Westport Pride Presents First Annual Queer Cookoff
Press release: Three teams of chef-testants and five judges are being brought together to create a lively culinary competition to raise money for Westport Pride’s education programs. Designed to cook up local competition and foster valuable relationships in the community, Westport Pride’s “Queer Cook-Off” will pit members of the Fairfield County LGBTQ+ and ally community against one another in this fun competition. Held at Aitoro Appliance in Norwalk, Connecticut, each team will be placed in three of the showroom’s live kitchens. The competition, like the long-running Food Network cooking show “Chopped,” challenges its contestants to prepare an appetizer and entrée featuring items contained within a mystery box. The teams must use all of the items in their mystery box and incorporate the secret ingredient that will be revealed that night. Each team has 30 minutes to prepare their dishes and at the end of each round, each dish will be presented to a judging panel who will announce the winning team of the Queer Cook-Off.
“We are so excited to bring together the LGBTQ+ community and allies in a fun and unique way,” says Ria Rueda, Westport Pride Advisory Board member & Event Chairperson. “This is a great way to meet new people, cultivate relationships, and provide support for one another. Westport Pride fundraisers enable us to offer programs supporting the growing needs of our diverse community and ensure LGBTQ+ Westporters have a safe place to connect, heal, celebrate and thrive.”
Our celebrity chefs guiding their team are Bill Taibe (Chef/Owner of Don Memo, Kawa Ni, & The Whelk); Jes Bengtson (Executive Chef of Terrain Café and Amis Trattoria); and Arik Bensimon (Executive Chef of the Monogram Design Center).
Our panel of judges are: Brian McGunagle (Founder, Westport Pride); Tony Aitoro (CEO, Aitoro Appliance); Matt Storch (Chef/Owner of Match and Match Burger Lobster); and Dan Woog (Founder/Editor-In-Chief, 06880.
The event takes place on Thursday, May 19th at 6:00PM – 8:30PM at Aitoro Appliance in Norwalk, Connecticut. Guests are invited to observe the competition while enjoying a variety of catered hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/queer-cook-off-tickets-304249677977. For more information about Westport Pride, visit https://linktr.ee/Westportpride or join the community @westportpride on Facebook and Instagram.
Westport COVID-19 Cases Up 14; State Hospitalizations Decline, Positivity Rate Up
The State Department of Public Health reported 14 more cases in Westport over the past day. The State’s daily test positivity rate was up to 9.42% while hospitalizations were down 21 patients, with 212 patients currently hospitalized for COVID-19 throughout the State.
Westport total positive or probable cases: 4,441 cases.
Westport total COVID-19 Deaths: 36 deaths
State Daily Test Positivity: 9.42% [up from 8.92%]
State Hospitalizations: 212 patients [-21]
Westport Country Playhouse Commissions Three Playwrights to Develop New Works through a Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award
Westport Country Playhouse: Westport Country Playhouse announces the first formal group of commissioned playwrights in the theater’s 91-year history: Matthew Greene, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, and Johnny G. Lloyd. The commissions are made possible through the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, created in 2010 by Tony Award-winning playwright, director, and screenwriter Authur Laurents, who wrote the books for “Gypsy” and “West Side Story”; and Tom Hatcher, an actor and real estate developer, who was Laurents’ partner of 52 years.
“Welcoming these three magnificent writers means a great deal to me and to the Playhouse, as a significant incubator of new work,” said Mark Lamos, Westport Country Playhouse artistic director. “Though we've been developing new plays and musicals for years, these commissions take us to a new level of importance on the national theater scene. We are extremely grateful to the generosity of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, which allows us to support these artists and deepen our relationship to the newest era in the American theater.”
Over the course of several years, each playwright will pen a brand-new play, which will be developed and supported by Westport Country Playhouse through its New Works Initiative. By providing appropriate financial and artistic resources, the Playhouse is fostering not only the creation of a new piece of theater, but also the growth and future of these three voices.
