Now she co-chairs the Westport Arts Advisory Committee. She also manages and produces theater and dance.
In Westport Nancy co-founded the very popular lunchtime theater series Play With Your Food, and was the founder and producer of the short film festival Short Cuts.
The other day, we chatted at the Westport Library. Our “06880” podcast ranged from her work in finance to the arts; the changes she’s seen in the Westport arts scene over 30 years, whether this really still is an “arts community,” and many related topics..
Click below, for an inside look into art, music, dance, and much more.
Residents know, admire and support our performing arts institutions (Westport Country Playhouse, Westport Community Theater, Staples Players, etc.). They do the same for organizations that train students for the arts, here and everywhere (Triple Threat Academy, Music Theatre of Connecticut, etc.).
We’re justifiably proud of the schools that Staples graduates go to, preparing for performing arts careers. Michigan, Northwestern, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Berklee, Juilliard — we punch above our weight, there and elsewhere.
But how many Westporters know there is an accredited performing arts college in the next town over?
Norwalk Conservatory of the Arts burst on the scene 3 years ago, with 5 campus buildings and 2 dorms, on Wall Street, Isaac Street, and East and West Avenues.
Its 2-year program trains 96 young men and women (ages 18-22) for careers on stage and television. There are 3 tracks: musical theater performance, musical theater dance, and TV/film performance.
NoCo attracts students from high schools with rich arts heritages similar to ours — and underserved ones, who thought Broadway was far beyond their dreams.
NoCo has discovered a trove of talent through TikTok, Instagram and YouTube videos.
It is the first not-for-profit college to gain accreditation in Connecticut in 25 years.Launched in New York City in 2018 by Broadway creatives Ricky Lee Loftus and Danny Loftus George, NoCo moved to Norwalk in 2022.
Dance rehearsal, at Norwalk Conservatory of the Arts.
Westporters are already making their mark there.
Former Board of Finance chair and energy executive Jeffrey Mayer teaches a semester-long entrepreneuship class for second-year students.
“Requirements for an associate degree demand more than dance classes,” he says.
“Most of these kids will become, in essence, independent businesses. They also may need other sources of income. I teach them basic business skills, like contract negotiation and business planning. They are curious, bright, fully engaged, and a pleasure to teach.”
Ruth Winnick — 97 years old, and a 70-year Westport resident who teaches body awareness at the Senior Center — feels so strongly about the school that she joined student dancers at its annual gala.
“I am in awe of what NoCo provides these kids,” Ruth says.
“Not only professional training, but the financial support to do so, and industry mentors to get them going in their careers. Their talent, energy and commitment is phenomenal.”
97-year-old Ruth Winnick, at the NoCo gala.
One of those students, Zalah, grew up in Louisiana. She was on her way to nursing school when NoCo spotted her on Instagram singing “I’m Here,” from her high school production of “The Color Purple.” She was given a full scholarship. (All students receive at least some scholarship money.)
Zalah graduates this year, with a degree in musical theatre performance. She was a recent guest on the Jennifer Hudson show and now has an agent.
This Monday (March 3, 7 p.m.), Westport Arts Advisory Committee co-chair and Short Cuts Film Festival producer Nancy Diamond will joined NoCo co-founder Loftus (and “surprise” student performers) in a conversation at the Westport Library.
They’ll discuss how the school is changing lives — and contributing to the revitalization of downtown Norwalk. Click here for details.
“Westporters know how fortunate we are to have so much at our fingertips,” says Diamond. “And we care about our neighbors.
“NoCo is helping to revitalize Norwalk by opening its arms to so many young people from around the country. It’s beautiful to see them strolling down Wall Street with their lattes, logowear and smiles.”
And — perhaps quite soon — we’ll see them on stage and screen.
(“06880” covers the arts scene — here, and wherever Westporters work. As another non-profit, we rely on reader support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
“Play With Your Food” — the staged reading, script-in-hand series (plus delicious lunch) that has entertained and delighted audiences at local venues for 20 years — has reached the final curtain.
