Drive-In Concert Tickets Go On Sale Monday at 10:00 AM
The Dark Desert Eagles BandThe Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce and Westport Library are pleased to announce the next weekend of Drive-in Concerts. Dark Desert Eagles, will perform the music of America's greatest rock act, the Eagles, on Friday and Saturday night May 14 and 15.
The nationally touring act is staying close to home during the pandemic and will play Westport for two nights bringing a phenomenal recreation of the Eagles, including Joe Walsh music to the drive-in. These are not to be missed concerts.
"If you love the Eagles, you will truly enjoy this show," said Matthew Mandell, Executive Director and president of the Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce. "There are cover bands, and then there are truly tributes and this band will meet every expectation.
“It will be ‘One of These Nights" remarked Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer. “Time to ‘Take it Easy’ at a Supper & Soul concert at the drive-in! I can’t wait!”
Tickets for each show are $150 per car (5 person max). Tickets for both shows will go on sale on Monday April 12th at 10am. www.westportwestonchamber.com/supper
The rain date for either show is Sunday May 16th.
The sponsor of the event is Franny's of Westport.
Please support local businesses by getting takeout and bringing it to the show.
It is unknown where things will be in terms of the pandemic come the fall. The Chamber, Library and Town will assess the situation as it relates to outdoor concerts. Hopefully things will have returned to normal and Supper & Soul will once again be held in the Library’s Trefz Forum
Westport is Remarkable Once Again as Drive-in Movies Return for the 2021 Season
James and Jack Fenn enjoyed the Remarkable Theater's season opening last night with their father Noah. The boys, wrapped in sleeping bags in the tailgate of their car, enjoyed National Lampoon's Vacation. Westport is Remarkable once again as the silver screen was constructed and sound tests were completed at nearly 1:00 AM Thursday morning in preparation for yesterday’s opening night.
Previews before last night’s 2021 debut. The Remarkable Theater, a non-profit organization run by volunteers, began last year as a way to bring movies back to Westport. However amidst the pandemic, the big screen and staff accomplished much more than showing a movie - they brought a community together in a year when it was so far apart.
With social distancing and safety guidelines in place, the pop-up drive-in movie theater has quickly become a part of the Westport community and became an event that many wanted to keep as tradition, even when movie theaters opened again for customers.
The Remarkable Theater’s mission is to “Build a culturally rich, community focused movie theater to provide purposeful employment to individuals with disabilities.”
Projectionist Daniel Meeson assures the show goes on for viewers at the Remarkable Theater’s opening night. He works from the back of a small box truck, with all equipment being tested until nearly 1:00 AM Thursday morning. Mission accomplished.
While driving into the Imperial Avenue parking lot, guests become part of the remarkable community of staff and fellow guests. The reflective vest-wearing staff guide your car into the lot and answer any questions you may have, or just to say hi. As the engines turn off, neighbors and friends enjoy each other’s company from a distance while lawn chairs and rollable tables are set up for dinner and drinks.
Through the appreciation from the staff members and the honking of the horns in celebration - this is no ordinary movie experience, and it’s one that’s here to stay.
The Remarkable Theater tickets can be purchased here on their website.
Movies include classics such as Jaws or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or Minari - a movie still in theaters that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
A young viewer enjoys the movie from the trunk of their family’s car. Upcoming Movie Schedule:
Today: Ratatouille (7:30 PM)
Tomorrow, April 10th: When Harry Met Sally (7:30 PM)
Tuesday, April 13th: Minari (7:30 PM)
Inspirational Artwork at Saugatuck Elementary School
In another installation of art from the WAAC and Westport Public Schools, passersby were greeted to blooming flowers and beautiful words of encouragement along Riverside Avenue at Saugatuck Elementary School. The work was created by Westport students from all schools and of all ages.
Staples High School, Westport Public Schools Presents: “America’s Voices” to 3rd-5th Graders
Coleytown Elementary School students stand with their yard sign artwork among a field of signs from the other Westport elementary schoolsPress ReleaseThe Staples Amati Chamber Orchestra pre-records “American Landscape”The Staples High School Music Department and Westport Public Schools will present “America’s Voices” to Westport students Grades 3-5, April 5-9. “America’s Voices” celebrates and showcases the diverse population of musicians and artists within our country and our schools. After several months of immersive studies of varied music and art, elementary students will view a video series spanning from April 5-9 featuring:
Staples music ensembles pre-recorded pieces from diverse American composers
Westport public school student art grades 3-5 and 9-12
A traveling town-wide lawn sign exhibit, beginning at the elementary schools on April 3, visually expressing the Voices of our public school students, in partnership with the Westport Arts Advisory Committee and Poet Laureate, Diane Lowman
Family folk song submissions celebrating Westport’s diverse cultures, recorded at home by elementary students and families
This collaborative effort, previously called the Westport Youth Concert, has been renamed the Westport Youth Arts Collaborative to encompass the cross-curricular involvement in the making of this production. Not only does the program expose students Grades 3-5 to the exemplary musicians at Staples High School, but also builds their understanding of diversity and the uniqueness of global cultures. The multi-discipline initiative has developed partnerships in our community with organizations such as the Westport Library, Westport Arts Advisory Committee, WestPAC and PTA Cultural Arts.
