WPCNR STAGE DOOR. November 25, 2009: In this time of year when many organizations are staging benefits asking for donations, Westco Productions, Westchester’s most popular, loved-by-all-ages nonprofit theatrical company, held an intimate buffet and cocktail gathering at the Westchester Arts Council rehearsal space Westco leases, last week to thank the donors who have supported Westco over the last 30 years.

Serena Russell, center, member of the Westco Board of Directors welcomes donors and supporters of Westco last week. Susan Katz, founder and impressarioess of Westco Productions is at left.

White Plains Susan Katz, founder of  Westco in 1979 has been staging shows and experiences that matter throughout the county, such as  The Magic to Do Players (show business experience for disabled youngsters, lauded by WARC and parents, that is in need of more support to keep the program going), Healing Walls, Bedside Buddies (actors visiting hospital-bound kids),  original educational shows in schools around the county, plus Ms. Katz’s Gold Star Concert Series – the county’s most successful, affordable popular artist’s series, which helps fund Westco’s public service performances. On hand were many of the persons who support the arts, including Chester Day, Jim Benerofe, Assemblyman-White Plains Mayor-Elect Adam Bradley, and others.

Susan Katz -- reminisced about how Westco grew out of a county program she originally began in the County Center with Westchester  -- which eventually turned into Westco Productions

Among the foundations who support Westco work are The Shirley G. Benerofe Foundation,The Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation,The Louis R. Cappelli Foundation,The Thomas & Agnes Carvel Foundation, Drew Industries, Edith Glick Shoolman Children's Foundation, Fein Foundation, Glickenhaus Foundation, Hitachi America Ltd., Hitachi Foundation,The H.O.P.E. For Youth Foundation, HSBC Bank USA (which funded the cocktail party) , Hudson Valley Developmental Disabilities Service, Office of Westchester County Hudson Valley National Foundation, James A. Macdonald Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts,New York State Senate, Paul & Harriet Weissman Family Foundation, The Janis & Alan Menken Foundation, The John H. & Ethel G. Noble Charitable Trust, Westchester ARC, Westchester Arts Council, Westchester Delegation of New York State Assembly

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS WEEK NEWS. November 13, 2010: White Plains Week reports the latest on the Common Council Quixotic effort to terminate Commissioner of Safety; the pending sale of Ridgeway Country Club; the double-dip dip-in by our public servants; and Bill Ryan's absentee vote win. Viewers may see the program this evening at 5:30 P.M. on Verizon FIOS Channel 45, and Cablevision Channel 76 and it will be repeated later this evening at 7:30 P.M., Saturday evening at 10 P.M. and Monday evening at 7 P.M

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John Bailey, The CitizeNetReporter and Peter Katz, left,above and Jim Benerofe, right count down the week's top stories in White Plains tonight at 5:30 and 7:30 P.M. and later worldwide on the internet at www.whiteplainsweek.com

In addition to the holiday show, the theatre will present a selection of holiday entertainments: On December 4, Mistletunes, featuring Squeaky & Clean, a rock and roll group playing and celebrating different cultural holiday traditions.Twas the Night Before Christmas  is a musical review of the Santa classic, presented December 5 The Calpulli Mexican Dance Company performs a colorful dance extravaganza on January 31.

The Westchester Philharmonic Holiday Brass Quintet performs the first of four concerts December 6 playing baroque to pops to seasonal holiday favorites.

The lineup for the rest of the 09-10 season:

WPCNR ON THE AISLE. Theatrical Review By John F. Bailey. October 2, 2009: So I’ve got my fedora back on the back of my head, a Lucky lit up, and a gimlet on the rocks by the trusty Smith Corona Zephyr portable typewriter rapping this out and the tapping from Westchester Broadway Theatre's 42^nd Street just keeps my fingers flying over the keyboard.

Shannon O'Bryan as Peggy, with Todd Lattimore as Billie Lawlor :

Sheer, Unadulterated Brilliance!

Photos, Courtesy WBT, John Vecchiola.

Coming at you -- The Kids in the Line-- in spectacular opening number Audition

All you “Little Nifties from the 50s” and “Sexy Ladies from the 80s” who want to meet the elite, should take the I-287 to see Westchester Broadway Theatre’s greatest production of 42^nd Street which won over the skeptical Opening Night audience turning it into a thunderous appreciative crowd whose bellows of bravos, whistles and non-stop applause brought back the company for a dancing encore with its effervescent bubbly -- what's-there-not-to-like leading lady --  Shannon O'Bryan, the ingénue Peggy Sawyer romping back on stage for one last fling with the audience.

WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR Roving Photographer. September 7:

Aspara Warrior

By Ouk Chim Vichet

Your Roving Photographer was reminded again of why artists create, when he turned the corner in a gallery at the University of Michigan Museum of Art and was confronted by this amazing sculpture. It represented the power of personal expression and imagination to say more than words can say. For the rest of the story...

