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09/18/2019 07:00 AMIf you love the arts and a generous deal as much as I do, you may be as excited as I am about the upcoming Guilford Performing Arts Festival, which will feature 70 free performances and workshops from noon on Thursday, Sept. 26 to Sunday, Sept. 29 at 4:30 p.m.
But, 70?!
Where do I even start?
Like a kid in a candy store, I find myself staring at the art festival equivalent of a packed candy case. And so I started with the people closest to the action, asking for advice from the volunteers and others working on the festival who have spent months immersed in the details of the extravaganza.
Here is some great advice from Peter Hawes, vice chairman of the festival.
“If there are a couple things I’d encourage people to do, it’s first, step outside your zone of familiarity and check out something you don’t know much about; expand your horizons,” he says. “Second, don’t sit there; join in. Sign up for a dance/movement class with Pilobolus; they’re among the world’s great masters. Catch a class in ballroom with Arthur Murray dancers. Grab your instrument, no matter how good you think you are, and join the musicians’ jam or the drumming circle, or interact with the creative, fun improv theater companies we have in FOCUS Teen Improv and Wheel Life Theatre.”
And here are some more recommendations from Hawes, along with a few from Guilford’s William Boughton, one of the festival founders; Brian McGlone, Guilford’s economic development coordinator; Barbara Hentschel, a Madison actress who will be performing at the festival; and Branford’s Colin Sheehan, a force for the arts and a line producer for the festival.
Pilobolus, the Guilford High School (GHS) Performing Arts Center, 605 New England Road, Guilford on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. This is one of only three ticketed events at the festival. While free, it requires an online sign-up, through the festival website. All of the tickets have been claimed, but a waiting list has been started, and seats may become available that evening as festival goers start to make some hard choices about everything on offer. Anyone with a Pilobolus ticket who does not show up 15 minutes prior to the show might have their seat given away. The renowned dance group formed on college campus in 1971 and has performed on Broadway, at the Oscars, and the Olympic games. The dancers call themselves a “rebellious dance company,” a group that likes to test “the limits of human physicality.” William Boughton, the chairman of the Guilford Performing Arts Festival board, is a classical musician but also a longtime lover of dance. “Dance is so wonderfully physical and sensual and am delighted that we were able to invite the world famous Pilobolus Company to this year’s event,” he says. At press time, there was plenty of space available in the free masterclasses being taught by members of the group. Find out more here: www.shorelineballet.com/uncategorized/register-pilobolus-masterclasses.
The United States Coast Guard Band, the Guilford High School (GHS) Performing Arts Center, 605 New England Road, Guilford, Sunday, Sept. 29, at 3 p.m. This is the other ticketed event, with tickets available online. There were some tickets still available at press time. McGlone, who has been collaborating on the festival preparations, says he’s looking forward to hearing the 55-member United States Coast Guard Band perform with the Guilford High School band wind ensemble, also made up of 55 members. The Coast Guard Band, based at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, was founded in 1925, has performed at the inauguration of every U.S. president since Herbert Hoover. The band plays a wide range of music, from wind ensemble classics to swinging jazz.
Susan Cinoman: Guenevere, Christ Episcopal Church, 11 Park Street, Guilford, Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. This is a staged reading of playwright Susan Cinoman’s work that uses the legend of King Author to “illuminate the struggle for power and control between women and their closest male friends, in love, at work and at play.” A one-time resident of Westbrook, Cinoman, known for her work on stage and screen, has been hard at work on the play, says Hentschel, an actress who works in Connecticut and New York City. The play has been workshopped with the help of a grant from the festival. Hentschel says, “As an actor, I had the privilege of being part of a developmental reading of Guenevere at The Pawling Theatre Exchange in New York. It is critical for new plays to be workshopped and produced as part of a play’s growth and progress.” Hentschel will be part of this production as well.
FOCUS Teen Improv, Christ Episcopal Church, 11 Park Street, Guilford, Friday, Sept. 27 at 5 p.m. Hentschel also recommends this teen improv group, made up of 15 shoreline kids, ages 12 to 16, who are studying with Lara Morton of Handful Productions, Madison. “The show will be largely determined by the audience. A top hat full of ‘handles’ [structured, story-based games] will be passed around and each handle will also be ‘cast’ by audience members,” says Hentschel. Morton told Hentschel “no one will know ahead of time which handles they’ll be doing, which means I have to make sure that the kids are prepared for absolutely anything. The good news is, these kids are bright, fearless, hilarious, resilient, and highly charming.”
