Weather permitting, on Friday, July 8, from 11 a.m. to noon, the Darien Summer Strings will be performing in the Library's Courtyard.

The Darien Summer Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Jane Minnis, is an ensemble of 20 middle school and high school string players. The group performs classical and popular music favorites at local venues, including Darien Farmer's Market, the Bridgeport Bluefish games, and right here Darien Library!

We happily welcome them back to Darien Library for this special summertime treat. 

Please come by for some great music, linger by the fountain, and enjoy the refreshing sounds of these talented young musicians. 

Don't miss out on Darien's very own Farmers' Market. You'll find fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, jams and jellies, and more! Every Wednesday until December 21. Mechanic Street, behind the Fire Department.

This summer at Darien Library, take part in a Beat-the-Heat Challenge – we are working to complete the world's largest commercially sold puzzle! (Keith Haring: Double Retrospect)

The Kick-off!
Saturday, June 18

10 AM -- Ribbon-cutting
2 PM -- Cake and coffee

(Child-friendly puzzles will be available all day in the Community Room.)

Below is a schedule of Puzzling events to be held this summer at the Library: 

Sunday Family Puzzle Days
Every Sunday, 1 – 5pm
Here is a project the entire family can enjoy! Join us for these intergenerational puzzle times.

Senior Saturdays
Every Saturday, 9 – 5pm
Beat the heat with a relaxing day spent building the puzzle, and meet others with similar puzzling interests. It’s the perfect way to keep the mind, body, and soul active.

Puzzle Potlucks
Thursday, July 7 at 7 PM
Thursday, August 11 at 7 PM
It’s Girls’ Night Out at Darien Library! Gather all of your friends for an evening of puzzling, and help us complete the world's largest commercially sold puzzle. We provide the wine, you provide the snacks.

Teen Puzzle Challenge
Tuesday, July 19 at 3 PM
Hey Teens, are you good at puzzles and love competition? Join us for some healthy puzzle competition, food, and fun. The person who gets the most pieces in the correct place in this giant puzzle during the duration of the program wins an iTunes gift card! Refreshments will be served. 

Film Screening of Puzzle
Friday, August 5 at 7:30pm
Maria del Carmen is a forty-something housewife whose only concern over the past twenty years has been the well-being of her husband and of her now grown-up kids. Lost in her life, she receives a puzzle for her birthday and discovers a talent for jigsaw-solving, which opens up a whole new world of people, places, and purpose. Not Rated. Run Time: 90 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.

To watch the film's trailer, please click here.

Check Out Our Website
Every Tuesday, June 21 – August 19
Visit darienlibrary.org for our DL Puzzler blog of the week, full of interesting facts, trivia, and tips for helping us reach our goal. We’re covering everything related to our puzzle project, from Keith Haring and how a puzzle is manufactured to the health benefits of puzzling and books with puzzle themes.

Follow Our Hashtag On Twitter - #DLPuzzler
We will be keeping you up to date on our Puzzle Contest throughout the summer. Follow #DLPuzzler on Twitter for notes on our progress in completing the world's largest commercially sold puzzle.


Connect the Puzzle, Win Great Prizes!
We appreciate your help, and we are rewarding important puzzle milestones with gift cards to Uncle’s Brain Food Café!
- Four corner finders
- First to complete a full panel

And the first 100 puzzle-challenge participants will receive a puzzle keychain
donated by Darien Toy Box!

For more information about the puzzle and the the challenge, please click here. For puzzle strategy and tips, please click here.

Co-sponsored by:

Revealing the mysteries of "tweet-up" and hashtag, and adding the camaraderie of book-love = FridayReads with Lisa Adams! FridayReads is a global community of thousands of readers who come together online using Twitter each week to share whatever they're reading. Please stop by on Friday, June 17th, between 10 and 11:30 a.m., for a special FridayReads event, FridayReads! with Lisa Adams. It's a "tweet-up"!

