The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network (MVWN) is hosting a hands-on branding workshop featuring Bill Engler, an internationally recognized brand and marketing expert whose clients have included GE, ATT, Capital One, The Mayo Clinic, and Rockwell Collins. Mr. Engler recently moved to the Vineyard and is the founder and chief brand psychologist of BrandFriends, a boutique business consulting practice focusing on assisting Island entrepreneurs. And maybe not most importantly, but certainly newsworthy, he was a finalist on Donald Trump’s show The Apprentice.

Health Care Movie Leads Film Festival

Tonight, March 16, at 6 p.m. the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival gets under way with an opening reception. Try out the comfy couches, sample food prepared by Chris Fischer of Beetlebung Farm and get ready for a weekend of the year’s best documentary and feature films, many of which cannot be seen anywhere else.

For current American Idol contestant Erika Van Pelt, last week moving into the top twelve, handling the pressure of performing in front of an audience of millions should be a walk in the park.

After all, her very first gig with the Sultans of Swing, the Martha’s Vineyard based event band most commonly seen at weddings and summer events, was a Nantucket wedding in which she sang two hours of overtime as a storm rolled in over the horizon.

Talk about a high-pressure situation.

Little money, a backstage dressing room the size of an office desk — it’s all part of the charm of working in community theatre. But when the audiences, about half of whom you know personally, laugh or gasp or sit in mesmerized silence it’s all worth it.