For 48 hours, the Staples High music department scrambled.
Moving the Westport Pops concert — a beloved Levitt Pavilion tradition — into the school’s auditorium, due to the threat of thunderstorms, was a mammoth task.
But they did it. Arranging a new sound system, re-staging the show, feeding the 200 musicians and many more attendees — all went flawlessly, thanks to the staff, many helpers, and the Staples Music Parents Association.
The result was another spectacular performance. Vocal groups large and small; the Symphonic Band and Orchestra; the Jazz Ensemble — all wowed the crowd.
In the end, there were no thunderstorms outside.
But indoors, Staples musicians captured lightning in a bottle.
Sara Stanley and Will McCrea warm up the crowd, with “My Green Light.”
Andrew Maskoff (keyboard) and Seamus Brannigan (drums) entertain before the show.
Ian Green solos on “Song For My Father.”
Cat Betit belts out “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
As pre-show acts play, and the orchestra takes their seats, the audience settles in …
… and the choral groups get ready.
Tony Award-winning actor Jim Naughton emcees …
… and his grandson, Owen Naughton, plays keyboard.
Kevin Mazzarella leads the Jazz Ensemble.
Multi-talented Andrew Maskoff wows the crowd with “Sway.”
Wreckapellas have fun with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Coldplay’s “VIva La Vida” gets the string treatment from Kendra Cheng, Luca Caniato and Zach Gillman.
Choralaires perform “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
Eva Slossberg and Mia Zibly join the orchestra for “Skyfall.”
Music teachers who make it all happen: Lauren Pine, Jeri Brima, Carrie Mascaro, Kevin Mazzarella. Not pictured: Caitlin Serpliss, Mary Gardner. (All photos/Dan Woog)
(“06880” covers many outstanding events in Westport schools. If you enjoy our spotlights on a wide variety activities, please click here to support our work. Thank you!
The Westport Library has a new award: the Westport Prize for Literature.
The first honoree — author Zadie Smith — will be feted in person November 12.
The new annual prize is for an original work of fiction that explores issues in contemporary society. Smith was recognized this year for “The Fraud.” It’s “a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story — and who gets to be believed.”
The prize will be administered by a committee of Westport resident volunteers. An independent jury will choose the winner.
Steering committee chair Candice Savin calls Smith “an icon in letters, and an inspiration to writers — and a delight for readers — everywhere.”
She wrote the novels “White Teeth,” “The Autograph Man,” “On Beauty,” “NW” and “Swing Time,” and the novella “The Embassy of Cambodia.” She is a 3-time nominee for the Booker Prize, and last year was honored with the PEN America Literary Service Award.
This is the last week for the nearly month-long run of “On Golden Pond,” at the Ivorytown Playhouse in Essex.
Which means the end of the daily commute for 3 local residents. Two-time Tony Award winner James Naughton, and Fairfield’s Mia Dillon, co-star in the show about an older couple, and others, at a lakeside cottage.
Westporter Stacie Lewis plays Naughton and Dillon’s daughter.
James Naughton, with Mia Dillon and Stacie Lewis, at the Ivoryton Playhouse.
Audiences have loved the production. Click here for more information.
Staples High School sophomore Andrew Maskoff recently reached the National Association of Teachers of Singing semifinals.
Andrew is a familiar face. He assistant music directed Staples Players’ “Twelfth Night,” and played in the pit for many shows. He sings with Orphenians, and studies privately with Wendy Morgan-Hunter.
Besides singing, Andrew is a superb pianist. He studies with Tatiana Pikayzen, and won won the Schubert Club Award for Romantic and Modern Composers. He also plays multiple instruments, is in Staples’ Jazz Workshop, and also composes music.
He reached the semifinals after state competition, and the national quarterfinals, with hundreds of other singers. Click below for one of the tracks he submitted.
Well, it’s actually statewide. But in this week’s “What’s Next in Weston” podcast, State Senator Ceci Maher discusses important new — and strengthened — gun control legislation with 1st Selectwoman Sam Nestor.
