Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have...(mystery chords!) Alfred Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS, Broadway's most intriguing, most thrilling, most riotous, most UNMISSABLE comedy smash! The mind-blowing cast of 4 plays over 150 characters in this fast-paced tale of an ordinary man on an extraordinarily entertaining adventure. WINNER! 2 TONY AWARDS® !  HILARIOUS FUN FOR THEATRE-LOVERS OF ALL AGES!

Thursday, November 5 at 8:00pm

Friday, November 6 at 8:00pm

Saturday, November 7 at 2:00 & 8:00pm

The 16-member Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, winner of the 2009 Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for their recording “Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard,” continues the tradition of stellar concerts and recordings that was created by founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. As the permanent Monday-night band at the historic Village Vanguard, the orchestra serves as a creative outlet for some of the nation’s foremost performers, composers and arrangers.

“There probably isn’t a big band in the country that can rival the bullish precision of this one. … Not only is the clockwork impeccable, but it takes risks, commissions new pieces, and has exceptional soloists in every section.” — The New Yorker

Performance at 8:00 p.m.

Opening Reception to be held October 18 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Exhibit runs from October 18 through November 13.

Love mysteries? Like free prizes? Play The Maltese Falcon library mystery game. Follow a series of clues throughout the Shelton Libraries. Help solve the mystery of who stole Peaches, the library snake’s cousin Malta. When you think that you have solved the mystery, write down who you think is the culprit on a form found at either the Plumb or Huntington Branch Libraries. Successful sleuths will be entered in a drawing for 2 $50 gift certificates to Staples. The Big Read is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

EVENT DURING LIBRARY HOURS

10:00am – 4:30pm Daily; Sunday, 12:00pm-4:30pm

10:00am – 4:30pm Daily; Sunday, 12:00pm-4:30pm

10:00am – 4:30pm Daily; Sunday, 12:00pm-4:30pm

10:00am – 4:30pm Daily; Sunday, 12:00pm-4:30pm

City Lights Gallery hours

Showtimes are at 8:00pm AND Midnight

It’s Alive! Following last fall’s smash hit production, The Rocky Horror
Show returns to the Playhouse. Experience this new Bridgeport tradition
for the first time, or come “do the Time Warp Again!” Recommended for
Mature Audiences.  Tickets and showtimes at www.playhouseonthegreen.org

10:00am-5:00pm

The Discovery Museum’s Big Read Mystery Lab will bring out your inner
detective, whether you’re a puzzle ponderer by nature or not. Visitors can
gather clues and examine evidence to solve totally fictional, historically
hokey “Crimes of Science”. Included with general admission.

6:00pm-8:00pm

This movie remake was written, directed, acted, filmed, and presented by
the United Anime Clubs of the Shelton Library System. This version is
influenced by the Japanese style of animated movies, known as “anime” and
the classic film directed by John Huston.  The Big Read is funded by a
grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This event sponsored by
the Valley Community Foundation and the Community Foundation for Greater
New Haven. Please bring a canned/non-perishable food item for the Area
Congregations Together Food Bank.
 

The works in this exhibition reflect the visions of Swedish women who broke from their traditional roles of women, mothers and homemakers to explore their creativity as textile designers, weavers, painters, sculptors and glass artists. Their art resonates with dream-like images of free-flying birds evoking flight and escape from domestic confinement, year-round idyllic visions of midsummer blossoms, and spare Nordic landscapes filled with greenery, water, space, and light.  

Women's Work, Women's Dreams celebrates a remarkable legacy from a country whose art and artists are little known to American viewers.  The Benton Museum is grateful to Samuel and Ann Charters for sharing their extraordinary collection of Swedish Art and Art Glass and for curating this exhibit.

Gallery Hours: 

Thursday & Friday: 10 am - 4:30 pm

Saturday & Sunday: 1 - 4:30 pm

The Benton will be closed:

November 23 - December 2

Three decades of wars have deeply marked the entire culture of Afghanistan, yet artistic expression, particularly through carpets, has been maintained in spite of hardships including displacement to refugee camps.  

