King and Queen of the One-Liners Fill WPPAC with Rapid Fire Laughter

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WPCNR Fourth Row, Left Center. Review by John F. Bailey. March 10, 2004: It Had to Be You,  starring America’s last traveling acting couple, Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna won over a packed house at the White Plains Performing Arts Center at Wednesday Matinee, with their, fast-talking, great-line-every-20 seconds, road-show comedy reminiscent of Ben Hecht’s The Front Page, and The Man Who Came To Dinner . Taylor and Bologna or Bologna and Taylor rivet the audience, because you don’t want to miss a line. You’re laughing every 10 seconds after Ms. Taylor takes the spotlight, at her, at him, at love’s mystery.


 



MAE WEST AND CARY GRANT RETURN TO THIS STAGE: Just 4 performances left. Photo by WPCNR StageCam.



Ms. Taylor’s  creation of Thea B-L-E-A-U-GH  (pronounced bl-OWH!), the lines she gives her and the way she acts her  is one of Broadway’s great character creations taking the place in the Character Hall of Fame with such hilarious, lovable boors as Sheridan Whiteside,  Mame, Felix Unger, Oscar Madison, and, in movies, Woody Allen’s  Broadway Danny Rose.



 


As Joe Bologna’s character Vito Pinioli says, in Act II,  “When a Theatregoer puts down his money for a ticket to a comedy, he wants to laugh” that is what the WPPAC audience gets to do, despite themselves.


 


From the opening houselight dim, IHTBY is fast fast fast, naturally funny, not a polite laugh needed, and it is not excessively off-color comedy. It uses every gimmick, (frozen pants is one), except a pie-in-the-face to wring a laugh from the audience. Laughs just spill out naturally, the mark of masterful comedy writing. You simply can’t stop yourself.


 


The comedy written by Taylor and Bologna, first performed in 1981, has been upgraded to contemporary references and delivers rapid fire, wise guy lines between two real and vulnerable people that we haven’t seen since the 30s, when screwball comedy was the king. I say, after seeing IHTBY, let’s bring screwball comedy back.  You never laugh politely at the lines in this play, you laugh naturally!


 


The two versatile pros are completely in-character, hardworking, with utter believability to the audience in the Christmas tale of Thea who turns an audition for a televison commercial into a romance with a cab-ride, a locked door, an incredulous playreading of just a few of her 30-or so manuscripts of her own play  about Sasha, the greatest Russian comedy writer.


 


These manuscripts are hidden about her apartment and, after seducing him, she pleads with Vito to hear her treatment of a particular scene to prevent him from leaving. (The playreading scene cleverly mocks Chekov). Sasha is a great Russian comedy writer being tortured by the Czar, and that is the scene she reads in a comedy, you understand.  


 


In Act II, when Vito is trying any way he can to leave the apartment, Thea’s winning personality works miracles on the middle aged roué, Vito Pinioli in a most ingenious, quirky, believable way.


 


Their fight in Act II is one of the stage’s great fights between romantic protagonists, artfully delivered to wrest ever laugh that’s in it.  Mr. Bologna’s “ballet of derisive gestures” causes the staid audience of “White Plains Most Dignifed” to erupt in convulsive laughter.


 


The two playwrights do a wicked sendup of collaborative play-writing in Act II, so good you wish they’d write a play about that, too, next.


 


Pathos? Feeling? You want that too. It’s there is a superbly right-on scene when Mr. Bologna makes a phone call he has been putting off a long time. It brings tears to the audience eye at what the magic of love can do.


 


Can a woman change your life in one night? Impossible, you say. This play shows the romantic in us how one determined woman can do it.


 


Thea is everybody’s ne’er-do-well aunt, down on her luck, needing a job, without anyone in her life and it’s Christmas Eve. She has your heart from her opening line, “I’m Thea Blow, and this is my love story,” as she steps into the spotlight and never leaves it.


 


 


The writing gives you the setup most cleverly, having Thea tell you about her stage in life as she steps into a spotlight for a television commercial audition, and monologues to the impatient disembodied voice of the commercial director (done to perfection by “Mr. Disembodied Voice”). She groans about how she really needs this job, the way casters see her (“I’m not seen as new.”), her body  (“I’m 5-2 and becoming sexy”), and says her agent just died. Ms. Taylor is funnier in this 7 minute “audition” that Jay Leno is in a week of monologues. So funny she attracts Vito, the creative Director’s attention who consoles her. Hence the cabride and the Christmas Eve romance that unfolds. The comedy mystique begins.


 


Thea takes Vito to her apartment, seduces him then does not let him leave. In the course of two hours she entertains, angers, amuses, confounds, and touches him and brings out “the writer” in the man that lurks behind a man pretending to be happy. She even convinces him to do something he has wanted to do for a long time through her own Molly Goldberg-type genuineness of feeling. How two actors deliver this is the old play’s magic.


 


Why are old plays done again and again. Because they are timeless and, as Mr. Bologna’s character remarks in a clever sendup of playwrighting, they are funny.


 


The art of comedy is making the incomprehensible plausible and funny, and getting you into caring about the characters, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Bologna have bottled that elixir of laughter, and open it and let it work its mirthful mischief.


