Alan Sneath

NCHS Theatre Innovates Amid Pandemic; Fall Screenings of New Shows To Open Thursday

By |

New Canaan High School senior Ava Sabloff has been involved in the NCHS Theatre program since freshman year. 

Prior to the onset of COVID-19 virus, she’d never combined live theater with film, where blocking and line delivery are altered while cameras recording the performance change position, and actors pause between scenes to adjust lighting and audio.  

“When performing for an audience an actor constantly receives live feedback that hopefully ends in applause,” the aspiring film major said. “After filming an actor has no idea of the quality of the performance until it has been edited and broadcast. Live theatre is a moment in time, where a filmed performance lives on. The skills I have developed has made me more prepared as I enter college.”

Those newly learned skills have culminated for Sabloff, along with dozens of cast and crew members in the celebrated program, in two online performances this fall.

News

Group Forms to Oversee Saxe Auditorium Renovation

By |

New Canaan this week took a big step toward the widely anticipated renovation of Saxe Middle School’s aging auditorium, with the creation of a volunteer panel to oversee the project. The Saxe Auditorium Building Committee includes elected and district officials as well as private citizens. The town approved $175,000 for project designs in the current fiscal year, with $2 million earmarked for the actual work in fiscal year 2016, budget documents show. Part of the original 1957 building, the Saxe auditorium received a “poor” rating in an August 2013 facilities survey. Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi described the auditorium as both an instructional and performance space “and it hasn’t been updated, maintained or renovated in an awfully long time.”

“We’ve got a situation where the seats are broken and the space itself is no longer serving the needs of the school or the community,” Luizzi told NewCanaanite.com.