DIP YOUR TOE IN THE RIVER OF KINDNESS WITH LEON LOGOTHETIS

Leon Logothetis has a passion for adventure.  He is inspired by travel and by the people he meets along the way.  He even has the word "go" in the midst of his last name.  But even more than an unquenchable desire to see the world, Logothetis wants to find the quality of kindness and make human connections.  Why else would he buy a 1978 yellow motorbike with sidecar, name it "Kindness One," take a computer and the clothes on his back and set off on a trip around the world?

Leaving his steady girlfriend Lina and his faithful dog Winston, Logothetis left Los Angeles, his adopted home, and he determined he would travel the globe without any money in his pocket.  His hope was that he could persuade the strangers he met to buy him a tank of gas, a meal or a bed for the night.

Finding Good Samaritans proved challenging in many places from Cambodia to Canada, Barcelona to Bosnia, Italy to India.  Whether it was on a farm in Nebraska with real cowboys where Leon learned to lasso a cow with Darrel and Seth, sleeping in a cardboard box with Tony in a Pittsburgh park, hearing two African men Finesse and Tchale sing the music of love in France, or getting a lesson in fencing from Alex in Trieste, Leon was the eager learner, the student, absorbing life lessons.

In his new book "The Kindness Diaries" ($24.99, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.), Leon Logothetis lays out "one man's quest to ignite goodwill and transform lives around the world."  Along the way, as he accepts kindnesses large and small, often from people who had little to nothing of their own, he returns the favors with surprise gifts of his own.  This unlikely Santa Claus wannabe gave the present of clean water and books to an orphanage in Calcutta, a sturdy house for an AIDS mother and son in Cambodia, a rickshaw for Dheeru in India so his sons could go to school, the gift of eyesight to one hundred needy souls in Ho Chi Minh City and a cow for Bekim in Montenegro to change his family's life immeasurably.  These are but a sampling of what Leon did to thank many of those who gave him a hand, a handout and a hand up.


Leon Logothetis spoke recently at R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison to an attentive crowd who were ready to pack up and mosey along with him.
By reading his intriguing book, you can traverse the world, from your comfy armchair, with this modern day Odysseus on his unique odyssey.  He was inspired by a homeless man with a sign that proclaimed "Kindness is the best medicine."  Leon Logothetis has traveled the globe to accept and bestow random acts of kindness to make the world a better place.  You might just be inspired to perform some acts of kindness yourself.

TUSK PAYS TRIBUTE TO FLEETWOOD MAC

 

                                                          TUSK

Tribute bands are a high form of flattery as they pay homage to a legendary music group that is admired and revered.  TUSK is no exception as it employs all its spirit and talents to highlight the musical skills of Fleetwood Mac.  Currently Fleetwood Mac features Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

TUSK also comprises five well-seasoned performers who have been harmonizing for over a quarter century.  As the Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute band, they will create authentic sounds to replicate, with respect, one of the world's best-loved and top selling groups.

For one night only, Saturday, February 7 at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., TUSK will ignite the stage of Bridgeport's Downtown Cabaret Theatre.  Be there to hear such hits as "The Chain," "Dreams," "Say You Love Me," "Second Hand News," "Little Lies," "Gold Dust Woman," "Silver Springs," "Landslide," "Go Your Own Way," "Rhiannon," "Never Going Back" and "Sara."

Formed in 1967, this special British-American group includes Kathy Phillips, vocals, Scott McDonald on guitar and vocals, Kim Williams, keyboard and vocals, Randy Artiglere on bass and Tom Nelson on guitar and drums.  With a sweet style, TUSK will take you down memory lane on a wonderful musical journey.

Singer/songwriter Kathy Phillips is known for faithfully capturing Stevie Nicks while Kim Williams is spot-on in her role as Christine McVie.  Scott McDonald holds the fort as Lindsey Buckingham while Tom Nelson embodies Mick Fleetwood.  The unique rhythm is the major task of Randy Artiglere.

For tickets ($47), call the Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport at 203-576-1636. option 0 or online at www.MyCabaret.org.  Remember to bring goodies to share at your table.  The show is 80-90 minutes, without intermission.

