Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers

One of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most popular operettas, The Gondoliers follows the hilarious search for the lost King of Barataria, accompanied by the lilting melodies and colorful costumes of Venetian boatsmen and Italian dancers. Even Queen Victoria succumbed to its delights when the Savoy company gave a command performance of Gondoliers at Windsor Castle, and it was reported that she laughed heartily at the author’s jesting description of what a ruler’s life was really like. Performances by CT Gilbert and Sullivan are October 4th and 5th at Valley Regional High School, Deep River.  For tickets click here. For plot summary click here.

The Connecticut Gilbert and Sullivan Society was organized in 1980 with the encouragement of then-Gov. Ella Grasso, a noted admirer of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Since then, the group has produced a Savoy opera every year. CG&SS is dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of the rich heritage of satire and melody that emerged from the unique partnership of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan (between 1870 and 1900). The art form they created together, which was nurtured by impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte at The Savoy Theatre, established the underpinnings which sustain the modern-day musical. CG&SS provides a showcase for talented singers, directors, designers, instrumentalists and stage technicians of professional expertise who make a living at other professions. This is family-oriented historical entertainment for the widest possible audience in the English language.

The organization offers an outlet for creativity as people help with productions on stage, behind stage, or as a sponsoring member of the audience. It adds to the quality of life in the Middletown area through performing arts, provides for study and performances of these 14 masterpieces with professional guidance; enriches the historical offerings to area audiences; encourages and supports area youth by including students from Middletown schools. We also have sponsored many benefit performances consisting of excerpts from G&S and occasionally other creators at a variety of venues in the area, along with Sullivan’s cantata “The Golden Legend” with organ and percussion, and a concert of Sullivan songs.

The Connecticut Gilbert & Sullivan Society has received grants from the Middletown Commission on the Arts, the Connecticut Commission of the Arts, and the Middletown Foundation for the Arts. We have also received support through many employer-sponsored donation programs through members of the cast and crew.
CG&SS provides a showcase for talented singers, directors, designers, instrumentalists and stage technicians of professional expertise who make a living at other professions. This is family-oriented historical entertainment for the widest possible audience in the English language.

Wee Faerie Village at the Florence Griswold

The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT presents Wee Faerie Village in a Steampunk’d Wonderland on the grounds of museum’s campus from October 3 through November 2. Twenty-five hand-crafted faerie houses and scenes recount Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in a steampunk setting. “Imagine a miniature Victorian world viewed through a steam-powered futuristic lens,” explains David Rau, the Museum’s Director of Education and Outreach. “With guide in hand visitors will travel the Museum’s 11 acres to discover Alice’s adventures, including, keeping up with the tardy White Rabbit, surviving the Mad Tea Party, and playing croquet with the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts.”

This year’s Wee Faerie Village is the sixth of the Museum’s annual outdoor creative installations. Last year a record-breaking 17,212 people attended the 2013 Wee Faerie Village during its four-week run. The annual event has come to signify an enriching, not to be missed outing for visitors of all ages.

Alice Among the Fairies was one of Lewis Carroll’s original titles for his story before it was published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865—the middle of the Victorian Era. An immediate hit, the book has never gone out of print.

In keeping with the time period of Alice, this year’s Wee Faerie Village combines natural materials with vintage found elements to create installations inspired by the popular Steampunk movement. The term “steampunk” was coined in the early 1980s, and refers to a fanciful art and design subculture that combines history, fantasy, and the Victorian era. The term describes an imaginary world where iconic images from our steam-powered past (think cogs, gears, and flywheels) are married to the technologies of today.

The Museum’s namesake, Florence Griswold was a contemporary of Alice Liddell, the child that inspired the stories. Although an ocean apart, both Florence and the real Alice would have experience growing up in a rapidly changing Victorian world.