 


SideBit Sendups Seamless


 


Bologna & Taylor,  drive their ode to serendipitous romance that effortlessly captured the hearts of the senior romantics in the Matinee audience, as well as the cynical isolated hardboiled reporter.


 


They do it the way the masters did it,  with great sidebar running gags, such as Bologna’s repeated calls to his limo man to pick him up (“You wait three hours for them to arrive, then they honk”), his ode to the art of making television commercials that he feels movie directors can’t touch (“They’ve got 2 hours, I’ve got 30 seconds”), and Thea’s obsession with health food. They bring to life the foibles, dreams and dashed hopes of all in their timeless identity with the humanity and the dreams of any audience, young or old.


 


Bologna acts out  backpain in a most hilarious manner. Bologna has his own comic persona, debonair as Cary Grant, manic as Sid Ceasar, as sarcastic as Tony Randall, as pompous as Tony Roberts, as timely as Milton Berle in delivery.


 


Sometimes it takes a pro to show the young comics how to segue punchlines right on so you hear the joke, seamlessly, a talent many of today’s younger actors simply do not have. They tell the joke too fast, swallow the payoff line and wonder why the audience does not laugh. Bologna and Taylor act and are their jokes and you hang on every nuanced delivery. There are no flat jokes in this play.


 


IHTBY does that all the way, laughing all the way, from the posters on the set of her apartment for Thea’s forgettable roles of the past( “The Ice Capades Strangler” and “Bride of the Vampire.”) to the hilarious sight gag at the end that breaks up the audience.


 


Mae West and Cary Grant Return to the Stage.


 


If you’re looking for a parallel in filmdom, consider the incongruous pairing of debonair  Cary Grant and the legendary Mae West in She Done Him Wrong (I think that was the picture).


 


Taylor’s Thea recreates the indulgent, inviting, earthy directness of the immortal Mae West seducing Mr. Bologna’s Cary Grant type, as personality, honesty and understanding and substance and guile  triumph over Vito’s preoccupation with younger, nubile women, materialism, superficiality. The pair have written and setup a winning combination of character motivations.


 


It Had To Be You plays for just four more performances at the White Plains Performing Arts Center at 8 tonight, Friday and Saturday and Sunday Matinee.


For Ticket Availabilities, dial 1-888-977-2250 and will play for many more across this country for people who go to the theatre to put their money down and laugh – a lot.

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Robinson’s Wake Draws 1,000. Renaming of Ferris Avenue urged.

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Reveille. By John F. Bailey. March 11, 2004 UPDATED: A throng of mourners estimated at 1,000 persons gathered in the Slater Center Wednesday evening to show respect for Jerome Robinson, “The Leader of the Band” as he rested in state at the Thomas H. Slater Center, which he along with the late Bob Snipes and Ronald Jackson, were instrumental in establishing twenty-five years ago. Funeral service for Mr. Robinson will he celebrated at 11 A.M. today at Mount Hope A.M.E. Zion Church at 65 Lake Street. The Thomas Slater Drum Corps will as part of the proceedings play “Taps” to say a last farewell.


 



 


SLATER CENTER OVERFLOW CROWD PAYS THEIR RESPECTS TO JEROME ROBINSON:  A big, strong, silent man who moved with a presence and a dignity that commanded respect, Robinson still holds that sway over Black and White White Plains community more than a week after his passing. It is the first time ever that a city-owned building has been the site of a Wake, because Mr. Robinson helped to found it. Photo by WPCNR News..


 


More than a “Leader of the Band,” Jerome Robinson was a leader of young men and women. When he saw a young person straying from the straight and narrow, he did not pass by, he went in and talked that young man or woman out of it, remembers Ronald Jackson, his close personal friend.


 


 



AT THE CLOSE OF WEDNESDAY EVENING’S WAKE, two youngsters lingered as Jerome Robinson lay in state. The Slater Hall was filled wall-to-wall with White Plains citizens saying farewell.  Many  stood up at the microphone and reminisced about Mr. Robinson’s service to the community. Photo by WPCNR News.


 


 


 



 


A Compadre Remembers: Last night with Mayor Joseph Delfino and the Common Council looking on, Ron Jackson, Robinson’s lifelong friend called for renaming Ferris Avenue, Jerome Robinson Avenue and the audience of mourners burst into applause. Shown last Saturday,  a heart-broken  Ron Jackson, whom WPCNR has saddled with the sobriquet of “The Last Activist” for his being the only African-American who consistently speaks out on issues facing the minority community, reminisced about his friend of 40 years at the City Limits. Jackson said Robinson was a White Plains original, a graduate of White Plains High School, employed at the Youth Bureau prior to his being appointed Director of the Community Action Program.  Photo by WPCNR News.


 


The first thoughts Jackson had were of Robinson’s anonymous philanthropy, and commitment to going in and doing things, take hunger:


 


“Three times a year food would come to Winbrook, Ferris Avenue to help families in need. He went out and solicited those donations,” Jackson said, his bushy eyebrows rising, his eyes melancholy. “He was a pioneer in taking care of senior citizens, and shut-ins.”