Let TUSK use its considerable musical talents to recreate the Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute.  "Go Your Own Way" as long as it's straight to the Downtown Cabaret Theatre of Bridgeport on Saturday, February 7.

FIFTY SHADES OF MUSICAL PARODY

                                          PHOTO BY MATTHEW MURPH

Being a member of a book club can be an enlightening and educational pursuit.  You are encouraged to push the envelope, or in this case the library card or Kindle, to venture into unexplored literary lands of the imagination, to read volumes that are outside your normal realm of taste.  No one, however, could quite prepare you for the mind-expanding and libido exploding world of one Christian Grey (Ben Caplan) and Anastasia Steele (Katie LaMark) who set the pages of the trilogy "Fifty Shades" on fire to the tune of 100 million copies sold across the globe.

Now you have the unique opportunity to enter the steamy world of Mr. Grey and Ms. Steele for one night only, Wednesday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Waterbury's Palace Theater is ready, willing and most able to give Cupid a healthy workout as "50 Shades! The Musical Parody" comes knocking on your love craving door.

As parodies go, this one is guaranteed to tickle much more than your funny bone.  Written by Al Samuels (director), Emily Dorezas, Amanda Blake Davis, Jody Shelton, Ashley Ward and Dan Wessels and choreographed by Mindy Cooper, the original material screams "make fun of me" as every hot scene scorches the stage. Whether you're a loyal fan of all three books or you've never read one wicked word, you're in for an evening of excitement and adult hilarity.

Imagine what might happen if your straight-laced and proper book club selected "Fifty Shades" as its next good read.  That's what takes place to a trio of girl friends whose eyes are opened wide and whose chins drop as they explore the uncharted sexual territory of this cheeky and climax inducing phenomenon originally penned by E. L. James.  With handcuffs, silk ties, riding crops and the occasional whip, be prepared for the action to be hot as a don't-touch-the-stove experience, with songs such as "Open Your Book," "I Don't Make Love" and "There Is a Hole Inside of Me" for some extra sassy and silly fun.

For tickets ($38), call the Palace Theater, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury at 203-346-2000 or online at www.palacetheaterct.org. 

Come experience this raunchy and ribald secret pleasure mere days before Universal Pictures releases it as a legitimate cinematic blockbuster on Valentine's Day.  Brave men are invited to come along for the bumpy blast of a ride.

"NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT" IS GREAT FUN

                                          PHOTO BY JEREMY DANIEL

Officially it's time to kick up your heels, put your hands across your shiny knees and do the Charleston.  The Roaring Twenties are back and more fun than ever.  Chill the champagne so the bubbles tickle your nose and get set for the wedding of the decade as socialite playboy with mountains of moolah, Jimmy Winter, prepares to destroy his little black book forever.

Prepare to celebrate with Joe DiPietro's delightfully dizzy, madcap comedy "Nice Work If You Can Get It" sailing into Hartford's Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday, February 3 to Sunday, February 8.

All the preparations are ready to go for the big and festive party when the proceedings take a detour in a totally new direction.  The impact of Billie Bendix and her feisty and fevered personality send Jimmy Winter into a tizzy.  Billie, your favorite neighborhood bootlegger, causes Jimmy to reel out of control.  Is this true love?  Extreme infatuation? What will his bride-to-be think of this new development? Will the orange blossoms wilt before the wedding vows are official?

If you love the songs of the Gershwin brothers, George and Ira, than you have a treasured treat in store as tunes like "I've Got a Crush on You," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "But Not for Me," "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Someone to Watch over Me" sparkle and shine.  Get set for a bevy of glamorous girls, to-die-for costumes, fabulous dance numbers and a snappy and sappy love story between two quite unlikely opposites.  Kathleen Marshall pulls out all the corks from the champagne bottles as choreographer and director.

For tickets ($21-82), call the Bushnell, 166 Main Street, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.  Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Grab a feather boa and wrap it around your sparkling sequined flapper dress or snazzy tuxedo as the fun-loving spirit of the speakeasy roars into town.