Nearly 50 artists and designers have been working since early spring to create their mini masterpieces, which collectively transform the Museum’s eleven acres into Wonderland. Children delight in the fun and whimsical creations while adults marvel at the creatively conceived and handcrafted works of art. Graphic and sculpture artist Bill Vollers of Chester, Connecticut chose the White Knight's encounter with Alice for the basis of his faerie house installation. Vollers used an empty box for his faerie house, which sits on a steampunk inspired assemblage constructed primarily from late 19th century Victorian-era wooden and cast iron gears and wheels. "These types of items and other found objects are of special interest to me," explains Vollers. "I appreciate their past and authenticity and have used them to create sculptures and assemblage pieces for years." A keepsake brochure, the Wander Guide, leads visitors through the Museum’s campus to each installation while telling the story of Alice’s adventures. Visitors to Wee Faerie Village are encouraged to dress up as their favorite faerie or Alice in Wonderland character.

The Museum commissioned six original faerie illustrations of iconic “Alice” characters by artist Aaron B. Miller based in Chicago. Miller’s original art cleverly re-imagines Carroll’s beloved characters for the faerie world.

“Beyond Wonderland,” a collaboration with the Lyme-Old Lyme Chamber of Commerce, encourages visitors of the Museum’s Wee Faerie Village to take advantage of special offers by local merchants and restaurants. See www.VisitOldLyme.com for details.

As part of its Wee Faerie Village exhibition, adults and families with children can enjoy a month of fun faerie and Wonderland-themed activities. Events include a visit from Alice, baking and faerie house-making contests, croquet lessons, a magic show, parties, book discussions, and craft activities. Many events are included in Museum admission. Visit www.FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org for a complete list.

The Museum will open on Columbus Day, Monday, October 13 from 10am to 5pm. At noon, an artist from the TEN31 living statues troupe will lead visitors in the “Mad-as-a-Hatter’s Steampunk’d Parade.” Wings, over-the-top top hats, and Steampunk’d attire encouraged. Hands-on crafts 11am-4pm.

The Museum is located at 96 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT, exit 70 off I-95. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm with extended hours on Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Admission during the exhibition is $15 for adults, $14 for seniors, $13 for students, $5 for members. Children 12 and under are free thanks to the support of an anonymous donor. Admission includes the outdoor walking tour of the faerie village as well as the Florence Griswold House, Chadwick Studio, Rafal Landscape Center and Krieble Gallery featuring Life Stories in Art, a series of concurrent exhibitions highlighting the contributions of three important women artists in Connecticut in three different media over the course of three centuries.

Three Women/Three Artists/Three Centuries

Life Stories on exhibit at the Florence Griswold Museum October 3 through January 25, 2015 is a concurrent series of exhibitions highlighting the contributions of three American women artists in Connecticut. 

Together, these exhibitions highlight the contributions of three important women artists in Connecticut in three different media over the course of three centuries. The Museum’s Krieble Gallery will feature more than 70 works by 19th century painter Mary Rogers Williams; 20th century sculptor Mary Knollenberg; and contemporary glass artist Kari Russell-Pool. Although separate exhibitions, they each carry the theme “Life Stories in Art” and serve as an exploration of these women’s individual journeys of sacrifice, self-discovery, and balancing multiple roles in the pursuit of their art.

“Life Stories in Art presents the perfect opportunity to assess the extraordinary role that women have played in American art, both historically and currently,” says Jeffrey Andersen, director. “Each of these artists—although separated by centuries and by different circumstances—demonstrate great courage in their commitment to their art. I hope our audience will be prompted to delve deeply into their individual accomplishments and reconsider their contributions to the arts of Connecticut.” Read more

Picture IDs (L to R): Henry C. White by Mary Rogers Williams; Mary Knollenberg in her Studio; Peaches and Cream by Kari Russell-Pool

CMS Hosts the U.S. Coast Guard Band Saxophone Quartet

Community Music School is pleased to present a concert by the United States Coast Guard Band Saxophone Quartet on Saturday, September 27th at 1 pm. The concert takes place at the Centerbrook Meetinghouse, 51 Main Street, Centerbrook and is FREE and open to the public.