 


Jackson said that Robinson was a percussionist, and hit upon the concept of creating the Thomas Slater Drum Corps as an instrument of restoring pride and discipline in youth who had neither pride nor discipline. Ron recalled that the band was totally Robinson’s idea, right down to creating the cadences, the snappy routines the Corps is known for throughout the county.


 


The Dream Team Remembered. Founder of the Slater Center


 


Robinson was an organizer, Jackson said. He remembered when he, Jerome and Bob Snipes, (deceased) worked together in the times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, and were known as “The Dream Team.”


 


Twentyfive years ago, Mr. Jackson was Chairman of the White Plains Housing Authority, and a community advocate.  Mr. Snipes was President of the Winbrook Tenants Council, and Mr. Robinson was chair of the Community Action Program. Together the trio worked to create the Thomas H. Slater Center.


 


Robinson organized, ran, and promoted the Ferris Avenue summer basketball tournament where hundreds go to watch basketball action in the summers.


 


“When you call me The Last Activist,” Jackson told this reporter. “You are now right. I cannot fill Jerome’s shoes. Hopefully someone will come along and walk in his footsteps, keep the Drum Corps alive.”


 


A Very Cool Attitude


 


“Bump was always reaching out to youth, interacting with them. He was instrumental in promoting a sense of the stronger qualities, what he called “The Avenue of Reality,” Jackson said, reaching for the right way to describe Robinson’s charismatic hold on the youth with whom he worked. “Jerome always used to tell them, whatever you do be good at what you. Be a good soldier.”


 


 


Steve Morton, the ace free lance photographer and Technical Director for Suburbanstreet.com said Robinson was a quiet observer, who when he saw something or someone doing or acting wrong would let them know in no uncertain terms what he thought, and told you exactly what he would do to you if you persisted in the irresponsible behavior.


 



JEROME ROBINSON: He had credibility. Photo, Courtesy, Slater Center


 


Morton said Robinson stood up to youth, and delivered an aura of quiet, righteous cleansing power, a hero in his own community who inspired commitment, demanded achievement, and changed young lives.


 


“He’d sit and watch you carefully,” Morton said, “and when he’d had enough, he’d come over, pull you out and talk straight up to you and get you in line. He’d say, I’ll kick your posterior. It worked.”


 


For Mr. Morton’s personal tribute to Mr. Robinson, go to suburbanstreet.com.


 


His Death a Trumpet Call for the African-American Community.


 


Jackson said last week’s gathering of 40 African-American and community leaders in the Mayor’s office the day before Mr. Robinson’s death, was an historic moment in White Plains. He said this has never happened before.


 


 Bump, Jackson said, had not been feeling well Wednesday and felt he could not go, only to experience the heart attack which killed him the very next day.


 


Jackson noted that the committee formed to develop a community affair commemorating Black Heritage last week, was what he hoped would be the start of something big and meaningful and transform the African-American community into a strong political force.


 


Jackson noted that the many African-American leaders need to continue a dialogue with the city and stand up and be heard for the rebuilding of their community their way when the city undertakes the rehabilitation of Ferris Avenue.


 


“We set an agenda last week to celebrate Juneteenth, the anniversary of the freeing of the last slaves in 1865,” Jackson reported, “People are going to come back and present ideas on where and when we want to go. But it can’t stop with just a holiday, it is time the African-American community must stick together and not just pray together.”


 


Renaming of Ferris Avenue a Fitting Tribute.


 


Mr. Jackson said he was hoping that the Common Council would see fit to name Ferris Avenue after Mr. Robinson, changing the name of the street to Jerome Robinson Avenue, since he was known to be “the unofficial Mayor of Ferris Avenue.”


 


The outpouring of respect for Mr. Robinson which will be seen this evening at the Slater Center and at tomorrow’s services at Mount Hope  A. M. E. Zion Church, 65 Lake Street, chosen because it holds 800 persons is because Mr. Robinson did good work. (Service is at 11 A.M., followed by a repast for the family at the Slater Center.


 


Jerome Robinson lived and died and served White Plains, and with his talent for dealing with youth and inspiring them, could very easily have moved elsewhere to bigger and better career paths. But he liked what he was doing here more.


 


Mr. Jackson confided another saying Mr. Robinson was fond of, it is his epitaph:


 


“Let the work I’ve done here speak for me.”


 


 


 


 


 


 

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IT HAD TO BE YOU at WPPAC at 8 With USA’s Last Traveling Acting Couple

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. March 9, 2004: The White Plains Performing Arts Center continues its limited run of the touring play, It Had to Be You, this evening at 8, starring husband and wife traveling duo, Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor, (Emmy Award-winner for her role of the mom on The Nanny), this evening for the fourth of a string of 3 more performances through Sunday. The play debuted on Broadway in 1981, written by Ms. Taylor and  has toured the country the last five years.



