Category: Connecticut Travel

The Philip Johnson Glass House will place 2011 tour tickets on sale beginning at 9 a.m. on February 15. The upcoming tour season, which runs from May through November, represents the fifth year that the Glass House has welcomed visitors to the site. To mark this milestone, the Glass House introduces three new tours and launches a new program, Third Thursdays: Conversations in Context, in addition to its existing tour options. Tickets may be purchased online at philipjohnsonglasshouse.org or via phone at 866-811-4111.

The Philip Johnson Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, offers its 47-acre campus as a catalyst for the interpretation of modern architecture, landscape, and art; and as a canvas for inspiration, experimentation and cultivation honoring the legacy of Philip Johnson and David Whitney.

New Tours: Architecture, Art and Landscape

Three new two-hour tours ($45 each) offer visitors the opportunity to dive deeper into the essential elements of the 47-acre site – architecture, art and landscape – by focusing on the unique details surrounding the fourteen structures and the world-class private art and design collection.The Architecture tour offers guests the opportunity to learn how the Glass House campus serves as a 50-year Diary of architectural history by exploring the architects, theories and history; buildings, materials and technologies; and preservation challenges of Modern architecture.

The Art tour will illuminate how Philip Johnson and his partner, David Whitney, played significant roles in cultivating and commissioning the work of world-renowned creative talent that defined an era. Visitors will examine works featured in the Glass House collection including artists Lynn Davis; Michael Heizer; Donald Judd; Andrew Lord; Robert Morris; Bruce Nauman; David Salle; Julian Schnabel; Cindy Sherman; Julius Shulman; Frank Stella and Andy Warhol, among others.

The Landscape tour features a walk through the grounds and a discussion centered on the history, design, flora and fauna of Johnson’s 47-acre curated landscape. Visitors will learn to identify the various influences at play including English and French landscape details, Johnson’s Midwestern farming roots and his relationship with the historic New England countryside. Additional highlights include original stonewalls, trees deemed landmark-worthy and David Whitney’s inventive succulent gardens.

Third Thursdays: Conversations in Context

Leading minds in the fields of architecture, art, design, history, landscape and preservation will serve as hosts of this special curated tour. Figures such as Paul Goldberger, New Yorker Architecture Critic; Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, MoMA; Theodore H.M. Prudon, Founding President, DOCOMOMO US; Hilary Lewis, Philip Johnson Scholar; Donald Kaufman + Taffy Dahl, Donald Kaufman Color; Charles Renfro, DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO; Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP Architects; and Tod Williams + Billie Tsien, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, will provide narrative, interpretation, and personal inspiration while walking the Glass House site with an intimate group of visitors. Following the tour, guests will gather for a reception on the site. ($150 per person, per evening)

Additional 2011 Tour Offerings

In addition to the newly added tours, visitors may also choose from the following options: 90-minute guided Site tour ($30 per person); Two-hour guided Extended tour ($45 per person); Glass House Modern Friends Tour ($100 per person); Twilight Tour ($150 per person, October only); Private Tour ($250 per person); Glass House Private Tour + Four Seasons Dinner Package ($450 per person); and Group Tours (beginning at $30 per person). For more information, visit http://www.philipjohnsonglasshouse.org.

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Looking for a unique Valentine’s Night Out? Westport Playhouse is offering a reading of Neil Simon’s “Chapter” Two a whimsical and touching romantic comedy sure to make this year’s Valentine’s Day Memorable. The reading is part of Westport Country Playhouse’s popular Script in Hand Series, and will take place on Monday, February 14, 7 p.m. The cast includes Reed Birney and Geneva Carr. Best of all, tickets to the one-night-only event are $15.

Photo Credit: Robert Benson, 2005.