The United States Coast Guard Band Saxophone Quartet is comprised of the saxophone section of the U.S. Coast Guard Band, one of the five premier U.S. military bands. In addition to performing throughout Taiwan in 2009 and 2010, the Quartet performs regularly at conferences held by the World Saxophone Congress and the North American Saxophone Alliance, and has performed at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and at Carnegie Hall. The Quartet also performs at universities throughout New England and on recitals as part of the Coast Guard Band’s Chamber Players concert series. The Quartet’s members also form the Element Saxophone Quartet, winning medals at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

The members of the quartet are: Chief Musician Joshua Thomas, Musician 1st Class Greg Case, Musician 1st Class Joe D’Aleo, and Chief Musician Jeff Emerich.

The United States Coast Guard Band is the premier band representing the United States Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. The 55-member ensemble has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in the nation, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. The Band also has a rich history of performing internationally: it is especially honored to have been the first American military band to perform in the former Soviet Union, with concerts in Leningrad and the surrounding area in 1989. In 2008, the Coast Guard Band became the first premier American military band to perform a concert tour of Japan. In addition, the US Coast Guard Brass Quintet and Saxophone Quartet performed throughout Taiwan to great acclaim in 2010, and the full band completed a tour in Taiwan in July of 2011.

Based at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, the Coast Guard Band frequently appears in Washington, DC, at presidential and cabinet level functions on formal and informal occasions. Historic events include National Christmas Tree lighting ceremonies, the American Bicentennial Celebration with President Gerald Ford, World War II Fiftieth Anniversary events in England, and Inaugural celebrations for every President since Herbert Hoover. 

World Premier Event: Holiday Inn at Goodspeed

Moving into the holidays, Goodspeed Musicals is presenting one of the classics of the season.  It’s time to celebrate! Goodspeed Musicals announces a top-notch cast for its brand new, world premiere musical, Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. The  much-anticipated production will run through November 30.

Check into the tuneful world-premiere musical about a Connecticut farmhouse transformed into a jubilant nightspot — but only on holidays. From Valentine's Day to the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving to Christmas, expect a cornucopia of hit songs by Irving Berlin in a dance-dizzy romance based on the classic film that first starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. Raise a glass of cheer to "Happy Holiday," "Easter Parade," "Be Careful, It's My Heart" and more of the world's greatest show tunes.

Holiday Inn features music by Irving Berlin and a new book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge.  Greenberg has directed numerous Goodspeed productions both at the Goodspeed Opera House and The Norma Terris Theatre including the new musical Band Geeks! for which he also co-wrote the book. Chad Hodge created several television series including NBC’s The Playboy Club and the upcoming FOX series Wayward Pines.

Holiday Inn, based on the Academy Award-winning film, is produced in association with Universal Stage Productions and by arrangement with The Irving Berlin Music Company. Universal Stage Productions is the live theatre division of the world-famous motion picture studio which has produced such Broadway hits as Wicked, Billy Elliot, Bring It On, the recent award-winning revival of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and many more.

Tickets are available through the Box Office (860.873.8668), open seven days a week, or on-line at goodspeed.org. For show highlights, exclusive photos, special events and more visit us at goodspeed.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter @goodspeedmusicl, and YouTube.

Leading the cast will be Noah Racey as Ted Hanover. Mr. Racey returns to Goodspeed where he previously starred in Where’s Charley? and went on to choreograph the 2010 production of Annie Get Your Gun. His Broadway credits include Curtains, Never Gonna Dance, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Follies. Jim Hardy will be played by Corey Mach who has appeared in Broadway’s Hands on a Hardbody and Godspell. Lila Dixon will be played by Hayley Podschun who appeared in Broadway’s Chaplin, Anything Goes, Pal Joey, Sunday in the Park with George, Hairspray, and The Sound of Music. Linda Mason will be played by Patti Murin whose Broadway credits include Xanadu and the title role in Lysistrata Jones. At Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre, Ms. Murin appeared in Band Geeks! and Princesses.

Susan Mosher, of Broadway’s Hairspray, will play Louise. Danny Reed will be played by Danny Rutigliano who was seen in last season’s The Fabulous Lipitones at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre. Mr. Rutigliano’s Broadway credits include Born Yesterday, Billy Elliot, The Lion King, and The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. Charlie Winslow will be played by Noah Marlowe who appeared in Broadway’s Act I and Mary Poppins and Goodspeed’s LMNOP at The Norma Terris Theatre.
          