“All good things must come to an end,” says Carole, Schweid, artistic director for the series’ organizer, JIB Productions. She has had health issues, and executive producer Diana Muller is retiring.
Carole Schweid
After 350 performances, with 200 professional actors and 135 playwrights, the final performances are October 15 (MoCA CT), October 16 (Pequot Library, Southport) and October 17 (Greenwich Arts Council). All performances are noon to 2 p.m.
“Theater, lunch and hijinks await,” Schweid promises. “Plus cake!”
“Twenty years is a long time,” she notes. She looks back fondly on those 2 decades — and the beginning, when she and fellow PTA Cultural Arts Committee member Nancy Diamond were talking about their 2 passions: theater and food.
Realizing there was no theatrical entertainment around lunchtime, they had a “let’s put on a show!” moment.
Carole Schweid and Nancy Diamond, “Play With Your Food” founders.
Schweid has a BFA from Juilliard, and Broadway stage experience in “Pippin” and the original cast of “A Chorus Line.”
She and Diamond knew there were plenty of actors in the area — and plenty in New York who would be interested in a lunch-hour gig.
They also knew everyone’s time was tight. So they focused on one-acts. There would be a staged reading, followed by a compelling talkback with the director, actors and/or playwright — and lunch, catered by a local restaurant.
“Play With Your Food” would nourish the heart and soul — and stomach. And it would all take place relatively quickly, during lunch hour (okay, hour-and-a-half).
Let’s eat!
The first “Play With Your Food” was at Toquet Hall. Schweid and Diamond marketed it through postcards to friends.
It was an instant hit. The audience wanted more.
Over the next 20 years, they got it.
Schweid and Muller searched all over, for the best one-acts. They traveled to one-act festivals around the country. They prowled book fairs and libraries.
From Arthur Miller, Langston Hughes, Tom Stoppard and Ray Bradbury to Mark Twain; from up-and-coming playwrights to obscure, semi-forgotten ones — if Schweid and her colleagues liked a show, they figured, audiences would too.
There were 3 productions a year. Schweid likens them to a sandwich: a couple of “funny or wacky” shows at the top and bottom of the schedule; another with “heft” in the middle.
The plays range from comedies and romances to mysteries and musicals, from classics to unpublished works. Despite the wide variety, all share one element: The audience must leave in an uplifted mood.
A lively scene from a staged reading.
“Play With Your Food” expanded to Southport, Stamford and Greenwich. The Fairfield Theatre Company provided “the perfect black box” experience. In Westport, they outgrew Toquet Hall. MoCA, on Newtown Turnpike, offered more space, and an artsy vibe.
Big names graced the “Play With Your Food” stage. James Naughton, Mia Dillon, Stacy Morgain Lewis, Scott Bryce, Mark Shanahan and many others embraced the chance to do a different, unique and fun kind of theater.
“Who gets to hear people like this, in a setting like that?” Schweid asks.
Plus, she notes, “You didn’t have to travel. This was all home-grown.”
When COVID struck, Schweid and her crew pivoted. “If Joe Papp can do Shakespeare in the Park, why couldn’t we do Chekhov in the parking lot?” she wondered.
Former Staples High School Players actors like Matt Van Gessel and Max Samuels helped audiences weather that storm.
Lunch was an essential part of the experience. Popular places like The Porch, Blue Lemon, Da Pietro, Matsu Sushi and Spic & Span made meals almost as memorable as the plays.
“We celebrated good acting, good writing, good food, a good community coming together, and intellectual or emotional stimulation,” Schweid says.
“That’s how people will remember ‘Play With Your Food.’
“And that’s what I’ll miss.”
(Tickets for the final “Play With Your Food” shows go on sale September 4. Click here for the website. Hat tip: Dick Lowenstein)
As the anniversary of D-Day approached, Westporters Jeffrey Mayer and Nancy Diamond visited France.