For more information about this collaborative event and Staples Music go to staplesmusic.org.
WAAC Culture Corner: Eggshells for April
Prepared by WAAC Member and Westport Poet Laureate Diane Lowman Welcome back to the Westport Local Press’s Westport Arts Advisory Committee’s “Culture Corner.” Each month, the WAAC will scour our 33.45 square miles and highlight one of the many artists – visual, written, performance, and other – who call Westport home. These artists create a spectrum of color that shines over town like the rainbows often seen over the Saugatuck, so we have made “color” our theme. Our profiles will feature art that, however tightly or tenuously, connects to a color.
For April, that color is eggshell white, not because of its ubiquity in home decorators’ palettes, but because it nods to the ovate object that figures prominently in two of the month’s celebrations as well as in our featured artist’s work. The egg (and please be prepared for proliferating puns), symbolic of rebirth and new life, shows up on lawns and in baskets at Easter, and on Seder plates at Passover, and by the thousands in this artisan’s home.
Linn Cassetta (http://www.linncassettadesign.com/), whose egg creations can be seen in the storefront 24/7 gallery at 47 Main Street until April 5, majored in apparel both as an undergrad at RISD, and for her MA at London’s Royal College of Art. The first American to graduate from the latter, Cassetta also studied apparel design there. Her designs garnered the attention of Vogue editors and shoe designers alike, and following a stint at Andrew Geller Shoes, she developed her eponymous – Linn Callahan -apparel label.
After a career move to a Japanese fabric manufacturer took her all around the world for work, Linn reinvented herself as a decorative painter so she could spend more time here in Westport with her family. Her fascination with eggs began during her childhood in bucolic Western Pennsylvania. There, she spent many hours helping out at her aunt’s farm and began to appreciate both the shape and promise of the egg. She learned how to “candle” the eggs to determine their condition. This experience, and her deep comfort with the sights and sounds of nature, led her to focus on the form and function of the egg in her art, including a photographic collaboration with her son which explores fresh and frozen eggs (the yolks sink in the former and rise in the latter). Some of these currently hang on the walls at Sherwood Diner.
Linn has amassed a collection of thousands of eggs and has created egg images in many media, including painting, photography, and prints. For egg-ample the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, she began making encaustic collagraphs by sinking eggshells into plates – and has sold both the prints and the plates, which are, themselves, works of art.
Both her collection and her work is eggs-traordinary, and we’d encourage you to have a look at it, both in downtown Westport, and on her website.
Westport Country Playhouse, Hartford Stage Artistic Directors to Enjoy “Cocktails With Mark” Virtual Conversation
Mark Lamos, Westport Country Playhouse Artistic Director. Photo by Bruce PlotkinPress ReleaseMelia Bensussen, Artistic Director for Hartford Stage Westport Country Playhouse will present “Cocktails with Mark,” a virtual conversation hosted by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, on Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m. Lamos’ guest will be Melia Bensussen, Hartford Stage artistic director. The free-of-charge event will be streamed on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), and YouTube (WestportPlayhouse), running approximately 20 minutes.
Bensussen began her tenure as the first female artistic director of Hartford Stage in 2019. She was about to present her first season of productions shortly before the pandemic forced a shutdown of all performing arts institutions. Lamos, who has been artistic director at Westport Country Playhouse since 2009, was artistic director at Hartford Stage from 1980 through 1997.
“Melia's first professional job was at Hartford Stage when I served as artistic director there,” said Lamos. “She was director Emily Mann's assistant on a production of Ibsen's ‘A Doll House,’ in which I acted the role of Dr. Rank. I'm so proud of her subsequent career and her new leadership role at the Stage Company.
“We'll be chatting about Melia's complex and fascinating roots as part of what she calls ‘a typically complicated modern family’ and her move from Mexico to the U.S. as a teenager; her perspective on being a woman in the American theater; her study in Israel; and very much more. Please join us for what will prove a lively and enlightening cocktail hour.”