The ensemble includes Alissa Alter (Goodspeed’s 42nd Street), Abby Church (Broadway’s How to Succeed… and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas), Darien Crago, Caley Crawford, Jeremiah Ginn, Juliane Godfrey (Goodspeed’s Good News! and The Great American Mousical), Laura Harrison, Bryan Thomas Hunt, Charles MacEachern (Goodspeed’s Hello, Dolly!), Karl Skyler Urban, and John T. Wolfe (Goodspeed’s Mame). The swings are Sarah Fagan and Darrell T. Joe. Connecticut native Spencer Stanley will understudy the role of Charlie Winslow.

Holiday Inn will be directed by Gordon Greenberg, whose Goodspeed credits include Happy Days and The Pirates of Penzance at the Goodspeed Opera House; The Fabulous Lipitones, Band Geeks! and The Baker’s Wife  at The Norma Terris Theatre. In New York, Mr. Greenberg directed the Drama Desk Award winning production of Studs Terkel’s Working. Holiday Inn will be choreographed by Denis Jones who is slated to choreograph the upcoming Broadway musical Honeymoon in Vegas. For Goodspeed, Jones choreographed The Norma Terris Theatre production of Band Geeks! He served as Associate Choreographer for Broadway’s Legally Blonde and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Tony-nominated Anna Louizos will be the Scenic Designer. Her numerous Broadway credits include Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, In The Heights, and Curtains. Ms. Louizos’ designs for Goodspeed include LMNOP, Radio Girl, Band Geeks!, Jim Hensen’s Emmet Otter, and Me & My Girl. Costumes will be designed by Alejo Vietti whose designs can now be seen on Broadway in the Tony-nominated Beautiful: The Carol King Musical. Other Broadway credits include Associate Costume Design for Jersey Boys, Good Vibrations, and Enchanted April among others. For Goodspeed, Mr. Vietti has designed Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel, Annie Get Your Gun, Camelot, Big River, 1776 and Meet John Doe at The Norma Terris Theatre. Lighting Design will be by Tony Award-winner Jeff Croiter. Among Croiter’s many Broadway credits are Mothers and Sons, Soul Doctor, Jekyll & Hyde, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Newsies. His Goodspeed credits include The Fabulous Lipitones, Radio Girl, Band Geeks!, Happy Days, Pirates of Penzance, Pippin, and more.  Sound Design will be by Jay Hilton who is in his 29th season at Goodspeed.

The Music Director for Holiday Inn will be Michael O’Flaherty, who is in his 23rd season as Goodspeed’s Resident Music Director. William J. Thomas will be Assistant Music Director. Orchestrations will be provided by Dan DeLange, who has created the orchestrations for numerous Goodspeed productions. Casting for Holiday Inn is by Paul Hardt of SH Entertainment. Holiday Inn is produced for Goodspeed Musicals by Michael P. Price.

Dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, the first regional theatre to receive two Tony Awards for outstanding achievement, produces three musicals each season at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., and additional musicals at The Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, Conn.

Curtain Call

For 55 years Picasso’s curtain painting Le Tricorne has hung in the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. That is until this past Sunday night.


Le Tricorne is a 19-foot-tall canvas that Picasso painted in 1919 for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. It was originally used as a curtain for The Three-Cornered Hat, a now-classic ballet composed by Manuel de Falla and choreographed by Léonide Massine for which Picasso designed the sets and costumes. The painting depicts spectators socializing after a bull fight. 

Forty years after Picasso painted it, Philip Johnson incorporated Le Tricorne into his designs for the world renowned Four Seasons Restaurant, which is located in the Seagram Building, a 38-story skyscraper that is itself an  historic classic of modern architecture. Ever since the Four Seasons opened in 1959, Le Tricorne has hung in the entryway, where it could be seen not only by patrons but by passers-by.