It was much more than an ordinary journey. They write:
Eighty years to the day have passed since Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, launching a 2 1/2-month operation to liberate France from 5 years of Nazi occupation.
American soldiers move through the ruins of Marigny, 1944.
For Marigny-le-Luzon the “débarquement” (as the French call the landing), remains fresh, in part because of a remarkable bond of friendship with the town of Westport.
Devastated in World War II, this would become Place de Westport.
Two years after the war, Staples High School French teacher Charlotte MacLear visited this small town of 2,700, and asked what she could do.
Staples French teacher Charlotte MacLear, with her Sorbonne diploma.
Over the next 15 years, Westporters helped Marigny rebuild. They funded construction of the school cafeteria, destroyed in the fighting. They restored the stained glass windows of the Gothic church.
Ruins of Marigny’s Sainte-Pierre Church.
They sent Christmas presents to the town’s children, every year for 15 years.
A few of those children met us this week in the Place de Westport, Marigny’s main square. They took us to the Mairie, the town hall, where the council chamber is named for Charlotte MacLear.
The walls of the chamber have only two decorations: a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron, and Charlotte MacLear’s signature.
In the corner, a glass case contains some of the gifts sent by Westporters: a doll carriage, ruler, board game, and a small horse received by one of our hosts.
The room with Charlotte MacLear’s signature, and a display case of Westport memorabilia.
The gratitude of the citizens of Marigny is on display everywhere. Throughout town, the American flag flies.
In the town library, a thick binder contains the history of our relationship. It includes pictures of Charlotte MacLear, and of children receiving gifts from the mayor at the time, plus lists of the Westport and Marigny exchange students who visited each other over the years.
In the restored church we visited the colorful 18 stained glass windows that were restored “grace à Westport,” as our hosts told us.
Each window contains an inscription in lead: “Don de la ville de Westport, Etats-Unis d’Amérique” (“Given by the town of Westport, United States of America”).
Inscription in the Marigny church.
On the edge of Marigny we found a large stone, dedicated to 3,070 American soldiers temporarily buried in Marigny before being moved to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.
The monument to 3,070 American soldiers buried in Marigny, before being moved to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.
Our hosts had prepared a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which we placed at the foot of the monument.
Before leaving Marigny, Nancy and I presented to Deputy Mayor Huguette Masson several books by Dan Woog and Woody Klein about the history of Westport, and one from the Westport Permanent Art Collections; caps and medals from the Westport Police Department courtesy of Chief Foti Koskinas, and Westport memorabilia sent by First Selectwoman Jen Tooker.
Members of the Marigny-Westport Association, wearing their new Westport police caps. From left: Huguette Besson, Marie Charles, Marcelle Bleas-Franke, Cecile Turgid, Bernadette Hommet.
We were given, in turn, a book for the Westport Library written by René Gautier, the town’s passionate historian. We visited him in the France-USA Memorial Hospital in St. Lô, where he has been undergoing medical tests.
Jeff Mayer and Nancy Diamond visited Marigny historian René Gautier at the France-USA Memorial Hospital in St. Lo, where he is having tests. They presented him with gifts from Westport.
We were also presented with caps bearing the names of Westport, Marigny and Lyman, the Ukrainian town that Westport and Marigny have supported since 2022.
As one of our hosts observed, the fight for liberty does not end.
Westport Pharmacie on the Place Westport. Note the street sign on the corner.
Window of the Westport Pharmacie, with a display of memorabilia from World War II and the liberation of Marigny on July 17, 1944. (All photos courtesy of Jeffrey Mayer and Nancy Diamond)
Nancy Diamond is traveling in Israel, on a mission trip sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County.
She’s joined by fellow Westporters Sonia Ben Yehuda, Stephanie Gordon, Lisa Hayes, Jeffrey Mayer, Lynn Rabinovici Park and Shirah Sklar.
