The Connecticut Film Festival is coming to The Kate over Valentine’s Weekend. Get tickets and bring your honey to see more than a dozen films made in Connecticut.
We’re the new Hollywood East you know, and you’ll have a front row seat to what is going on in this state at The Kate.
You’ll get to meet a lot of great innovators at this event at a reception that will also be held here.
We’re really excited about this event as many may have no known that the theater is also a film venue.
In the coming years we hope to really establish this theater as the place to be for film and premieres.
This was just a toe-tappin good time. Jonathan Edwards, in his signature style, came out bare-foot on stage and played with three other amazing musicians.
The sold-old crowd was rockin and I mean “rockin” to everything Edwards sang, talk about a following. His voice has lost nothing over the years nor has his guitar or harmonica playing. He’s still cranking out the new songs too. The a capella numbers by Edwards and the others were marvelous.
After so many years Edwards has his stage banter down pat, he knows his audience and they know him. Edwards told the crowd he was so impressed with the acoustics at The Kate that he would be coming back. That’s a really great compliment from a guy who has been on stages around the world for more than 40 years.
On the road with Edwards these days is his long time friend and accompanist whom he met in 1969, Stuart Schulman. Schulman plays the bass, piano, fiddle as well as vocals. Also Taylor Armerding, formerly of Northern Lights is an amazing mandolin player.
The “young-in” in the group is banjo player, double bass, guitar, pedal steel and cello player, Charlie Rose.
There were a lot of hands that went up before the start of the concert when Executive Director, Chuck Still asked “how many of you are here for the first time?” We think that’s great that so many are discovering The Kate.
This was written in response to an article that ran in the Shoreline Times after Christmas.
Success, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder and one’s own viewpoint can determine everything. Recently several of us were interviewed by Jerome Wilson for a story in the Shoreline Times. Mr. Wilson began my interview with the assertion that the Kate was failing, and despite an hour of discussion to the contrary, that was the story he wrote. But, as the poet points out, there are other viewpoints and other ways to look at things.
First and foremost, it was way too early judge the Kate by its ticket sales, either good or bad. Open less than four months, the Center is finding its audience just as they are finding us. Every performance brings new people into the building and this is a process that will need to continue for some time before anyone can pass judgment. As I told Mr. Wilson, the Kate is like a new born colt scrambling to its feet. The Center isn’t struggling; it’s learning to run.
But even then, we don’t have much to apologize for. By focusing on the 92nd St Y simulcasts, an inexpensive, weeknight filler, Mr. Wilson gives the impression that ticket sales at the Kate are anemic. In reality, of the 53 total events, almost half had attendance of over 75% and there have been 18 sell-outs. Remove the 92nd St Y events and the 75% ratio rockets well past half.
But it is also true, as Mr. Wilson points out, that even if these numbers go to 100%, ticket sales will never fully cover the costs of the Center. What he fails to mention is that this is true of any theatre or performing arts center. Even the Met runs a commercial during their simulcasts saying ticket sales cover less than half the costs of mounting an opera. Such is the way of the non-profit, particularly the non-profit theatre. We will always have to depend upon our donors. But to imply, as Mr. Wilson does, that that makes us a failure is to imply the same about every performing arts facility from the Met to Hartford Stage.
Truthfully, this lack of balance, more than the blatant errors and the stuff he just made up, is what is so disappointing about the article. Mr. Wilson told one of the people he interviewed that negative sells papers, and again that was the story he wrote. Instead of the 92nd St Y, his article could just as easily focused on sell-outs for Pure Prairie League, Cappella Cantorum, Connecticut Ballet, SteveSongs, Salt Marsh Opera, Missoula Children’s Theatre, Poco, and Margreta Stage, as well as the very successful Met in HD Or he could have focused on all the local children who’ve appeared on stage from the Goodwin School to Old Saybrook High and Middle Schools to the Community Music School to the performers during Old Saybrook’s Family Day to the children cast in Missoula’s King Arthur’s Quest. Or the local talent on stage at the Shoreline Soup Kitchen benefit. Or the outrageous success of the Center’s first gala and the Taste of Old Saybrook.
In the end, I guess an article like this says almost as much about its author as it does the Kate. Over the past three months, I’ve met a lot of people streaming through our doors, and the vast majority have been impressed by the facility and what they’ve seen here. It’s a shame Mr. Wilson, who had never attended a performance here, wrote an article that reflects his own agenda instead of the facts, or the feelings of the population as a whole. That makes it something less than news and much more damaging.
Chuck Still
Executive Director
Wow! Anne Heaton was live on the stage at The Kate last Saturday night and she blew the crowd away. The gentleman sitting next to me said “she has a voice like an angel.” He’s right.
Anne Heaton, originally from Illinois, now resides in Boston. Anne told me she is a University of Notre Dame graduate. I grew up in South Bend, Indiana so we immediately hit it off. Some of her Irish Catholic relatives attended the just-across-the-street, Saint Mary’s College as well. How well I know that place.
Anne’s voice truly is amazing, she is a singer song writer. She moved effortlessly from her stand-up keyboard to the sit-down grand piano, singing and playing. She truly has a passion for what she does. Her banter in between songs was very sweet and open.
Anne remarked during her show as so many already have, that she found the acoustics at The Kate to be amazing.
You may not know some of the folks we’re booking at The Kate, but you will. We have so much planned as we head into spring you’re going to want to be a part of it.
It was a sold out crowd for the country rock group, “POCO.” They’ve been rockin for 40 years and are still touring the country.
The group these days consists of Paul Cotton, Jack Sundrud and Rusty Young.
The group played for two hours and were thrilled with the sound in the theater, even thanking our sound man live on stage.
Next musical event is Anne Heaton on January 9th.
The Connecticut Film Festival is coming to The Kate over Valentine’s Weekend. Get tickets and bring your honey to see more than a dozen films made in Connecticut.
This was just a toe-tappin good time. 
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