In traditional Afghan carpet-weaving, patterns tended to be geometric or floral, reflecting the Islamic rejection of anthropomorphic depictions.  However, by the mid-1980s, in response to the 1979 Soviet Invasion, Afghani weavers, principally women, were creating carpets that showed Russian tanks, helicopters and guns.  The subtle geometric borders often contained rows of bullets and grenades.  Most recently, these "war carpets" have included references to the American conflict and even to 9/11.  Although many of the carpets have Arabic or Persian woven into their designs, the Afghani who created them found a market for these rugs in the West.  In part this may be presumed anti-war sentiments but also, while the rugs are generally traditional in design and relatively inexpensive, they are nonetheless a contemporary artistic expression of a century old craft.  

In this exhibition of over fifty contemporary Afghan carpets showing both war and traditional designs, the rugs offer a commentary on modern Afghan history and, in their maintenance of a vibrant tradition, a measure of hope for the future.

Gallery Hours:

Thursday & Friday: 10 am-4:30 pm

Saturday & Sunday: 1-4:30 pm

The Benton will be closed:

November 23-December 2

The 16-member Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, winner of the 2009 Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for their recording "Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard," continues the tradition of stellar concerts and recordings that was created by founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. As the permanent Monday-night band at the historic Village Vanguard, the orchestra serves as a creative outlet for some of the nation´s foremost performers, composers and arrangers. "There probably isn´t a big band in the country that can rival the bullish precision of this one. . . . Not only is the clockwork impeccable, but it takes risks, commissions new pieces, and has exceptional soloists in every section." - The New Yorker.

Event will be held at 8:00 PM.

Solve infectious disease mysteries by examining interactive patients, analyzing lab tests and identifying culprit microbes. Running Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m. through Jan. 31.

Hartford Public Library Exhibit

The American Mural Project (AMP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world – a mural 120 feet long, 5 stories high, and up to 10 feet deep. Over 10,000 people have worked on it since artist Ellen Griesedieck conceived of it ten years ago. This exhibition at Hartford Public Library will feature some of the finished pieces of the mural, as well as a scale model and plans for elements in progress. Visitors will also have the chance to work on an eight-foot paper-pulp sculpture, one of many AMP is now sending across the country to be painted before their eventual installation in the mural. Throughout the month of the exhibit, AMP will also be coordinating projects with kids from local schools, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Hartford Stage, and other arts organizations around the city.

The Artist’s Vision

In the American Mural Project, Ellen Griesedieck celebrates the engineers and ironworkers, heart surgeons and athletes, cattle workers and craftsmen, and many others who have defined our nation through their work. Ellen paints on a large scale but with an intimate relationship to each of her subjects.

To make the mural as large in spirit as it is in size, Ellen asked people in all 50 states to contribute. Thousands of artists, scientists, teachers and children from coast to coast have responded. Children have worked together with remarkable people, including the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, an inner-city dance troupe, scientists of the 2003 Mars Explorer Rover Mission, survivors of a Japanese-American internment camp, and an intergenerational foster-home community.

About one quarter of the mural is finished. Collaborative projects are in progress around the country, and work on the mural’s new home, in the Whiting Mills complex in Winsted, CT, is about to begin. With soaring ceilings, open floor plans, and long rows of windows, this 19^th century complex of mills and warehouses is an ideal setting for a monumental mural about working Americans. The future includes a visitor’s center with spaces for a theater, studios, and classrooms, as well as a woodland park for outdoor summer concerts and special events.

The 16-member Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, winner of the 2009 Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for their recording "Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard," continues the tradition of stellar concerts and recordings that was created by founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. As the permanent Monday-night band at the historic Village Vanguard, the orchestra serves as a creative outlet for some of the nation's foremost performers, composers and arrangers.