It’s been both a sobering and inspiring journey. Nancy writes:
Five days into our trip to war-torn Israel we were given unusual access to the sites of the October 7 massacre, when Hamas terrorists conducted a surprise attack on young concert-goers and residents on the border with the Gaza Strip. Most of the areas our group visited are still being treated as crime sites.
Our 18-member group met with residents of two kibbutzim, agricultural settlements that suffered some of the worst brutalities. Families were shot in their homes; women were raped and beheaded; bodies were dismembered and booby trapped with explosives.
In Kibbutz K’far Aza, 63 residents were massacred. Nineteen were kidnapped and taken a few kilometers away to Gaza.
Israeli kibbutz, after the terrorist attack.
Although 14 of the hostages have been returned, a kibbutz resident told us, “Until the rest are back, we cannot move on. We are still at the beginning of the story, and we don’t know where it will go.”
Remembering missing hostages, at a kibbutz.
The scenes at the kibbutzim were horrific: homes pockmarked with bullet holes and burned. Shoes, toys, mattresses and burned appliances strewn about the yards. Red symbols on doorways indicated how many bodies were inside and whether they had been cleared of explosives and terrorists. This process took some 10 days.
Post-attack information — and a sign from a more peaceful time.
We heard first hand descriptions of the ways in which families had sought refuge in safe rooms, some for more than 24 hours. Some fought back, and some lost their lives.
Very few residents have returned to their settlements. Most are refugees in their own country, having been resettled around the country. Several families are housed in our hotel in Tel Aviv, using the lobby as their living room.
As the air shook with the reverberations of Israeli shells exploding a few miles away inside Gaza, the group visited the site of the Supernova music festival where Hamas killed 364 men and women — most in their early 20s — and kidnapped 44.
The festival site has become a spontaneous monument. Pictures of the victims have been propped on steel poles; volunteers placed candles at the foot of the poles, and families have added personal touches including personal notes, flowers, memorabilia, and QR codes for information about the victims. It was heartbreaking to see hundreds of beautiful, young, faces now no longer alive.
The music festival site is now a monument.
Perhaps the most spine-chilling comment we heard came from a kibbutz resident: “This massacre is not an Israeli problem or a Jewish problem. The terrorists have shown us the playbook for their next attack on the West.”
Our group left the Gaza border area exhausted and emotionally drained, but strengthened in our resolve to share these first-hand accounts.
Remembering victims of October 7. (All photos courtesy of Nancy Diamond)
More than 70 years ago, Westport scrapped its annual town meeting.
The New England tradition — dating back to colonial days — had gotten unwieldy, as our community grew in the post-war years.
But town meetings still live on in Vermont.
When the AP went looking for a place to illustrate how in these polarized times local government can still work, they found Elmore.
The town of 886 cherishes its March town meeting. And part of the reason is the moderator: Jon Gailmor.
Townspeople there have called him a neighbor for over 40 years. But Westporters still remember him as a member of Staples High School’s Class of 1966.
He sang with Orphenians. After graduation, he and classmate Rob Carlson formed a duo that earned a cult following up and down the East Coast.
After time in Europe, Gailmor settled in Elmore. He’s become a Vermont state treasure — an actual title — as a singer. In addition to performing, he runs songwriting workshops for kids.
(Last fall, he returned to Westport. He headlined Suzanne Sheridan’s First Folk Sunday at the VFW)
The AP story says that after moving north, Gailmor “found the town meeting tradition nothing short of miraculous. It wasn’t some politician spouting off, but real people taking part …. You feel important. You feel like you are being listened to.”
Click here to read the full article. (Hat tip: Tom Allen)
Jon Gailmor, at the Elmore Town Hall. (Photo courtesy of AP/David Goldman)
Tickets went on sale today for one of Westport’s best — and most fulfilling — fundraisers: CLASP Homes’ “Taste of Westport.”
The 18th annual event is set for May 22 (6 p.m., Inn at Longshore). As always, the Taste brings together the area’s best food and drink providers. There’s a wide array of dishes, and spirits from more than 2 dozen local establishments.