WPCNR MILESTONES. August 13,2009: Les Paul, who with his partner, Mary Ford, invented and popularized the twangy expressive new sound of an instrument he invented -- the electric guitar -- died today in White Plains Hospital of pneumonia at 94 years of age, but his and Mary Ford's  recordings will live forever.

Les Paul, right, and his sweetheart of song, Mary Ford. They combined Mr. Paul's virtuoso electric guitar sound with Ms. Ford's delightful mellowtone on Tennessee Waltz, Vaya Con Dios, Mockin' Bird Hill and I'm Confessing, Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart, Mister Sandman.

Paul was given his first guitar by his mother and learned to play guitar in the army.He was inspired by the original Singing Cowboy, the great Gene Autry, who also mentored Les.  Mr. Paul  began his musical career playing for Fred Waring and Bing Crosby. He invented the solid-body amplified electric guitar and pioneered multi-track recording to create the unique, finger-snapping, Les Paul and Mary Ford sound.

WPCNR THE BIG BEAT. By Big Melvin Mead, of the BIG KKIX The Mighty 1440 on your Dial, Home of your Saturday Night Rock N Roll Party in Your Mind.  August 10 ,2009: Leave it to Westchester Broadway Theatre  and Westco Productions, the two local theatre professionals, to put things into perspective.  This past weekend I saw reams of copy written about  Woodstock as being celebrated, it is reassuring to note that we “Aging Teen Angels Who Refuse to Grow Up"  (making every use we can of our senior citizen discounts, however),  still remember the real rock concerts that started it all.

Only they weren’t called concerts then – they were called Rock N Roll Shows and Alan Freed, America’s first personality disc jockey started them at a place called the Brooklyn Paramount.

The Great Alan Freed, emceeing one of his original Rock and Roll Shows at the Brooklyn Paramount. 1950s, in front of Sam The Man Tayler and the Alan Freed Rock and Roll Band. Photo, Courtesy, www.alanfreed.com. Used with permission.

The Platters (SOLD OUT)

Next Tuesday night only at the original Westchester Broadway Theatre – The Platters and the Coasters are  coming back and the place is sold out, Pink Ladies, Amboy Dukes, Tempests and Jesters. The folks who have tickets to next week's  WBT Platters-Coasters Time Slide are the only ones  who get to rock and roll once more, up close and personal, maybe even scream. Will the fire laws let you slow dance to Only You? Will there be an Alan Freed séance? Will Steve Calleran the long tall impresario put on his plaid Alan Freed jacket and bowtie and do the eager, enthusiastic classic Alan Freed disc jockey patter -- often imitated, never duplicated? Only those who have tickets will know because The Coasters and Platters are sold out.

The old rock and roll lives still thanks to Westchester Broadway Theatre and Westco Productions.

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. July 21, 2009: The White Plains Performing  Arts Center will run a fall season of productions, according to John Ioris, Chairman of the White Plains Performing Arts Center Foundation, which manages the theatre on a long-term contract for about another two years. Ioris said subscribers should be receiving notifications of the new fall season within a week. The schedule is being put together by Jack Batman, former Artistic Director.

Mayor's Fairwell Tour Kicks Off October 9 With Fundraiser for WPPAC, As Advertised on WPPAC website.

Ioris confirmed that the major fall fund-raiser for the WPPAC would be "Tribute to the Mayor" featuring Mayor Joseph Delfino under whose administration the White Plains Performing Arts Center was created.

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From The Music Conservatory. June 27, 2009: The Music Conservatory of Westchester, a non-profit community school of the arts in White Plains, NY, has appointed Rye resident Carol Shiffman as Executive Director effective July 1, 2009. The announcement was made by Board President Nancy Goodman.

The Baton, Please:

Carol Shiffman, New Director, The Music Conservatory of Westchester, White Plains

Shiffman succeeds Dr. Aaron Flagg, who leaves to become the next Dean of The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. Shiffman is nationally recognized for her work in arts administration and music, dance, and arts education. Previously the Dean of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance, Shiffman led one of the country’s preeminent arts institutions with world renowned faculty. She strengthened and expanded the school’s range of course offerings, master classes, and special events, and increased student opportunities for performances both on and off campus.

WPCNR CENTER STAGE LEFT. Theatrical Rush Review by John F. Bailey. June 25, 2009: There was a buzz and energy at opening night at WBT.  Most had never heard of this comedic hoot of a review that debuted Off-Broadway in 1996, and just closed in 2008, outrunning My Fair Lady.

A full house was eager for something happy and amusing and they got a Laugh-in's worth!

Courtney Holds Court!

