Long Island 'ENCORE' THEATER AWARDS 2013

LONG ISLAND ‘ENCORE’ THEATER AWARDS – 2013

Selected by reviewer Jeb Ladouceur

White Chritmas at John W. Engeman Theater, NorthportBest Play or Musical: “White Christmas” – John W. Engeman Theater, Northport

Big, Brassy, and Wonderful … in the finest Engeman tradition. Easily deserving of four 2013 awards.

Best Actor (Play or Musical): John Scacchetti – “Singin’ In the Rain” - Gateway Performing Arts Center, Patchogue

The reincarnation of Donald O’Connor, Scacchetti turned in the kind of performance that has made Gateway the envy of many Broadway companies.

Best Actress (Play or Musical): Missy Dowes – “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” - Performing Arts Center, Smithtown

Long Island Theater presented a number of ingénue performers this past year … and Missy was as good as any of them. She’s a knockout!

Best Supporting Actor (Play or Musical): Frank Dispigno – “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” - BroadHollow Theater Company, Lindenhurst

If you missed Dispigno’s interpretation of ‘Big Daddy Pollitt,’ write yourself a note … and don’t miss whatever role he’s playing next.

Best Supporting Actress (Play or Musical): Jennifer Collester Tully – “Les Miserables” - Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

Jen Tully is as comfortable on stage as any comic actress you’ll ever see … even in a heavy play like this one.

Best Newcomer (Male or Female) - (Play or Musical): Rachel Greenblatt – “Grease” - Performing Arts Center, Smithtown

Greenblatt’s debut performance puts her right on the heels of her show biz-savvy siblings Molly and Josh.

Best Child Actor (Boy or Girl) - (Play or Musical): Katie Dolce - “White Christmas” – John W. Engeman Theater, Northport

Cute little Katie possesses a hefty portion of Shirley Temple stage presence. This child looks like she was born tilting a top hat and twirling a cane.

Best Director (Play or Musical): Jeffrey Sanzel – “The Diary of Anne Frank” - Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

Sanzel gave us the finest “…Anne Frank” production since Garson Kanin received a Tony nomination for his masterful direction in 1956.

Best Choreography: Drew Humphrey - “White Christmas” – John W. Engeman Theater, Northport

Humphrey lights up the Engeman stage, as do every one of his fellow dancers, and they don’t even seem to be trying.

Best Scenic Design (Play or Musical): Jonathan Collins – “Twelve Angry Men” - John W. Engeman Theater, Northport

If ever a play demanded an authentic period set, this one does. Collins even provides twenty-foot ceilings and a looming portrait of then-president Eisenhower.

Best Costume Design (Play or Musical): Chakira-Iliana Doherty – “The Diary of Anne Frank” Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

Combining the threadbare with this important play’s required nobility is a challenge that calls for the keenest theatrical insight. Doherty delivers.

Best Lighting Design (Play or Musical): Wilburn Bonnell - “White Christmas” – John W. Engeman Theater, Northport

Bonnell’s magical mixture of light, color, and fabric transported audiences to the festive locale that surely the great Irving Berlin had in mind for this show.

Award-winning Smithtown writer Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eight novels. His theater reviews appear in several major L. I. newspapers. In Ladouceur’s new thriller, “The Dealer” released last month, extortionists threaten to destroy Hoover Dam demolishing the Las Vegas Strip - if casino operators don’t pay millions.

"Lone Survivor" Opens Christmas Day Chronicles Navy Seal - Michael Murphy's Last Heroic Battle

Movie Chronicles LI Hero’s Last Heroic Battle Lt. Michael Murphy, USN

Maureen Ledden Rossi

Michael Murphy ( photo courtesy murphfoundation.org )Michael Murphy grew up like every other Long Island boy – he went to the beach, ate hotdogs and played little league.    Like every other lad with the surname Murphy both in the states and ‘on the other side’, his pals called him Murph.  All who knew him say he had a great sense of humor and loved to have a good time but there was always something different about young Murph.    His father Daniel Murphy spoke with Smithtown Matters about his son’s life.   “Michael exhibited leadership qualities when he was really young, he always seemed to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons, all his friends knew that about him,” he said.  

Looking back his son’s childhood, Murphy recalled a time when he was coaching Michael’s little league team.   His son was about eleven or twelve at the time; he was up at bat and slammed a shot that went barreling into the outfield.  His teammates began to round the bases with Michael behind them and the whole team cheered like crazy when he arrived at home plate.  “The kids were shouting you won the game, you won the game, you won the game and he said, I didn’t win the game, we all won the game,” laughed his father.  