THE "PROOF" IS IN THE ACTING

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MARTIN SCANLON AND DANA BROOKE IN "PROOF"

 

 

What if your father's legacy to you is more than one hundred notebooks filled with mathematical theorems he wrote over his lifetime?  What if another part of your inheritance could be the emotional and mental disorders that plagued him later in life? Can you accept the gift of his genius and not acknowledge the physical problems that are inherently bundled together?

For Catherine on the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, her father Robert's early death raises a maelstrom of problems.  Her grief is compounded by all the questions that have arisen.  How will who and what he was translate to her, his offspring?  For playwright David Auburn, these intriguing puzzles are wrapped up in his 2001 Pulitzer Prize- winning and Tony Award- winning drama "Proof."  West Hartford's Playhouse on Park will unravel the mysteries until Sunday, February 8 and you're invited to examine all the intricate pieces of the conundrum.

Dana Brooks is the highly intelligent but confused Catherine who treasures all that her father was to her but is frightened by the health possibilities.  The arrival of her estranged sister Claire (Melissa Macleod Herion) only increases her anxiety.  When a young protege of her father's, his ex-graduate student Hal (Martin Scanlon) appears and offers to examine all of Robert's notebooks to access his mathematical contributions, Catherine seems on the verge of a breakdown, just like the ones that afflicted her dad (Damian Buzzerio), who appears in her imagination.

When Hal makes a major discovery, the question of who should get the credit for it - Catherine or Robert - raises the stakes to a new height.  The theorem is a paradigm-shifting "proof" about prime numbers, one that Catherine must struggle to accept authorship of if she wants and deserves the credit.  Dawn Loveland directs this thought-provoking production with a cast of exceptional actors.

For tickets ($25-35), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext. 10 or online at www.playhouseonpark.org. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Watch how a family struggles to recover from the death of the patriarch and reestablish a structure that has been wobbling for years.

"ODD VOLUMES" WELL WORTH OPENING

View of the exhibition Odd Volumes: Book Art from the Allan Chasanoff Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. Photo courtesy Yale University Art Gallery.

 

Allan Chasanoff is a collector, of photographs, ceramics, ties and 3000 versions of the hymn "Amazing Grace" to name a few.  He likes to see how objects relate to one another and he collects items in cycles, usually lasting for two decades at a time, before he tires of them.  In 1990, he turned his expansive attention to books.  He loves books and calls them "fantastic things."

A Yale alumnus, Chasanoff has given his book collection as a gift to the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven and his "Odd Volumes" will be exhibited until Sunday, February 1, 2015.  This student curated show examines volumes from all angles, both subjectively and objectively.

The oldest work dates back to 1826, a "portable traveling library," that looks like a book within a book, fifty volumes in miniature in a wooden bookcase.  His interest in media and the destiny of books in a computerized world has led him to explore if technology threatens the very existence of books.  "Odd Volumes" will be on display in a 100 different artistic entities that will fascinate and repel you, amaze and confound you but always challenge your perceptions.

Entering the space, you will encounter "The Necessity of Friction" by Mary Ziegler, with a book substituting as a needle on a sandpaper phonograph.  You're encouraged to turn it on, but beware of the scratchy sounds that escape. As you travel through the room, you will find examples of book sculptures made of comic and coloring books, paperbacks, an atlas and cigarette cases.  They have been transformed by cutting, tearing, pasting and painting.  Some have been modified and changed by exposure to eggs, honeycomb, seaweed, bullet holes, pheasant feathers, spider webs, worm holes and even dead mice, birds and turtles.  The effects of natural elements like hurricanes, fires and floods are evident.

These altered books include such diverse displays as Linda Ekstrom's "Labyrinth," ribbons of print exploding from a Bible, Byron D. Clerox's words of Sigmund Freud glued to a polished baseball bat, Daniel Gantes; "zzzbook," a cotton paged book like a pillow that invites readers to curl up for a nap and Tara O'Brien's transformation of the book "Documentation" into a living holder of barley seeds.

