Category: Connecticut Travel

The Ridgefield Theater located on 109 Danbury Road in Ridgefield has planned a series of exciting shows in February sure to chase away the winter blues.

On Valentine’s Day weekend, Living Colour will perform on Feb. 13 at 8 pm. Living Colour took home their first of several Grammy Awards, as “Cult” won Best Hard Rock Performance at the 1989 ceremony. During the 1980s, rock had become completely segregated and predictable, the opposite of the late ’60s/early ’70s, when such musically and ethnically varied artists as Jimi Hendrix, Sly & the Family Stone, and Santana ruled the Earth. But bands such as New York’s Living Colour helped break down the doors by the end of the ’80s, leading to a much more open-minded musical landscape that would eventually pave the way for future bands.

Chris Botti takes the stage on Feb. 14 for a Valentine’s Day Gala that will include raffle prizes such as jewelry courtesy of Addessi Jewelers, Driver for an evening with dinner and Playhouse concert tickets courtesy of BMW of Ridgefield and a year of beauty courtesy of Adam Broderick Salon & Spa. Chris Botti, earned so many superlatives in his career, it may be best to put it simply: the cat can play. Trumpeter Chris Botti brings his superb musicianship, his killer band and his on-stage generosity to The Playhouse stage for one night of can’t-miss musical thrills.

In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category. He was also nominated in 2008 for his album Italia, and received three nominations in 2010 for the live album Chris Botti In Boston. Four of his albums have reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard jazz albums chart.Moving effortlessly from jazz to pop and in between – Chris Botti may spend more than 300 days on the road every year, but every concert is special!

For kids, there will be a performance on Feb. 21 at 11 am and 2 pm of The Little Engine that Could. Based on the classic book by Watty Piper. Little Blue Engine dreams of someday leaving the train yard to pull the big cars on the main line track. But can she convince Big Silver that she is worthy of being a main line engine? Back to reprise its sold-out premiere season, ArtsPower’s dynamic, song-filled adventure portrays Watty Piper’s timeless tale about hard work, determination, and the meaning of true friendship.

Comedy rounds out the month with a performance on Feb. 28 at 8 pm by Paula Poundstone. Over the span of her remarkable career, Paula Poundstone has amassed a list of awards and accolades that stretch the length of a great big tall guy’s arm. Poundstone is recognized as one of Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time and has won an American Comedy Award for Best Female Standup Comic. In 2010, Poundstone was one of a select group voted into the Comedy Hall of Fame. As a member of NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, she is now heard in 5 million homes across the country as she matches wits with some of the country’s leading pundits.
For ticket information: http://ridgefieldplayhouse.org

There is a new big cat exhibit at the Beardsley Zoo this winter. Petya, an 8 year old Amur Tiger recently joined the Zoo from the Indianapolis Zoo. Amur tigers are an endangered species, and we participate in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Program for these animals. Petya joins Naka, the Beardsley Zoo’s 9-year-old female Amur tiger. It is refreshing and fun to watch Petya play in the snow.

On February 14 in honor of Valentine’s Day, the Beardsley Zoo is offering a 15% discount on admission to everyone that is wearing red, a sweet deal indeed.

The annual Asian New Year Festival is taking place at the Zoo at 12 noon on February 21. Come and celebrate the Year of the Sheep and check out the Zoo’s goats while you are visiting! There will be special stories, crafts, a children’s parade and many more fun activities. The snow date is Feb. 28.

For more information about the Beardsley Zoo located on 1875 Noble Ave in Bridgeport, visit www.beardsleyzoo.org. For area event information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

Love is in the air in the small coastal town of Southport Connecticut, especially at the Pequot Library! To get ready for Valentine’s Day, the Pequot Library, located on 720 Pequot Ave. is offering a kids’s candy making workshop on February 13 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Kids, grades K-8 will learn how to make professionally looking chocolate treats to use as a Valentine’s Day dessert. The workshop will also teach kids how to create a beautiful gift box to present their goodies in .

On Valentine’s Day, the Southport Library is hosting the Opera Singers Initiative with a special Valentine’s Day theme from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. At this very special event, Young Artists New York City Opera Singers perform works celebrating love! Opera Singers Initiative is committed to providing classical singers with the critical skills and support they need to build a sustainable and successful career in the arts. They provide career development, mentoring, and performance opportunities for emerging professional classical singers. This program is free and open to the public.

Steps away from the Pequot Library is the very romantic Delmar Hotel and Restaurant. This elegant hotel offers its guests 44 individually-designed luxurious rooms and suites and a full service spa. Once inside the uniquely decorated lobby with its custom designed furnishings, antique marble floors, museum-quality art and French limestone hearth, the stage is set for an unforgettable Connecticut escape. Check their website out for special deals and packages at http://www.delamarsouthport.com.

In the early years of the Connecticut Colony, the area known today as Westport was called Saugatuck and was a part of the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk. The river was the boundary between the two towns. But by 1835, the river’s growing economic importance moved Saugatuck’s business leaders, concerned that their river was playing second fiddle to ports closer to the centers of Norwalk and Fairfield, to have Saugatuck incorporated as a town to be called Westport.

Saugatuck’s Past Come Alive in Westport’s Artist Mural. Robert L. Lambdin’s meticulously researched mural depicting Saugatuck as a center of manufacturing and river commerce in 19th century Westport will anchor the exhibition “Saugatuck @ Work – Haven of Community, Commerce and Innovation” hosted by the Westport Historical Society on 25 Avery Place.

Saugatuck’s location near the mouth of the river, allowing raw materials to be delivered by boat and products to be shipped to New York and other ports, made it an ideal setting for manufacturing and maritime commerce. One of Saugatuck’s longtime employers was Elonzo Wheeler’s button factory, and some of Wheeler’s buttons, produced from ivory nuts imported from Brazil, along with local produce, can be seen in the foreground of Lambdin’s mural waiting to be loaded onto a market boat. Saugatuck eventually became a tight-knit community of Irish and Italian immigrants who came to Westport to work in factories and as stonemasons, gardeners and laborers on the railroad.

The late Westport artist’s large wall painting, “Saugatuck in the 19th Century,” was created for the Westport Bank & Trust Company’s Saugatuck branch when it opened in 1970. It measures 6 by 10 feet and shows the various types of vessels that plied the river over the course of the century, as well as such long-gone landmarks as the Saugatuck Bank, precursor of Westport Bank & Trust, and the Methodist Church, and those that still survive: Saugatuck original firehouse and the village’s historic swing bridge and train depot. Though I-95 did not come into being until the mid 20th century, its bridge over the river appears as a huge arc framing the riverfront scene.

The exhibition will also display historic photographs of workers and workplaces of the village, antique maps of Saugatuck harbor, vintage tools made there, patents by Saugatuck inventors, costumes, and ship and railroad logs.

A companion exhibit devoted to the life of those immigrants, “Framing Saugatuck,” will run in the WHS’s Mollie Donovan Gallery concurrently with “Saugatuck @ Work.”

For more information on the Westport Historical Society http://westporthistory.org/