Michael Murphy was born in Smithtown but raised in Patchogue.   His father regaled Smithtown Matters with tales of his son always sticking up for those in need – a special needs boy who was being bullied in Middle School and a homeless man who was at the wrong end of some ill-mannered teens.  “That’s how Michael got the name The Protectors, he did the right thing,” he shared. 

Doing the right thing is what took Lt. Michael Murphy’s life in a heroic battle in the remote mountainous region of the Kunar Province in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005.    The elite NAVY Seal officer led his four-man reconnaissance team to kill or capture a sought after member of the Taliban.     Murphy and his men were dropped by helicopter near the Pakistan border and during their mission local goat herders came upon their location.  The SEALs had a critical decision to make – they could kill the goat herders or allow them and their animals go about their way knowing full well that their whereabouts could be compromised.   Murphy and his team let those goat herders go and unfortunately the enemy was apprised of their location.  Murphy and his three fellow SEALs were attacked by Taliban forces.   Enormously outnumbered Murphy and his men were all wounded; in a desperate attempt to call for military backup, knowing full well he could  be killed, the officer fought his way to open terrain to make that call and get help for his team.  His call was successful and in the final moments of his life he continued to engage the enemy until he was mortally wounded.

Unfortunately the Chinook helicopter, full of reinforcements to rescue Murphy and his team, was shot down by enemy fire and all sixteen servicemen were killed, eight SEALs and eight services members.    Only one of Murphy’s four man team came out alive that day from the mission known as Operation Red Wings -  Marcus Luttrell.  

Luttrell was rescued several days later after wandering the mountain and then being protected by Afghani people from a small village.    Luttrell was Murphy’s best friend and the Texan penned a book immortalizing their battle that day entitled Lone Survivor.  There is also another book Seal of Honor.   “Lone Survivor is strictly about the battle that day – Seal of Honor is about Michael’s life, it’s a biography,” said his father.  Luttrell’s book Lone Survivor has been made into a film that opens in select theaters on Christmas Day in Los Angeles and New York and goes nation-wide on January 10th.  

Michael’s dad enjoyed reading both books and attending the premier of the movie.   “I think the movie did a better job of portraying Michael’s leadership than the books – he had innate extraordinary leadership abilities,” he added.   

Only 29 when gave his life for his country and for his fellow SEALs Murphy was the first person to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the War in Afghanistan.  He was also the first member of the United States Navy to receive the award since the Vietnam War.   The medal was presented to his parents during a ceremony at the White House by President George W. Bush.  

Lt. Michael Murphy’s  life has been memorialized and celebrated over the last eight years so many ways.  He had a United States Navy destroyer named after him, a post office, a combat training pool, a Sea Cadet unit and a park in addition to many scholarship funds.  When it comes to the movie Lone Survivor –the senior Murphy felt that the actor who played his son really did an amazing job – he said he really had his mannerisms down, the way he stood, knelt and carried himself. Michael Murphy is played by Taylor Kitsch and Marcus Luttrell is played by Mark Wahlberg.   “Taylor’s personality also fits in well with Michael’s friends; if you go on the Facebook page Seal of Honor, there is a photo with him and my son’s friends,” he shared.    Murphy had the opportunity to converse with Taylor’s mother for about a half hour after the movie premier.  “The boys had a lot of similar life experiences, both were hurt while playing hockey as boys, they were both quiet, they were both laid back,” he added.  

Lt. Michael Murphy’s life was both mourned and celebrated in the Kings Park funeral home of his relatives, the McElhone family in the summer of 2005.   Over 3,000 people filed into the small community to bid farewell to Murph and to surround his parents Maureen and Dan and his brother John with their love.    Murphy said it’s very strange the way his son’s life was immortalized in the press on both the day he was born and the day he died.  “Michael was the subject of a Newsday article, he was born in 1976 before Mother’s Day and they did a big Mother’s Day spread with a picture of Maureen and Michael”, he explained.   “Maureen talked about how happy she was to be a mother.”   Murphy is proud of his son and proud to be a Navy SEAL family member saying the training SEALs go through is beyond grueling and that many actually lose their lives during the training. 

 “Michael’s field class started with one hundred and ninety-eight men, only eighteen graduated,” he explained.   He said they are the elite of the elite and there are only two thousand Navy SEALs on active duty and a mere four-hundred are officers like his son.   Murphy said the attention given to his son’s life has been incredible.  “If I have one regret is that we don’t honor more of these men and women who lose their lives defending us,” he lamented.  He says every single one of them deserve a newspaper article and a story about their lives.        

