Catherine O’Neill will stage her second play in Boston next month.

Beginning on March 6, Dorchester playwright Catherine O’Neill will invite audiences to the Boston Center for the Arts see her most personal work yet. In “The Fence,” O’Neill recounts how her father built a chain-link fence for her brother as an act of love – only for the son to ask to tear it down because of its ugliness and negative reactions from neighbors. The ensuing drama unearths what she describes as “a world full of hate and secrets” that highlights “the heart of ageism, socioeconomic growth, and acceptance among first-generation Bostonians.”

By using her family as her inspiration, O’Neill gave herself a chance to reflect on the journey they took from Ireland to Boston. She is the youngest of seven children and the only one born in the United States.

“My parents and my 6 brothers emigrated to this country,” she says. “I never considered how brave that was, for a long, long time.

Students from the Harney Academy of Irish Dance in “A Little Bit Of Ireland” at Reagle Music Theatre, March 14 and 15. Photo courtesy of Reagle Music Theatre / Herb Philpott Photo.

It all began with a backstage “hello” more than a decade ago following a performance of Hal Prince’s acclaimed revival of “Showboat” when leading lady Sarah Pfisterer met Bob Eagle, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Waltham’s Reagle Music Theatre.  That brief greeting has led to an enduring personal and professional connection that lasts to this day.

A Metropolitan Opera semi-finalist with a master’s in Music from Northwestern University, Sarah has become a mainstay at Reagle in recent years, regularly appearing in summer musicals such as “Carousel,” “The Music Man,” “The Sound of Music” and ”My Fair Lady.”  She has also performed in the company’s annual Christmas production.  

And later this month she will return to Waltham to sing in Reagle’s 17th annual St. Patrick’s Day revue, “A Little Bit Of Ireland,” on March 14 and 15.

The best museums give their visitors a take-away message, something that can stick with them long after they leave the building. At the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate – slated to open on the 31st of this month on Columbia Point in Dorchester – that message will be participation, according to Museum Director Billie R. DeWalt.

Above, a painting by South Boston’s own Dan McCole captured the colors of an earlier Southie parade.

In a sure sign of spring despite this winter’s whallop of snow, the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day/Evacuation Day festivities will be a jam-packed Sunday, March 15, so long as mother nature cooperates.

As of this paper’s publication, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, put on the South Boston Allied Veterans Council, will be held on Southie’s snow-clogged streets on Sunday, March 15.

This is the first year an LGBT-affiliated ground has been allowed to march in the parade’s 114 year history. As such, more groups and elected officials will march in the parade, including St. Patrick’s Day breakfast host State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry.

In December, the veteran’s council voted 5-4 to allow LGBT veterans organization OutVETS to march in this year’s parade.