SHOWING THE SET: One of America’s most popular traveling acting couples, Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor with The CitizeNetReporter, relaxing before this evening’s performance at the White Plains Performing Arts Center. House lights dim two times Wednesday at 2 PM and 8 PM. Photo by White Plains Performing Arts Center


 Tickets are available for  Wednesday matinee at 2 and 8 P.M. Shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings are at 8 with a 2 PM matinee on Sunday.  The weekend performances are “filled nicely.” Advance Sale has been strong reports Oscar Sales, theatre spokesperson. Patrons may order tickets by calling 1-888-977-2250.


WPCNR met the acting duo in their dressing rooms Tuesday afternoon, fresh off a run at WPPAC’s partner in show biz, the Queens Theatre in the Park. WPCNR talked with Ms. Taylor and Mr. Bologna about the popularity of the show around the country.


Ms. Taylor said the show which the couple premiered on Broadway in 1981, “is hysterical. It’s one long laugh. I look forward (each performance) to hearing the people laugh. Of course, we’re older now, and have suggested other people do it, but around the country, but they (the theatres) want us to do it.”


Mr. Bologna said that their closest friend, the late comic and musician, the great Steve Allen, called them up after having seen their movie of It Had to Be You, saying it was the funniest movie he had ever seen. “When he called us to tell us that, we had to meet,” and we became close friends, Bologna recalled. He recalled “Steve was a marvelous talent. Such a nice person.”


The playwright, Ms. Taylor, says It Had to Be You’s appeal is funny and very romantic: “When Joe says I love you at the end of the show, the audience stands and applauds because the way it’s set up you have to.”


The Last Traveling Acting Couple.


WPCNR asked the dynamic creative duo if they were the last of the acting couples on stage. They thought for a moment and mentioned Stiller and Meara, Ann Jackson and Eli Wallach, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, but noted those couples rarely peform any  more. So, at this writing then WPCNR will dub them the Last of the Traveling Actor Couples.


Mr. Bologna and Ms. Taylor have three shows they perform in around the country, tonight’s, and If You Ever Leave Me, I’m Going With You, and Ms. Taylor’s moving portrayal of  Golda. It Had to Be You, Mr. Bologna said travels light with two sets, one based on the West Coast, the other on the East Coast , and their “company” consists of themselves, their Stage Manager and assistant.  


Bologna said an agent books their shows into theaters around the country, and the deal depends on the kind of theatre they play in. For a single house with a short run like White Plains Performing Arts Center, they receive a straight fee, while if playing an extended run in a city such as Chicago, they would receive perhaps a fee and a percentage of the house.


The actor noted that the theatres they play in range from large centers what book them for short runs and others that book a long run. He said that regional theatre consists of some theatres of longstanding reputation that make money, while others are provided at a subsidy to provide arts to a region. He notes one in Rio Dos,  New Mexico, North of El Paso, that is run by a wealthy person to provide an arts experience for West Texas who use the nearby resorts.


The Jewish woman-Italian man from New York jokes and writing play very well no matter where the couple perform the show, Bologna said.


Bologna said, based on his traveling show experience, the best ticket is the one time paying customer, who goes to the theatre because they want to and the worst is “the comp” who is really not that interested in the show. He notes the best audiences are on Saturday nights and Sunday Matinees.


Fast moving, Fast Talking Fast Laughs Fresh.


Asked about keeping their show fresh every time they do it, Ms. Taylor said, “We’re funnier now,” and says “the show changes every time we do it, a line here, a line there.”


Sometimes, Bologna says, they have to change the show because of a problem, and it improves the show. “Once we had a sightline problem in the First Act,” Joe remembered, ” I could not be seen when I was sitting on the bed, so I started walking around the stage so that part of the theatre would see me. It worked so well we kept it in the show. Things happen. When something goes wrong you have to adjust to it. “


Every performance, Ms. Taylor says the pair find themselves doing and saying things in our lines that “are part of us.” 


Mystery of Love


Mr. Bologna said It Had to Be You is about “the mystery of love, the joy of two people  finding each other and creating together. Ms. Taylor, the writer said, “There’s a knowing when she meets him (in Act One) he is the one. She chooses him and she creates him, or you would say he creates her.”


Taylor said, “I’m seeing the mystery of their romance, too.”


The couple said that in Act One, she pursues him, and in Act Two, he pushes her away. Bologna said that the play is also about “Entitlement, you’re entitled to have it all in life — romance, love, success of deciding not to settle, but to have love and be successful and deciding you can have that.”


The Stage is Different. Two Approaches.


Bologna said he preferred to come in for a show very close to the start of the performance to feel “an edge” prior to coming on stage. While Ms. Taylor said she preferred to arrive two hours before curtain and slowly slip into the character she plays.


Her husband said he much preferred the stage, because “you love the venue or medium that allows you to fully explore the role. In film you just have to get one take, and get it right. In television, it’s hard because you’re so rushed.


Bologna said “it’s easy to phone it in, (a performance)” but he prides himself on never doing that.


Bologna gave a few tips on how an argument between a couple should go. Both have to be equal, he says, if one is more aggressive, the audience does not appreciate it. Equality of adversary is essential to writing and playing a lover’s quarrel, he says, and there is a good one in Act Two.


So Lucky


“Every night, I am so lucky to do what I do,” Bologna said, “with the woman I love.”


Taylor said, It Had to Be You, allows them to fall in love again every time they do the show. 


