The Catherine Lindsey Actors/Playwrights Workshop is excited to announce that the Actors/Playwrights Workshop, now in its 17^th year, will present a series of workshops here at the Darien Library. The playwright participants will workshop their plays at the following sessions:

We may have been closed, but we did not stop planning interesting and exciting Library programs. We are eager to tell you all about our upcoming events! Certainly, the Grand Opening on January 10th is our biggest event. Opening our doors to the public again will be a grand day, indeed.

We are off to a running start with a Grand Opening Author Series and the return of our Friday Film Series.

We will kick off the Author Series at 5 p.m. on January 25th with a program featuring Pete Hamill . In the following weeks and months, we'll be visited by Deirdre Imus, Michael Korda, Arthur and Pauline Frommer, Christina Pugh, Ilene Beckerman and Giulia Melucci, and Randall Jones.

Also, this month, we will begin our Friday Film Series. On January 30th at 7:30 p.m., we open with The Visitor. One of the few sleeper hits of the year, this movie is showing up on lots of "Best of 2008" lists (I know it's on mine.)

We know you won't want to miss any of these memorable events! (We're already well underway planning more spring and summer events. Whatever the season, whatever the reason, we are the place. )

JANUARY 30

The Visitor

Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira
Rated PG-13; 108 minutes; (2008)

Walter, a college professor, travels to New York to attend a conference and returns to find a Syrian man and his Senegalese girlfriend living in his apartment. The couple has nowhere to go and when Walter reluctantly allows them to stay with him, they return his kindness by teaching him the exuberant rhythms of the African drum and rekindling his passion for life.

FEBRUARY 6

The Express

Dennis Quaid, Charles Dutton, Rob Brown

Rated PG; 130 minutes; (2008)

Witness the inspirational true story of a real American hero. Rising from the humblest of beginnings, Ernie Davis overcame impossible odds to become the first African-American to win college football’s greatest honor, the Heisman Trophy. His fight for equality and respect forever changed the face of American sports and his story continues to inspire.

FEBRUARY 13

Ghost Town

Greg Kinnear, Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni
Rated PG-13; 102 minutes; (2008) 

Bertram Pincus dies momentarily but is revived and finds that after his near death experience, he can now see ghosts. However, annoyingly, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy, who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen. This puts Pincus squarely in the middle of an after-life love triangle in this romantic comedy.

FEBRUARY 20

The Secret Life of Bees

Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys

Rated PG-13; 110 minutes; (2008)

Set in South Carolina in 1964, this film is the moving tale of Lily Owens, a 14-year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping, honey, and the Black Madonna.

FEBRUARY 27

Man on Wire

Documentary Feature
Rated PG-13; 90 minutes; (2008) (In English and French with English subtitles.)

This is the true story of Philippe Petit, who in 1974 committed the artistic crime of the century. He had done many illegal high wire walks before, including between the towers of Notre Dame and across the Sydney Harbor bridge, but it was his walk between the then-unfinished World Trade Center towers that brought him the most notoriety. He remembers the fateful day, along with the crew who helped him pull off this once-in-a- lifetime event.

MARCH 6

Friday Film Vote!

There are so many great new films from which to choose that we want you to have a chance to be heard! Twice during our weekly series, you’ll have the opportunity to vote for your favorite of three new films. Voters will be directed to the Darien Library website, where they will be able to read about the choices, watch film trailers, and vote for their selection. The films to be voted upon will be announced at least two weeks prior to showing. 

MARCH 13

Frozen River

Melissa Leo, Charlie McDermott, Michael O’Keefe

Rated R; 97 minutes; (2008) 

Set during the Christmas season, Frozen River is the story of a struggling mother in upstate New York who is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. She meets a Mohawk girl who lives on a reservation that straddles the U.S. - Canadian border and driven by financial hardship, they form a partnership to smuggle illegal aliens across the frozen St. Lawrence River.

MARCH 20

Mamma Mia!

Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth
Rated PG-13; 108 minutes; (2008) 

In this big screen version of the stage musical featuring the songs of ABBA, Donna is the mother to Sophie, who’s on a quest to discover the identity of her father on the eve of her wedding. Donna owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island and when three men from her past arrive unexpectedly, it is a trip down memory lane that no one will ever forget.

MARCH 27

Brick Lane

Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik

Rated PG-13; 102 minutes; (2007) 

After an arranged marriage, a young woman leaves her family in Bangladesh to live with her new husband in London. When she finds that life is not at all what she expected, she begins an affair that forces her to take control of her own life. Set against a backdrop of escalating racial tension, Brick Lane is a contemporary love story.

APRIL 3

The Duchess

Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Hayley Atwell
Rated PG-13; 110 minutes;(2008) 

A vibrant beauty and celebrity of her time, the extraordinary 18th-century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was reviled for her extravagant political and personal lives. Stuck in an unhappy marriage, she fell in love with a young politician and the affair caused a bitter conflict with her husband and threatened to erupt into a scandal.

APRIL 10

Encounters at the End of the World

 Documentary Feature
Rated G; 99 minutes; (2008) 

Director Werner Herzog becomes the first director to film on all seven continents as he takes his camera to the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station, where a hearty crew of eleven hundred people spends the austral summer. This group of researchers, scientists, and assorted adventurers shows us life at the bottom of the world, as we see that we are not as invincible or as dominant as we like to believe.

APRIL 17

Friday Film Vote!

There are so many great new films from which to choose that we want you to have a chance to be heard! Twice during our weekly series, you’ll have the opportunity to vote for your favorite of three new films. Voters will be directed to the Darien Library website, where they will be able to read about the choices, watch film trailers, and vote for their selection. The films to be voted upon will be announced at least two weeks prior to showing.

We are so happy to be back and right on schedule with our annual Friday Film Series! We'll meet in our beautiful new Community Room...and, yes, Jane will be here with cookies!

All movies begin at 7:30 p.m. Doors will open at 7. Admission is free!

A little icy rain on Sunday morning made us remember to be wary on the roads but the colder temps also reminded us that we've got 99 hats and scarves on their way to the Domestic Violence Crisis Center. Our shout-out for helping hands for our 3rd annual knit-a-thon, brought the community together -- teens, adults, and children -- and their needles together, resulting in 52 hats and 47 scarves, which will be delivered to the shelters run by the Crisis Center. We put our hands together for you! Thank you so much! We look forward to offerering more opportunites to serve the community. Read about the enthusiasm that's already building for our new teen space!