Based on playwright Neil Simon’s personal experience, “Chapter Two” mixes laughter with heartache. A writer, whose wife has just died, returns to a lonely apartment. His younger brother, a theatrical press agent and born matchmaker, tries to avert an emotional tailspin by arranging unwanted – and unsuccessful dates. Then he comes up with a winner, a soap opera actress – but it’s a rocky road ahead for the not-so-young lovers. The play was nominated for the 1978 Tony Award for Best Play.

The reading will be directed by Anne Keefe, Playhouse artistic advisor and the Script in Hand Series curator. The Script in Hand Series is sponsored by Michele and Marc Flaster; with additional support from Ann Sheffer and Bill Scheffler. The Series is also funded in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the Playhouse is offering a special Valentine’s gift promotion – purchase a 2011 season subscription for five guaranteed dates with your spouse or significant other and receive a voucher for a glass of Prosecco with each subscription. The special offer is available between February 1 and February 14. Subscriptions may be purchased online at http://www.westportplayhouse.org; by calling 203-227-4177, or by visiting the box office at 25 Powers Court, Westport.

About the Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater, serves as a treasured home for the performing arts and is a cultural landmark for Connecticut. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management direction of Michael Ross, the Playhouse creates quality productions of new and classic plays that enlighten, enrich and engage a diverse community of theater lovers, artists and students. The Playhouse’s rich history dates back to 1931, when New York theater producer Lawrence Langner created a Broadway-quality stage within an 1830s tannery. The Playhouse quickly became an established stop on the New England “straw hat circuit” of summer stock theaters. Now celebrating its 80th season, Westport Country Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 36 of which later transferred to Broadway, most recently the world premiere of “Thurgood” and a revival of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” with Paul Newman, and in earlier years “Come Back, Little Sheba” with Shirley Booth, “The Trip to Bountiful” with Lillian Gish, and “Butterflies Are Free” with Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner. For its artistic excellence, the Playhouse received a 2005 Governor’s Arts Award and a 2000 “Connecticut Treasure” recognition. It was also designated as an Official Project of Save America’s Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is entered on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, the Playhouse transformed into a year-round, state-of-the-art producing theater, which has preserved its original charm and character. In addition to a full season of theatrical productions, the Playhouse serves as a community resource, presenting educational programming and workshops; a children’s theater series; symposiums; music; films; and readings.

Westport Country Playhouse’s 2011 season will include five productions: “Beyond Therapy,” a wicked, and wickedly funny, look at the days and nights of the young and single, written by comic master Christopher Durang and directed by Tony Award winner John Rando, April 26 – May 14; “The Circle,” the scintillating comedy of manners, written by W. Somerset Maugham and directed by Nicholas Martin, June 7 – June 25; “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” a perceptive comedy about people struggling against their limitations, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, July 12 – July 30; “Suddenly Last Summer,” the poetic, sensual and evocative drama, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, August 23 – September 10; and “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” the beguiling comedy/romance, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Mark Lamos, October 11 – October 29.

For more information or ticket purchases, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets may be purchased online 24/7 at http://www.westportplayhouse.org.

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, has announced its major winter exhibition featuring the work of one of today’s most influential artists, photographer Cindy Sherman that will be on view through April 23, 2011. “Cindy Sherman:Works from Friends of the Bruce Museum” is comprised of approximately 30 works, including large-scale black-and-white and color photographs, drawn from ten local collections in Greenwich and the surrounding communities. The exhibition features the artist’s favored themes and suggests something of the chameleon-like diversity of her art.

Although Sherman is the model for her photographs, she is essentially serving as the material for her work, as an actress in a scene. She is adamant that the photographs are not self-portraits and that they do not represent her or herself role playing. Cindy Sherman serves as her own model, as well as photographer, stylist, make-up person, allowing her to work alone in her studio. She employs herself to explore various personae and addresses topical issues of the contemporary world while examining the roles of women and the artist.

Throughout her long career, Sherman has continually appropriated and confronted numerous visual genres, including the film still, centerfold, historical portrait, and fashion photography. Sherman’s photographs imitate these representational tropes, using them to challenge images in popular culture and the mass media.

