Interested in memoir writing? On Friday January 15, Lary Bloom and Suzanne Levine begin a six-week course at Chester Village West, and still have two openings for last-minute registration.
The cost is $300, and includes lunch. Class runs 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Call Chester Village West at 860.526.6800 for more information.
Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge visited Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek on Thursday, December 10th to discuss his new book The Test of Our Times.
Chester’s Lary Bloom co-authored the book with Ridge.
Links:
Test of Our Times on Amazon.com
Click for Ridge's Book on Amazon
In the harrowing days after 9/11, Tom Ridge was given the task by the White House of protecting America from further terrorist attacks. It was a singularly daunting task – as outlined in his new book, “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege and How We Can Be Safe Again.”
Ridge will talk about the book at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, in Chester, on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in a free program open to the public. A signing and reception will follow.
The book, written with Lary Bloom, of Chester, has been critically acclaimed. Stephen Brill, author and founder of Court TV, writes, “Tom Ridge’s inside account of the rock-and-a-hard-place choices our country had to make in the aftermath of 9-11 is a great read – and an eye-opening tour through the thicket of policy, bureaucratic and political hurdles a robust democracy faces when it confronts these choices.”
Washington Times columnist Tony Blankley writes the book is “a shrewd, unsparingly honest assessment of the mistakes and successes of the author and the rest of the Bush Administration’s homeland security efforts. Even more valuable, it provides vital, specific guidance to the current administration and the public on securing our country while protecting our freedoms.”
Among Ridge’s prescriptions for improving American security are some surprising measures, including a few that he will focus on during his Chester appearance. He is particularly concerned about U.S. relations with the Muslim world. He believes that there can be no real American security without economic and cultural partnerships with societies we haven’t traditionally embraced. At the same time, he argues that Israel’s security – a great priority for him – will not be threatened but such partnerships, but enhanced.
Ridge came to the post of Secretary of Homeland Security after seven years as governor of Pennsylvania, and, for twelve years before that, a congressman from the state. He also served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, and was the recipient of two Bronze Stars for heroism.
Ridge’s Chester appearance is part of the synagogue’s long-running Books & Bagels Series. Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek is located at 55 East Kings Highway in Chester. The program is free, but the synagogue asks that reservations be made. Please call 860.526.8920.
From a press release provided by Claudia Van Nes:
Lary Bloom came home from his tour of duty in Viet Nam safely. His close childhood buddy from their days growing up together in Cleveland did not.
An Air Force navigator and a new husband, Harmon Polster was not found after his plane went down. He flew into the Blue Yonder, ending up in the Wild Black Yonder which is the name of the play Bloom has written four decades later taking his inspiration from Harmon’s disappearance.
The play, to be performed at the Katharine Hepburn Theater Nov. 12 through 15, is about the cost of war particularly on those who live on after a loved one is declared Missing in Action. Bloom, a Chester resident, whose career was in journalism and who has written several books and plays, has found a way to deal with it through writing this play.
But the play wasn’t even on paper when Jeanie Rapp from Deep River, who directed one of Bloom’s earlier plays, “Worth Avenue’’ came along. She needed another full length drama out of Bloom so she could debut it Nov. 12, the time she had been given to stage a production at the new “Kate,’’ as the Katharine Hepburn Theater in Old Saybrook is already known.
Rapp says, “I saw Lary at the gym and I jumped off the treadmill and said to him “I need a play from you for November.’’ That was April.
But Bloom spent a lot of years with Harmon on his mind and had in fact spent time researching the impact of Harmon’s and others’ disappearance while serving in the armed forces in Viet Nam, thinking there might be a book in it. Besides, he’d worked in daily journalism when quick turnaround time is an imperative.
As of three weeks before the debut, Bloom jokes he’d just finished his “637th revision.’’
Meanwhile , Rapp, a Deep River resident, who always “dreamed of having a theater company and now does, called Margreta Stage Company, was also teaching adult acting classes in Essex. Last winter, she welcomed as a student Janet Peckinpaugh, the former Connecticut news anchor who’d recently moved to Essex.
Peckinpaugh, who grew up in Canton, Ohio, had her own long-help dreams – of being an actress. “I wanted to be a theater major in college but my parents wouldn’t let me and they were paying. I left it behind begrudgingly,” she says.
She was lonely when she moved to Essex with her son away at college for the first time and “I signed up for Jeanie’s six-week course,” says Peckinpaugh.
With considerable trepidation, this summer Peckinpaugh auditioned for the part of the coincidentally named Janet, the widow of the missing pilot in Wild Black Yonder and “she blew us away. She has real natural instincts,’’ says Rapp.
“Doing this is beyond my wildest dreams,’’ says Peckinpaugh who can be seen in the Wild Black Yonder, Nov. 12 through 14 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. at the Kate.
On opening night, Jonathan Rapp, Jeanie’s husband and owner of the River Tavern in Chester, will serve food and wine after the performance. Wine will be offered on the other two nights.
To learn more or reserve seats, call 877-503-1286 or go to:katharinehepburntheater.org. Tickets are $25.
Links:
Katherine Hepburn Theater
Lary Bloom’s Website