This legislation was passed at 4 a.m. Saturday morning. Dick Kalt spoke with Senator Maher 9 hours later, for the Y’s Men of Westport and Weston episode.
Last week at the Westport Library, Roosevelt Institute director of climate policy Rhiana Gunn-Wright explored the interconnections between environmental and racial justice. She also spoke about how to cultivate regional responses to the climate crisis, noting that environmental impacts cross town lines.
26 units were sold. That’s down 40% from May of 2022.
The median sales price of $2.6 million was up 27% from last year. The median sales price per square foot of $568 was also up, by 15%. (Hat tip: Meredith Cohen of William Raveis)
This 8-bedroom, 12-bathroom, 13,128-square foot home on 7.27 acres on Hedley Farms Road in Greens Farms is on the market for $11,995,000.
An early morning fire drew a quick response, on Old Hill Road.
Three occupants of a barn, including an apartment, were alert to the blaze by the property owner, and evacuated.
Firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to other sections of the U-shaped structure.
Mutual aid from Fairfield and Norwalk fire departments were on the scene and at Westport fire headquarters. Westport Police and Westport also
provided assistance.
The 3 displaced occupants received help from Westport Human Services and the American Red Cross.
Three firefighters received minor injuries.
Quick work prevented the blaze from spreading to other parts of the barn. (Photo courtesy of Westport Fire Department)
Guitarists Kenny Wessel and Rale Micic headline this Thursday’s Jazz at the Post.
Wessel — known for his “adventurous voice, unrelenting swing and sensitive accompaniment skills,” is a Westport favorite. He and Greg “The Jazz Rabbi” Wall — who will join in on sax — have played together for 30 years.
Serbian guitarist and composer Micic “skillfully fuses culture with timeless jazz.”
Joining those 3 are bassist Steve LaSpina and drummer Eric Halvorson.
Shows are 7:30 and 8:45 p.m. at VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399, on June 8. Dinner service starts at 7 p.m. There is a $15 cover. Reservations are strongly recommended: JazzatthePost@gmail.com.
We’re always looking for new creatures to feature on “Westport … Naturally.”
We’ve got one today. Longtime Westporter — and ophthalmologist — Mark Steckel zeroed in on his specialty. He writes:
“This snake was hiding in the vinca that surrounds my pinky-winky hydrangea, though I never saw him wink. But of course, he can’t: Snakes have no eyelids.”
(Photo/Mark Steckel)
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And finally … in honor of Mark Steckel’s image (above):
(Don’t be a snake! Please contribute to your hyper-local blog! Just click here — and thank you!)
“13” opened on Broadway in 2008. That makes the musical — about a New York boy whose upcoming bar mitzvah is upended by his parents’ divorce, and his move with his mother to Indiana — 14 years old.
But it lives on. “13” — the movie, starring Debra Messing and Rhea Perlman — debuted on Netflix earlier this month. The cast includes a host of young teenagers. dancing and singing about becoming a man, middle school, crushes and first kisses.
Of course, you can’t get 40 kids to actually sing and dance in a movie. So Jason Robert Brown — who adapted the film from his own original music and lyrics — recruited 8 actual 13- and 14-year-old to provide vocals for the big number.
And — this being musical theater-crazy Westport — 2 of those teenagers are from right here.
Andrew Maskoff and Ari Sklar met at Coleytown Middle School. Andrew wrote the script for a short film, for the 2021 Coleytown Company Revue. He and Ari spent hours editing it in the piano room at Ari’s house.
During breaks, they tore through every Broadway score on the shelf, Dan says. (He’s an actor, along with a rabbi and cantor; his wife Shirah is a rabbi/cantor too.)
From left: Dan Sklar and Ari Sklar. They performed together last fall in Music Theater of Connecticut’s “Falsettolands.”
“It was amazing to watch these kindred spirits make music together,” Dan notes. “They’re 2 years apart in school, so Ari can’t wait to meet up with him at Staples next fall.” (Andrew — a member of Staples Players — will be a sophomore this fall. Ari is a rising 8th grader.)
