Bogey’s — vacant since Hurricane Irene last August — will reopen soon.
A sign on the new restaurant — named 323, for its location at 323 Main Street — promises “It’s All True.” I have no idea what that means, but it sounds intriguing.
323 will extend the dining options on the non-chain-store end of Main Street. A new wine bar opened recently next to Sally’s Place, and Joe’s Pizza will relocate there soon.
Count one more area of downtown is livening up.
Would I lie?
Posted in Downtown, Restaurants
Tagged 323 restaurant, Boge, Joe's Pizza, Sally's Place
On her 1st day of school 4 years ago, Gwen Beal auditioned for Staples Players’ fall show, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
She didn’t get a role.
But instead of marking the end of her Players career, it was the beginning.
Assistant director Caley Baretta asked Gwen to sit in on a rehearsal. Though intimidated — Caley was a well-known junior — Gwen said “sure.”
She was hooked.
She interned with Caley for the spring production of “Twelve Angry Men.” She continued to work with — and learn from — Caley as a sophomore.
As a junior, Gwen was on her own.
Gwen Beal, working hard on the set of “Almost, Maine.”
Now — less than a month from graduation — she’s reached the end of a very enjoyable and creative 4-year Staples Players career. “Almost, Maine” — a serio-comic collection of whimsical tales about the joys and perils of romance in a small Maine town — is set for this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (May 24, 25 and 26) in the Black Box Theatre.
It’s a clever, intriguing play — one of those you-may-not-know-it-but-you’ll love-it shows. It’s also a fitting capstone for Gwen’s career.
“To think that I saw maybe 2 Players productions before I got here. And now it’s become the biggest part of my life,” she marvels.
Actors get all the props applause, but a role like Gwen’s is crucial to any play’s success.
“It’s so rewarding to watch a scene grow,” she says. “We shape it the way we want. It really is ours. Mr. Roth (David, the director) oversees things, but in a lot of ways we’re really on our own.”
Michelle Pauker and Bryan Gannon, two of the stars in “Almost, Maine.” (Photo/Kerry Long)
From casting suggestions to helping block and run scenes — plus nitty-gritty but very necessary work like handling dinner — an assistant director can make or break a show.
Gwen learned her role by “stalking Caley. I saw everything she did. There’s no textbook to read. Everything is trial and error.”
Once, Gwen forget an important binder. She got yelled at — and never made the same mistake again.
She’s excited about “Almost, Maine” because the cast and staging are so intimate. “Everyone has a story to tell, but the scenes are short. You don’t have much time to get the whole character across.”
Everett Sussman (left) and Clay Singer discuss the world in “Almost, Maine.” (Photo/Kerry Long)
It’s not easy for a high school actor to play an adult going through a divorce. “That’s so beyond our experience,” Gwen says. “But it’s so rewarding to figure out how to do it, and do it right.”
Some days are blissful. Others are freak-outs. Yet, Gwen notes, “when you figure everything out, there’s no feeling like it.”
Right now, she feels “bittersweet. I’m totally in denial that on Saturday, I’ll be all done with Players. This experience has really shaped me as a person. I’ve learned to talk to adults, technicians, older Players and peers. I’ve learned so much about people.
“My entire high school experience would have been different without Players.”
And all because an older student asked casually, can you give me a hand?
(“Almost, Maine” will be produced in the Staples Black Box Theatre this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 24, 25 and 26, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and students. There is also a 4 p.m. performance on Saturday, May 26; tickets are $5 for senior citizens and students. Click here for reserved seats.) Click the YouTube arrow below for an “Almost, Maine” trailer:Posted in Teenagers, Staples HS, People, Arts, Entertainment
Tagged Staples Players, David Roth, "Almost, Maine", Gwen Beal, Caley Baretta
An alert “06880″ reader sent along 2 questions. Though not related, both are interesting. She wants answers, so click “Comments” to reply. Let the games begin.
Westport is a “bicycle friendly town” (or something like that). But these cyclists are not so friendly. I got yelled at yesterday by an old geezer in bike regalia on Hillspoint who said, “why don’t you learn how to drive a car?” after I stopped at a stop sign before driving — very, very slowly — through a large break in the middle of a group of bikers. It just struck me as funny.What are the actual rules for cyclists? Are they supposed to stop at stop signs?