The couple invite patrons to come back stage and talk with them about the show.


Asked who has the best lines in It Had to Be You, Ms. Taylor said she does.



SET AWAITS  IT HAD TO BE YOU AT White Plains Performing Arts Center Photo by WPCNR StageCam

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City Assessibles Increase by $2.4 Million; School Tax Increase Cut to $26/$1G

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 9, 2004, Updated 11:15 A.M. E.S.T.: Eyde McCarthy, City Assessor, advised the City School District Monday that the city total of accessed value has risen to $307,076,646, $2,358,187 higher than the $304,718,459 the city had originally reported as the 2004 accessed value to the School District on February 27.


The error, according to the Assistant Superintendent for Business for the City School District, Terrance Schruers, occured because certain exemptions from city taxes did not extend to exempting certain properties from school taxes, allowing the school district to collect tax on those properties while the city cannot.


 


 


The effect, Schruers said, lowers the projected increase in school taxes for residents from a projected $29.50 per $1,000 of accessed value to $26 per $1,000 of accessed value. For the owner of a home accessed at $15,000, this means a year-to-year school tax increase of  $390 on top of last year’s bill. Last year’s tax rate was $349.03  and this year it goes up, according to the latest total assessibles, to $375 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.


Going in to the public presentation of the school budget on March 22 at Education House at 7:30 P.M., the district now projects a 6.89% increase, year-to-year in the budget, coming in at $143,910,784, with the new city assessed value dictating a Tax Rate of 7.62%, 2.23% of it attributed to yesterday’s Assessment/PILOT changes.


2.23% Increase Comes from Assessible Settlements.


According to a table released by Mr. Schruers, if the School District budget remained at the $134,632,632 figure of 2003-004, the school tax would have to increase 2.23% to make up the $2,395,516 in lost revenues from the falloff in assessible values citywide.


Of the $26 year to year increase in the tax rate, $7.80  represents the 2.23% increase in tax rate is attributible to the loss in assessibles. The$18.20 balance of the $26/$1,000 increase is to meet the $9,278,152 rise in the School Budget, from wage increases, pension increases and institution of All Day Kindergarten districtwide.


The new figures released Monday to the School District report the increase in PILOT (Payments In Lieu of Taxes) payments to the city in 2004 as $4,856,650, which reduce the Net Reduction in Assessibles in the city to $6,863,353.


Assessible Declines Permanent, School District Counsel Present at Assessment Settlement Proceedings.


Asked if the $6,863,353 decline in assessibles was a one-time only charge, Schreurs said it was his understanding they were permanent reductions on the tax roll.


Schreurs said that the school board had previously accepted the reassessments and settlements presented them by the city, prompted by Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors visit to the Mayor February 27,  with one exception.


The Nordstrom Department Store lowering of assessment by $1.2 Million has yet to be accepted by the Board of Education, Schreurs said.


Schreurs added that the assessments lowered by the state the Board had no say in, while School Board counsel does sit in on discussions the city has with corporations seeking lowered assessments, and either recommends or rejects the settlement suggestion.


 

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City Center South Citadel, Townhouse on Martine Will Resume Within Month.

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WPCNR CITY CENTER DISPATCH. By John F. Bailey. March 8, 2004: A spokesman for Cappelli Enterprises, Geoff Thompson, told WPCNR Monday that construction work on the South Condominium building, and its Martine Avenue construction companion, the smaller townhouse condominium, next door has been holding for about 5 weeks, and will resume shortly, “within a month.” 



AWAITING RESUMPTION OF CONSTRUCTION: Thompson said work has been put on hold on the two finishing pieces of the City Center complex due to different design changes that engineers and designers felt had to be made before work proceeded. The Townhouse on Martine is at left, the South Condominium “citadel” is at right. Date of the picture is February 20. Photo by WPCNR News


Thompson said work has been continuing “at a rapid pace” inside  North apartments, now being touted as “One City Place,” overlooking Main Street. Thompson said One City Place will open its sales office on the site on March 27. Thompson said the model apartments are just about completed, promising WPCNR a Preopening Tour shortly.


The Martine Avenue Condominium Citadel, now holding at 9 completed floors, is having its mechanical systems redesigned to fit into a different configuration within the building. Thompson said that when the south condo column was architecturally reconfigured and divided into condomiums, it was discovered that the former mechanical design used in the north tower would disrupt the new condominum floor plans Cappelli’s architects had recommended.


Thompson said, it was decided by the organization to hold back now, and retool the entire mechanical systems  to work around the new spacious new condo designs, rather than “tearing up the floor” and compromising the interior look of the condo parcels with the former mechanical system. Work is wrapping up on the development of a mechanical system that works aesthestically for the larger number of  units per floor. 


This explanation is very consistent with what the Super Developer Louis Cappelli remarked to WPCNR when work first stopped, when he said there was redesign being done.


On the Townhouse next door, (topped out in October), Mr. Thompson said that the window treatments are being redesigned before exterior work begins on that building.

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Film Festival Features White Plains Morricone’s INTERVENTION at 2 Saturday.

