A World of Quilts
The Northern Star Quilters’ Guild (northernstarquilters.com) show, its 37th, will take place Saturday, 10-5, and Sunday, 10-4, in the O’Neill Center at the WCSU Westside Campus, 43 Lake Avenue Ext. in Danbury. Admission is $10; there will be a raffle of a quilt to benefit Ann’s Place.
Ridgefield Spring Stroll
Friday, April 29, is the opening evening for the Ridgefield Spring Stroll, sponsored by Downtown Ridgefield. From 5 to 9 p.m., there will be a fashion show, scavenger hunt, festival performers, live jazz, balloon artists and a magician.
On Saturday, from 10 to 6, activities for all ages will include a chalk art festival on the sidewalks of Main Street, Bailey Avenue and Catoonah Street, mini race cars, a petting zoo, and music, including a cappella and a performance by the Bossy Frog Band at the library. For more information, visit downtownridgefield.com.
Godspell
The Spring Street Arts Center, in collaboration with Infinity Repertory Theatre Company, will present Godspell by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak on Friday and Saturday, April 29-30, at 8 at St. John’s, 82 Spring Street, South Salem, N.Y.
Tickets are $20, $10/students online at brownpapertickets.com, or $25/$15 at the door. Tickets may also be purchased by calling the church at 914-763-8273.
Say Goodnight
Alan Safier will star in Rupert Holmes’ Broadway hit, Say Goodnight Gracie, on Friday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge. The one-man show is a comedic tribute to the centenarian George Burns, that features vintage photographs and video clips.
Tickets are $40; for reservations, visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org or call 203-438-5795.
Smooth Jazz
Jay Rowe’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars concert will take place Friday, April 29, and Saturday, April 30, at 8 at the Parsons Complex, 70 West River Street, Milford. Doors will open at 7.
Rowe, who lives in Milford, annually donates a portion of tickets sales to the Milford Public Schools Music Department and in the past 13 years has given more than $66,000 to the schools.
On Friday, Rowe, a keyboard player, will be joined by guitarist Peter White, saxophonist Marion Meadows, pianist Brian Simpson and guitarist Matt Marshak; on Saturday, the line-up will include saxoponist Eric Darius, guitarist Nick Colionne, guitarist Chieli Minucci and saxophonist Nelson Rangell.
Tickets are $40 for one night, $70 for both; visit smoothjazzforscholars2016.eventbrite.com. For more information, visit jayrowemusic.com or call 203-874-4150. Tickets will be available at the door.
Hudson Stage
Rajiv Joseph’s play Animals Out of Paper is a story of relationships forged over their shared interest in origami; it will be staged April 29-May 14 by Hudson Stage Company at Whippoorwill Hall Theatre at North Castle Library, Kent Place, Armonk, N.Y. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sundays at 3, with an additional show on Saturday, May 14, at 3.
Tickets are $35 and $30; for reservations, visit hudsonstage.com or call 800-838-3006. For more information, call 914-271-2811.
Wiest in Beckett play
Yale Repertory Theatre will present two-time Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest in Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, directed by James Bundy, April 29-May 21. Also in Happy Days is Jarlath Conroy.
The theater is at 1120 Chapel Street in New Haven.
Tickets are $20 to $99; for reservations, visit yalerep.org or call 203-432-1234.
Fishing Derby
The Wilton Cub Scout Pack 22 Annual Fishing Derby will take place Saturday, April 30 at the Wilton Family YMCA Pond. Participants should bring their own equipment. Admission is free for those 6 and younger, $8 for those 7 to 18, and $12 for adults. The bait and fishing lure portion of the Derby runs from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and there will be a special fly fishing portion from 5 to 6 p.m.
The Wilton Family YMCA is at 644 Danbury Road/Route 7. There will be food for sale on site during the derby.
Mini Maker Faire
The Westport Mini Maker Faire will take place Saturday, April 30, from 10 to 4 at the Westport Library and grounds at 20 Jesup Road. The show will feature tech enthusiasts, educators, tinkerers, artists, hobbyists, engineers, scientists, students, teachers, food artisans and commercial exhibitors. The show is produced by Remarkable STEAM, Inc.
