Winter at the Playhouse

Though the final curtain has come down on our 2011 season, the Playhouse remains as busy as ever as we gear up for our annual Winter at the Playhouse programming, an exciting holiday festival that lights up our campus with dance, story and song each December. The idea behind Winter at the Playhouse is simple. In the months when we’re not producing our own unique line-up of plays and musicals, we find the most inspired and diverse offerings of holiday-themed music and entertainment to give to our patrons.

While Winter at the Playhouse has something for everyone, we are particularly excited to share GrooveLily’s Striking 12, which will be seen at the Playhouse on December 10th. An imaginative retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl,” this work of music theater is a creation of this talented trio of musicians and storytellers first formed in 1994, working with Rachel Sheinkin, Tony Award-winner for Broadway’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Featuring Valerie Vigoda on electric violin, Brendan Milburn on keyboards, and Gene Lewin on drums, with all contributing their considerable vocal talents, GrooveLily has been wowing audiences for almost two decades with their unique blend of “theatrical power-pop,” music that is as enjoyable as it is complex and daring in its blend of musical styles. The New York Times called their genre-being Striking 12 “more artfully crafted and engaging than virtually all the standard-mold musicals coming our way these days.”

Playhouse Board member Ann Sheffer was an early fan of the show, and was so taken with Striking 12 that she immediately signed on to sponsor it here at the Playhouse. "Striking 12 is the hippest holiday show of the season,” she said. “It's so good we want all Westport to see it with us!"

It’s a great sentiment, and one that holds true for all our Winter at the Playhouse offerings -from novel takes on familiar favorites to family entertainment to the just plain un-categorizable! Kicking it off on Saturday the 3rd and Sunday, December 4th is Ballet Etudes’ annual production of The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s undisputed masterpiece, which contains some of the best-loved and most essential music of the holiday season. The following weekend, on Sunday the 11th, the Pushcart Players will be in town for Family Festivities with A Season of Miracles, a sparkling collection of holiday stories that celebrate traditions and cultures from around the world.

On Monday, December 12th, the Script in Hand playreading series will feature a reading of Philip Barry’s delightful play Holiday, the basis of George Cukor’s classic 1938 film with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. And on Saturday, December 18th and Sunday, December 19th, The Broadway Boys are back for what is fast becoming a Playhouse tradition—a rousing holiday concert with unparalleled vocal work by some of the Great White Way’s most exciting talent.

For holiday entertainment in Fairfield County, there’s no other place to be this December. Click here to learn more or to get your tickets today!

David Kennedy
Associate Artistic Director

  

