Voices from Ukraine to America come to Stissing Center July 27
Ukraine Emergency Fundraiser at The Stissing Center in 2022 raised over $120,000 for Sunflower of Peace.
Photo by Michael Churton
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Celebrating its 45th year, the Grumbling Gryphons will perform at HVRHS Friday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.
Photo provided
“We’re a touring company that is participatory,” Elias said with her trademark storytelling cadence. “Even when there’s no pre-performance workshop, it’s still participatory. Always.”
Founded in 1980 “in a little basement apartment on the lower east side with co-founder Vanessa Roe,” said Elias,Grumbling Gryphons (recipients of the 2003 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award) has long occupied a unique niche: part performance troupe, part educational outreach, part community ritual. Whether dramatizing Greek myths, Native American legends, or original tales about bees and bogs, the company’s ethos centers on inclusion, transformation, and hands-on engagement.
This summer’s camp offers children ages six and up five fast-paced days of storytelling, acting, mask-making, and rehearsal. The first three days will take place at Elias’s own home studio — a tucked-away space filled with costumes, puppets, and instruments — before moving into full performance prep mode.
“In the ideal world, we would have more time,” she laughed. “It’s a lot of pressure to be performing for the public after five days. But we’re going to do our best.”
The gala performance, she explained, is a kind of theatrical mosaic — scenes and excerpts from Grumbling Gryphons’ vast repertoire, some showcasing seasoned adult performers and others giving campers center stage. The cast will include returning campers, newcomers, and guest artists drawn from the Gryphons’ decades-spanning circle of collaborators including mask maker and artist Ellen Moon.
“We’re still figuring out exactly what we’ll do,” said Elias, “but it’s kind of like a smorgasbord… a celebration. And it’s open — if anybody wants to get their kids involved, or even volunteer, we welcome you.”
Photo provided
Elias’s own theater background winds through early improvisational schools, Viennese dance traditions, and experimental spaces like Henry Street Settlement. As a child on Long Island, she studied with jazz pianist Ivan Fiedel and dancer Rosalind Fiedel, eccentric mentors who nurtured her taste for the surreal and spontaneous.
“Mr. Fiedel was a character,” she recalled. “He would smoke a cigar… and take the cigar in his ear and the smoke would come out the other end. I don’t know how he did it.”
Elias built Grumbling Gryphons with this sense of magic — not as a traditional company, but as a living, evolving story in itself. Whether working with preschoolers or middle-schoolers, audiences in botanical gardens or historic town halls, the Gryphons invite kids to become creators — to chant, to improvise, to embody archetypes from ancient lore or environmental parables.
And that’s what this summer’s camp and gala are all about. “It’s more than theater,” Elias said. “It’s myth, poetry, movement — it’s about building self-esteem, imagination. It’s about transformation.”
For more information, to register a child for the 2025 Summer Theater Camp, or to inquire about volunteering, visit grumblinggryphons.org
Savannah Stevenson and Avery Hope in rehearsal for “Annie” at Sharon Playhouse.
Photo by Aly Morrissey
Carl Andress expressed his deep appreciation and love for this show, having seen the original production when he was only six years old. He also expressed his excitement in working with the same creative team as last year’s “The Prom.”
Above, the full company of “Annie” at Sharon Playhouse.Photo by Aly Morrissey
“We really have a rhythm and a camaraderie, and we work together well. It’s a wonderful collaboration,” he said. This will be the first time that “Annie” has come to the Olsen Theater.
“What makes ‘Annie’ so unique is that it’s not only a heartwarming story for kids — it also carries a profound resonance for adults. Its humor and themes of hope, resilience, and the search for family speak to us all, regardless of age,” Andress wrote in a press release.
Andress also said the Playhouse was honored to work with William Berloni, a renowned animal trainer who trained the original Sandy in the first production of “Annie.” Berloni has assisted with animal behavior and training on many stage and television productions. “It’s really wonderful to get to work with him on this production, and see him honored for his work with rescues and animals,” Andress said.
The Playhouse’s season will follow “Annie” with “Sylvia,” a comedic and heartwarming play by A.R. Gurney opening Aug. 29. Tickets and info available at www.sharonplayhouse.org