Neither knew that the other had sent an audition tape to Brown’s request for backup vocalists.
Ari and Dan were the first people to arrive at the New York studio last summer. The next singer was Andrew. The boys stared at each other in disbelief.
When Brown showed up, he had an impish grin. He knew they would know each other. He had wanted their meeting to be a surprise.
Ari Sklar and Andrew Maskoff, during a break from recording “13.”
The boys were “pros in the studio,” Sklar says. “It was a power session of over 8 hours.
“Jason and Georgia Stitt (his wife, and a noted composer and music director) couldn’t have been kinder to the kids. Jason is a mensch of the first order. He even gave a shout-out to them all in a blog post (click here).
Backup vocalists for “13” include Ari Sklar (5th from left) and Andrew Maskoff (far right).
“13” had special relevance for Ari. While singing backup vocals for the movie, he was preparing for his own bar mitzvah, held this summer in Israel.
Mazeltov to both him and Andrew!
(Click below for a clip from “13.” Actor Eli Golden is lip synching; vocals for all the others was recorded by Andrew Maskoff, Ari Sklar and 6 others.)
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First, Coleytown Middle School’s Company lost their stage.
Then they lost their lead.
But the show must go on. This weekend, it did.
Big time.
With great cooperation from Bedford — where Westport’s 2 middle schools now share space, following the closure of CMS last fall due to mold — Coleytown Company was deep in rehearsals for “42nd Street.”
Andrew Maskoff (tie) with (front row, left to right) Drew Andrade, Melody Stanger, Anna Diorio. Rear: Lucy Docktor, Jordyn Goldshore, Kathryn Asiel and Demitra Pantzos. (Photo/Colleen Coffey)
On Tuesday, director Ben Frimmer learned that Andrew Maskoff — the 6th grade lead — had to go on vocal rest. He could not talk or sing until the show.
Frimmer was determined to get him on stage. In the meantime, he needed a fill-in for rehearsals — and the possibility that Andrew could not perform at all.
There were 3 possibilities. Frimmer could recruit his son Jonah — a 7th grader in Weston who has done 3 Equity productions. He could go on himself. Or he could ask a Staples High student to step in.
Frimmer chose the third. He called Staples Players director David Roth, who suggested Max Herman. The senior had just completed a fantastic run in “Curtains.”
Frimmer knew Max well. They’d worked together on 3 CMS shows.
The director called him at 1 p.m. An hour later, Max was at Bedford rehearsing.
He rehearsed all week — including following behind Andrew, who walked him through the blocking.
Andrew Maskoff (center) helps Max Herman with his blocking. (Photo/Colleen Coffey)
Andrew went on Friday night. But it was clear that 2 more shows would be too much. Max took the stage Saturday, so Andrew could close out the run on Sunday.
“I have never seen a student make as mature a decision as Andrew,” Frimmer says.
Having survived Saturday night, the cast was excited yesterday to have everyone back on stage.
Suddenly — just 30 minutes before the curtain rose — another supporting lead was struck with a migraine.
Staples freshman Nina Driscoll — another Coleytown Company alum who had served as assistant director — immediately offered to step in.
In just half an hour Frimmer and his assistants ran her through her songs and dances, and highlighted her script. Ten minutes before showtime, she announced she was off book — she knew the script — and was ready to go.
Nina Driscoll (3rd from left) with (from left) Sacha Maidique, Callum Madigan and Maggie Teed.
That’s show business.
And that’s why Westport loves Ben Frimmer, Staples Players — and especially Coleytown Company.
(Hat tips: Tami Benanav and Nick Sadler)
Drew Andrade dances, accompanied by (from left) Eliza Walmark, Rima Ferrer, Emma Schorr. Cece Dioyka, Drew Andrade, Ava Chun, Kathryn Asiel, Keelagh Breslin. (Photo/Colleen Coffey)
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