Fine Arts Festival Busy Despite Rain
Opening day of the Westport Fine Arts Festival was busy despite a deluge of rain over the tented display booths. The Downtown Merchant’s Association holds the event rain or shine, with the event running until 5:00 PM today, and from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM tomorrow.
Emerging Lincoln Center Talent Dazzles MoCA Crowd
Last night at MoCA Westport, the Alexa Tarantino Quartet, a Jazz at Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, performed an amazing set to a crowd of socially distanced patrons. Music from Tarantino's Firefly album was played for the first time in Connecticut and attendees enjoyed her Firefly signature drink (an Italian apertif including aperol, prosecco, club soda and a slice of orange). The concert was moved indoors given the inclement weather.
Next up in the Music at MoCA Series is Jocelyn and Chris, a sibling rock duo known for their performance on The Today Show. They will perform an outdoor concert on Friday, June 11. Tickets available on mocawestport.org.
Photo by Maddy Martin, MoCA.
WAAC Culture Corner: A Mother’s Love for May
A Mother’s Love
Welcome back to the Westport Local Press’s Westport Arts Advisory Committee’s “Culture Corner.” Each month, the WAAC will scour our 33.45 square miles and highlight one of the many artists – visual, written, performance, and other – who call Westport home. These artists create a spectrum of color that shines over town like the rainbows often seen over the Saugatuck, so we have made “color” our theme.
This month, we offer up a bouquet of pink to mothers everywhere and shine our spotlight on one in particular this month of May. We feature Cecily Gans, chef and long-time culinary instructor at Staples High School, not only for her artistic creativity, but also because of the special relationship she and her daughter Leila share around food.
Taken at Brasserie Suffren, Paris. “When you look at the next table and realize you need an oyster course.”
When I asked how chefs qualify as artists, Chef Gans quoted Apicius, the first century Roman gourmand (sciencedirect.com), “we eat with our eyes.” We see food before we eat it, and to appear appetizing, it must, she says “have consistent visual appeal and symmetry.” We read recipes before we even prepare ingredients, and in print and on television, food still has immense appeal even though we cannot taste it. Her background stood her in good stead for this artistic approach to food. Her parents both graduated from the RISD, and she received an education in drama and the visual arts prior to studying culinary arts. In culinary school, she says she “drew her plates,” to see how the food would look, noting the importance of that creative visual element. “Food,” she says, “is an art first.”
At home, her grandmother, the first female instructor at the Culinary Institute of America, influenced her the most. Hours in the kitchen with her imparted the importance of mixing ingredients – like paints or notes or words – beautifully, in correct proportion, to create appealing, delicious dishes.
Her daughter, Leila, now 12, introduced a new level of love of cooking (and of course love in general). Chef Gans made all of Leila’s baby food, and brought her often to the Westport Farmers’ Market, where she sits on the board. She inculcated Leila with a deep appreciation for food from a young age; they cook together and share exotic meals on their travels. “I treat her like an adult when it comes to food.” Her Facebook feed features photos of them sharing many culinary adventures around the globe, including escargot and raw oysters in Paris. Their love of the food and each other is evident in every photo.
First Matzo Ball Soup made with Grandma Feisty.Leila had the gift of sharing a kitchen with her great grandmother, too, until she died recently at the age of 103. One of Chef Gans’ favorite memories around food is the time she, her mother, grandmother, and Leila all made matzoh ball soup together in a multigenerational gastronomical love fest. Although her grandmother is gone, her lessons and love, including many of her cookbooks, stay with Chef Gans. She often revisits these, among her over 1,000 cookbooks, to re-inspire her. While extravagant feasts overseas titillate them both, she views sitting down together for a family meal such an important expression of the art and love inherent in cooking.
When asked how she would celebrate Mother’s Day this year, she said that she and Leila would cook “a really nice meal for my mother; we are all really close.” The way, it seems, to everyone’s heart, is through this culinary art. Chef Gans and her daughter Leila live that axiom every day.
Westport Country Playhouse Announces Debut of Middle School Summer Camp
Press ReleaseWestport Country Playhouse will launch CampWCP, a new, in-person, social justice theater camp for 10 middle school students (6th through 8th grade) with playwright José Casas and the Playhouse’s Roz and Bud Siegel director of education Jenny Nelson. CampWCP will run from July 6 through July 30, Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the theater’s rehearsal studio. Registration opens Monday, May 3, at noon. Licensing from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC) is pending approval.
The four-week camp will be split into two classes: acting taught in the morning by Nelson, and playwriting/production taught in the afternoon by Casas. The 10 young artists will create original pieces focusing on the question: "What does home mean to you?,” working with Casas to weave their collective stories into a play. In addition, Playhouse staff will give the campers insight on what happens behind the scenes at a professional theater. At CampWCP’s conclusion on Saturday, July 31, students will share their original creations, in-person, at the Playhouse for an invitation-only event for their family and friends.
Casas believes that “this camp is the creation of a safe space so that youth feel free to express all their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. It is a collaboration and exchange where youth voices are acknowledged, listened to, and celebrated."
Casas is a playwright and assistant professor who heads the playwriting minor in the department of theatre and drama at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild as well as a board member of Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. He has a BA in theatre arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara; MA in theatre arts from California State University, Los Angeles; MFA in playwriting from Arizona State University; and two years of graduate coursework in drama and theatre for youth and communities (DTYC) at the University of Texas at Austin. His plays have been performed across the country and included in anthologies. His plays, “la ofrenda” and “somebody’s children,” received both the Bonderman National Playwriting Award and the American Alliance of Theatre and Education’s Distinguished Play Award. His book, “Palabras del Cielo: An Exploration of Latina/o Theatre for Young Audiences,” was awarded the American Alliance of Theatre and Education’s Distinguished Book Award.
Nelson hails from Arizona where she received her bachelor’s degree in theater, master’s degree in theater from the University of Arizona, and a second master’s degree in education from Fairfield University. She is the associate artistic director of Collective Consciousness Theatre, a social justice theater in New Haven. She has taught at several universities, including City College of New York in the graduate program for theater professionals and educators. She has also worked as an artist and educator at several theaters, including Long Wharf Theatre, Shubert Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Recently, Nelson was a nominee for the Tony Teaching Award of Excellence.
Fee for the four-week camp is $750. To ensure that all young artists have equal access, scholarships and payment plans are available. Maximum camp capacity is 10 students. Registration will be online from Monday, May 3 through Tuesday, June 1 at https://www.westportplayhouse.org/show/campwcp/
Campers will receive a limited edition CampWCP t-shirt; a copy of instructor José Casas’ play, “somebody’s children”; and a bound copy of the play collectively created.
Masks will be worn by staff and campers at all times; social distancing and health protocols will be followed, including OEC and local Covid-19 guidelines.
CampWCP is sponsored by Paige and Jodi Couture; additional 2021 Education Program supporters include the Eunice and David Bigelow Foundation; The David and Geri Epstein Foundation; George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation; Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation, Inc., The Westport Young Woman’s League; as well as Athena and Daniel Adamson; Anna Czekaj-Farber; and Roz and Bud Siegel. WSHU is a 2021 Season Media Sponsor.
For Westport Country Playhouse tickets and information, visit westportplayhouse.org, call (203) 227-4177, or email at boxoffice@westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), and on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).