Arts and culture in Stamford, Connecticut

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Arts and culture in Stamford, Connecticut

Stamford, Connecticut

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[edit] Theater

  • Stamford Center for the Arts: The Palace Theatre, originally opened as a vaudeville house in 1927 and gradually fell into disrepair and disuse, reopened as a restored, nonprofit theater in 1983. It was joined in 1992 by the Rich Forum, another downtown venue. Both have been run by the Stamford Center for the Arts. In 2005 the Palace Theatre completed a major renovation. With the depth doubled behind the stage to about 40 feet, the 1,600-seat theater can now present more technically ambitious productions such as full-fledged Broadway musicals.[1]
  • Stamford Theatre Works professional theater located in the red barn at the corner of Strawberry Hill Avenue and Fifth Street on the campus of the former Sacred Heart Academy, is in its 19th season in 2006-2007. Founder Steve Karp is producer at the "STW" which stages four original productions of contemporary plays each year "chosen with sensitivity to issues of social relevance" according to the theater's Web site. The theater's School for the Performing Arts and Purple Cow Children's Theatre also produces plays. The 150-seat barn theatre is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Also according to the Web site: "A 'Conversation Club' follows the first Sunday matinee when the directors and actors participate in a q&a with the audience. "Arts vs. Life," following the first Tuesday, 7 p.m. show, offers a post-performance panel discussion."
    • The 2006-2007 season: Far East, by A.R. Gurney, September 13-October 1; Bad Dates, by Theresa Rebeck, November 1-19; Intimate Apparel, by Lynn Nottage, January 31-February 18; Trying, by Joanna Glass, March 14-April 1; The Music of Rodgers & Hart, conceived & Directed by David Bishop & Shawn Churchman, May 2-May 20.
  • Curtain Call Inc. presents plays and other entertainment at the Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Ave. It's venues and types of entertainment there include:
    • The Kweskin Theatre (2006-2007 season: Brighton Beach Memoirs, September 15-30; Dreamgirls, October 27-November 25; Moon Over Buffalo, February 2-18; The Music Man, March 30-April 28)
    • Dinner theater at the Dressing Room Theatre -- a "bring-your-own-everything" dinner theater (A Christmas on Mulberry Street, December 1-17; Crimes of the Heart, January 5-21; The Hot L Baltimore, March 2-18; Baby, June 8-24)
    • Murder Mysteries -- interactive "where you get to figure out whodunnit" (Poison Politics, October 21; Mississippi Rendevous, March 24)
    • Music (Music is my Fist: An Audience with the Pope of Pop, November 6; Thom & Sally, February 12; Sandman - A Broadway Tale, May 14)
    • Staged readings (The Guys, September 11; Uncle Vanya, October 13-14; All in the Timing, January 26-27)
    • Family Musical Series (The Klemperers' New Clothes, September 30-October 7; Young Abe Lincoln, February 10 and 17)

[edit] Movie houses

  • On Feb. 13, 2004, the Avon Theatre Film Center, a nonprofit movie house focusing on classic, alternative and art films, opened in the former Avon Theatre on Bedford Street.
  • Crown Theatres has two movie houses in Stamford with a total of 15 movie screens: Crown Landmark and Crown Majestic.
  • In Springdale, the two-screen State Cinema, run by Garden Homes Cinemas of Stamford, has second-run films.
  • The Ferguson Library also shows films.

[edit] Music

  • Stamford Symphony Orchestra In a typical season, the SSO gives five pairs of classical concerts and three pops concerts at the 1,586-seat Palace Theatre, as well as a concert for elementary school students and a family concert series. Organized in 1919, the orchestra closed down after World War II when too many of its European musicians returned home. In 1967 the orchestra was revived and became fully professional by 1974, when Skitch Henderson was appointed music director. Henderson's reign was interrupted in January 1975 by a prison sentence for tax evasion. The current music director is Eckart Preu, appointed in June 2005.
  • Connecticut Grand Opera, a not-for-profit, professional opera company founded in 1993, with offices at 15 Bank Street and performances at the Palace Theatre. On its web site, the CGO claims to offer "the most ambitious opera season of any company between New York and Boston."

[edit] Distinctive Architecture

CHURCHES

  • The "Fish Church," or the First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, was designed by Wallace K. Harrison, the chief architect of the United Nations buildings in New York City, and opened in 1958. The fish shape is obvious to anyone who drives by, but the floor plan is also fish-shaped. The stained glass windows in the sanctuary contain more than 20,000 pieces of faceted glass. They depict the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The 32-foot-high cross is faced with wood from Canterbury Cathedral. "Brilliant blues, reds and yellows make up the walls -- and seem to fill the air. 'It really is like being inside a jewel,' says Reverend David R. Van Dyke, a co-pastor. 'When I bring people who haven't been here before, there's an audible gasp.'" (Life Magazine, April 14, 2005)[2]
  • St. Mary Roman Catholic Church (completed in 1928) on Elm Street is modeled on a Gothic church in Europe and is the largest house of worship in Fairfield County.[3]

VICTOR BISHARAT'S BUILDINGS

Many of the most distinctive buildings in downtown Stamford were designed by the late Victor Bisharat, a Jordanian who received his education at the American University in Beiruit, Lebanon and at the University of California at Berkeley. His Stamford buildings were designed for F.D. Rich Co.[4]