Schuyler Beeman: Three Bags Full, First Congregational Church, 110 Broad Street, Guilford, Saturday, Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. Guilford native Schuyler Beeman is a singer, actor, dancer, and a sheep farmer. Three Bags Full is his new cabaret show with highlights from the roller coaster of his life, flipping between his work on Broadway and his sheep farming. Hentschel says Beeman is not only a local legend, but a fabulous performer with charisma to spare. “I cannot wait to see Three Bags Full, his new cabaret show...The show serves up a large helping of touching and funny storytelling, with songs from musical theater, standards, and pop to pull everything together.”
Just One Sip: A Caffeinated Musical, First Congregational Church, 110 Broad Street, Guilford on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. Hentschel says this performance promises to be another hidden gem. Gaby Onorati and Carlin Steere, sophomores at Daniel Hand High School, is billed as “a coming-of-age-story with humor, romance, and drama, set in a local coffee shop.”
Frederick-Douglass Knowles II: BlackRoseCity, Breakwater Books, 81 Whitfield Street, Guilford on Friday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. Also recommended by Hentschel. Award-winning spoken-word artist, educator and activist Frederick-Douglass Knowles II—the inaugural poet laureate for the City of Hartford—will do a reading of work from his collection of poetry, BlackRoseCity. Knowles is a poet, educator, and activist and an associate professor of English at Three Rivers College. His collection of poetry, BlackRoseCity, was featured at the 2018 Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
Drumming Circle with Peter Hawes, Guilford Town Green, Park Street and Broad Street, Guilford on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 1:30 p.m. This is a recommendation from Sheehan, who says he’s looking forward to “being engulfed in the sounds of an impromptu drum circle on the green.” Hawes who, yes, is the vice president of the festival, also is a longtime percussionist, teacher, and team-building facilitator who will lead this all ages workshop/class/celebration with a focus on joy and making a “synchronous racket.” BYOD if you have one, otherwise instruments will be provided.
Phil Rosenthal & The Guilford Ramblers, Bittersweet Barn, 316 Little Meadow Road, Guilford on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. This is another recommendation from Boughton. “I love listening to American folk music—it’s the roots and dirt of so much American music, from classical to rock, it expresses the soul of the country, so Joe Flood and Phil Rosenthal and the Guilford Ramblers are always high on my list of choices.”
Submarine, Guilford Town Green, 31 Park Street, Guilford on Friday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. This is a performance for anyone who loves progressive rock as much as Hawes, who recommended it. “I’m a big fan of ‘70s progresssive rock, so I’m going to make a point to see Submarine, a band from Fairfield County that plays original instrumental music influenced by the likes of Yes, Pink Floyd, and Santana backed by a terrific light show.”
Living with Robots on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 4:30 p.m. This is the last performance of the festival weekend though certainly not the least says Hawes, who also is recommending this. “I always want to see what new thing Sandy Connolly is up to, and her new band, Living with Robots, will in many ways close the festival toward the end of Sunday evening.”
That may seem like a lot to take in, but it’s just a sampling of what is on offer. Find out about all of the offerings at guilfordperformingartsfest.org/the-festival/2019-festival/schedule.
Boughton—who is working on this after having retired from an illustrious career in music and with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, where he received a national award for “Adventurous Programming”—says he is very pleased with how all of this has turned out. He, too, encourages area residents to take a chance and try something new.
“The reason I created a mixed performing arts festival was to encourage people, both artists, workshop participants, and audience, to experience and, hopefully, enjoy and develop a greater appreciation and love of other genres,” he says. “This was the principal rationale behind making it a free event so that audiences didn’t have to make choices of what to spend their money on.”
The festival is free due in part to the generosity of the sponsors including Zip06.com, Whitfield and Water Shoppes, Guilford Savings Bank, Guilford Fund for Education, Connecticut Humanities Council; Essex Savings Bank, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, The Guilford Foundation; Shoreline Ballet, Compass Asset Management, Connecticut Office of the Arts, American Solutions for Business, The Shoreline Arts Alliance, ServiceMaster Restore, and Tyco Printing.