Year In Review—

Arts And Entertainment We Enjoyed During 2005

By Shannon Hicks

In a town that is nearing the 30,000-person population mark, where a lot of residents are talented musicians, illustrators, authors, filmmakers, photographers, and in other artistic forms, there is always something to do or someone to celebrate. This past year was no exception, as was noted in Enjoy pages of The Newtown Bee during the course of the year.

During the past 12 months, The Scrapbag Quilt Artists, a group formed from a Newtown Newcomers Club, observed its 20th anniversary.

The Labor Day Book Sale reached its 30-year mark in September, the same month The Garden Club of Newtown began a new season — its 50th annual one.

And between April, when they opened their season with The Amorous Ambassador, and December, when they presented a special one-weekend original holiday production called Tiny Tim, Pickwick and All: Dickens in December, The Town Players of Newtown presented their 70th anniversary season.

The year began on a very high note for residents when the nominations were announced on January 25 for the 77th Annual Academy Awards because a Newtown native’s name was right there in the thick of things. Eddie Schmidt, a 1988 graduate of Newtown High School and the producer of the documentary Twist of Faith, learned along with the rest of the world that he and his business partner, Kirby Dick, had been nominated in the Documentary Feature category.

The pair did not win the Oscar this year, but I have no doubt it really was an honor just being nominated. Residents across town joined Eddie’s parents, Bob and Josie (who are still Newtown residents), in cheering for Eddie and Kirby even when it wasn’t their film that won the Academy Award about a month later.

Among the year’s musical highlights were concerts by major players in the jazz world. Maynard Ferguson graced the stage of Newtown High School on February 17, and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band helped Edmond Town Hall celebrate its 75th anniversary with a “rousing” two-hour concert on October 6.

The high school also hosted not only a special event in March — the Poetry Slam Extravaganza — but a very extraordinary guest was in attendance this year. Poetry pioneer Patricia Smith showed up to support the event and offered a 20-minute surprise set in the school’s lecture hall.

Also last winter, the music video for Interpol’s song “C’mere” was shot on an overcast and very cold day on the grounds of Holcombe Preserve. While the band members weren’t on site for the daylong shoot, young Newtown resident Sam Cox was joined by Annabelle Rosa and a fashion model in running around the woods off Castle Hill Road in mid-February for scenes that were incorporated into the band’s video. The video then debuted on MTV2 on March 12.

Three bands joined forces with the Newtown High School Student Government to plan a special concert in the spring that reminded people that the devastation of last December’s tsunami was still affecting people on the other side of the world. “Rock 2 Rebuild: A Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert” featured performances by DM3, Mystic Bowie, and Mutti Lewis on May 22.

The observation of Newtown’s Tercentennial (the events of which are covered in a story by Nancy Crevier elsewhere is this issue of The Bee) resulted in a pair of new publications for readers of all ages and interests.

To celebrate 300 years of Newtown history, Town Historian Dan Cruson unveiled a new book called A Mosaic of Newtown History. Mr Cruson’s newest release debuted on October 1, during the performances of Tableaux Vivants.

A Mosaic of Newtown History is an updated collection of essays that originally appeared in issues of The Rooster’s Crow, the newsletter of Newtown Historical Society.

The essays included within the newsletter, as Mr Cruson explains in the Introduction of his new book, have been intended “to highlight a single aspect of the town’s history and deal with it in greater depth than would be done with an overall narrative history of the town. In this way they are the tessera which together form a mosaic of Newtown history, a detailed picture of a unique town.”

Brendan Baker’s shot of the Castle Hill Farm cornfield maze, located off Sugar Street, was an easy choice for the cover of Newtown 2005: The Way We Are After 300 Years, a full-color coffee table book that was released on November 26. The book’s title pays honor to the 19th Century novelist Anthony Trollop and his 1872 book The Way We Live Now.

Newtown 2005 was edited by the novelist Justin Scott, who had help from Dan Cruson, and contains images from 24 residents-turned-contributing photographers. The book celebrates the past year with images from specific events and general scenes of our hometown.

