A.C.T. of Connecticut

 A.C.T. (A Contemporary Theater) of Connecticut is concluding its eighth season in Ridgefield with a performance of Dear Evan Hansen.

I attended recently.  Shame that I hadn't been to a performance before.  It was excellent!

Attendees reach the theater by walking through long corridors with large photos from past shows. 

The theater isn't big, but it has good seating and a professional stage.  

The actors are professionals and members of Actors' Equity.

Dear Evan Hansen is about a socially awkward high school student who invents a relationship with another loner student who dies.  One thing leads to another and builds toward the inevitable collapse.  The play is thought provoking.  I will be buying tickets for future A.C.T. performances.

Mansplaining

I have been guilty of this on occasion . . . 

This is at Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.  If you will pardon my own mansplaining, the nearest bust is of Daniel Wadsworth, a Hartford amateur artist and architect in the middle of the 19th century.  He was from a well off Connecticut family.  He funded the creation of the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1842.

Two circles

 Entering the Wadsworth Atheneum's Gengras Court in Hartford, I encountered two circles.  

In the foreground, we face dissident Chinese artist Al Weiwei's "Grapes," formed from 26 traditional three-legged stools.  On the wall behind it is one of American artist Frank Stella's so-called "Protractor" works, named for its careful creation with a protractor and compass. 

Wadsworth Atheneum and The Travelers Tower

 

The nearer building is Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, an excellent art museum that I visit often when I am in Hartford.  Behind it is the Travelers Tower, headquarters of the Travelers Insurance Company.

Peony Season

 

My peonies are in bloom, too, but they are no match for these gorgeous peonies in West Hartford's Elizabeth Park.

A Mural in Process

 I was recently in West Hartford.  BlueBack Square is a mixed commercial and residential development just off West Hartford Center.  

An artist was at work on the second level above the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society.  I didn't recognize the artist nor did I understand what is being portrayed at this early stage,  But, I go back to West Hartford often and will check it out later.

I wonder if Monday Murals accepts partially completed and unexplained murals . . . 

Antioch Baptist Church

 

Originally a Methodist church, this facility in Bedford Hills, New York, was purchased in 1975 by Antioch Baptist Church, a Black congregation.  The congregation dates back to 1887 and occupied several other facilities before acquiring and holding services in this one.