Also, I wonder why Westport allows door-to-door solicitors. The magazine sellers arrive in the spring and, as a person who works from home, I find it alarming to have someone knock really hard at my door in the middle of the day. I believe that solicitors are not allowed in Norwalk (because a solicitor was cuffed by a police officer in front of my house 2 springs ago for violating the “no soliciting” law in Norwalk.)
Anyway, just 2 things I’ve been wondering about. Thank you!
Posted in Totally random
Tagged Bicyclists, Door to door soliciting, door-to-door solicitors
In the span of 12 hours last week, 2 alert readers emailed several shots of local signs.
In typical Westport fashion, they’re poles apart.
A woman named Victoria is not a big fan of the signs that have sprouted at Bridge Square.
She writes:
I know there was some concern when Dunkin’ Donuts moved in and had their flags. That was nothing compared with the eyesore that is on the corner now.
We are big fans of the new restaurants that have moved in and wish them lots of success, but hope they can modify their Pepsi advertising signage and their massive white board which seems more appropriate for a Holiday Inn conference. Do any local laws govern signage such as this?
A couple of miles away — geographically and philosophically — there’s Lloyd Allen. The owner of Double L Farm Stand is a big fan of creative, eye-catching and hand-made signs.
However, he says, the recent P&Z “clean sweep” of Post Road signs has forced him to remove some of his own. Right now they rest in front of his store — not, more visibly, nailed to nearby trees.
“The town takes its signs seriously,” he notes. But, he says — tongue only slightly in cheek — “If my sign said ‘Vote Grass Fed!’ that would be okay.
“Or ‘Still Lost: Free Range Chickens.”
Meanwhile, “the biggest signs of all are the ones that say ‘Space Available’ up and down the Post Road.”
“Count them,” Lloyd says, referring to the legal “For Rent” signs. “Go figure the logic behind it all.
“Of course, businesses can pay $80 for a minuscule chalk board sign that’s unreadable form a car going the posted speed limit.”
Lloyd believes each establishment should be allowed one sign. “Better that,” he says, “than going out of business.”
After which your landlord can put up a big, ginormous sign. Saying “Space Available.”
Posted in Local business, Local politics, People
Tagged Bridge Square, Double L Farm Stand, Dunkin' Donuts, Lloyd Allen
Suzanne Sherman Propp — no slouch in the talent department herself — was in Oscar’s yesterday afternoon.
Sitting a few feet away were Ryan Reynolds and his Gossip Girl, Blake Lively. Bedford, New York — where they just moved — may have Martha Stewart, but it lacks a good deli.
“Thank you, Paul Newman, for training us Westporters to be calm, cool and collected during celebrity sightings,” Suzanne says.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds (not at Oscar’s, and not at the Oscars).
Posted in Entertainment, People, Restaurants
Tagged Blake Lively, Martha Stewart, Oscars, Paul Newman, Ryan Reynolds, Suzanne Sherman Propp
When the Westport Farmers’ Market started 7 years ago, the draw was locally grown food, from farmers committed to sustainability.
When the 2012 edition kicks off on Thursday (May 24, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) at the Imperial Avenue commuter lot, the food will be as local as ever. But this year, there’s an even greater focus on health and sustainability.
The Farmers’ Market and Wakeman Town Farm have been leaders in a push to make Connecticut the 1st state requiring all food manufacturers to label food that contains genetically modified organisms.
At the last minute Governor Malloy removed a key provision from the bill, but the Farmers’ Market remains committed to the cause. A number of vendors this year will provide GMO-free foods.
There’s also a booth to help everyone create and maintain a healthier lifestyle, plus ideas on how to work with youth toward a sustainable future.
22 regular vendors — and 17 more on a rotating basis — will offer locally produced meat, dairy products, bread, seafood and produce. Farm-to-table chefs will conduct classes and demos.
Each week, a different non-profit will be showcased at the Market. And a new “Artist Alley” will highlight local talent.
Eat, drink and be merry. Do it all locally and sustainably, at the Westport Farmers’ Market.
And do it without GMOs.
Posted in Environment, Organizations
The “06880″ tagline reads “Where Westport Meets the World.”
And — though Myanmar lies half a world a way from Westport — our connections are so close, it might as well be next door.
The new ambassador to Myanmar — the 1st in 22 years — is Derek Mitchell. His brother Jeff moved here in 1993. Derek comes often to watch his nephew Zach play Staples football and run indoor track (he captained the team to a state championship). The ambassador will be here next month too, for Zach’s graduation. (As Derek often does, he’ll walk his red poodle in Winslow Park.)