Along the way, you will see Donald Lipski's metal racing care model with a Funk and Wagnalls dictionary at the center, Icelandic/Danish artist Olafur Eliasson's unique laser cut artist's book of modern houses displayed architecturally as well as a hodge-podge collage by French artist Danielle Marie Chanut made of shells, stones, mirrors, keys, chains and animal pieces.

Imagine a cut and fused collection of books on the Dalai Lama, atomic energy and paradise, a tribute to Yoko Ono and John Lennon and a book made of fungus.  You will see a totem pole of pages, a can of words not worms, a Grand Canyon-like phenomenon cut into twelve volumes, an inviting reading chair and ottoman of bamboo and metal threads and a book from France baked with flour and peppers.

There is even a Rube Goldberg-type contraption housed in a metal suitcase by John Roach, "Pageturner," with fans, lights and a TV that offers a chance to read Mark Twain and a red pleated sailcloth skirt from Japan that conjures up the Wizard of Oz. If you look carefully, you'll even discover a golden egg like a secret treasure.  A towering waterfall of words by Scott McCarney encourages you to look for your own name among America's Who's Who.  Books of lead sheets, glass, cloth and stones abound.

Be fascinated, as Allan Chasanoff is, by this eclectic collection of altered books.  You may even be inspired to create a sculpture of your own.

"PRIVATE LIVES" ARE IN A WITTY PUBLIC AIRING

Actress Carine Montbertrand has played such diverse roles as the Archbishop of Canterbury in "Henry V," Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth," a gravedigger in "Hamlet," Hannah in "Night of the Iguana," Laura in "The Glass Menagerie," Duckling in "Our Country's Good" and Radish in "The Fourth Nail." From ghosts to fortune tellers to fools, from Shakespeare to Sherlock Holmes, from Thornton Wilder to Tennessee Williams, Ms. Montbertrand has proven her versatility over and over again.

A teacher of theater, a recorder of audio books and voice overs, and versed in masks and Commedia Dell'Arts, Montbertrand is particularly suited for her current role as the sassy French maid Louise in Hartford Stage's sparkling and witty production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives," playing until Sunday, February 8.  Born in France, she attended high school in Hamden and later returned to the country of her birth to study acting at the premier acting school there, the Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique in Paris.

"Private Lives" centers on two couples, Elyot Chase (Ken Barnett) and his wife Sybil (Jenni Barber) and Victor Prynne (Henry Clarke) and his wife Amanda (Rachel Pickup) who are both enjoying their honeymoons at a luxurious hotel in France.  They are less than delighted to discover they are sharing a balcony and that they have already shared something more: marriage partners.  Their ire is understandable when you realize that Elyot and Amanda were married to each other years before and divorced from each other five years ago.

The last thing either wants is to spend their honeymoon in each other's bathrobe pockets.  Or is it?  Has that original spark of love miraculously rekindled?  Do they owe it to themselves to test their mutual attraction?  Will what originally broke them up as a couple explode in all its irritating angst? 

Now Carine Montbertrand is using her French background in a "fun little part" as Louise, Amanda's maid in her Paris apartment.  She is justified in feeling she is "worked too hard for the little wages she is paid."  Her frustration with her employer is evident is her every gesture and word as Elyot and Amanda prove true to form. Alexander Dodge's set and Joshua Pearson's costumes add a lovely touch to the production. Let director Darko Tresnjak control all the domestic and romantic strings of this sophisticated menage a quartro.

 For tickets ($25-85), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage.org.  Performances are Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m.(occasionally) and at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (occasionally).

Be an unwitting but fascinated voyeur as the major and the minor players of this courtship game gone awry take center stage on the merry-go-round of romance.

"FOREVER" A NEW WORK BY DAEL ORLANDERSMITH

For playwright and performer Dael Orlandersmith, cemeteries can be a place of comfort and communing.  She is fascinated by the stories that are trapped beneath the headstones and she associates with those souls, even terming them her family. That fascination and familiarity were particularly poignant when she walked down the paths of Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

 There she immediately felt a kinship with the essences and remains of rock and roll musician Jim Morrison and writer Richard Wright and even older souls buried there, like Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Balzac and Proust.  She calls them "my ancestors" and she has dedicated her newest one woman play "Forever" to their connection to her and to her world.  New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre will nurture this latest piece on Stage II until Sunday, February 1.

