21st Annual Presentation of The Magic Toyshop

For a special holiday treat plan to attend one of the performances of The Magic Toyshop, performed by Starship Dance Theater.  Performances are Friday, December 5 at 7:30pm (following the Guilford Tree Lighting Ceremony); Saturday, December 6 at 2pm and 7pm; and Sunday, December 7 at 3pm.  Tickets are $20 General Admission, $18 Students, $15 Seniors and Children under 12. To purchase tickets call 203-453-2516 or 203-453-8068.  The program is sponsored by Guilford Parks and Recreation.

Based on La Boutique Fantasque, also known as The Magic Toyshop or The Fantastic Toyshop, Joyce DeLauro has adapted this ballet combining the music of Giochino Rossini with the music from Jeux d'Enfants by Georges Bizet. This 21st  annual production continues to promote the mission of Starship Dance Theater since its inception in 1980 and that is family involvement and inclusiveness.  Roles are created for all who audition and this year's cast of almost 50 work together to tell this wonderful holiday tale.

 

A world-famous toymaker has created exquisite dancing dolls in his magic toyshop. When they are wound up the dolls perform dance routines for the prospective customers.  Some perform a tarantella and others a mazurka. Customers come and go, all intrigued by the dancing dolls. An American family is in the shop when a Russian family enters.  Five Cossack dolls come out to entertain them with a traditional dance.  This is followed by two dancing poodles that keep everyone laughing and entertained.  Finally, the shop-keeper brings out his most prized pair of dancing dolls, the Can-Can dancers, male and female.  They are so enchanting in their dance and on eis bought by the American family and one bought by the Russian family.  They are paid for and boxed up with the customers arranging to claim them the following day. The shop keeper and the dolls are so upset that the Can-Can dancers are going to be split up and never dance together again.  How can this be?

Find out what happens on December 5, 6, or 7!  Join Starship Dance Theater at the Guilford Parks & Recreation Center, 32 Church Street, Guilford to learn the fate of the dolls and the secrets of The Magic Toyshop.

Our goal is to provide our students with a firm foundation and a clear understanding of their art form.  We strive to provide superior technical dance training in an atmosphere that fosters creativity, motivation, and a positive self-image.  Our ballet teaching follows the Vagonova system from Russia, which trains a child to develop good body placement and strong muscles with a progression of skills.
Our students benefit from the confidence that comes from learning something new and becoming comfortable with their abilities.  Young students who continue in dance can expect to build self-esteem, self-discipline and an ability to stand up to the pressures of school with more poise and confidence.  Adult students can rediscover the joy of learning new skills or sharpening existing ones in a caring and open environment.

We offer a range of classes for dancers aged two years of age to Adult.   Our offerings include various levels of Ballet, Modern, and Jazz, both child and adult classes.  For the pre-school aged child, we offer Creative Dance and Parent and Child Classes.  Throughout the year various Workshop opportunities are offered including Belly Dance or instruction with visiting professional dancers / choreographers.

Classes run throughout the school year (September till the end of May) for children pre-K through 12th grade, half session classes for those pre-school aged, ten week long adult sessions (September to May), half day workshops (at various times), and one to three week programs  through the summer months.

Dear Eva: A WWII Story, Told in Letters November 8

Your emotions will be stirred when you hear a reading of highlights from “Dear Eva,” a captivating non-fiction play based on World War II letters that were written by ordinary men and women in an extraordinary time. The 50-minute reading on November 8 at 1pm will be by the play’s co-authors, Catherine Ladnier of Greenwich and Paul Janensch of Bridgeport. They will welcome your questions and comments immediately afterwards.

The letters were saved by Eva Lee Brown of Easley, S.C. The men are in uniform. Some see action. The women are lonely and dealing with shortages. The letters are candid, sad and funny. The common theme is a longing for a return to normal life. The letters were discovered by Eva’s daughter, Catherine, who is a theater buff and compliance consultant in the securities industry.   She invited Paul, a former newspaper editor and professor emeritus of journalism at Quinnipiac University, to collaborate with her. Together, they selected the most dramatic letters, arranged them into story lines and edited them down to their essentials. The letters tell several compelling inter-twined stories. Something terrible happens to the battalion in which Eva’s brother Bill is serving, but it’s a military secret. Cousin Clifton flies against his mother’s wishes and is shot down over France. Eva is pursued by servicemen who write her ardent letters; one correspondent is Harry Ladnier, who receives love letters from other women. At the end, we learn what happened to Bill’s battalion and who won Eva’s heart.

The time seems right for hearing the highlights from “Dear Eva.” Interest in World War II is high. During the discussion period that follows a reading, audience members of all ages are eager to talk about World War II. Maybe they were involved in the war. Or they heard about it from parents or grandparents. Many draw comparisons between World War II and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They note that back then all Americans made sacrifices, not just members of the armed forces and their families.

Guilford and the Civil War: A Day of Tribute

History comes alive when Guilford and the Civil War:  A Day of Tribute takes place on the Guilford Green on Saturday, May 31st, from 11 am to 7 pm.  The Guilford 375th Anniversary Signature Event commemorates the Civil War, in which more Guilford townspeople fought than in any other war.

The names of 56 of these soldiers are inscribed on the pink and gray granite soldiers’ monument that stands in the middle of the Guilford Green.  There is nothing unique about the monument itself, for it is similar to other Civil War monuments–some with infantrymen, some with obelisks–that pepper all the New England states. However, what is important about the monument is that it focuses attention on the soldiers who fought and gave their lives in the deadliest war in American history.  For the celebration, a kiosk will be erected on the Green, where visitors will find a wealth of information about some of the soldiers whose names are listed on the monument, as well as on others whose names are not.