On Sunday night, September 7, the New York Historical Society in consultation with the New York Landmarks Conservancy used a crew of more than 20 workers, under the direction of Lead Technician Tom Zoufaly of Art Installation Design, to carefully remove the fragile piece created by the Spanish master almost a century ago. Also on  hand for the delicate operation were: Sarah Lowengard, the conservator who has cared for the Curtain since it was given to the Conservancy in 2005,  the chief conservator of the Historical Society Peg Breen and Conservancy Technical Director Alex Herrera. After riggers erected an 18-foot-tall scaffold, the painting was carefully rolled onto a 20-foot-long, 2-foot-diameter, foam-covered, reinforced cardboard tube specially designed for the job. Then the canvas, weighing between 300 and 500 pounds, including the roller — was nestled in a specially built steel cradle and trucked to the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Massachusetts for a gentle vacuuming and cleaning and repairs to some small tears in the canvas.


Once the restoration is completed the Picasso Curtain will head to its new home at The New-York Historical Society— where it will be able to be seen by an even wider segment of the public.


To view the actual de-installation of Le Tricorne click here.

In Slow Motion

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music offers David Michalek’s film installation Slow Dancing as a gift to the city of New Haven, the region and the university community. The ISM has had a long association with this artist as a lecturer in religion and visual arts, and in exhibiting his 14 Stations last year.
Slow Dancing is a series of 46 larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of dance artists from around the world, displayed on a triptych of giant screens. Each subject’s movement (approximately 5 seconds long) was shot on a specially constructed set using a high-speed, high-definition camera recording at several thousand frames per second (standard film captures 30). The result is approximately 10 minutes of extreme slow motion.  As the films unfold, gesture by barely perceptible gesture, viewers can choose to focus on one dancer’s complete performance or observe the interplay among the screens.

What at first appears to be a series of still photographs unfolds gesture by barely perceptible gesture—a motion portrait in which each dancer’s unique artistic expression and technique are revealed. Viewers can choose to focus on one dancer’s complete performance or observe the interplay among the three screens. The extreme slow motion enables the viewer to share privileged information about the complexity of the simplest gestures, catching details that would normally escape the naked eye.
Slow Dancing has been exhibited in 28 international cities, most often as a work of public art. As such, it functions as an opportunity for empathetic viewing and contemplative observation in the midst of a busy city center.
It will be on exhibit from Wednesday, September 10 through Tuesday, September 16 from 8pm-11pm nightly.  It is a free event and can be viewed outdoors at Cross Campus of Yale University (in front of Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High Street, New Haven).
On Friday, September 12 from 3pm-5pm at the Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel Street, New Haven) artist David Michalek will host a panel discussion about Slow Dancing with Yale faculty members

• Daphne A. Brooks, Professor of African American Studies and Theater Studies
• Margaret S. Clark, Professor of psychology and Master of Trumbull College
• Emily Carson Coates, Lecturer in Theater Studies, Moderator
• Martin Kersels, Associate professor and director of graduate studies in sculpture, School of Art
• Richard O. Prum, William Robertson Coe Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Curator of vertebrate zoology, Peabody Museum; Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies
• Joseph Roach, Professor of English and African American Studies; Sterling Professor of Theater; Professor of American Studies
• Laura Wexler, Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and American Studies

Director's Note:
This project had a long gestation period before coming to fruition several years ago. It’s not always easy to point to the specific factors that bring a new work, or the impulse to create one, into being. The overlapping issues, passions, and fascinations that merge with willingness, opportunity, and aptitude are not always obvious.


One impulse was clear. I love dance. I love watching it. I love what dancers do, who they are, and what they stand for. Dance is an underappreciated art form—the NEA tells us that only eight percent of the U.S. population will ever see a live dance performance. This led me to the idea of making a visual statement centered on celebrating dance — but not limited to any one kind of dance—to try to capture the “essence” of dance in a different medium.

A second impulse was my natural urge to make portraits. The best portraits teach me how to look longer and harder and deeper at my fellow human beings. As a portrait artist, this is what I strive to do. I could make a portrait of anyone, anywhere and be happy doing so, but there is a certain pleasure in having dancers as one’s subject.

Common to almost every work I undertake is the desire to engage the beautiful, to spark people’s creative imagination, and to fill them with a sense of wonder and even love. So much of what I’m ultimately interested in is the sacred potential of art—work that not merely beautifies but also beatifies.