For more information, visit remarkablesteam.org or westportlibrary.org or call 203-291-4800.
Ship models show
Master craftsmen will be showing some 100 ship models, spanning the centuries of maritime history, at the 34th Annual Northeast Ship Model Show & Conference on Saturday, April 30, from 10 to 4 at the Port ’n’ Starboard Convention Center, Ocean Beach Park, New London. Modelers will be available to answer questions, including Ron Neilson of Stratford of the Connecticut Marine Model Society.
Admission is $4; children under 12 are admitted free. For directions, visit ocean-beach-park.com; for more information and to register for the conference (which includes seminars, demonstrations and buffet lunch), visit ctshipmodels.org.
Artboom
The artists’ reception and opening for Artboom: Celebrating Artists Mid-century, Mid-career, presented by browngrotta arts, will take place Saturday, April 30, at 276 Ridgefield Road (Route 33), Wilton. An international group of 32 artists, all born between 1946 and 1964, will show their work.
The show will continue May 1-8, from 10 to 5 or by appointment. For more information, visit browngrotta.com.
Ridgefield BBQ
The 3rd annual Ridgefield Gone Country BBQ Festival will return Saturday and Sunday, April 30-May 1, at Lounsbury House, 316 Main Street. More than 40 master BBQ teams will compete in the official Connecticut State Barbecue Championship. In addition, Ridgefield is the second stop on the 2016 Great American Cookout Tour.
The festival includes live music, carnival rides including a mechanical bull, and food. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students, free for children under 12. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit ridgefieldbbqct.com.
Prodigies
A concert of works by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Mozart, all musical prodigies, is the selection for the Taconic Opera’s first chamber concert on Saturday, April 30, at 4 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco, N.Y. Jun Nakabayashi will conduct. Tickets are $27, $20 for seniors and $15 for students, available at taconicopera.org or call 855-886-7372.
Dance Music
The Ridgefield Chorale’s spring concert is “5-6-7-8!” Dance Music from the 50’s to Today. It will take place Saturday, April 30, at 7 p.m. in the Anne S. Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School, 700 North Salem Road/Route 116. The mixed voices chorus wll be accompanied by the Ridgefield Chorale Band; there will be some live dancing, by Chorale members and dancers from the Ridgefield Fred Astaire Studio.
Tickets are $20, $15 for seniors/students, at ridgefieldchorale.org or Ridgefield Music, 19 Governor Street.
Aztec Two-Step
The Flagpole Radio Café, Newtown’s home-grown variety show, will feature Aztec Two-Step as its guest artist on Saturday, April 30, at 7 p.m. Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman have been performing together since 1971. The evening of music and comedy by the Café ensemble will take place at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, Newtown.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors; for information, visit flagpoleproductions.org or call 203-364-0898.
Westfair Singers
Music of Heart and Light is the theme for the Westfair Singers’ concert on Saturday, April 30, at 7:30 at Christ Church Greenwich, 254 East Putnam Avenue. The women’s choral ensemble, under the direction of Mary Jane Newman, will perform Mozart’s Mass in D as well as other classical and more contemporary pieces. Dr. Anthony Newman, leading orgnaist, will be a guest artist; the program will also introduce violinist Zoe Dweck a Fox Lane High School senior, who is a prize winner in the Singers’ first Scholarship Competition.
Tickets are $20 in advance at westfair.org or $25 at the door. For more information, call 703-598-7950.
Wynton Marsalis
The Stamford Symphony will present Jazz Night with the Wynton Marsalis Quintet on Saturday, April 30, at 8 at the Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic Street, Stamford. Some tickets were still available early this week; for information, visit stamfordsymphony.org or call 203-325-4466.
John Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli and Ramsey Lewis will perform at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, N.Y., on Saturday, April 30, at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $23.75 to $72.50. For reservations, visit artscenter.org or call 914-251-6200.