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WPCNR SCREEN GEMS.  By Sunset Boulevard & Westchester County Deparment of Communications.(EDITED) March 8, 2004:

Movie buffs, those of you who want to be in pictures, make pictures, it can happen to you.


 Jimmy Hollywood just made it!


Westchester’s Fifth Annual Film Festival moves to the City Center National Amusements Cinema De Lux this week, leading off its Saturday Matinee Schedule with the long-awaited, festival-impressive, Intervention, from Morricone’s Comprehensive Films,  produced  in 2002 around  White Plains, The Bronx and Queens by White Plains own James Morricone, (better known as “Jimmy Hollywood”).



 


WHITE PLAINS JIMMY MORRICONE with his leads, Carla Fulco, left and Joe De Vito on location in White Plains, September, 2002. Photo by WPCNR Hollywood Archives.


 


 


The full-length film was premiered March 4 in Manhattan at Robert De Niro’s personal screening, praised as “a good story” by critic at large, Steve Morton, who was invited to the private screening. Intervention will be shown commercially in White Plains for the first time Saturday. The film stars Magnotta’s Mary Fulco’s daughter, Carla Fulco, the “Catherine Deneuve of the 21st Century” as leading lady in a moody, realistic Italian-American love story set in the 1950s.



THE STAR FROM MAGNOTTA’S:  Carla Fulco,  the daughter of Mary Fulco, a fixture at Magnotta’s Restaurant in White Plains, makes her film debut in Intervention Saturday Afternoon. In this still from the production, Carla is arguing with her movie parents. Photo, Courtesy, Comprehensive Films.


 



 Beginning Thursday from 2 P.M. to 10 P.M., The WFF will offer Jimmy’s movie, plus a line-up of 25 films from around the globe – spotlighting jump-out-and-grab-you movies filmed in New Zealand, Romania, France, Peru and India; giving an insider’s view of life in poverty-stricken Iran; and detailing the struggles of Irish, Chinese and Latino immigrants in the New York area.


 



LISTEN, SWEETHEART. GIVE ME YOUR MOTIVATION: Anton Evangelista of Comprehensive Films, Directing Carla Fulco in Intervention on a shoot in North White Plains November, 2002. See Carla on the big screen at City Center. Saturday matinee. For more on Intervention, go to Comprehensive Films website at www.comprehensivefilms.com  Photo from WPCNR Hollwood Archives.






This year’s Westchester Film Festival event, co-sponsored by Westchester County and Cappelli Enterprises Inc., is a three-day affair running March 11-13 that will also spotlight the county’s newest theatres: National Amusement’s Cinema de Lux at City Center in White Plains. Films will run back-to-back each day from 2 p.m. to about 10 p.m.


 


See How Salma Hayek Cuts It as a Director on Friday Night: The Maldonado Miracle.


 


A major highlight, other than the original White Plains production of Intervention  will be a free Friday night showing of The Maldonado Miracle, Salma Hayek’s directorial debut starring Peter Fonda and Mare Winningham. Shown at 7 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis,  the Emmy-nominated movie tells the story of a mysterious Mexican boy who creates a media sensation when he brings a “miracle” to a desolate and dying town. A “Meet the Filmmaker” session will follow where the audience can meet the producer, Chappaqua resident Eve Silverman (a four-time Emmy Award winner).


 


 


            A charming family film, Her Majesty, will close the festival with an 8 p.m. Saturday showing. Filmed entirely in New Zealand, the movie is a coming-of-age story of a young girl who realizes her lifelong dream when Queen Elizabeth comes to visit her small hometown. The film has already won three New Zealand film awards and was the first runner-up for Best Film in both Seattle and Cleveland.


 


Magic Carpet Rides


 


            Four short Iranian movies will make their Western debut in Westchester. All give an insider’s glimpse of life inside Iran and the challenges posed by poverty and the Iran-Iraq war. Two other films are in Spanish, one of which – On the Fringes – hits particularly close to home by looking at the lives of Hispanics living in Westchester.


Other newly announced films will include:


 



  • Stuff That Bear! A student film directed by a young Bruno Coppola, a family member of Francis Ford Coppola, includes cameos of the better known Coppolas, including Francis Ford and recent Oscar-winner Sofia. The film won in the Kodak European Showcase for New Talent at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Having already screened in festivals in Romania, England, Denver, San Francisco and Durango, this will be its East Coast premiere.

 



  •  Out of the Pan into the Fire. A noted New York chef shows the audience what it’s really like to work behind the scenes of a top NYC restaurant.

 



  • Beautiful Kid stars best-selling author Frank McCourt, author of “Angela’s Ashes.” This look at Irish-Americans in the Bronx was shot on a beer budget by Irish novelist Colum McCann and first-time screenwriter Michael Carty

 FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE


Thursday, March 11


 


Screenings for all films begin daily at 2 p.m:


 


CASTING ADRIFT –  Feature. Out-of-work soap opera stars get a shot at fame and fortune – if they can only survive each other’s company. (83 min.)


 


R.I.P: Rest in Peace – France. Short. In a dark room, six men discuss the future of mankind. (6 min.)