In "Forever," Orlandersmith explores her complicated and difficult relationship with her mother Beulah, a woman who did not parent as much as punish, who was often drunk and abusive.  This piece is like a therapy meeting, a cathartic psychology session to exorcise the ghosts, reconcile the pain and absolve her parent of the deep hurts she inflicted.

With the quiet strains of Morrison's music, surrounded by a border of personal photos for comfort, Orlandersmith opens her heart and lets her feelings pour out in a dramatic litany of emotion. She is inspired by  angels and plagued by monsters and she wants to make peace with her past.  Her search for family has brought her to this ancient cemetery in a great city of light and she is there to pay homage to those artists who have come before and forged her a path to follow.  These are her heroes and she takes strength from their visions, challenges and accomplishments. This memoir is a limited world premiere written and performed by Dael Orlandersmith, under the direction of Neel Keller.

For tickets ($50-70), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org.  Performances are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m., Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Let Dael Orlandersmith take your hand so you can enter her world and help her vanquish her demons and allow her to embrace the light, to continue to light her fire.

OUR FAVORITE "BUDDY" RETURNS TO THE WATERBURY PALAC

Not many comets and meteors originate in West Texas but Buddy Holly certainly was one of them.  He burned bright and hot but his light was snuffed out way too soon. Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1936, Buddy Holly was a rock and roll legend who influenced the direction the music world took and even though he has been gone from the galaxy for decades his stirring tunes live on.  His death at only twenty-two was a tragedy but his eighteen months of fame are still felt today.  Everyone from the Beatles to Bruce Springsteen credit Buddy Holly for being a jukebox wonder.

Waterbury's Palace Theater will welcome this songwriting sensation for three performances only, Friday and Saturday, January 23 and 24 in "Buddy:  The Buddy Holly Story."  Todd Meredith will rock around your clock as the energetic performer who believes in himself and in his music and let the world hear his greatness.  This hometown country boy rejected his country western roots to adopt the newfangled, untamed tail of a comet called rock and roll.  He hung on tight, from his first stirrings of success at Harlem's Apollo Theater to his final show at Clear Lake. Iowa when he joined forces with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens, for what was to be his last hurrah.

Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson have penned this enthusiastic tribute to a legend and crammed it with his most popular hits, "Not Fade Away," "Maybe, Baby," "Oh, Boy," "Rave On," "That'll Be the Day" and  "Peggy Sue." It doesn't get much better than this! Believe it or not, it's the 25th anniversary of this show and the Waterbury stop is part of an eleven week national tour.  To date, 22 million music fans from all over the world have been shaken from their toes on up by this sensational show.

Before the Friday, January 23 performance, Riverhouse Catering will prepare a 6 p.m. pre-fixe, four-course dinner at the Palace's Poli Club, located on the mezzanine level of the theater.  Dinner is $62.50 per person, which included tax, fees, coffee and tea.  A cash bar is available.  Make reservations through the box office.

For tickets ($45, 55 and 65), call the Palace Theater, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury at 203-346-2000 or online at www.palacetheaterct.org.  Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Come witness the birth of rock and roll with the daddy who gets the credit for its contemporary conception,  the one and only, Buddy Holly.  He will "not fade away."

HOPSCOTCH THROUGH THE THEATER WORLD IN 2014

         "PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE" AT LONG WHARF THEATRE

Looking back on the year that just ended, one discovers delightfully that there were many wonderful theatrical events that are well worth remembering.  To savor some of my favorites, take a journey with me through 2014.  Beginning in January, there is no better way to make the winter happy than to attend  Goodspeed's Festival of New Musicals for any or all of the weekend.  This year the dates are January 16-18 and just like last year the festival is stuffed with a trio of new musicals, a pair of cabarets, special talks by theater folk, symposiums and tours.  What better way to thumb your nose at winter's chills and ice.