Also this summer, help us set a world record!  Join the Darien Library Community and let's complete Keith Haring: Double Retrospect (pictured above), the largest jigsaw puzzle in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records! We are going for the records! We'll begin on Saturday, June 18th, with a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. and cake and coffee at 2 p.m.  Also, the first 100 participants will win a puzzle key chain donated by The Darien Toy Box! For all the details, please click here.

To keep up with all Darien Library events, click here.

Live at Darien Library!

FridayReads! with Lisa Adams

Friday, June 17, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

What are you reading? Tell everyone what you're reading and find out what's trending in the reading world!

FridayReads is a global community of thousands of readers who come together online using Twitter each week to share whatever they're reading. The goal is simple: to raise reading's visibility and encourage more people to join in! Come by the Library on Friday, June 17th between 10 and 11:30 a.m. and let us know what you're reading and we'll share it! Lisa Adams, a Darien resident, master tweeter, and a champion for #fridayreads,  will be here LIVE...it's a "tweet-up"!

FridayReads is a hashtag on Twitter. Every Friday, thousands of people post what they are reading with the FridayReads hashtag (#fridayreads). If you have a Twitter account, all you have to do is type in the title of whatever you are reading and at the end, type #fridayreads.

Also note that #fridayreads will be a regular part of our Adult Summer Reading Program! Join us on Fridays as we "tweet" what we are reading each week, and follow #fridayreads on Twitter to see what others are reading, as well.

FridayReads was invented by Bethanne Patrick, who is a published author and a voracious reader. She is an Editor at Shelf Awareness, an e-newsletter that is a must for anyone in the book industry or, frankly, anyone who loves books.

To learn more about FridayReads, visit fridayreads.blogspot.com or please, click here.

Along with April showers, Westchester Broadway Theatre (WBT) is making a giant, indoor splash with its spectacular musical, “Singin’ In The Rain.” 

Folks will likely recall that this stage musical began with the 1952 film featuring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor.  Others may be familiar with replayed segments of Kelly’s famous rain scene and O’Connor’s startling tap-tumble while running straight up a wall.  It’s hard to beat film technology but with an exciting cast and brilliant choreography by Richard Stafford, this live production comes pretty close.

The story is about a silent film company trying to convert to talkies.  The problem is that its leading lady, “Lina Lamont” (wonderfully played by Allie Schauer) has a high-pitched voice similar to “Betty-Boop’s.”  Song and dance men “Don” (Jeremy Benton) and “Cosmo” (Cody Williams) recruit newcomer “Kathy” (Shannon O’Brian) to dub in her voice for Lena’s in the film -- without informing the star.  This triggers amusing tensions on the set and between the two women.  Meanwhile, an on and off romance develops between Don and Kathy and naturally, everything works out in the end.  

Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the screenplay with songs by Nacio Brown and Arthur Freed.  It’s hard to list the most popular ones as each song is gem: “Fit As A Fiddle,” “All I Do Is Dream of you,” “You Are My Lucky Star,” etc. etc.  

At WBT the main characters are highly polished professionals supported by a large, chorus of singing/dancers.  Benton and Williams are outstanding tap dancers and O’Bryan is a beautiful songbird.  Yes, there is real rain, a lighted lamppost, and with some slight changes in staging, Benton performs splashingly.

Astonishing are the expensive, fur and chiffon costumes provided by Costume World Theatrical and designer Gail Baldoni.  This dazzling production, accompanied by a live orchestra under John Daniels and Von Ann Stutler, is truly Broadway quality entertainment.  Adding to this luxury experience are the dinner theatre’s numerous meal and drink selections, courteous staff, and free parking.

Plays through June 12

"A Steady Rain," is about two cops, in a big city, who are consistently passed over for promotion because of character flaws.  “Joey” (Kyle Fabel) has a drinking problem and “Denny” (Aaron Weiner) a bigot with a runaway mouth, behaves on impulse and has a tendency to get the two of them into trouble. The men know each other since high school, are partners on patrol, and closely associate both on and off duty.

The story deals with an inner city, multi-ethnic society -- where people live on the edge of life, and the cops who try to control them.The irony is that the cops also live in the fast lane and cannot control themselves.   The consequences of fate and inept behavior lead to the self-destruction of one partner and the redemption of the other.