The swearing-in ceremony for Special Representative Derek Mitchell, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The ambassador’s oath will be administered soon by President Obama. From left: Min Lee (Derek’s wife), Derek Mitchell, Secretary Clinton, and Eli, Zach and Jeff Mitchell of Westport.
In February Burton Levin — the most recent ambassador to Burma (1987-90) — spoke at the Westport Public Library. Jeff Mitchell was there, and helped the 2 ambassadors connect.
Perhaps the most famous Burmese person in the world is U Thant, the 3rd secretary-general of the United Nations (1961-71). His daughter Daw Aye Aye Thant is a longtime resident of Westport. She speaks frequently here, and is the founder and president of the U Thant Institute.
Last October, Aye Aye Thant spoke at Town Hall, for Westport’s United Nations Day ceremony. (Photo/Tom Cleary for Westport News)
According to Asia Times, her Westport home is filled with beautiful indigenous tapestries and exquisite sculptured Buddhas, and photos of her father with presidents Kennedy and Johnson, plus many other world leaders.
Last fall her son, Thant Myint-U, spoke at Green’s Farms Congregational Church on key issues facing Myanmar and the rest of Southeast Asia.
Jeff Mitchell hopes to arrange for his brother, Aye Aye Thant and former Ambassador Levin to speak together here. It would be a historic event, Jeff says, and would mean that Westport “pretty much has a monopoly on the top Burma scholars in the world, outside of that country.”
Though just “wishful thinking” today, Jeff would love for Aung San Suu Kyi — the Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition politician who recently helped Myanmar transition from military rule to democracy — to come together for the event.
Meanwhile, Jeff Mitchell has started a charity organization, Partner with Myanmar. The goal is to further the development of community-based programs and projects. The focus is on arts, culture and conservation.
Its 1st project brought international attention to the Me N Ma Girls, 5 college-educated women who wrote their own songs, battled censors both on song content and how they dressed, and came from different ethnic regions. They’re on the verge of becoming the 1st Burmese band — male or female — with an international recording contract.
Up next for Mitchell: creating the 1st film from Myanmar to be release globally. With Westport’s many industry connections, that goal may not be far-fetched.
06880 meets the world in many places, and many ways. The new democracy in Myanmar is one of the most intriguing, and impressive.
Posted in Entertainment, Organizations, People, Politics
Tagged Aung San Suu Kyi, Aye Aye Thant, Burma, Derek Mitchell, Myanmar, U Thant
A year ago, University of Rhode Island student Austin Brodsky saw a poster for Art About Town’s street party.
The 1st-ever event — original art, live music, interactive art demonstrations, clever street performances and plenty of food and drinks — took place on a Thursday evening on Main Street.
Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa (I think) and friends, last year on Main Street.
Austin — who goes by the tag “Ausltd” — already knew Westport. His graffiti-inspired clothing line is carried in local stores.
He loved the Art About Town party, and asked if he could come this year to demonstrate his “mad skillz.” (They’re far better than his spelling.)
Ausltd is not the only graffiti artist set for this year’s street party (next Thursday, May 24, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.). Brooklyn’s David Hollier will be there too. British-born but now Brooklyn based, he was awarded Best of Show (Fine Arts) at the NYC Contemporary Art Fair.
Both graffitists will demonstrate their skill on a VW Bug (donated by Dragone Classic Motorcars).
But if graffiti — award-winning or otherwise — is not your thang, no worries. There’s much more, for folks of all ages.
Dining al fresco last year, in front of Bobby Q’s.
Painters using oil, acrylic, watercolor, wax and gold (!) will explain their processes and inspirations. Potters and sculptors — including the great Peter Rubino — will pot and sculpt.
(Last year Peter turned 250 pounds of clay into a bust of Beethoven, choreographed to the 5th Symphony. This year he — Peter, not Beethoven — will add dance to the mix.)
Just another day downtown.
Meanwhile, in the New Media Lab space above Bobby Q’s, the Westport Arts Center offers a mural project/open house.
Relative Souls — a jazz/funk/rock band — will play. So will Chillingsworth, Dylan Connor and Joe Izzo, and the jazz duo Eric van Laer and Gene Pino.