Bensussen is an Obie Award-winning director and artistic leader who has directed extensively at leading theaters across the U.S., as well as Puerto Rico, Asia, and Europe. Raised in Mexico City, Bensussen is fluent in Spanish and has translated and adapted a variety of texts, including her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding.” Her acclaimed work with new plays has taken her to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, and other new play programs across the country. A graduate of Brown University, Bensussen currently serves as the chair of the arts advisory board for the Princess Grace Foundation and for the past 11 years has chaired the performing arts department at Emerson College. She also serves on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). http://meliabensussen.com/
Lamos has helmed many plays at Westport Country Playhouse since 2008, earning Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for his direction of “She Loves Me” (2010), “Into the Woods” (2012), “The Dining Room” (2013), “Man of La Mancha” (2018), and “Mlima’s Tale” (2019). Under Lamos’ artistic direction, the Playhouse was named “Theater Company of the Year” by The Wall Street Journal in 2013. Lamos’ extensive New York credits include “Our Country's Good,” for which he received a Tony Award nomination. A former artistic director at Hartford Stage, he earned the 1989 Tony Award for the theater's body of work. He was awarded the Connecticut Medal for the Arts as well as honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, University of Hartford, and Trinity College. In 2016 he was the recipient of the John Houseman Award.
“Cocktails with Mark,” featuring conversations with theater artists and Playhouse favorites, will continue during the Playhouse’s 2021 season; future dates to be announced.
Due to the global pandemic, the Playhouse campus remains closed since March 2020. The 2021 Season is scheduled to begin in April, online and in-person. Playhouse management will be following the science and the State of Connecticut Department of Health guidelines in deciding when and how to safely open its buildings to the public.
For Westport Country Playhouse information, visit westportplayhouse.org, leave a message on the box office voicemail at (203) 227-4177, or email at boxoffice@westportplayhouse.org. The Playhouse’s physical box office is closed during the pandemic, but staff is working from home, returning phone messages and answering emails. Please understand with the high volume of inquiries, it may take up to 72 hours to respond. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), and on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).
Haiku Moment from Westport’s Poet Laureate
A Haiku Moment from Westport’s Poet Laureate Diane Lowman
Speckled Shakespeare Birds
Swoop Down usurpers en masse
Packs of black starlings
Westporter, Author Jane Green Signs Copies of her Latest Novel at Barnes & Noble this Afternoon
Westporter and New York Times bestselling author Jane Green visited Barnes and Noble this afternoon to add signed copies of her novel The Friends we Keep. Green has published twenty novels, with The Friends we Keep being her latest after its publishing in June 2019.
Staples Players Radio Theatre Presents “Little Women” Tonight at 6:00
Full Cast for tonight's performance: Jasper Burke, Samantha Webster, Chloe Manna, Claire Baylis, Maizy Boosin, Lulu Dalzell, Anushka Rao, Camille Foisie, Colin Konstanty, Jasper Burke, Alex Watzman, David Corro, Lena Pantzos, Anushka Rao, Lena Pantzos (photo not ordered and does not show the full cast) Staples Players Radio Theatre will be presenting Little Women tonight at 6:00. The radio show can be streamed live at wwptfm.org and is free for all listeners. The Staples Players adapted to the pandemic world and began airing the radio broadcasts when their stages were closed for the year.
WAAC Culture Corner: Irish Dancers Take Over for March
Welcome back to the Westport Local Press’ Westport Arts Advisory Committee’s “Culture Corner.” Each month, the WAAC will scour our 33.45 square miles and highlight one of the many artists – visual, written, performance, and other – who call Westport home. The spectrum of color artists create shines over town like the rainbows often seen over the Saugatuck, so we have made “color” our theme. Our profiles will feature art that, however tightly or tenuously, connects to a color.
Prepared by Diane Lowman, Westport Poet Laureate, WAAC Member
March is, of course, green! So we travel virtually by way of some very talented young dancers to the Emerald Isle for a look at how Westport represents the centuries-old art of Irish step dancing. According to Celtic Steps, “Although the exact roots and origins of early Irish dancing are lost in time, there is evidence to suggest a linkage between early forms of Celtic dance and that of modern Irish dance.” (https://www.celticsteps.ie/our-story/the-history-of-irish-song-music-dance/). While those roots reach as far back as 1413, Irish step dancing likely evolved into the form that we see today in the late 1600s/early 1700s. Just like with cuisine, each region of Eire has its own particular flavor and style of dance.