Courtney Balan is the Complete Comedienne, mugging, madcapping, accenting, wisecracking, sending up, dialecting, wallflower, babe, single girl, torch singer in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Photos, Courtesy WBT, By John Vecchiola.

When  comedienne Courtney Balan makes a match.com video on WBT’s widescreens,  talking to a video camera, with her back to her audience,  she brings down the house with laughter as she tells all her foibles and faults with mugging and facial expressions that generated steady laughter nonstop.

When  Noel Molinelli sings a lament about the bride’s maids dresses in her closet, and ill-fated grooms,  the women of Westchester grinned and nodded knowingly, remembering weddings past. When Jonathan Rayson laments about waiting for his wife in Macy’s, the men laugh and laugh, while Ms. Molinelli agonizes in line for a women’s restroom—both men, women nod, laugh and remember.

Understudy Travis Taber, last seen in Oliver!  as the Knife Grinder (at that incubator of talent, the White Plains Performing Arts Center) did a masterful job jumping in on Opening Night. He's at the wheel of the family car! With the ubiquitous Courtney Balan as his wife, and Noel Molinelli, back seat with Jonathan Rayson as his kids.  Mr. Taber  had to do the 42^nd Street Opening Night  "Dream Brake" Replacement role thing this evening filling in for  Frank Vlastnik. The kid will always remember this night. He wise-cracked and delivered the part as if he created it! What a great job by the kid. Who doesn't like a little schmaltz on Opening Night? Photos, Courtesy, WBT By Frank Vecchiola

Taber coordinated with perfect comic timing with Ms. Balan to  turn four rolling desk chairs into the family car, it's madcap mirth!  (Even Brenda Starr, your reporter’s date for the evening laughed in uncharacteristic glee for the most dignified no-nonsense redhead in journalism – mentioning on the way out that her brothers used to fight in the backseat just like Mr. Rayson and Ms. Molinelli.

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From Westco Productions. June 18, 2009: A White Plains High School senior and a  senior from Port Chester High School are recipients of the 2009 Sonny Katz Scholarship Awards from the White Plains-based non-profit theater company, Westco Productions. The awards are from a scholarship fund named in honor of  the late Seymour “Sonny” Katz, who had been a founding member of Westco’s Board of Directors. “Sonny” was best known as the White Plains City Marshall for more than 35 years.

Zach Sorrow, White Plains High School

Sergio Marroquin of Port Chester  High

Recipients of this year’s scholarship awards of $1,000 each are Zach Sorrow, age 18, of White Plains and Sergio Marroquin, age 17, of Port Chester.  

The Sonny Katz Scholarship Fund was established in 2006 by Westco to benefit students who will be studying the performing arts in college. Westco is celebrating its 30^th season of providing quality entertainment for children and adults.

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. June 15, 2009: Plans for the 2009-10 season of the White Plains Performing Arts are not clear yet according to the Chairman of the WPPAC Foundation, John Ioris in a statement issued to WPCNR this afternoon.

According to Mr. Ioris, "We are currently in the process of formulation of the WPPAC operating budget for 2009-10 for presentation to the Board. There have been no firm decisions made at this time regarding anything to do with the theatre. Decisions aregard the (theatre) staff, are directly related to our operating budget."

Asked if the WPPAC would break even for this year, Ioris said, with two weeks to go, it was still too early to call: "We are still in tghe 2008-2009 operating year which will conclude on June 30. At this time, it appears as though we will be at a break even or show a surplus."

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From the Lovely and Talented Pia Haas, Westchester Broadway Theatre. June 14,2009:    I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, the laugh-inducing, award-winning musical comedy about love in the suburbs, is often described as “Seinfeld set to music”.  It’s a hilarious look at love and relationships that is as touching and insightful as it is humorous. Four actors play over forty roles scaling the dizzying spectrum of male/female relationships. The trials and tribulations of being single, dating, marriage, loss, and heartbreak - and everything in the relationship process that you have ever secretly thought about, but were afraid to admit - are cleverly explored. The show opens this Thursday, June 18.

4 for the Seesaw: (Left to right). Energetic young cast gears up for opening night: Courtney Balan, Frank Vlastnik, Jonathan Rayson and Noel Molinelli bring back I Love You, You're Perfect Now Change -- the 1996 Off-Broadway smash -- the longest-runnin Off-Broadway Musical in history. Photos by Pia Hass

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From Peter Bassano. June 8, 2009: White Plains High School junior Jennifer Damiano was nominated for a Tony award in the catagory of Best Performance by a Feature Actress in  Musical for her performance in the off-broadway musical Next to Normal.   

Ms. Damiano at the TONYS Sunday Night.Photo, broadwayworld.com.

Jennifer, only 16, is already a Broadway veteran, having been the youngest member of the original cast of the play "Spring Awakening" last year.