New Chappaqua Performing Arts Center Announces Fall Schedule
New Chappaqua Performing Arts Center Announces Fall Schedule: The new Chappaqua Performing Arts Center (ChappPac), located at Chappaqua Crossing and formerly known as the Wallace Auditorium, recently announced the first of 12 plays, concerts and performances scheduled for its inaugural 2017-18 season. Comedy, dance, lectures and virtual performances from the 92nd Street Y are in planning for the future. Located on the former campus of Reader’s Digest, overlooking it’s iconic Cupola Building, the 13,000 square foot, 425-seat theatre was recently saved from demolition.
Lisa Katz, New Castle Town Councilwoman and chair of the New Castle Arts & Culture Committee, oversaw the acquisition of the arts center, and subsequently negotiated its sale to the town. John Fanelli, a veteran theater professional who was previously associated with the Westchester Broadway Theatre, and is artistic director for his own Standing Ovation Studios and Lighthouse Youth Theater, has been appointed the manager of ChappPac.
Friends of the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, ChappPac’s fundraising arm, led by Michele Gregson and Tracy Stein recently reported receiving an anonymous $30,000 donation for the theatre. In addition to marquee entertainment, Armonk’s Standing Ovations Studios offers eight Broadway themed weeks of summer camp and Dramabee offers Summer on Stage programs for Pre-Schoolers at the theatre. ChappPac is also open to businesses, organizations and private groups or individuals for rental. Tickets go on sale, Fri, 8/11: 10am.
Curtain Time
Cyrille Aimee, ChappPac, Sat, 9/23: 8pm: Following her 2016 sell-out performance at Caramoor, this French and Dominican singer kicks off the ChappPac season. Aimee is known for integrating the gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt and Brazilian rhythms to American standards. Hailed by NYT’s Stephen Holden as a “blend of Michael Jackson and Sarah Vaughan,” Aimee won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition in 2012. Stephen Sondheim tapped her for his Encore Series at City Center in 2013. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458-5143)
Tim Kubart & The Space Cadets, ChappPac, Sun, 10/8: 2pm: Awarded a Grammy for Best Children’s Album, Tim Kubart is the host of the popular preschool program Sunny Side Up, on NBC Universal’s Sprout Channel. He is also known as the “Tambourine Guy” from the international touring group Postmodern Jukebox. Tim Kubart & The Space Cadets deliver a family friendly dance party for all ages. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458-5143)
Sō Percussion, ChappPac, Sat, 10/14: 8pm: This groundbreaking percussion quartet, known for their use of exotic instruments like the glockenspiel, bowed marimba and aluminum pipes, was praised by The New Yorker for their “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam.” Sō’s repertoire includes 20th century “classics” by John Cage and Steve Reich and original works. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
Soulshine: An Allman Brothers Experience, Fri, 10/20: 8pm: Macon, GA’s resident Allman Brothers tribute band amps up in 10514 with the brother’s best, including “Ramblin’ Man”, “One Way Out”, “Whippin’ Post”, “Melissa” and mucho mas more. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fri, 10/27: 8pm: “It’s astounding, time is fleeting, madness takes it’s toll…” Try to keep control when Riff-Raff and Magenta come to 10514 (home of 12,741 Brad & Janet’s) with their Time Warp tutorial. WARNING: It may be just a step to the left, and then a step to the right, “but it’s the pelvic thru-ust that really drives you insa-a-a-a-ane!” Just in time for Halloween. This we gotta see! (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
Echoes of Sinatra, ChappPac, Sat, 10/28: 8pm: Take a musical journey through time, tracing the career and life of Frank Sinatra. This fast-paced performance featuring juicy gossip, insider stories and classic songs from tribute artist Steven Kazlauskas and his Tony T. Orchestra, serves up a Big Band experience with “elegant” Vegas style dancers. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
Matt Schofield, ChappPac, Thurs, 11/2: 8pm: British Blues Hall of Famer, Matt Schofield was named “Guitarist of the Year” three years running at the British Blues Awards, Schofield’s melodic style blends influences from players like Robben Ford, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
The Greatest Pirate Story Never Told, Sat, ChappPac: 11/11: 2pm: A crew of misfit pirates have only one chance to get their treasure; by performing the greatest pirate epic ever seen on stage! However, when half their script is missing, the audience helps fill in the blanks and laugh along as they IMPROVISE a brand new musical adventure based on your suggestions! Kids ages 5 and up. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
What Fresh Hell Live! ChappPac: Fri, 12/1: 8pm: Comedians Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson bring their hit parenting podcast What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood to a live audience. Ables and Wilson combine their twenty-year friendship, their comic sensibilities and their usually completely opposite approaches to parenting, for a ‘Mom’s Night Out’ full of games, laughs, and maybe even a little parenting advice. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
Ragtag Theatre’s Cinderella, ChappPac: Sat, 12/9: 2pm: This adaptation is performed in the street theater style known as Commedia dell’arte with larger-than-life characters, colorful song and dance numbers, and a message on self-worth for kids. Broadway World wrote that this winner of the 2016 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Show is “Perfect for all ages and people attending, with or without kids in tow.” (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
ELF, ChappPac: Sun, 12/17: 2pm: Embrace your inner elf at this screening of the 2003 Christmas fantasy comedy about one of Santa’s elves who discovers he’s a human and treks to NYC to find his biological father. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Will Ferrell James Caan, Zooey Deschanel and Bob Newhart, Elf has become a holiday classic and inspired the hit 2010 Broadway musical, Elf: The Musical. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)
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