A unique opportunity for Connecticut College music students to present their solo or violin-piano duo repertoire. Violinist Lauren Basney (Yale School of Music), and pianist David Kim (graduate program, Harvard University) will offer artistic responses on technical detail, musicological background and issues of interpretation and presentation.

On Friday, November 6th, Firehouse 12's fifth annual Fall Jazz Series will reach its midpoint with a rare two-set performance by the electro-acoustic collective, ODE.  Founded in 2006, this trio of frequent collaborators, featuring saxophonist Larry Ochs, acoustic bassist Trevor Dunn and electric bassist Lisle Ellis, will be making its Connecticut debut. The group will be joined for this occasion by special guest drummer Michael Sarin, best known to jazz fans for his long-term associations with Thomas Chapin, Dave Douglas and Mario Pavone among many others.

"ODE is a free-ranging collective that relies on the longstanding rapport between three powerful improvisers," writes the New York Times' Nate Chinen.  The band describes its music as a mix of composition and improvisation for two acoustic instruments (saxophone and acoustic bass) and Ellis' sampling and computer-generated sounds, which he calls string-circuitry-confluence.  Spurred on by the happenstance of its busy members all being in the same part of the country at the same time, this performance is the band's second collaboration with Sarin, who also joined them in February for a concert at Roulette in New York.

Ochs is most famous for his 30-year association with the Rova Saxophone Quartet and its related organizations, ensembles and collaborations, but he has also toured and recorded with such esteemed groups as Larry Ochs' Sax and Drumming Core, Maybe Monday and What We Live.  A veteran of more than 70 recordings in a variety of genres, Dunn is a founding member of the avant-rock group Mr. Bungle, a current member of many of John Zorn's ensembles and the leader of bands such as trio-convulsant.   For more than 25 years, first in his native Canada and then in New York and beyond, Ellis has operated at the forefront of the avant-garde, both as a leader of his own bands and with such notable collaborators as Paul Bley, Peter Brötzmann, Andrew Cyrille, Joe McPhee and Cecil Taylor.

2009 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:

09/18 :: Brandon Ross & Blazing Beauty

09/25 :: Matt Wilson Quartet

10/02 :: Mauger: Rudresh Mahanthappa/Mark Dresser/Gerry Hemingway

10/09 :: Steve Lehman Trio

10/16 :: Gretchen Parlato Band

10/23 :: Whirrr! The Music of Jimmy Giuffre

10/30 :: Taylor Eigsti Trio

11/06 :: ODE: Larry Ochs/Trevor Dunn/Lisle Ellis/Michael Sarin

11/13 :: The Peter Evans Quartet

11/20 :: Darius Jones Trio

12/04 :: Mary Halvorson Quintet

12/11 :: Amy Cervini Quartet

12/18 :: Daniel Levin Trio

Tickets and more information available at:

http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp 

On Friday, November 6th, Firehouse 12's fifth annual Fall Jazz Series will reach its midpoint with a rare two-set performance by the electro-acoustic collective, ODE.  Founded in 2006, this trio of frequent collaborators, featuring saxophonist Larry Ochs, acoustic bassist Trevor Dunn and electric bassist Lisle Ellis, will be making its Connecticut debut. The group will be joined for this occasion by special guest drummer Michael Sarin, best known to jazz fans for his long-term associations with Thomas Chapin, Dave Douglas and Mario Pavone among many others.

"ODE is a free-ranging collective that relies on the longstanding rapport between three powerful improvisers," writes the New York Times' Nate Chinen.  The band describes its music as a mix of composition and improvisation for two acoustic instruments (saxophone and acoustic bass) and Ellis' sampling and computer-generated sounds, which he calls string-circuitry-confluence.  Spurred on by the happenstance of its busy members all being in the same part of the country at the same time, this performance is the band's second collaboration with Sarin, who also joined them in February for a concert at Roulette in New York.