New this year: a vodka and caviar bar, and tequila tasting.
Plus music by the always-popular. Bar Car Band, and a very extensive silent auction.
It all benefits CLASP. The nonprofit provides homes, support and services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Tickets are $150 per person until April 12, then $175 after. Click here to purchase. PS: It always sells out.
“Eighteen Fairfield County residents are visiting Israel this week on a mission to learn how the country is coping with the war, and to help where there are labor shortages.
“More than 200,000 Israelis have been forced to flee from their homes since the war began: about 100,000 from Gaza and 100,000 from northern Israel where, a few miles from the Lebanese border, Hezbollah regularly launches low-flying, hard-to-intercept missiles. Most families are housed in hotels and private homes around the country.
“The Connecticut delegation, organized by the Jewish Federation of Fairfield County, packed food boxes for these displaced families. They are volunteering with Pantry Packers, the oldest continuously operating network of social services in Israel
“They also met with hostage families.
“It’s been an amazing trip. Next we head to one of the destroyed kibbutzim, and the Nova Music Festival site. It will be an incredibly emotional day.”
Westporters on the Israel mission trip include (from left): Jeffrey Mayer, Lynn Rabinovici, Lisa Hayes, Stephanie Gordon, Sonia Ben Yehuda and Nancy Diamond.
Carl Addison Swanson has lived in Westport since 1952.
He cares about the town — and wants it “safe and fun.”
Several years ago, he pushed for the installation of solar speed monitors near his home off North Avenue. He lives near Bedford Middle School, at the bottom of the hill from Staples where — unless there is school traffic — drivers routinely zoom by.
Are they working?
He went out Monday (10 a.m.), Tuesday (2 p.m.) and Wednesday (5 p.m.), and checked the speed of 50 southbound cars.
The average speeds:
Monday: 48 mph
Tuesday: 32 mph (school buses were slowing traffic)
Wednesday: 52 mph.
“It seems the speed monitors are not really slowing cars and trucks down that much,” Carl says.
“Funny, as I stood there taking notes, cars/trucks did slow. But that said, a 2015 study found that these types of monitors are not meant to slow cars down more than 10 mph.”
Carl believes that North Avenue — home to 4 of Westport’s 8 schools — needs traffic lights.
“Space them from Coleytown to past Staples,” he says, and traffic will quickly find alternative routes.
Solar-powered speed monitor on North Avenue. (Photo/Carl Addison Swanson)
Civic Learning Week is an annual non-partisan effort, highlighting civic education in local communities.
The Westport Public Schools were active participants.
The week included middle school classroom activities about civic engagement. At Staples High School, 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker answered questions from students regarding her career path, job responsibilities, and more.
She also congratulated the students who will represent Staples at “We The People,” a national competition involving simulated congressional hearings in Washington next month.
The Staples team recently qualified by tying for first place at the state competition with Trumbull High.
1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker, with Staples High School’s “We the People” team, during Civic Learning Week.
=================================================
Noted artist and Staples High School graduate Michael Gish died earlier this month in Providence. He was 98.
Mike joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1943, at Dartmouth College. In 1944, after learning his older brother, USMC PFC Jim Gish, had been killed in action on Saipan, Mike left school to complete his aviation training with the Marine Corps.
Too young to see combat in WWII, Mike retired from the Marines as a naval pilot in 1946 to complete his education. He received an bachelor’s degree in fine art from Dartmouth in 1949.
Indelibly affected by the death of his brother, Mike decided to pursue art and the military as a career. He continued his education at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, in 1951 as a visiting student. Mike received a master’s in fine art from Yale University in 1964.
Mike then returned to active duty with the Marine Corps as a helicopter pilot, advancing to lieutenant colonel. In 1967 he was sent to Vietnam as a “combat artist.”
Mike received the Air Medal, for flying 24 combat missions. One of his paintings, “Studies of Helmets in the Sand,” was chosen to be the poster for the National Vietnam Memorial.