Fortunately for us, America has embraced and imported this tradition with the same gusto as we have for Guinness. And Westport, specifically, is as full of Irish Dancers as a pint of that dark ale pulled by a barkeep in Temple Bar, Dublin. I had the pleasure of speaking with four of them, learning more about this traditional art form and the different ways in which they practice it. I present brief portraits of them in order from youngest to oldest:
Maggie Menninger
Maggie Menninger began dancing at the ripe old age of three, having watched both her mother and older sister dance, so that at age eight now, she has five years of experience. While her sister no longer dances, she has performed alongside her mother in Music in Schools month at her school. She trains at the Lenihan School of Irish Dance, where a mother/daughter team have taught generations of Connecticut steppers. She currently dances in the softer leather “ghillies” shoes, as dancers must earn the right to dance in the fiberglass toe-and-heeled hard shoes. But even at her young age, she will not be far from that achievement because she started at a young age and devotes at least 90 minutes per week to her practice even though she also participates in tennis, soccer, and basketball. She recently did a wonderful 14-page research project (which I had the pleasure to see over FaceTime) for a nonfiction assignment in school detailing the art form. For our interview, she graciously donned the black turtleneck and pink sash costume specific to the Lenihan School for her age group. She pays homage to her Irish heritage (Connemarra) with every step she dances and hopes to visit the one day.
Camryn HarrisCamryn Harris, now 14, learned more than her alphabet from Sesame Street. At age four, she saw a segment on Irish dancing on that iconic show and begged her mother to get her lessons. She persisted, and her mom relented and shifted her from gymnastics to Irish dance when she was five. Although there is some Irish heritage in her family, there was no dance tradition, so Camryn blazed this trail on her own. She attends the Doherty Petri School of Irish Dance in Bethel three to four days a week for two to three hours. As an Open Championship Level Dancer and Worlds Qualifier, she has competed and performed at the highest levels in her age group. Were it not for COVID-19, she’d have traveled to the 50th anniversary World Irish Dancing Championships (Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne) in Dublin in April last year. She’s scheduled to compete at the North American Irish Dance Championships in Phoenix in July, 2021, and hopes to follow her dream to the Worlds, provided the pandemic abates and they proceed. She sources her elaborate costumes directly from Ireland, at the Belfast-based Eire Designs, where one of her teachers, Gavin Doherty, helps to design them. Camryn really enjoys the camaraderie with the other students at the school and with the broader Irish dance community. She has earned the right to wear the hard, or “jig” shoes, and loves the sound created with the intricate steps. And speaking of hard, she has learned some hard lessons as a result of two serious injuries which she worked hard to recuperate from. She has learned so much beyond the steps from her dancing experience, and has no plans to retire any time soon, hoping to dance through college and beyond.
Keeva BoyleKeeva Boyle was born in Ireland and has returned there almost each of her fifteen years. Although her entire family hails from the Emerald Isle, they did not pressure her to dance; she saw a segment on television and wanted to try it. She, too, attends the Lenihan School. In doing so, she has made her whole clan proud – her relatives, who hail from Monaghan and Donegal, have often seen her perform virtually. It has proven a meaningful link for all of them to their heritage, and she hopes one day to dance for them in person in Ireland. Keeva and I discussed the physical rigors of the art – needing to keep muscles tense, posture erect, arms still, while allowing the ankles to be loose and fluid. She works hard to protect herself from injury with yoga and Pilates, helping to keep her flexible while keeping a strong core and back. She practices twice weekly but has attended intensive two-week camps prior to school starting and performances. She, like many of the other dancers, performs locally with the Gaelic-American Club (Fairfield). If the pandemic allows, we can see her and her classmates dance at the Pequot Library for St. Patrick’s Day.
Abby Turner (Top, 3rd from Left) Abby Turner literally followed in her father’s footsteps. He and his four siblings grew up dancing – they hail from Cork and Ballynahinch. She began in kindergarten, taking lessons and competing, but stopped in eighth grade to allow time for other activities. Happily, though, she returned to dancing at Boston College, where she is currently a junior and a member of the Irish Dancing team. She learned of the activity at a college club fair and thought it a good way to meet friends and renew her interest in the art form. She and her team perform at several large shows both within the school and regionally. She, too, noted that many don’t appreciate the demanding physicality of the dance because good dancers make it look so effortless. She explained that vendors attend competitions and performances to sell costumes and shoes. She has found that often it’s best to buy used hard shoes because they are already broken in. While she has visited Ireland, she has not yet, but hopes to, go see the steps performed in the country from which they- and she – originated.
I learned so much from these lovely young women. I still cannot properly pronounce the names of the various competitions: A feis (pronounced fesh) is a more local-level Irish dance competition. An Oireachtas (pronounced o-rock-tus) is a larger, regional competition. In the photos, you’ll see the intricate costumes, wigs, and makeup the girls wear for these events. They’ve worked hard to maintain their training despite the pandemic, first through Zoom, and then in socially-distanced, masked classes. I was impressed with their dedication both to the cultural and physical aspects of this sport/art form. They share something in common in their love of this ages-old tradition, but they each make it their own with their unique styles and approaches. I thank them each for taking the time to speak with me and share these hidden Westport shamrocks – Erin Go Bragh!
Westport Arts Advisory Committee seeks to enhance the visibility of the arts in our community. Visit http://www.westportarts.org