To make a tax deductible donation to the Lt. Michael Murphy Foundation check out:  www.murphfoundation.org

The money raised is divided between 8 different scholarships.  Two go to Suffolk County students, one goes to the child of a crew member of the USSS Michael Murphy, one to a Penn State student (Murphy’s alma mater), one to the child of a Wounded Warier and one to a child of a Navy Seal who lost his life.  

Op Ed - We Are Better Than This One Year After Sandy Hook

We Are Better Than This One Year After Sandy Hook

Maureen Rossi

In 1999, I was a cub reporter and scored by first big interview with a Congresswoman for a Manhattan-based parenting magazine.    At the time I was the mother of a seven-year old girl and a five-year old boy, like every parent around the nation, I was horrified by the Columbine massacre as it spewed forth from each broadcast network on April 20, 1999.  The coverage was endless; it quantified our shock as a nation while simultaneously feeding what was to become the nation’s burgeoning thirst for the horrific.  As I entered the Nassau County office of United States Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy for my seminal interview, the first thing I saw was a photo of her late husband on her desk.   Dennis McCarthy was one of nine people killed on December 7^th in 1993 in the Long Island Railroad Massacre.  McCarthy’s son Dennis was one of the six people injured that day, his photo and a photo of his then new-born son also sat on her desk.

McCarthy was a nurse and tendered to her son as he spent well over a year in recovery, learning to walk and talk and perform day to day duties.  His mother told me that during his recovery he and one of his nurses fell in love and married; she beamed as she showed off the photo of her first grandson.  The devastating act of one madman shattered the lives of so many families twenty years ago, although distraught by the loss of her husband and by almost losing her only child; McCarthy rallied and put together a campaign.  She ran and won a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1996.   It was during the interview about guns in America and solutions to gun violence that McCarthy invited me to join her and other mothers to march on Congress on Mother’s Day in 2000.  We would be marching with the Million Mom Mom March, a grass-roots movement to demand sensible gun laws.   When I knelt at my children’s beds for evening prayers a week before the protest, I asked each of them if it was okay that I would be gone for Mother’s Day and I explained where I was hoping to go.  My daughter said ‘mommy you must go to Washington, you are a writer and you must find out why children are killing each other and let all the people know’.   Growing up as the daughter of New York Times newsman and being in the news business, I, nor my children were ever shielded from the realities of our world, we watched and discussed the news all the time. 

I rose at 5:00 a.m. on May 14, 2000 and headed to Great Neck to board a bus.  It was arranged someone (by the journalism gods or perhaps the Congresswoman) that I was to be on a bus full of families who lost a loved one due to gun violence.  For several hours I sat with each and every single person at that bus and listened to their stories.  Two beautiful dark-haired teenage girls from Nassau lost their father when his jewelry store was robbed.  Their mother sobbed uncontrollably as they told me the story, they said they were sad that their beloved father would never be able to walk them down the isle when they got married.   There was a Howard Beach mother who lost her only child on Mother’s Day the year before.  He was shot down by his best friend from kindergarten, both body-builders, the friend was taking steroids and went into a rage and shot and killed her son.  When I informed the mothers on the bus that it was the one year anniversary of Linda’s son’s death, one by one they rose and went to her and embraced her.  There wasn’t a dry eye on that bus, even the broadcast news team on the bus succumbed to the poetic sadness.  There was a woman from Douglaston whose son was one of several people shot and killed by a schizophrenic neighbor’s three day siege and there a dozen more families on that bus whose lives were shattered because of gun violence.  To this day I feel so blessed to have met these people and to have gained their trust and to have chronicled their stories.  It was a long ride to Washington, we cried together, we hugged, shared snacks and stories of our lives – we also decided to stick together during the day – we were a team.   Marching together through the streets of Washington, I kept looking back to make sure our group was together.  When we turned one corner we stopped in complete awe, there before us was the United States Capitol, a behemoth building whose mere sight demands reverence.  The lawn in front of the Capitol was littered with mothers, not the forty-thousand expected but over seven-hundred thousand mothers from around this great nation.  They were chanting and singing, they held signs demanding change and far too many held large photos of their dead children.  Many of us were jubilant, there was feeling that if American mother’s banned together, we could accomplish anything.  We came to Washington to say enough – enough of our children have died because of guns – we said, We Are Better Than This, America is better than this!   I wept with mothers from Columbine, I hugged black mothers from the South side of Chicago, I wept with suburban soccer moms, Hispanic mothers from the Barrio and mothers whose babies were shot down by well-known gangs like the Bloods, Crips and Ms-13 in drive-bys in the toughest neighborhoods in our country. 