In 1991, at the age of 65, Mike became a full colonel in the Marines when he deployed to Iraq. As a combat artist for Operation Provide Comfort, he documented Kurdish refugees from the First Gulf War.
In 1993 Mike went to Somalia, where he continued his documentation of refugees and displaced people during Operation Restore Hope. Mike’s paintings have been displayed at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Washington, as well as the Smithsonian Museum.
A large part of Mike’s work reflects his love of still life and landscapes, particularly New England and his beloved Block Island. A prolific painter who worked well into his 90s, Mike was also a full professor of art at Fairfield University.
He was predeceased by his wife Marguerite (Drouin). He is survived by his children Charlotte Wall (Steve) of Southport, North Carolina; Peter (Robin Kaiser) of Hanover, New Hampshire, and Carl (Elizabeth) of Palo Alto; grandchildren Carla and Stephanie Wall; Sophia, Miranda and Olivia Gish, and Peter and Henry Gish, as well as his partner of many years, Marilyn Bogdanffy.
A memorial service will be held at the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, Vermont (May 18, 4 p.m.. Another ceremony will be held on Block Island this fall. In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made One to the U.S. Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.
Mike Gish
One of Mike’s many fans told “06880”:
“We, along with many other admirers of him as a painter and a person, were saddened to note the death of Mike Gish. We acquired a number of his pieces –oils and watercolors that reflect the luminosity of his palette and the range of his interests, from Block Island to the cliffs of Normandy to a barn in Fairfield.
“We were introduced to him in the mid-1980s when, quite by happenstance, we visited his studio with a real estate agent who was showing the house. We were struck in particular by a small study of a couple of Adirondack chairs.
“Wondering if we might acquire it, we learned he was about to have a show at a local gallery. That led to an invitation to the preview. We went, expecting only to browse more of his work, but then — in a familiar story — we were so struck by this wonderful rendering of a familiar Westport landmark that we amazed ourselves by buying it.
“It has held a place of honor in our house ever since.”
And finally … I’ve posted this song by Jon Gailmor before.
But because:
It’s one of my favorite songs of all time, about one of my favorite states, and …
I mentioned it in the very interesting item about Jon (above), and …
This is my blog …
I’m posting it again. Enjoy!
(Today — like every day — our Roundup is jam-packed with a wide variety of info. If you enjoy this daily feature, please support our work. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
Long-time Westporters Jeff Mayer and Nancy Diamond are downsizing.
Like many residents, they see a smaller home as an opportunity to “Marie Kondo”-ize their lives.
It’s one thing to get rid of the tchotchkes.
But move the voting machine? That’s a different story.
And one they’re sharing with “06880.”
It begins to 2011, when Westport changed from traditional voting booths to electronic cards.
For 50 years voters had stepped into a private booth, pulled a giant lever to close the curtain, slid down tiny levers for candidates or penciled in write-ins, then pulled the big lever again to hide the votes and open the curtain.
Jeffrey Mayer and Nancy Diamond’s voting booth.
The voting machines were made by Sequoia. They were bought by now-famous Dominion Voting Systems in 2010.
In 2011, most of Westport’s voting machines were hauled to the dump.
Except one.
Jeff had been snoozing a few years earlier, when the Westport Library tossed its card catalogues.
He was not about to miss out on another piece of local history.
Kids! Ask your parents how to use this.
Jeff had served on the Board of Finance for 12 years, the last 4 as chairman. For him, voting was personal.
He called the Town Clerk. With the help of Jim Ezzes, chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals, and Jim’s brother Steve, also a former BOF member, one machine found a new home.
A dozen years later, Jeff and Nancy’s new Westport home is not big enough for the voting machine.
They contacted the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History in Hartford. They don’t have enough space.
A Westport friend has offered to store the machine while it awaits a new owner. Jeff and Nancy hope a passionate history buff will step forward.
“At a time when our country is focused on voting rights,” Jeff says, “we can’t bear the thought of the booth ending up in a dump.”