A Playhouse Family Thanksgiving

	Annie Keefe – Playhouse Artistic Advisor Thanksgiving tradition? Ours is simple. Every year we fight intensely over the turkey. I want no part of this daunting task, so early in our marriage I handed the job over to my husband (playwright David Wiltse). He is an excellent cook and if he screws up the heart of the meal…well, it isn’t my fault. However, having ‘handed it over’, I can’t stay out of it. And it drives him mad!     “Are you sure you want to brine it in that (too small) container?”…..“Did you cut off the wing tips?”...“You call that trussing a turkey?” …..“My mother always made homemade stock.”….“No, you start the temperature high and then reduce it” …..“I don’t care what the Times says, even ‘spatchcocked’ (what?) there is no way a turkey cooks in 45 minutes!”     So I do the stuffing and the side dishes and my specialty – desserts I shouldn’t eat – and often it comes out all at the same time. Sometimes it’s even spectacular and – the real key – ‘moist’. A very few times, the carving is interrupted by ‘How long do you think we’ll need to microwave it?” Next year he gets gravy as well. Too tricky.
	Chad Beguelin – Playwright, Harbor (part of the Playhouse’s 2012 Season) I used to work as a script reader for Dustin Hoffman's film company. One year he sent all of his employees frozen turkeys. It was a surreal experience to sit around the Thanksgiving table and thank Mr. Hoffman for the poultry. Up until then, the only Dustin Hoffman turkey I had experienced was "Ishtar".
	Darius de Haas – “Feste” in Twelfth Night, or What You Will I'm fairly traditional holiday-wise. My partner (and soon to be husband) Kyle and I usually alternate the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays either here in New York with various members of my family and/or friends, or we go to Virginia where Kyle is from to spend with his family (at his mother and sister's house in Max Meadows, not too far from Roanoke). However,  my singing and acting career often requires me to be away for the holidays; thankfully, my work has, at times, afforded us holiday time in a great city we would not have thought of. A few years ago, I was performing one of my solo concerts in San Francisco around Thanksgiving, and Kyle and I decided to drive to Carmel-by-the-Sea for the holiday. Well, let me tell you, nothing against either of our families, but that was probably one of the best Thanksgivings we ever had. Carmel is gorgeous- we stayed at a lovely hotel on the beach, ate Thanksgiving dinner at a fantastic restaurant (sorry I can't remember the name), and got nicely acquainted with the area which I found to be very inviting, artistic, and of course quite scenic. I would love to go back someday.
	Michael Ross – Playhouse Managing Director Thanksgiving was a bit of a stressful time in my house when I was growing up – since it was seemingly all about this one big, great meal. And that was the problem. My mother couldn’t cook. My mother was a career woman. She loved her work as an emergency room nurse in one of Milwaukee’s roughest neighborhoods. Patching up gunshot wounds or delivering babies was no problem. Cooking, on the other hand… But she felt the pressure to do so for my father and her four sons on Thanksgiving. So she’d try. This being the ‘60s, my mother grew fond of “instant” foods – oatmeal, rice, and her much loved “instant potatoes.” Can you imagine? One Thanksgiving I complimented my mother on having actually made real mashed potatoes – after tasting potatoes with what seemed like significant potato chunks. “What these,” she replied. “No, they’re instant.” Only my mother could figure out how to make lumpy instant potatoes. I loved her for that. Sadly she passed away while I was in college. Thankfully, her memory lives on with me at Thanksgiving whenever mashed potatoes are served.
	Liv Rooth – “Catharine” in Suddenly Last Summer I am originally from New Orleans, and for Thanksgiving dinner my Dad makes this extraordinary oyster stuffing. Since I've been up on the East Coast for years now, I usually don't make it home for Thanksgiving anymore, so every year I beg my father to make a double batch and freeze it for Christmas or whenever I can get home next. My sister and I both like to cover it in Crystal hot sauce and eat it like it's running away from us. Every now and then, he says, "Girls, I'm thinking of trying this new recipe for _________ and ______ stuffing..." He is then allowed to make the impostor stuffing, but is also required to make a side dish of the Oyster. Or else.
	David Kennedy – Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Growing up in Canada, we celebrated Thanksgiving, but on the second Monday in October, and while it was something of a big deal, it had nowhere near the sense of sanctity that it possesses in the United States. Of course, I’ve lived here for many years now, and have had many joyous and delicious Thanksgiving celebrations in that time, but I’m afraid there’s no particular memory or tradition that looms large for me. I can say that what I love most about Thanksgiving is that it stands alone among the major festive moments we celebrate throughout the year, free from entanglement with any specific religious doctrine or nationalist sentiment, and despite the frenzied madness of shoppers on the following Friday, the day itself has somehow managed to miraculously avoid being co-opted for financial gain. This last point is especially important, as there hardly seems to be a sacred thing left in American life that hasn’t been mined for its commercial appeal. But for Thanksgiving, we need give no gifts nor cards, we need not decorate, and we don’t buy flowers or candy. Hell, you don’t even really need a turkey. All it requires of us is that once a year we reflect on what we’re thankful for, and take time to celebrate life and community with family and friends. In that sense it’s the ideal holiday—secular, inclusive and mostly not-for-profit. I wish more things were like that.
	Mahira Kakkar – “Viola” in Twelfth Night, or What You Will Thanksgiving 2009 was special. My friend Joe Hickey and his wife invited my husband and myself over to their place. Joe and I had worked on a show together in 2006, Three Sisters at Baltimore’s CenterStage, and he was a phenomenal actor. He bumped into me on the street after years of not seeing each other and asked if I had plans- I said we weren’t doing anything. Joe immediately invited us over to his place. He had helped me so much when I was having trouble playing “Irina." In addition, his solidity and practical advice were a huge asset to the production. And he really, really loved acting. He and his wife and their friend waited for us as we shared around town helping another friend, and we finally had dinner around 8:00pm. His wife, Andrea, had made everything from scratch. It was phenomenal company and a lovely evening.     Joe has since passed. He was one of the healthiest people I knew, but he found he had cancer pretty shortly after that Thanksgiving and declined fast. It is one of my last memories of him and his wife together. He went in his sleep and in her arms- a good way to go for a very good man.     I think about him now that Thanksgiving is coming up, and I think about his wife. It makes me think about all that we have to be grateful for. Throughout his illness, Joe maintained his sense of offbeat humor - even making up a song about all the medicines he was on; he and Andrea fought hard. Love and loss,I guess they’re always intertwined. Joe and his wife Andrea with their big hearts, with their generosity, and their will to keep going, illuminate this verse that I love (courtesy of poet Roger Bonair Agard): “We are all worried about not being good enough for love. Imagine all we have. Imagine all we love and live through. Imagine what a chance we have to endure the very worst that might come our way.”

  
Donor Spotlight: Wayne Whitehill

Wayne Whitehill, a Playhouse subscriber from Black Rock, wants to help insure that future Playhouse audiences will be able to enjoy quality theater productions as much as he enjoys them today. He is the inaugural donor to the newly launched Legacy Society, bequeathing in his will a lasting gift to Westport Country Playhouse.