In addition to the tercentennial-themed tomes, residents who are talented with pen and paper (fingertips and keyboards?) also celebrated new releases. Among them, Andrea Zimmermann saw the release of her first book, Eleanor Mayer’s History of Cherry Grove Farm: Three Generations on a Connecticut Farm; Don Singer bared his soul in his book Pain Suffering Hope, which offers a frank — and in Mr Singer’s case, autobiographical — look into the mind of someone who has gone through each of those phases of drug abuse and recovery; former Newtown resident Polly Brody celebrated her second full volume of published poetry, The Burning Bush; Caryn “C.J.” Golden published her first book, The Tao of The Defiant Woman (A Guide to Life over 40: Accepting What We Must and Rebelling Against the Rest); and Shelby McChord published A to Z with Dogs, a children’s book she wrote and illustrated, while fellow Newtown resident Nancy Lee Schulz joined the self-publication bandwagon with her own self-help book, Dirt Rich: The New American Gentry (Living in an Affluent Neighborhood on NO MONEY).

In the spring, Peter and Faith Vicinanza left their home in the care of the daughter, took leaves of absence from their careers (and, said some, a leave of their senses), and hit the road for an adventure that took them along the entire East Coast of the United States. The Newtown couple rode from Key West, Fla., to Calais, Maine, on their bicycles. Just for the fun of it.

June saw the debut of Jill Baimel’s “Newtown” poster, which featured nearly 90 images of the word Newtown that the photographer found on roadside signs, business signs, license plates, sewer grates, and other locations.

In midsummer, Newtown Historical Society unveiled its Newtown Historical Images Archive with a special exhibition of nearly three dozen images carefully archived and printed for the first time in probably a century. Presented at Booth Library, “Passport To Newtown’s Past” offered a rare collection of photographs of Newtown residents at work and play during the late 1800s to 1940.

From July 1 until October 31, a sculpture that had been painted by Pepperidge Lane resident Marty LaMarche greeted visitors and shoppers at Olde Mistick Village in Mystic. Mrs LaMarche’s design, Oceana Mystica: Misty, had been accepted into The Whale Trail, a temporary public art exhibit of painted whale sculptures in New London Country that was modeled after the popular Cows on Parade series.

A handful of Middle Gate School students showed up a week earlier than the rest of their elementary school counterparts back in August. Joined by their parents and older siblings and armed with paint and chalk, the youngsters literally put their mark on the playgrounds on either side of the school and the walkway that runs behind the building that joins the two play spaces.

Under the leadership of Newtown residents Robbin Chaber and Denise Rodriguez, a group about two dozen people spent a few hours on August 23 painting the lettering and icons for a Tercentennial Timeline. The timeline covers the first 300 years of Newtown’s history.

Newtown High School senior Greg Gordon was one of many Newtown residents who played a hand in the first Bethel Film Festival, an event that had its inaugural appearance in late October. While many residents worked in the box office or at other behind-the-scenes jobs, Greg created the trailer that was screened prior to feature films at Bethel Cinema during the weeks leading up to the festival. He also had one of his short films, The Mirror Man, accepted into the festival.

Also in October, The Kenny Lee Band celebrated a major milestone for any band: its 50th anniversary. Drummer Stan Schoonmaker, who lives in Newtown, is one of the band’s original members.

Earlier this month we met Heather Gunn (Rivera), a Newtown High School Class of ’99 graduate who is now on the road with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This season is Heather’s second outing with TSO, but it’s the first one where she is an official vocalist with the East Coast company. (Last year she was a “floater,” having rehearsed in New York and then filling in for anyone on either tour when any of the vocalists became sick.)

Also this month, Family Counseling Center presented its 20th annual Holiday Festival. With a renewed focus of events on and immediately around Main Street, the festival celebrated two decades of Nutcracker, antiques, visits with Santa, and other events meant to welcome the holiday season.

What is in store for Newtown’s artists and entertainers in 2006 is anyone’s guess. Already I know that we will be reintroduced to the musician Roger Ball within the next few weeks, and a Newtown native and engineer, Darius Mehri, who has written a book.