“It would be too ironic,” Nancy adds.
(Interested in Jeff and Nancy’s voting booth? Email jamayer01@gmail.com)
(Here’s a bipartisan cause: supporting “06880.” Please click here to donate. Thank you!)
For 10 years now, Westporters have played with their food.
Nancy Diamond and Carole Schweid couldn’t be happier.
The women are co-founders of a decade-long lunchtime program — the deliciously named Play With Your Food — that combines a gourmet lunch, professional readings of intriguing plays, and a stimulating post-performance discussion.
After a quick but entertaining and challenging 90 minutes, it’s back to work for everyone.
As with most off-the-wall or why-didn’t-I-think-of-that ideas, “Play With Your Food” developed casually. Nancy and Carole were young mothers serving together on the PTA Cultural Arts Committee. They discovered a shared desire to do something theater-related that would bring people together during the winter.
And they both loved food.
Carole Schweid and Nancy Diamond, Play With Your Food founders.
They knew Westport is a community that supports the arts, has good restaurants — and a pool of professional actors who love challenges.
The challenge was finding one-act plays equal to their vision.
To find good material, Nancy and Carole read a lot. They travel to one-act festivals around the country. They prowl book fairs and libraries. Now — with Play With Your Food a firm fixture on the local arts scene — people send suggestions to them.
The plays range from comedies and romances to mysteries and musicals, from classics to unpublished works. Despite the wide variety, all share one element: The audience must leave in an uplifted mood.
The appeal of Play With Your Food, Nancy says, is broad: “lunch, a social connection with others, and intellectual or emotional stimulation.”
Plus, Carole adds, “You don’t have to travel. This is all home-grown.”
Carole chooses 3 plays — 10 to 20 minutes each — for every program. (The series runs from January through April.) They may be short, she says, but “not light or fluffy.”
A typical scene from a Play With Your Food event.
In the beginning, most plays were “middle of the road,” Carole says. Now, “some are a little more challenging to the audience.” And the post-play discussions have become a bit deeper and more insightful.
Over 10 years, there must have been some flops. Right?
The women laugh. “Truly, no,” Nancy says. “Some plays are not as strong as others, but no one has ever walked out saying they wished they’d gone to the diner.”
Ah, dining. The restaurants that cater — a different one each month — are as varied as the plays themselves: Bobby Q’s. Blue Lemon. Da Pietro. Matsu Sushi.
Play With Your Food food.
“We like surprising audiences with little jewels of plays,” Nancy says. “And there are culinary surprises too. The food is very good — this is not tuna fish and potato chips.”
Next month, Play With Your Food celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a gala celebration. “Two for the Road” is set for Saturday, January 28 at Dragone Classic Motorcar Company. There will be catering from more than 20 great restaurants, followed by a “rousing show” created by Carole.
Professional actors will perform scenes from “My Fair Lady,” “42nd Street,” “Mack & Mabel” and Play With Your Food comedy favorites.
The event will celebrate a decade of success — and provide financial support for the series to continue.
“We can’t believe it’s been 10 years!” Nancy marvels. “Carole and I had young kids when we started. Now they’re all out of the house.”
So, back then, who came up with the spectacularly clever name “Play With Your Food”?
Nancy and Carole can’t quite remember.
But they do know this: “When something’s right, it’s right. We want to help people smile with our food and plays. And the name does, too.”
(For ticket information on the January 28 celebration, click here or call 203-293-8831. Play With Your Food’s 10th season begins at noon on January 10, 11 and 12 at Toquet Hall.
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome, appreciated — and tax-deductible! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to “06880”: PO Box 744, Westport, CT 06881. Or use Venmo: @blog06880. Or Zelle: dwoog@optonline.net. Thanks!)
GET THE “06880” APP
The “06880” app (search for it on the Apple or Android store) is the easiest way to get “06880.” Choose notifications: whenever a new post is published, or once or twice a day. Click here for details.
Norwalk Conservatory of the Arts