Wayne first learned of the Playhouse when he became fast friends in the 1970s with Armina Marshall, the wife of Lawrence Langner who founded the Playhouse in 1931 and served as artistic director until 1959. Wayne was introduced to Armina through his late partner Gene, who had been married to Lawrence Langner’s step-sister Phyllis.

An actor, Wayne appeared as an extra in 45 films during the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Network and The Wiz. “I still receive residual checks from those two. It’s always a nice surprise---not much money these days by the time they take out taxes, but it was fun. I did one movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger---a dreadful film called ‘Hercules in New York.’ I doubled for Arnold Stang and spent three days riding around Manhattan in a chariot, driven by Schwarzenegger, and holding on to him for dear life. I got stunt pay for the three days. Even though the jobs as an extra were only a day or two, every experience is a story. I’m writing a book called Memoirs of an Extra.”

Nearly ten years ago, Wayne retired and moved to Connecticut from Manhattan where he lived for 35 years. “The only thing I missed about New York was the theater.”

Wayne’s friends Mark Naftalin, a blues musician, and his wife Ellen frequently went to the Playhouse. Wayne started going with them. “I got a subscription. It’s really marvelous! I love the fact that we see a lot of the same actors in different shows. Every time we go, there are two or three actors who we already know and like. We all love Paxton Whitehead and we think Mark Shanahan is fabulous!

“Our subscription seats are in the second row, center orchestra, so we’re right there in the midst of the action. There’ve been some wonderful experiences – like The Diary of Anne Frank. To see an entire cast being in character for two hours in the cramped attic setting - even if they weren’t doing anything or saying anything – everybody had to be on top of their game for the entire time. I thought that was superb!”

He also enjoys the Playhouse’s special events and especially the Script in Hand playreadings. “I can’t believe the price; you can hardly see a movie for $15!”

A self-proclaimed “musical nut,” Wayne is a fan of Stephen Sondheim. “I’m very happy to hear that they’re doing Sondheim’s Into the Woods next year. Last season I saw I Do! I Do! twice. And She Loves Me – that’s one of my favorite shows. I knew when they got to the lovely song at the end of the first act, ‘Dear Friend,’ I was going to be a basket case. That song means a lot to me; it’s tied to a couple of people in my life.”

Wayne recently attended his 50th college reunion at Drake University in Des Moines. At that time he realized he hadn’t redone his will since 1996. “I decided it was time to do a new will; I put Drake in. My parents were both orphans, my late partner Gene had no one and I have no one, so I said, ‘let’s do some good.’ In addition to Drake, my alma mater, I bequeathed an amount to the Screen Actors Guild and to the New York Film Institute, because I’m a movie nut, and to Westport Country Playhouse.

“There’s a variety at the Playhouse which I like – some comedy, some drama, some music, and the old chestnuts with the Script in Hand playreadings. And the sets have just been utterly unbelievable! I mean, there’ve been some marvelous, marvelous sets.

“I strongly believe in 'paying it forward'. It's a wonderful feeling being able to be a benefactor in this weak economy and I suggest anyone who can possibly do so, DOES!”

Click here for more information about The Legacy Society.

Patricia Blaufuss
Public Relations Manager

  

A Special Gift from Westport DMA

“What do you buy for the person who has everything?” If you find yourself repeating this over and over while planning your holiday shopping list, then the Westport Downtown Merchant’s Association has created a unique event to solve all of your holiday gift needs - an Alternative Gift Giving Fair.

On Thursday, December 1st from 5pm to 7:30pm the DMA, Westport Country Playhouse and 13 more of Westport’s non-profit organizations will gather at Christ & Holy Trinity Church at 75 Church Lane in Westport to take part in this year’s exciting inaugural event. The concept is fairly simple – take the money you would have spent on a gift for someone and donate to a local organization in that person’s name. The spin is that, instead of donating to a general fund, your “gift” will “purchase” an actual item the organization needs. For example, a gift of $60 to the Playhouse would allow a family of six to attend a Together at the Table Family Dinner. Or a donation of $20 will purchase a train ticket for a New York actor to travel to and from the Playhouse for a performance. The Playhouse and other participating organizations have compiled wish lists consisting of items ranging in value from $10 to several hundred dollars, so there will be plenty of options for everyone on your shopping list. And, so your loved ones will still have the joy of unwrapping a gift this holiday season, the DMA has created gift cards detailing the gift you’ve made.

Other participating organizations include Department of Human Services, Earthplace, First Night, Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts, Westport Arts Center, Westport Historical Society, Westport Home and Energy Challenge, Westport Library, Westport Town Farm, Westport Woman’s Club, Westport Young Women’s League, and the Westport/Weston YMCA.

Join us on December 1st for a truly great way to find gifts for those hard-to-shop for people in your life AND do something great for the Westport community this holiday season. And the next time your friends and family come to the Playhouse, they’ll have the joy of knowing that their gift made a little piece of theater magic possible.

Beth Huisking
Associate Director of Marketing