The street party kicks off 3 weeks of Art About Town. After the graffiti guys and stilt-walkers leave, hundreds of original works will remain in 70 shops and restaurants. All works are juried, for sale, and on display through June 17.
Last year’s event was one of those “well-should-I-go-or-not?” deals. Crowds were not huge, but the buzz was. The Westport Downtown Merchants Association liked it too, and once again is the main sponsor.
Westport’s Main Street: It’s not just for graffiti artists anymore.
Except when we welcome them with open arms.
(For more information on Art About Town, click here.)
Peter Rubino sculpted Beethoven in 20 minutes — to the strains of “Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.” For video highlights, click the YouTube arrow below.
Posted in Arts, Downtown, Entertainment, Organizations, People
Tagged Art About Town, Ausltd, David Hollier, Peter Rubino, Westport Downtown Merchants Association
When most Westporters read that Briggs Cunningham III — a great-grandson of Edward T. Bedford, the founder of the Westport YMCA — pledged $250,000 to support the new facility at Camp Mahackeno, they may have thought “that’s a lot of money.”
Or “Briggs Cunningham III — what a WASPy name.”
Neil Brickley –a good friend of mine who learned to sail off Burying Hill Beach, within sight of the old Bedford estate (now Green’s Farms Academy) — thought, “I wonder if that’s the same Briggs Cunningham who invented ‘the Cunningham.’” (If you’re not a boater — and I’m not — then you don’t know that a Cunningham is “a common device on sailboats that adjusts sail tension.”)
“Cunningham downhaul” (Photo/Wikipedia)
“Applying the Cunningham” is apparently a favorite sailing technique. Though it sounds like something right out of the Kama Sutra, via The Onion.
Neil is right. The inventor — Briggs Cunningham II — has quite an entry in Wikipedia. He was, that impeccable source says, “an American entrepreneur and sportsman, who raced automobiles and yachts.
“He skippered the victorious yacht Columbia in the 1958 America’s Cup race, and invented the eponymous device, the Cunningham, to increase the speed of racing sailboats.”
He learned to sail at 6. He began racing at 17, out of Pequot Yacht Club. Briggs II left Yale to marry Lucy Bedford — daughter of Standard Oil heir F.T. (Fred) Bedford. Not a bad career move.
In addition to sailboat racing, II competed in the 24-hour auto race at Le Mans. In 1951 he designed and built the Cunningham C-4R, a race car with “a sleek, hand-hammered aluminum body and Chrysler’s newly introduced V-8 engine, (which) has been called America’s first sports car.”
Briggs Cunningham II, on the cover of Time.
On April 26, 1954 Briggs II was on the cover of Time magazine, with 3 of his Cunningham racing cars. (“The H-Bomb In Color” rated only a ribbon at the top.)
So I’m guessing the $250,000 his son — Briggs III — just pledged to the Y isn’t going to break the bank. (Briggs III’s sister, Lucie McKinney, pledged $500,000. But she’s got more skin in the game. She’s a Westporter — III lives in Kentucky — and 2 of her 5 children are Y board members.)
The Cunningham-Bedford Y connection is indeed strong. In 1944 the Y was offered 30 acres of land off Sunny Lane, near their newly established camp. Fred Bedford (Briggs II’s father-in-law, and III’s grandfather) said the Bedford Trust Fund would pay half of the cost — provided the Westport community matched it.
The total amount: $10,000.
In 1945 the Y moved onto the new land, which they called Bedford Camp. The next year — at Fred’s request — it was changed to Mahackeno. The name honored Mahackemo, the chief of the Norwalke Indians, who in the early 1600s used the property as a summer home lodge.
Which is all you need to know today about Mahackeno, the Bedford family, Briggs Cunninghams II and III, and how generations of boaters have changed the shape of their sails.
Camp Mahackeno, shortly after the name was changed from Bedford Camp.
Posted in Looking back, People, Sports, YMCA
Tagged Briggs Cunningham II, Briggs Cunningham III, Camp Mahackeno, Lucie McKinney, Westport Family Y
..for a great, wide window into Staples and Westport life in 1972, this YouTube video gets our vote.
Does this make you nostalgic for back-in-the-day? Are you glad you grew up then — or are you glad you’re growing up now? Click “comments” for thoughts as random as this video.
Posted in Looking back, Staples HS, Teenagers
Tagged " YouTube, 1972, Staples High School
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