We will screen A LATE QUARTET in our Community Room April 5

Friday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – A Late Quartet (2012) Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, and Catherine Keener; Rated R; 107 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

On the eve of a world renowned string quartet’s 25th anniversary season, their beloved cellist, Peter Mitchell, is diagnosed with the early symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. When Peter announces he wishes to make the upcoming season his last, his three colleagues find themselves at a crossroad. Competing egos and uncontrollable passions threaten to derail years of friendship and collaboration.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Hitchcock (2013) Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, and Scarlet Johansson; Rated PG-13; 98 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

This film lays bare the captivating and complex love story between Alfred Hitchcock and his steadfast wife and filmmaking collaborator, Alma Reville. It does so through the sly, shadowy lens of their most daring filmmaking adventure: the making of the spine-tingling 1960 thriller, Psycho, which would become the director’s most controversial and legendary film.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Playing for Keeps (2012) Starring Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel; Rated PG-13; 105 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

This romantic comedy follows a charming, down-on-his luck former soccer star who returns home to put his life back together. Looking for a way to rebuild his relationship with his son, he gets roped into coaching the boy’s soccer team. But his attempts to finally become an adult are met with hilarious challenges from the attractive soccer moms who pursue him at every turn.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – The Impossible (2012) Starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts; Rated PG-13; 114 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Maria, Henry and their three sons begin their winter vacation in Thailand, looking forward to a few days in tropical paradise. But on the morning of December 26th, as the family relaxes around the pool after their Christmas festivities the night before, a terrifying roar rises up from the center of the earth. As Maria freezes in fear, a huge wall of black water races across the hotel grounds toward her. This film is the unforgettable account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

All films are free and open to the public.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Lynne Byrne photography

April 22nd through May 28th

Artist's Reception Friday, May 17th at 6:00 p.m.

Lynne Byrne’s unique photographic imagery offers a glimpse of the everyday miracles seen in our natural environment. The photographer uses natural light, and close up photography to explore the intricate textures, surfaces, reflections and variations in color that often go unnoticed until we take a longer, closer, more deliberate look at the world around us.

Douglas Kennedy

Tuesday, May 21 at 7 p.m.

Douglas Kennedy, author of Five Days, will be our featured speaker.

Forty-two-year-old Laura spends her days looking at other people’s potential calamities. She works in the radiography unit of a small hospital on the Maine coast, scanning and x-raying frightened patients. In a job where finding nothing is always the best result, she is well versed in the random unfairness of life, a revelation that has started to affect her personally. Her husband Dan has become a stranger since losing his job eighteen months ago and she feels the distance is only growing between them. Her son, a promising artist, is in college, and her vivacious seventeen-yearold daughter is set to leave home within the year. Laura begins to wonder if her impending empty nest will only deepen the disconnected state of her marriage.

So when the opportunity arises for her to spend the weekend at a radiography conference in Boston, Laura jumps at the chance. She’ll be on her own for 72 hours for the first time since her children were born—and she revels in her temporary escape.

Praise for Five Days

“With Five Days, Douglas Kennedy has crafted a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances that will have you breathlessly turning pages to find out what happened in the past and what will happen next. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, it is a powerful new work of fiction by an internationally acclaimed writer at the height of his powers.” —Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club

About the Author

Douglas Kennedy is the author of ten previous novels, including the international bestseller The Moment. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages, and in 2007 he received the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Books will be available for purchase at this event. Refreshments will be served.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Catherine Lindsey Workshop Auditions

The Catherine Lindsey Actors/Playwrights Workshop, now in its 21st 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 9.

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

Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 9 at 7 p.m.

Rehearsals will then take place in late May through the performance in June. Directors are looking specifically for the following, but auditions are open to all:

- 2 males in their 70s

- 2 males in their 40s

- 1 male in his 20s

- 1 female in her 40s

On Sunday, June 9   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:

442: Go for Broke by Louis DiGiusto

Lenny and Freddy by Kathleen A. Bernadette

Dear Eva by Paul Janensch and Catherine Ladnier

His Play by Michael Blevins

A Tasting Menu by Mary Ellen Murphy

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.