you know. Anyway, it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The members of the Memphremagog Community Theatre did not start their organization as a political statement.<\/p>\n
Theater company member Ross Murray, who lives in Stanstead, Quebec, said the folks who live up here still see themselves as a single community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd here, in this particular venue, where you have Canadians and Americans intermingling with each other, that really doesn\u2019t happen in a lot of other places to this degree,\u201d Murrary said. \u201cSo we\u2019re not doing this because of politics, we\u2019re really doing it in spite of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially now, it is exceedingly important for this country, and Canada to join. And if we can join in the arts, I believe the arts will save the world.”<\/p>\n
Heather McKeown, Newport resident<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s board is made up of theater veterans who have worked with other theater groups in the Northeast Kingdom and wanted to start a company that was more accessible to people who are new to the stage.<\/p>\n
They have a night of one-act plays scheduled for August, and hope to produce a musical next year. Their first production was a murder mystery show, in which the group\u2019s actors played suspects in a staged murder and the audience had to solve the case.<\/p>\n
![\"Leesa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776333070_830_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Howard Weiss-Tisman<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Vermont Public<\/p>\n
Leesa Guay-Timpson, in costume, with her back to the camera, speaks to the audience during the Memphremagog Community Theatre performance at the Haskell Free Library.<\/p>\n
Members were unsure what kind of a crowd would show up that Sunday afternoon. But as the doors opened people streamed in through both entrances and more than 70 people packed the Haskell.<\/p>\n
Among them was Heather McKeown, who lives in Newport and comes over to Derby Line to see a show whenever she can.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially now, it is exceedingly important for this country and Canada to join. And if we can join in the arts, I believe the arts will save the world,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this group, I know them. They\u2019re fabulous. They\u2019re young. They\u2019re energetic. They\u2019re brilliant and they love where we live. So they\u2019re going to be a very positive force.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The international border runs right through the communities of Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont, and the region…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-587493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776333069_361_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n