The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford always has a sensational national touring company waiting in the wings for a spectacular show.  While this week it's the circus world of "Pippin" eager to color your world, this past year the stand out show was "War Horse" with its stirring story of the teenaged boy Albert whose beloved horse Joey is snatched away from him to be part of the World War I calvary effort.  Their reunion, exemplified with life sized puppets, is an epic tale.

March swept in with a festive red carpet celebration of the Oscars at The Kate in Old Saybrook, a gem of a theater dedicated to the memory of Katharine Hepburn.  Gowns and tuxedos were donned to welcome the newest stars to be feted for their acting skills. You even had a chance to have your photo with a real live Oscar, complete from head to toe in gold paint.

Comedian Steve Martin graced Long Wharf Theatre's stage with two gifts this year, with "The Underpants," a collaboration with Hartford Stage that told
the tale of a woman who embarrasses her husband when she loses her undergarments at the King's parade, and later with "Picasso at the Lapin Agile."
The latter is an imagined encounter of the artist Picasso with the scientist Einstein at a bar in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century.  Martin exhibits a grand flair for comedy in both.

Comedy was also saluted at Yale Repertory Theatre at least twice this year, first with the crazy slapstick farce "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" about a serious bombing that actually happened and later with "Those Paper Bullets."  The latter featured a collision of Shakespeare and a musical group like the Beatles in a gloriously funny spoof of song, fashion and romance.

The summer months saw an engagingly different production at Long Wharf by the Split Knuckle Theatre where the adventures of Sir Ernest Shackleton and a mild-mannered insurance company employee overcome great odds in "Endurance."  In a tent, the Summer Theatre of New Canaan put on a smashing version of "Hairspray," that fun musical about a teenage girl in Baltimore taking on the establishment and fighting against prejudice and winning.

West Hartford's Playhouse on Park brought to engaging life a sparkling visit with the awkward misfits who all want to win the spelling contest in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."

With the warm breezes also came the opportunity to travel to Waterford to find that hidden jewel, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, that every year for the past five decades offers conferences on puppetry around the world, brand new plays and never heard before musicals.  If you have never experienced the wonders of the O'Neill, you owe yourself this theatrical treat.

Theatrical treats also abound at Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam where "Fiddler on the Roof" entertained all summer with Adam Heller as the steadfast milkman Tevye.  Plan a full day of theater by going one exit over to Chester to see a new offering at the Norma Terris Theatre, called the Little Goodspeed.

Young people captured the spotlight in two separate but equally wonderful ventures.  Long Wharf's Shake-It-Up-Shakespeare, under the skilled direction of Annie DiMartino, offers teens the opportunity to make Shakespeare a musically vital experience. Their "Much Ado about Nothing" was a virtuoso performance.  Over in Waterbury, Seven Angels Theatre delivered in spades with Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" starring Carey Cannata as the precocious Eugene Morris Jerome.

More serious stuff was spotlighted at Westport Country Playhouse when they presented "Intimate Apparel," about a young African-American seamstress searching for love and a sense of importance.  Hartford Stage's rendering of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was brilliant, with Zach Appelman as the determined son set to avenge his father's murder.

The relatively new on the scene New Haven Theater Company did itself proud with a stirring production of the Irish play "The Seafarer," where the stakes in a poker game are raised way too high. 

These are but a few of the cream laden shows  that rose to the top of the milk bottle that is Connecticut theater.  Hopefully you saw at least a few and have some favorites of your own.  If not, the slate is now clean and ready to be inscribed for 2015.  See you at the theater.

FRANK WARREN WANTS TO SHARE SECRETS

The old saying goes that if two people want to keep a secret one of them has to be dead.  Frank Warren would put a whole new spin on that secret concept and change it to tell everyone your secret, just don't put your name on it.  Warren created an art project through the mail years ago that has mushroomed into a worldwide community project: PostSecret.

To participate, create a decorative postcard, tell a secret no one else knows and then send it off - anonymously - into the universe.  Since 2005, thousands of people have taken that unique opportunity to confess, reveal and confide a hope, a dream, a desire, a compulsion that is utterly truthful and is unknown to everyone but you, the writer.