March for Babies
The March for Babies, a fund-raiser for the March of Dimes, will take place Sunday, May 1, at 11 a.m., with registration beginning at 10, at Jennings Beach, 880 South Benson Road, Fairfield. Funds raised help support prenatal wellness programs, research grants, neonatal intensive care unit family support programs and advocacy efforts. For more information, visit marchofdimes.org/connecticut/
Electric Car Rally
The Westport Electric Car Club will have its fourth annual Electric Car Rally, a 35-40-mile event, on Sunday, May 1, starting at noon from the Westport/Saugatuck train station. Vehicles will include many different models of plug-in vehicles; driver check-in takes place at 10 a.m. in the New Haven-bound side of the station, which will be open at 10 for a continental breakfast.
The public is invited to view the cars either at the pre-Rally staging or at the finish line in Wilton at 3 at the Wilton Go Green Festival next to the Wilton Green.
For more information, visit westportelectriccarclub.com.
Not-So-Good-Life
Velya Jancz-Urban, author of The Not-So-Good Life of the Colonial Housewife, will give a talk for the Trumbull Historical Society on Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. Her presentation is described as “funny and frank,” touching on how the New England colonial women dealt with menstruation, sex, birth control, childbirth, sickness and medicine.
The Trumbull Historical Society is at 1856 Huntington Turnpike; suggested donation is $5. For reservations (suggested), call 203-377-6620 or email .
Oratorio Society
The Westchester Oratorio Society, led by Benjamin Niemczyk, will perform Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Duruflé’s Requiem, and Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine on Sunday May 1, at 3 p.m. at South Salem (N.Y.) Presbyterian Church, 111 Spring Street.
Tickets range from $15 to $50; for reservations, visit westchesteroratorio.org or call 914-763-9389.
Premiere in song
The Connecticut Chamber Choir and Orchestra, led by Constance Chase, will present the American premiere of Donald Fraser’s new setting of Sir Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures for chorus and string orchestra on Sunday May 1, at 4. Fraser will give a pre-concert talk at 3:15 and immediately following the premiere, conductors, singers and voice or choral students of high school age and beyond are invited to participate in an experiential sing. Audience members who don’t participate will have a chance to hear the piece in “surround sound.”
Concluding the concert will be Stephen Paulus’ The Day Is Done.
Tickets are $20, $15/seniors; children under 12 accompanied by a paying adult are admitted free. For reservations, visit ctchamberchoir.org or call 203-459-1496.
Treetops concert
Pianist Tanya Bannister will return to the Treetops Studio for a concert of works by Dvorak and Shostakovich on Sunday, May 1, at 4. She’ll be joined by Katie Hyun and Brendan Speltz on violin, Mark Holloway on viola and Brook Speltz on cello.
The studio is at 359 Merriebrook Lane in Stamford; for tickets ($45 for adults, $20 for students, $5 children 5-15), visit treetopscms.org or call 203-979-6052.
And coming up…
Wilson and Marjorie Poe of Weston will show their art in The Poes’ Solo Show: East Meets West, May 2-31 at the Weston Senior Center, 9 School Road. There will be a reception on Thursday, May 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. For information, call 203-222-2508.
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The Westport Country Playhouse is opening its season with performances of two plays, Art and Red, which will be offered in repertory May 3-29. The two Tony Award-winners will alternate daily and the Playhouse has planned a series of events, Art is Everywhere, in connection with the two productions. For information, visit westportplayhouse.org or call 203-227-4177.
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The IMAX Theater at the Maritime Aquarium is showing Star Wars: The Force Awakens and will have a special celebration of the entire Star Wars saga on Star War Day, May 4 (“May the 4th Be With You”) at the 7:30 screening. Guests are encouraged to dress as their favorite Star Wars characters. For tickets, visit maritimeaquarium.org.
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The Trumbull Agriscience and Biotechnology Center at 536 Daniels Farm Road will have its Mother’s Day Plant Sale Wednesday-Saturday, May 4-7, from 10 to 3 and the Farm Fair on Saturday, May 7, from 9 to 3. The fair will include tractor hayrides, sheep shearing, petting zoo, crafts fair and refreshments. For information, call 203-452-4200.
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The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists will show Tribute to Mothers: A Springtime Portrait Exhibition, featuring 30 fine art portraits, free demonstrations, a public reception and a master workshop, at the Garden Education Center, 130 Bible Street, Cos Cob. For details, visit csopa.org.
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