 


BEYOND  SILENCE – Iran. Short.  In a bedrock of silence and peace dominating over the house and passing the days of indolence and old age, even the noise of eating an onion at dinner time can be used as an excuse to break the silence.  (16 min.)


 


UNDER THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE – Student Film set in Chinatown. A young Asian boy’s infatuation with an alluring girl has unexpected consequences. (7 min.)


 


NO NAME STEET – Iran. A coin telephone, a street with no name and lovely people.(17 min.)


 


BILLY COLLINS: ON THE ROAD WITH THE AMERICAN POET LAUREATE – Documentary.  Follows the critically acclaimed American poet who packs halls with his amazing wit and funny bone.(60 min.)


 


STUFF THAT BEAR! – Student Film shot in Bucharest. A taxidermist attempts to win the love of a stripper in this wacky comedy, a  Kodak winner at Cannes.  (19 min.)


 


A ROSE FOR MAJNUN – Iran. Leily, a middle-aged woman, earns her living searching for pieces of scrap iron in the streets . She is exposed to all kinds of dangers including rape.  First U.S. screening.  (26 min.)


 


6 p.m. ON THE FRINGES – Documentary.  An examination of the lives of undocumented Latinos living and working in Westchester. (53 min.)


 


8 p.m.  ARTWORKS – Feature  A beautiful married  woman and an art dealer plan the perfect art heist – until love enters the picture. A winner at the California Independent Film Festival. (96 min.)


 


 


Friday, March 12


 


2 p.m.


 


CUGINI  – Feature. A Hollywood star returns to his home of Yonkers, the girl he left behind, and the son he never knew he had. (109 min.)


 


ETERNITY –  France. Jack is in despair until a magic ball flies though time and brings goodness. (9 min.)


 


APNEA – France. While doing an apnea dive, a man lets his imagination wander to the elements that surround us.(4 min.)


 


BEAUTIFUL KID – Feature. An Irish- American auto mechanic in the Bronx finds himself at a crossroads, torn between allegiances to family, friends and love. Starring best-selling author Frank McCourt. (99 min.)


 


THE WOUND OF MY GRANDFATHER– Peru. Documentary. Short. The story of Javier who attempts to produce a documentary about the life of his neighbor’s family. (25 min.)


 


7 p.m.  THE MALDONADO MIRACLE – Feature.  When a mysterious Mexican boy takes refuge in the dying town of San Ramos, a “miracle” occurs which suddenly turns the town into  a media sensation. This screening, courtesy of Showtime Entertainment Inc, will be free of charge to the first 130 people. A Q&A with producer Eve Silverman. will follow the screening. Starring Peter Fonda.


(138 min.)


 


Saturday, March 13


 


2 p.m. INTERVENTION –  Feature.  Italian-American love story set in 1968  shows how fate can sometimes bring about redemption.  (1 hr. 46 mins.)


 


PRISONERS IN PARADISE – Documentary.  Little known story of Italian  P.O.W’s in America during World War II. “Impressive..great war stories and love stories.” – Variety (57 mins.)


 


PECK ON THE CHEEK – India. Feature. A young adopted girl embarks on a perilous journey to find her birth mother in war-torn Sri Lanka. Multiple Festival Winner. (99 mins.)


 


OUT OF THE PAN INTO THE FIRE – Documentary.  A  ‘no holds barred’ look  behind the scenes of  New York City’s top restaurants with chef Tony Burdain, author of ‘Kitchen Confidential’(56 min.)


 


DON’T NOBODY LOVE THE GAME MORE THAN ME  – Short.  Gritty street style frames a Shakespearian joust of words amongst four basketball players about who loves the game most. (9 min.)


 


REX STEELE: NAZI SMASHER  – Student Short. Animation. Indiana Jones has nothing on this swashbuckler! (10 min.)


 


THE LITTLE CAPTAIN –  Iran. Short. Children embracing poverty on the ruins of the Iran-Iraq War, life goes on. First U.S. screening. (16 min.)


 


8 p.m.  HER MAJESTY – Feature.  A young girl dreams of meeting the Queen of England in this coming-of-age  period piece set in New Zealand. Winner: 3 New Zealand Film Awards. Winner: Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival. Winner: Best Live Action Feature, Chicago Family Film Festival.(100 min.)


 


9:45 p.m. GREAT LENGTHS  – Student short. Comedy. Oh the lengths he’ll go to to win the heart of the girl he loves!


 


 

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322 Subscriptions to Go for The Watch to Start Watching Again

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. March 8, 2004: The publisher of the White Plains Watch has sent out another message to White Plains, reporting the suspended monthly publication must sell 322 subscriptions by March 11 to come back to White Plains. On March 11, at 7:30, a special meeting will discuss “Countdown to The Watch.” Here is Ms. Chang’s urgent communication to the citizens of White Plains issued at midnight Sunday night:
 March 8, 2004

Dear Friends of the Watch,
      As many of you already know, a large group of White Plains residents
have been hard at work for the last month to raise a sufficient number of
subscriptions to allow the Watch to resume publication. Our initial restart
target is 2000 and we have 322 subscribers to go to reach that goal.  We
will be holding a final “count down to publishing” meeting this Thursday,
March 11, at 7:30 PM at Memorial Methodist Church (on Bryant Avenue between
North Street and Mamaroneck Avenue). At that meeting we will try to close
the subscription gap. We urge you all to attend.  Nothing less than the
future of your independent community newspaper–and your connection to the
community–is at stake.