Marching with the Million Mom March was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.  I have spent the last thirteen years writing about gun violence and interviewing local families of gun violence for many publications.   I have shot guns, I have held a stolen Tech 9 semi-automatic from the projects and I have allowed my son to shoot guns at our family’s country home.  I have also cried a million tears for all the mothers who have lost their precious children to gun violence since Columbine.  I cried for the mother’s of Virginia Tech, Aurora Colorado and I was inconsolable when the horror of Sandy Hook came across my Kings Park television.   I wish this story had a happy ending, I wish the mothers of America had kept the momentum that we had after Columbine; I wish we had stayed united.  But we went back to the many tasks that beckoned; we went back to raising our children, taking care of our elderly relatives and neighbors and volunteering in our communities.   I have no answers to the national dilemma of gun violence but I know we will be judged for generations to come for what we did not do to protect our precious children.   I know that America is a great nation and I know We Are Better Than This.

Smithtown Dish - Small Bites of Foodie News

Smithtown Dish – small bites of foodie news

By Nancy Vallarella

Last opportunities to have Brunch with Santa before he hits the skies to make his special deliveries! 

Garden Grill in Smithtown, December 22, 10:30 – 1:30 Mirabelle in Stony Brook, December 22 & 23, 10:30 – 2:30

Elegant Eating will be taking Christmas catering orders until 12/19. Stop by and pick up beautiful gift bags and baskets filled with gourmet goodies.  Something for everyone!

Take a look at What’s Cookin’?  - Smithtown’s facebook page for easy access to holiday recipes; appetizers, sweets , drinks and meals from PBS Food, A Spicy Perspective, Food & Wine, Newsday, Cooking Light and other resources.

*Editor’s note - Don’t forget gift certificates are available at local restaurants.

Board Gives Thumbs Up To Whisper Landing Assisted Living Facility

Town Board members listen to speakers at Dec.17 meetingThe proposed Whisper Landing Assisted Living Facility on 25A in Smithtown moved one step closer to fruition Tuesday. Smithtown’s Town Board voted unanimously (4-0, Supervisor Vecchio was absent) to approve the environmental review (State Environmental Quality Review Act or SEQRA)  and to grant a conditional special exception. The approval is conditioned on the BZA (Board of Zoning Appeals) approving variances. 

The application will now go to the BZA in early January. If the variances are approved, the application will go back to the Town Board when it sits as the Board of Site Plan Review. 

The vote taken today (Tuesday, Dec. 17) was not without controversy.  At the November 21 work session, board members debated the possibility of holding a public hearing to inform the community about changes made in the proposal.   In June of this year residents showed up en masse at a BZA hearing asking that the application be rejected. Since that hearing the application has been tweaked and according to Councilman McCarthy (at the November work session) the concerns of the residents have been addressed. 

The changes to the original application are extensive and include:

1. Altering the building height originally 49 ft.reduced to 35 ft. (still requires a variance) 

2. Lowering the top of the building from 112 ft above sea level to 99 ft.

3. Two 6 ft. high retaining walls replaces the proposed 12 ft. wall

4. Front porch 8 ft. deep originally 12 ft. deep

5. Bldg. will be located 205 ft. from the rear residential lot originally 185 ft.

6. Bldg. will be 105 ft. from Rte. 25A originally 125 ft.

7. Approximately 2,000 sq. ft. more steep slopes will be preserved. 

On November 21 the board  in a 3-2 vote opted not to hold another hearing.

The planned 136 bed facility will be located on approximately 13 acres on 25A and River Heights Drive. An onsite sewage treatment plant is part of the application.

There were two speakers at today’s meeting Glenn Gruder and Attorney Valerie Manzo representing resident Bill Kearney. Both Gruder and Kearney live near the proposed site. Both speakers expressed frustration with the Board’s unwillingness to allow the public to review and comment on the environmental review. Both speakers questioned the Board’s rush to vote.  

Mr. Gruder, is an attorney who specializes in land use and zoning, he emphasized the inappropriateness of the Board voting for the special exception prior to the BZA’s vote on the variances.

Earlier in the day Gruder hand delivered a letter to Town Attorney John Zollo delineating the reasons why a vote by the Town Board was not only wrong but possibly a violation of the Town Code.In his letter Gruder states, “In any event, it would not only be illogical, but also legally premature, for the Town Board to vote on the Special Exception Application before the ZBA determines its pending variance application for the same project. The Town Board application for a special exception is based upon Section 322-99 of the Town Code. Section 322-99(B) of the Town Code states (with emphasis added); Before approving such a special exception, the Town Board shall determine that the following minimum conditions are provided.” 

Gruder promises to continue his challenge in the courts if necessary and Zollo emphatically supports the legality of Board’s decision to vote on the applicant’s special exception application.