Alstead Area Citizens

It’s Mole here, co-founder and long-time proprietor of Mole Hill Theatre. I want to tell you about some goings-on with the theatre and also ask for some help.

Some of you won’t know the place, so here’s a brief description and history. Mole Hill Theatre is a roadhouse, museum and machine shop all rolled up into one. It’s a music hall whose vibe is OG industrial-chic. Two prominent fixtures in the venue are vintage cast-iron metal-stamping presses. Their names are Bliss and Ferra-Cute. Bliss was cast in Brooklyn in 1928. She’s a stout 20 tons and sits stage right. Ferra-Cute is a svelte 9-ton beauty standing 10’ tall in the opposite corner. My father Ben, native son, toolmaker and entrepreneur, bought the massive machines at auction back in 1975 and moved them to the factory he’d built adjacent to the family home. Well the years clicked by and the presses hammered away. Then, in 1999, Ben died and I inherited the factory. One day a few years later I had a crazy thought. Wouldn’t it be fun to party with the machines? Turns out yes; that first event was a smash. A friend commented “This is great theatre… we should make one!” Work started the next week, and over the course of two decades, we created a locally-beloved community hall.

For all these years, I have been the producer at Mole Hill. But there’s a new model for 2025 as a local non-profit will assume that role. The Alstead Area Citizens is a 501(c)3 organization that formed in 2003 with a mission that includes promoting community cohesion through the arts. I’m excited to report that new friends have joined the board and together we are going to advance this cause.

What’s needed now? A new PA system and more acoustic treatments for the hard surfaces in the hall! Our original sound equipment served many years but fell victim to time. The professionals at Upstream Sound in Peterborough helped us design a new system that will serve both levels of the 3,000 ft2 hall and maximize the listening experience for our patrons. Performers, who currently haul their own equipment, will benefit from an in-house system. It will also enable us to diversify programming (like open mics and karaoke) and could even help us book some bigger-name acts. The end-goal of this campaign is $15,000. If we reach it, in addition to the PA system, we will be able to purchase and apply additional sound-deadening treatments to the hard surfaces of the hall (the machinery, concrete floors, and sheetrock walls of the theatre make for an acoustically lively room!).

Moles are known for poor eyesight, but that doesn’t preclude having a vision. Mole Hill Theatre was built on the premise that healthy communities need places where people meet and have a good time with their neighbors. The ancestors laid the groundwork and old friends helped me develop it into such a place. New friends want to bring it to a new level. Please help us! Your donation to this GoFundMe campaign is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and will go directly to “The Citizens,” who, doing business as Mole Hill Theatre, will purchase the equipment.