Started as an experiment on Blogger and originally updated every Sunday with ten new secrets, the site has had almost 700,000,000 hits and counting.  Go to www.postsecret.com and make it 700,000,001.  Apparently, a lot of people have a lot of private thoughts they can't help themselves from revealing.  Maybe it's cathartic or a pressure release or just plain useful.  Since he has received over 1,000,000 responses to his request for anonymous postcards, enough to fill six books to date, it's clear he has touched a cord in people all over the world.  You too can send a decorated card -without a signature - to:  PostSecret, 13345 Copper Ridge Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874.  Warren even confesses he includes one of his own secrets in each of his publications.

It all began in November 2004 when Frank Warren handed out 3000 postcards randomly in our nation's capitol.  In a recent interview, he explained the act in two ways, "maybe I was stuck in a boring job or maybe I was having my own personal struggle with private secrets."  His original goal was to get 365 postcards.  Warren had no idea he would still be collecting them ten years later.

What makes this idea resonate so intensely?  To Warren, "it's accidentally tapping into mystery and wonder.  It's an invitation into someone's personal life, a revelation, a chance to chronicle transformation." Postcards can be passive or aggressive, good, bad, ugly, silly, sentimental or serious. Cards come to his house, sometimes 100 a day, from every country, America to Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Greenland.  He even received a card in a language he didn't recognize, one that a colleague finally identified as Elfin from "The Lord of the Rings."  They comprise a tower far taller than Warren himself and necessitated that he and his understanding and supportive wife build another room on their house.

In addition to paper notes, he has also received messages on such diverse objects as rocks, flip-flops, bras, purses and seashells.  As Warren explains it, "There are two kinds of secrets, those we keep from others and those we hide from ourselves. Secrets create walls that separate us, but if we have the courage to tell our secrets we create bridges of understanding."

Frank Warren advocates this "currency of intimacy" and you are invited to celebrate its success on Friday, January 16 at 8 p.m. when he speaks at the Lyman Auditorium on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University. He will tell the story of his amazing journey in "Post Secret," speak of his six New York Times Best Selling Books, use music, videos, images of postcards and the secrets that have transformed lives. Microphones on site will allow audience members to share their secrets in public.  For tickets ($20, faculty $10, students $5), call 203-392-6154 or online at www.southernct.edu. His latest book, "The World of Postsecret" was released November 4 and has already made the top of that prestigious list. Some completely honest disclosures are "My family is like a foreign country to me," "I'm one of the bravest, My secret?  I'm just as afraid of dying in a fire as the people I save, " and "My husband packs me the lunch my mom never did."

One unexpected offshoot of this project is a young man who created a blog to reunite lost digital photos with their owners by posting the pictures on a website in the hopes they will be recognized.  Called "I Found Your Camera," it has put these precious photos back in their rightful place.  Another fascinating impact is Post Secret's support of suicide prevention and its support of good mental health.  Many people in anguish have reached out and in confessing their most innermost thoughts helped themselves to a more stable realm.   Over $1,000,000 has been raised for suicide prevention and garnered Warren a 2011 Mental Health Advocacy Lifetime Achievement Award as well as an invitation to visit the Obama White House in 2013 to share his thoughts on mental illness. His blog has been touted as the "Best Blog on the Internet" and his TED Talk is one of the most watched.
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For Frank Warren, "secrets are universal."  To prove it, he has taken his project around the world and spoken about it from Australia to Ireland, England to Spain, New Zealand to Brazil.  Wherever he goes, he has discovered that secrets release burdens and that "a safe social space inspires revelations."  Maybe one day he will pass on the keys to his non-judgmental empire, just like Willy Wonka, but for now Post Secret is a 50 hour a week, 365 days a year, occupation, one that gives hope, healing and promise to the giver as well as the receiver. 

Grab a postcard and think about what your secret is. Frank Warren and the world are waiting.  As for the Warren's mail carrier, you can be sure he received a of of well-deserved Christmas gifts this holiday season.