Branford Eagle

Arts

A Century Later, Cole Porter Gets A Spanish Flourish

by Paul Bass | Apr 8, 2013 10:59 am

Dominic Coles came to New Haven 100 years after Cole Porter left—and brought with him a respectful new twist to the songwriter’s durable canon.

Coles, a Yale freshman, played his ES 135 Gibson electric guitar Sunday as part of the Yale Jazz Ensemble. The group performs this time each year in an annual jazz tribute to the late Stan Wheeler of Branford, a Yale law prof and jazz musician who passed away in 2007.

The annual concert —which also featured an ethereal set by the Reunion Jazz Ensemble, whose members include longtime New Haven music-scene stalwarts bassist Jeff Fuller an saxophonist Tim Moran—filled the Yale Law School auditorium.

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Literary Guests At Home In Branford

by Sally E. Bahner | Apr 4, 2013 9:24 am

What did Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mark Twain, Orson Wells, and Sinclair Lewis have in common? They all considered Branford home for a period of time during the early part of the 20th century.

Jane Bouley, Branford’s historian for 25 years, detailed their lives (and others) during that time at a recent talk sponsored by the Friends of the Blackstone Library. A resident of Short Beach, Bouley has explored all the nooks and crannies of Branford from an historical view point. Her fourth book, Stony Creek Cemeteries, will be published soon.

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Puppet House’s Next Life: A Repertory Theater

by Diana Stricker | Mar 25, 2013 8:29 am

The two main characters in the saga of the Stony Creek Puppet House couldn’t be more opposite, except for one thing—their passion for theater.

The late Jim Weil staged productions of the famed Sicilian puppets at the Puppet House for decades. The historic Branford building is being purchased by the newly-formed Legacy Theatre group with Keely Baisden Knudsen at the helm.

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Quarry Finds Its “Gruve”

by Sally E. Bahner | Oct 10, 2012 11:52 am

Steeped in history, the Stony Creek Quarry is experiencing a renaissance, an artistic renaissance.

While it is still a working quarry, with 50 of its 400 acres owned by the town of Branford and leased to Douglas Anderson since 2006, it has also been a venue for the arts since 1995.

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It Was Magical

by marcia chambers | Jun 19, 2012 6:51 am | Comments (2)

The Branford Festival was magical.

That’s the takeaway from an extraordinary weekend filled with superb weather, fabulous food, wonderful music and a breathtaking road race that started with runners checking their watches.  And let’s not forget friendship because the weekend is a homecoming of sorts when former Branford residents return to town to see family and old friends.

Families and friends from all over the state filled the Branford Green on Saturday, taking in a variety of events, all of which went off without a hitch. When the tents came down, the Green became a gallery for an audience listening to concerts on Friday and Saturday nights.

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What They Used To Be

by Staff | Apr 16, 2012 8:20 am | Comments (1)

When Duke Ellington’s “Things Ain’t How They Used To Be” came alive again inside Yale Law School’s auditorium, heads were nodding.

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Puppet House Plot Thickens

by Diana Stricker | Feb 10, 2012 8:42 am

It was just like real-life community theater in Stony Creek this week as the ongoing saga of the now-vacant Puppet House unfolded with a surprising last-minute plot twist.

It all began when a theatrical trio presented a proposal to the Stony Creek Association on Tuesday. The trio, led by Branford resident Susan F. Clark, outlined their hopes to transform the Puppet House into a community theater, reminiscent of the days when Orson Welles performed there.  The 1903 venue has gone through several transformations—from a silent movie house, to a theater, to a girdle factory, to a puppet stage. It was shuttered by the town in 2008 because of code violations, and has been up for sale in recent months.

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Flutes Tell A Story

by Sally E. Bahner | May 5, 2011 12:22 pm

If words and music go hand in hand, what was so different about Yale Band Director Thomas C. Duffy’s recent presentation, “Words Into Music” at the Blackstone Memorial Library?

In this case, the words and music were not created as a typical musical pair, but rather the melding of a literary element to a musical one. 

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From Afghanistan to Stony Creek

by Allan Appel | Jul 17, 2009 1:02 pm

Three years ago Hannah Baldwin was asked to hang 16 of her large paintings of Afghanistan, including a portrait of Hamid Karzai in that country’s embassy, in Washington. She was hoping she might eventually get paid for them and even asked if Halliburton company might want to buy them.

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