Throughout history, virtually no family has escaped the pain of war, and Guilford is no different. As sons, fathers, brothers, friends and neighbors marched off to Civil War battles, the entire Guilford community rallied behind them, offering care and support.  The women of the Soldier’s Aid Society made socks, quilts, jellies, barrels of vegetables and other items, which were sent to soldiers or brought to them by the Reverend William S. Smith and other Guilford men.  Today, Guilford continues to recognize the contributions of its servicemen and servicewomen. The Guilford 375th Anniversary Committee will provide a complimentary copy of its keepsake commemorative book, 375 Years of Guilford, Connecticut 1639 – 2014, to each one and to their families.  Through their “Cookies for Heroes” program, Girl Scouts from Guilford collect money for cookies to send to those in military service.  They also encourage residents to write letters to them.

Education and Fun for the Entire Family

Although Guilford and the Civil War:  A Day of Tribute commemorates a serious time in history, the event is packed with education and fun for you and your entire family.  Here are some things you can do:

    Visit an encampment on the Green, where 20 – 40 re-enactors from Company F, Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, headed by Irving Moy, will provide a look into the life of a Civil War soldier.

    Stop in at the First Church of Christ Scientist, originally built as an abolitionist church, and listen to short plays depicting stories told by Guilford residents of the time.

    Meet Toby Armour, the playwright who wrote the works being performed at the First Church of Christ Scientist.

    Take in a program of musical and dance performances developed by Guilford resident William Boughton, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

    Travel up Park Street in an 1850’s-style, two-to-four person horse-drawn carriage, supplied by Allegra Farms.

    Climb up onto a 16-person hay wagon pulled by two horses and make yourself comfortable as you journey along Boston Street from the Bethel Assembly of God Church to the Thomas Griswold House and the Hyland House Museum.

    Ride the Guilford Preservation Alliance bus, available at a minimal charge, along a route that highlights historic buildings and homes once occupied by Civil War soldiers.

    Stop at the Dudley Farm open-air market on the Green, which will offer baked goods and handmade items for sale.

    Relax with the kids.  There’ll be games on the Green, as well as picnic tables where they can color and enjoy a snack.

    Take a look at a large, seven- by two-foot map of Guilford displayed on the Green that identifies the homes of over 100 soldiers.  Do you know if a soldier ever lived in your home?

Guilford and the Civil War:  A Day of Tribute is possible only because of the generous donations of the Guilford 375th Anniversary and Guilford and the Civil War sponsors, as well as the hundreds of volunteer hours of the Guilford and the Civil War Committee members.

Time To TELLABRATE!

Who among us has not at some point been an oral storyteller?  It may have happened sitting at the dinner table relating an incident or an encounter of the day.  It may be grandma telling her grandchildren about her five mile walk through the snow to school.  Or perhaps, it is making up a bedtime story on the spot to get your child to sleep.  The point is we have all engaged in this art form – perhaps without even realizing it.

Well, once upon a time before radio, tv, facebook, and twitter and even before ‘writing and the printing press, telling stories was the only way cultures had to pass down their history, educate their people, teach the rules.  It is perhaps the most enduring method of communications we have ever known.’ (John Tedstrom)  This ancient tradition of oral storytelling is perhaps the most personal and intimate form of storytelling.  Both the teller and the listener are actively engaged in the process, which is constantly evolving.  According to the National Storytelling Network storytelling is described as the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.  It is interactive involving a two-way relationship between the teller and the listener.  It encourages the active imagination of the listener.  As a listener you create vivid, multi-sensory images, actions, characters and events.  The flexibility of oral storytelling extends to the teller.  “Each teller will bring their own personality and character to the story.  Some tellers consider anything outside the simple telling as extraneous while other storytellers choose to enhance their telling of the tale with the addition of visual and audio tools, specific actions and creative strategies and devices.” (Wikipedia)

Every November, thousands of tellers and listeners gather on every continent (except Antarctica) to celebrate the joys of storytelling in an event trade-marked as TELLABRATION!  TELLABRATION! originator J. G. Pinkerton envisioned this international event as a means of building community support for storytelling. In 1988 the event was launched by the Connecticut Storytelling Center in six locations across the state. A great success, TELLABRATION! extended to several other states the following year, and then, in 1990, expanded nationwide under the umbrella of the National Storytelling Network and then spread into the international arena.

Connecticut’s Tellabration! 2013 will be happening in conjunction with the world-wide event.  Connecticut Storytellers have a month-long list of activities and events to bring this ancient art to all of us.  Connecitcut’s Tellabration! will bring together the area’s most celebrated storytellers to delight, captivate, and mesmerize audiences with their tales.  For a listing of events or to find one happening in your area visit their calendar.  An interesting side note is that one of Connecticut’s Storytellers was the first storyteller ever to audition for America’s Got Talent.  Most of the November events are designed for children and families.  There are some that are for adults only.  So join in the tellabration and hear some wonderful stories by some of Connecticut’s most accomplished tellers!
The Connecticut Storytelling Center was founded in 1984, to build upon the success of the annual Storytelling Festival.  The organization is based at Connecticut College in New London and it strives to provide the means for people of all ages to experience stories as a means of expression and communication, as a tool for thinking, reflecting, teaching and learning, and as a catalyst for change.  To learn more about them and the many ways that they outreach to the citizenry of CT visit their website.