  • St. John's Towers -- The three cylindrical, 17-story towers were finished in 1971.
  • One Stamford Forum-- Looking like an upside-down ziggurat above its three-story parking garage, the building has an enclosed arboretum rising from the ninth floor to the penthouse roof, which is covered by 76 acrylic glass domes. Formerly the "GTE building" named after a former tenant, the 13-floor structure is 196 feet (60 meters) high. GTE used to show off the building in numerous magazine advertisements. In the 1990s, the Tresser Boulevard entrance to the building was changed (in a design by Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum) from a "formidably stark concrete wall of a parking garage" to "a more inviting entrance ... clad in blue-gray ceramic tiles, with a lobby, canopy, colonnade and small garden."[5]
  • One Landmark Square -- completed in 1973 at a cost of $35 million,[6] the skyscraper became the tallest building between New York City and New Haven. The "Landmark" in its name is no exaggeration. When it was built, the 23-story structure towered over a much lower skyline, but it remains the tallest and one of the most distinctive buildings in downtown Stamford. Five smaller buildings, designed by Moshe Safdie, were later built around the tower.[7]
  • 1 High Ridge Park -- Completed in the late 1960s, the building looks like a fortress, complete with a moat (previously filled with water, it is now dry). Bridges lead to its entrances. It was built for CBS Research a company worried about its security. Originally the building had few or no windows facing outward and tenants saw the sunlight through atriums and skylights. In the 1970s, after CBS Research left, slit-like window areas were put in the outside walls, letting in some light.
  • 2 High Ridge Park -- The saucerlike building was meant to recall clocks and watches. The building was originally built for General Time, a large clock manufacturer.

OTHER BUILDINGS

  • One Atlantic Street -- Art Deco interiors, with murals in the ground-floor bank, and Art Deco exterior details as well. The red-brick/white marble building at the corner of Broad and Atlantic streets was finished in 1931 and for a long time was the tallest in Stamford.
  • University of Connecticut Campus -- The 225,000-square-foot building with the vast, green glass facade at the corner of Washington and Broad streets was designed by Perkins Eastman Architects.[7]
  • Old Town Hall — The Beaux Arts building was built from 1905 to 1907 and served as the seat of local government until the early 1960s. The building opened for business on March 20, 1907. The last mayor to work there was J. Walter Kennedy, who moved to the Municipal Office Building that was on Atlantic Street (now torn down) in about 1961. The Old Town Hall held offices for the city government until all city offices were moved to 888 Washington Blvd. in 1987.[8]

[edit] Science and nature

In the 20th century, particularly after World War II, educational and cultural institutions were founded in the city or expanded in a range of areas.

  • From its founding in 1936 until 1945, the Stamford Museum and Nature Center (then known as "The Stamford Museum") was in a few rented rooms downtown. It set up the first small planetarium between New York and Boston in 1941, when it had a 6-inch (wide) telescope and a dome made of wood slats and cardboard. In the 1950s the museum had to move again when Interstate 95 was built, and it went to a 118-acre site in the northern end of town. It has a collection of works by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, who was a Stamford resident for a decade.
The nature center's farm includes llamas, pigs and sheep. In early 2007, more than seven lambs were born at the farm, as well as some piglets. The sheep are mixtures of Jacob, Dorset and Black Welsh Mountain sheep breeds.[9]
  • The Fairfield County Astronomy Society was started up in 1956 and ran the new Stamford Observatory. A 20-inch telescope, made with donated materials from numerous businesses, most notably the Perkin-Elmer Corporation (then headquartered in Norwalk) was dedicated on June 13, 1965. Since the relatively large telescope went into operation the astronomy club has conducted research and for a time became the home of the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.
  • Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens. In November 1965 the state of Connecticut bought the 64-acre estate of Dr. Francis A. Bartlett, a dendrologist who had planted the site with tree and bush specimens from all over the world. The Arboretum opened to the public for the first time in 1966 and was transferred to the City of Stamford in 2001. Today the Bartlett Arboretum Association runs the institution, and an additional 27 acres have been added to the site, giving it a total of 91 acres.
  • SoundWaters Community Center for Environmental Education

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ [1]Dunlap, David W., "Stamford Reinvents Its Downtown Once Again" New York Times, January 5, 1997
  2. ^ [2]"America's Coolest Churches," Life magazine, April 14, 2005, accessed July 5, 2006.
  3. ^ Fenwick, Alexandria, "Centennial Milestone: St. Mary Roman Catholic Church marks 100 years of faith, tradition, fond memories," article in The Advocate of Stamford, Saturday, August 12, 2006, page A12
  4. ^ [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=129193, Emporis web site, accessed July 5, 2006
  5. ^
  6. ^ [3] Charles, Eleanor, "In the Region/Connecticut: A Landmark Becomes Less of a Fortress," May 1, 2005, The New York Times Real Estate section, accessed August 9, 2005
  7. ^ a b
  8. ^ Dalena, Doug, "100 years ago, Old town hall had something new to offer", article in The Advocate of Stamford, page 1, Stamford and Norwalk editions
  9. ^ Damast, Alison, "Are EWE my mother? Lambs are first spring arrival", article in The Advocate of Stamford (Stamford and Norwalk editions), page 1

[edit] External links

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