Matthew Greene is a playwright, librettist, and lyricist whose works have been seen on both coasts and a few places in between. His play “Thousand Pines” had its world premiere at Westport Country Playhouse, and the autobiographical “Good Standing” played at Theater Row as part of the United Solo Theatre Festival. Other plays include “Gregorian” (Working Artists Theatre Project), “Adam and Steve and the Empty Sea” (Plan B Theatre, New York International Fringe Festival), “#Mormoninchief” (New York International Fringe Festival), “Job Well Done” (national finalist, American College Theatre Festival), and “Bread of Affliction” (Society for the Study of Jewish American and Holocaust Literature). In 2020, he received the Stiles + Drew Prize for a current work in progress and created the socially-distant play “A Midsemester Night's Dream,” which will be published this year. He is a proud member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and has taught theater to people of all ages in and out of New York City.
Monet Hurst-Mendoza is a New York City-based playwright from Los Angeles, CA. Her plays have been developed with Rising Circle Theater Collective, Astoria Performing Arts Center, The Flea, WP Theater, The Public Theater, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Westport Country Playhouse, and Long Wharf Theatre, among others. Hurst-Mendoza is an alum of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, R&D Group at The Civilians, Fresh Ground Pepper's Playground Playgroup, WP Theater Playwrights Lab, and the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists. She has held residencies with The MITTEN Lab and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Her play “Torera” was featured on the 2019 Kilroys List and will be produced by the Alley Theatre in Houston, TX, in their 2022/2023 season. She is currently an executive story editor for the 23rd season of "Law & Order: SVU” and a member of Florida Studio Theatre’s Playwright Collective. She has been commissioned by Westport Country Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Proud member of The Kilroys, The Dramatist Guild, and WGAE. B.A. Marymount Manhattan College.
Johnny G. Lloyd is a New York-based writer and producer. He was the winner of the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (“The Problem With Magic, Is:”) and has been commissioned by Clubbed Thumb and Second Stage Theatre. Currently he is a member of the Ars Nova PlayGroup and was previously a member of the Clubbed Thumb Early-Career Writers Group and Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency. Lloyd is a collaborator with Theater in Quarantine and SalonSéance. He is the director of artistic development at The Tank and producing director for InVersion Theatre. MFA: Columbia University. jglloyd.com
Throughout its 91 years, Westport Country Playhouse has been home to 61 world premiere productions of new plays and musicals, including “Thousand Pines” by Matthew Greene, directed by Austin Pendleton; “Love and Money” by A. R. Gurney, directed by Mark Lamos, and co-produced with New York’s Signature Theatre; “Oblivion” by Carly Mensch, directed by Mark Brokaw; and “Harbor” by Chad Beguelin, also directed by Lamos.
The funding for the Playhouse’s News Works Initiative comes from generous individuals and grant programs. The 2022 Initiative is supported by Athena and Daniel Adamson, Michele and Marc Flaster, and Teresa Nardozzi, as well as the Burry Fredrik Foundation, Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, and Shubert Foundation, Inc.
For more information on Westport Country Playhouse or to buy tickets, visit www.westportplayhouse.org, or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), and on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).
Westport Property Transfers: April 11th - 15th; Highest Sale $6.3 Million on Fraser Lane
Westport property transfers as reported by the Westport Town Clerk’s Office:
Total Conveyance Tax: $74,131.17
Total Sales: $29,652,467.63
Highest Transfer Price: 4 Fraser Lane: $6,375,000
Lowest Transfer Price: 15 Half Mile Common: $635,000
Transfers:
4 Fraser Lane: $6,375,000
9 Burr Farms Road: $4,572,000
28 Juniper Road: $4,318,467.63
2 Hyatt Lane: $2,800,000
52 Charcoal Hill Road: $2,800,000
32 Tamarac Road: $2,015,000
55 Woodside Avenue: $1,538,000
7 Minard Drive: $1,504,000
12 Hunt Club Lane: $1,270,000
220 Riverside Avenue, Unit 8: $975,000
106 Harvest Commons: $850,000
15 Half Mile Common: $635,000