      This weekend, as I read over the many, many emails received by the
Watch, I was struck by the variety of ways the paper has served the White
Plains community over the past six years.  Without the Watch, would there
have been a public record of your son’s or daughter’s academic achievement,
or an acknowledgement of how a special teacher touched your child’s life?
Would there be a place to spread the word about your sports organization or
the doings of your Boy or Girl Scout troop? Without the Watch how would
neighborhood communicate with neighborhood? How would you know about that
new restaurant that opened downtown?

      Without the Watch, how would you find out what was going on, in an
in-depth way, when it came to new retail and residential developments, open
space and housing issues or where your elected officials stood on these
issues? Without the Watch, would your professional achievements or
volunteer efforts have been celebrated? How would the word have been spread
about the needs of your favorite nonprofit? How would you know about your
city’s history? Perhaps you ran for office and were able to use the Watch
to reach the voters of White Plains in our election forums. Perhaps you
strongly disagreed or agreed with one of our editorials and got the
satisfaction of letting the community know just how deeply you felt by
seeing your letter published in the Watch.

      The Watch has been there for you for the last six years. Now the
Watch truly needs you and your neighbor.  If you have not already
subscribed or your neighbor or business associate hasn’t, please bring your
subscription pledge and theirs to Memorial Methodist Church this Thursday.
Or let us know by return email that you will be subscribing. Then mail your
subscription check today to the White Plains Watch, PO Box 348, White
Plains, New York 10602. The costs are as follows:
      $25 for one year mailed within White Plains; $45 for two years
      $35 for out-of-town mailing; $65 for two years

      If you are not sure whether or not you are already a subscriber
please email us and we will let you know. Please note that the PO Box is
348, not 345 as we mistakenly reported in our last email!

      Thank you for your support,

      Susan Arterian Chang, Publisher & Editor


White Plains Watch Community Newspaper
The Independent Voice of the County Seat
email: susan@wpwatch.com
website: www.whiteplainswatch.com

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The White Plains Photograph of the Day

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THE WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. March 7, 2004: The Sunday Photo of the Day is of the Westchester County Center, a Neo-Egyptian Art Deco Classic, built in 1932. A combination of Maple Leaf Gardens, the Detroit Olympia and the Montreal Forum in styles, the old arena also has touches of the Baths of Caracalla. Seating 4,000 in a double-deck close-in, reminiscent of a small old Madison Square Garden, not-a-bad-seat-in-the-house set up, it is a classic today as functional as it was when it opened. All it needs is ice-making equipment, and parking. Like Memorial Stadium in Mount Vernon, it is haunted with the spirits of champions past.



Hall of Champions. By the White Plains Roving Photographer


 


 


 

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Bump’s Farewell Moved to 11 A.M. Thursday Morning Mount Hope Church

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WPCNR Ferris Avenue Reveille. March 7, 2004, UPDATED 10:40 A.M. EST: The funeral arrangements for Jerome “Bump” Robinson, the Ferris Avenue community leader who died suddenly last Thursday have been announced. A wake will be held for Mr. Robinson on Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 P.M. at The Thomas A. Slater Center. The wake will be followed by a service at 11 A.M. (moved up from 10 A.M.) at Mount Hope A M E Zion Church, 65 Lake Street. After interment, a repast will be served at the Slater Center.



Jerome Robinson, 1996. Photo, Courtesy, The Thomas A. Slater Center


 

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THE VOLUNTEER CENTER OF UNITED WAY NAMES WILLIAM ABRAM TREASURER

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WPCNR NEIGHBORS IN ACTION. March 7, 2004: The Board of Directors of The Volunteer Center of United Way has named William Abram of White Plains, President of Pragmatix, Inc. to serve as its treasurer. The announcement was made at the Board of Directors annual meeting held recently.

As treasurer, Mr. Abram will be responsible for The Volunteer Center financial policies, financial operations, and will oversee financial management of the Centers funds. Mr. Abram joined the Volunteer Center Board of United Way in August 2003.



Since 1949, The Volunteer Center, in a strategic alliance with United Way, has served as a clearinghouse for volunteers, annually recruiting and referring nearly 2000 individuals to over 450 not-for-profit agencies in the Westchester/Putnam area. It offers special services to volunteers 55+ through its Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and Retired Executives and Professionals Program (REP).

Mr. Abram is an active member of the Westchester County Association and serves on the board of the Westchester Information Technology Cluster. He is former treasurer of the Association for Electronic Health Care Transactions, and an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. He is a past trustee of Woodlands Community Temple, and has chaired several advisory committees for the Board of Education in Ardsley, NY.

Mr. Abram earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY and an MBA in Finance from Pace University, Pleasantville, NY.

For more information about Pragmatix, Inc. visit their website at www.Pragmatix.com or contact Bill Abram at 914-345-9444.

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