Writer Keith Huff craftily moves the suspenseful story forward by having the two cops take turns transitioning from narrator to actor.  Under the direction of Tazewell Thompson, Fabel and Weiner accomplish this technique quite smoothly.  While the pace is a little too fast, making the main point of the play difficult to digest and the impact less meaningful, the contrasting characters, one a blustering bum the other more sensitive and laid back are very believable.  If you like police action stories on the style of “Starsky and Hutch,” this one is for you.

 Plays until May 8, 2011. Box Office: 860-527-7838

http://www.theaterworkshartford.org/

On Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Darien Health Department in conjunction with the Darien Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. 

Bring your medications for disposal to the Darien Transfer Station & Town Garage at Ledge Rd. 

The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

For all the details, click on the attachment below.

Acting Auditions: Catherine Lindsey Memorial Actors/Playwrights Workshop Series at Darien Library             

The Catherine Lindsey Actors/Playwrights Workshop, now in its 19^th year, will be holding acting auditions for roles in their public performances. The playwriting workshops began in February and will conclude with a public performance at the Library on Sunday, June 12.

Acting auditions will take place in the Library’s Conference Room at the following sessions:

Tuesday, May 10 at 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 19 at 7 p.m.

Rehearsals will then take place on the following dates:

Sunday, June 5 from 1 to 5 p.m. (In the Conference Room and the Community Room)

Monday, June 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. (In the Conference Room)

Tuesday, June 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. (In the Conference Room and the Community Room)

Wednesday, June 8 from 6 to 9 p.m. (In the Conference Room and the Community Room)

Thursday, June 9 from 6 to 9 p.m. (In the Conference Room and the Community Room)

Friday, June 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (In the Conference Room and the Community Room)

On Sunday, June 12 at 2 p.m., the Actors/Playwrights Workshop will present the public-staged reading of selections from the plays in the Library’s Community Room.

The plays selected for performance by the Darien Library Committee are:

Dream Catcher  by Marlene Gaylinn

The Trouble with Rhonda by Bob Liftig

The Family Room by Bob Lindsey

E.R. by Jill Sapenoff

The Vatican by Joe Starzyk

An Untitled Me by June Whittaker

The Actors/Playwrights Workshop welcomes Actors’ Equity actors and non-Equity actors to participate, brings together local and regional playwrights and actors, and encourages a collaborative effort to create new plays and present a public-staged reading. Co-founded by the late Catherine Lindsey and her husband Robert, the workshop introduces original plays in progress to be developed in a workshop environment with the goal of the public-staged readings. Catherine Lindsey was a beloved friend of the Library and director of Darien Library Theater for over 25 years. The memorial workshops offer actors and playwrights the opportunity to work together to create original theatrical works in a supportive and creative environment culminating in the staged readings of short scenes from full-length plays, one-act plays, musicals, and monologues.

The Actors/Playwrights Workshop welcomes all interested playwrights and actors (Equity and Non-Equity), with or without experience, to join. For more information, contact Robert Cusack at (203) 655-7699 or at robert.cusack1@att.net.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks refused orders to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Though not the first, this individual action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a movement in support of civil rights that eventually led to outlawing segregation throughout the state.

It was an incredibly courageous action by an incredibly inspiring person, who went on to symbolize the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. When Rosa Parks made it clear that enough was enough, she could not have forseen how much change her momentary, individual decision was to bring, and how much better the world is that we live in now - because she wasn't afraid to take a stand.

See how each of us can make a difference?

On Friday, April 29th, please join Darien Library as we take a Stand Against Racism. The Stand Against Racism is a movement of the YWCA, with the goal of bringing people together from all walks of life - across the country - to help eliminate racism.The YWCA Darien/Norwalk, along with 60 YWCA's and approximately 1,500 organizations, will celebrate diversity and raise awareness that racism still exists and should not be tolerated.

Click here for more information on the events we have planned throughout the week. And stop by to visit the various displays of books, audiobooks, and DVDs that will encourage you to join the movement.