The show opens with a selection of photographs from Sherman’s landmark series of Untitled Film Stills (1977-80). Perhaps the most well known and recognizable works of Sherman’s career, these black-and-white photographs seem to depict stills for films that never existed. In each of these photographs, Sherman places herself in the role of various female character types from B-movies and film noir. By turning the camera on herself, Sherman raises challenging and important questions about the role of women in society and the representation of cultural stereotypes.

The exhibition follows Sherman’s subsequent career through several of her major series, including the Centerfolds, Disasters and Fairy Tales, the History Portraits, Clowns, the Women from California series, and her most recent works, the Rich Women series. In each of these series, the artist continues to manipulate and reprogram her appearance to adopt multiple roles. In 1981, Sherman simultaneously imitated and challenged men’s magazine centerfolds in a series of photographs commissioned, but never used, by Artforum. These large-scale photographs adopt the saturated colors, close-cropping and overhead camera angles of the centerfold, while depicting the artist in various female roles, both familiar and unexpected.

Sherman’s later series explore an ever-expanding assortment of archetypal roles and social types. The artist’s Disasters and Fairy Tales (1985-1989) are more fantastical and grotesque than her earlier work. Sherman dons complex disguises and prostheses in these twisted fairy tales, intentionally taking on increasingly frightening and deformed personae. In the late 1980s, Sherman turned to Old Master paintings for inspiration. These History Portraits (1988-1990) depict the artist dressed as figures from famous works by Caravaggio, Raphael, and others. The Rich Women series showcases Sherman’s newest cast of characters who are immediately recognizable as belonging to the upper echelons of society. These photographs of aging speak to issues of class and presentation.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly catalogue with contributions by Mr. Silver and Bruce Museum Executive Director Peter Sutton, as well as an interview with Linda Nochlin, pioneering feminist art historian and Lila Acheson Wallace Professor at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, who discusses Sherman’s fascinating oeuvre at length.

The Bruce Museum is located at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. General admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and free for children under five and Bruce Museum members. Free admission to all on Tuesdays. The Museum is located near Interstate-95, Exit 3, and a short walk from the Greenwich, CT, train station. Museum hours are: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Mondays and major holidays. Groups of eight or more require advance reservations. Museum exhibition tours are held Fridays at 12:30 p.m. Free, on-site parking is available. The Bruce Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376, or visit the Bruce Museum website at http://www.brucemuseum.org.

Photo Credit: Cindy Sherman

On Friday, Feb 4, the Warner Theatre’s Independent Film Festival Weekend opens with Harvest, winner of the CT Film Festival’s 2010 “CT Grown Award” at 7pm followed by an Industry After Party/Fundraiser in the Warner’s main theatre lobby featuring live music, open bar and food by Michael Bick’s Something Fishy catering. Guests will include: Actress Barbara Barrie, Writer/Director Marc Meyers and Producer Jody Girgenti among others. Tickets for this event are $50 for screening and after party or $8.50 for screening only ($7.50 for seniors and students showing ID).

Harvest, written and directed by Marc Meyers is the story of three generations of a family who come together one summer around the eventual passing of the family patriarch. Gathered at the family home, it is a poignant story that is ultimately uplifting, with moments of humor anchoring this realistic portrait of a family hanging on to what was, what is, and to each other. Harvest was filmed entirely in the state of Connecticut.

The cast includes: Academy Award nominee Robert Loggia, Academy Award nominee Barbara Barrie, Jack Carpenter, Arye Gross, Tony Winner Victoria Clark, Peter Friedman, along with Daniel Eric Gold, Adriana Sevan, Kel O’Neill, and Christine Evangelista.

The Warner’s Independent Film Weekend will feature 3 days and nights of over 40 independent films, dozens of industry workshops and panel discussions and three after parties/receptions. For information on all of the weekend events, visit the Warner Theatre website at http://www.warnertheatre.org

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