Ochs is most famous for his 30-year association with the Rova Saxophone Quartet and its related organizations, ensembles and collaborations, but he has also toured and recorded with such esteemed groups as Larry Ochs' Sax and Drumming Core, Maybe Monday and What We Live.  A veteran of more than 70 recordings in a variety of genres, Dunn is a founding member of the avant-rock group Mr. Bungle, a current member of many of John Zorn's ensembles and the leader of bands such as trio-convulsant.   For more than 25 years, first in his native Canada and then in New York and beyond, Ellis has operated at the forefront of the avant-garde, both as a leader of his own bands and with such notable collaborators as Paul Bley, Peter Brötzmann, Andrew Cyrille, Joe McPhee and Cecil Taylor.

2009 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:

09/18 :: Brandon Ross & Blazing Beauty

09/25 :: Matt Wilson Quartet

10/02 :: Mauger: Rudresh Mahanthappa/Mark Dresser/Gerry Hemingway

10/09 :: Steve Lehman Trio

10/16 :: Gretchen Parlato Band

10/23 :: Whirrr! The Music of Jimmy Giuffre

10/30 :: Taylor Eigsti Trio

11/06 :: ODE: Larry Ochs/Trevor Dunn/Lisle Ellis/Michael Sarin

11/13 :: The Peter Evans Quartet

11/20 :: Darius Jones Trio

12/04 :: Mary Halvorson Quintet

12/11 :: Amy Cervini Quartet

12/18 :: Daniel Levin Trio

Tickets and more information available at:

http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp 

“What I Want to Say,” a program of premieres and a retrospective repertory mix, will be presented by the Judy Dworin Performance Project as the culmination of the company’s 20th anniversary season on November 5, 6, and 7 at the Charter Oak Cultural Center.

Dworin’s dance-theater works are known for social commentary and compelling, humanistic warmth. Cutting across boundaries of gender, geography, and governmental decree, she testifies for those whose voices have been stilled or muted by history and failures of civil rights and criminal justice. Whether questioning or condemning authority, her dance-theater works convey inspiring stories of perseverance, transcendence, and hope through movement and gesture, poetry and song.

The program’s “retro-mix” includes repertory that steps off the pages of history: the chant-dance “Are You Good Goody Good?” from “The Witching Hour,” an exploration of 17th-century Puritan hysteria in Wethersfield; and “Radium Girls” from “Hotlicks,” about turn-of-the-last-century clock face painters encouraged to restore their brush points by licking them and who playfully painted their mouths for glow-in-the-dark effect. Other repertory selections delve into recent history, such as the effects of radioactive rains in Chernobyl and the bold demands and demonstrations undertaken by mothers of “the disappeared” in Chile and Argentina.

New and recent works draw upon Dworin’s ongoing teaching residency and artistic collaboration with incarcerated women at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, with those who have served their sentences, and their young and adult children.

Hayrides are available every WEEKEND in November as well as SCHOOL holidays. Rides begin at the W.O.L.F. Cabin and are $2.00 each.

Wine Tasting fundraiser for the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra in the beautiful Keeler Tavern Garden Room. Delicious wines and foods thanks to Bernard's, Cellar XV and No. 109 Cheese and Wine.  Music will be performed by members of the Youth Orchestra.  Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door. The event takes place between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Stanwyck Cromwell

Journey (2):  A Renewed Consciousness

Downtown Library, 3rd Floor

November 6, 2009-January 15, 2010

Artist Reception November 6, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

The American Mural Project will create the single largest piece of indoor collaborative artwork in the country.  A mixed-media painting and relief sculpture, it will ultimately be housed in the Whiting Mills Complex in Winsted, CT and measure 120 feet long, 5 stories high, and up to 10 feet deep. This exhibition features some of the huge finished pieces of the mural, a scale model, drawings and plans for elements in progress, and an eight-foot sculptural element.

Downtown Library

October 26-November 29, 2009

Artist Reception Friday, November 13, 5:30-7:00 p.m.

 The Crucible - This classic Arthur Miller play uses some of the events of the Salem Witch Trials to examine social themes that still resonate today.