Hits: 266

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. From White Plains Schools Superintendent Dr. Joseph Ricca. December 20, 2023:

On behalf of the White Plains City School District Board of Education, and the entire school community, please accept my best wishes for a happy, healthy holiday season and a joyous New Year!

We are amazed to be nearing the midpoint of the academic year so quickly! Thankfully, we do not have the challenges that we’ve experienced in past years regarding COVID-19. Still, we recognize that ‘cold and flu’ season remains a fact of life and we are committed to maintaining a healthy learning community. Our community continues to follow the preventive measures available to keep our schools safe, healthy, and secure.  Once again, we are grateful to our wonderful staff for continuing to provide an outstanding educational experience for our children in a healthy and safe school environment.

As is usual in our school district, we have many reasons to be #WPProud.  Among these, we honored 156 Scholar-Athletes from ten Fall Varsity Teams at the December Board of Education meeting.  White Plains athletes had a successful fall season and five of our Girl Swimmers went to the State Championships.  The High School INCubatoredu program received the WIN Champions Award from the Business Council of Westchester in November for connecting students to real world learning.  We have seven High School seniors named Commended Students in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program.  And, most recently, representing our amazing staff, Coach Fred Singleton was inducted into the prestigious Armory Coaches Hall of Fame.  A four-time Westchester Coach of the Year, Singleton has been coaching and supporting our Tigers for 48 years!

Also, last month, we saw eight athletes named to the Athletics Hall of Fame.  In a ceremony on November 13th, inductees were Steve Casarella, Tomas Cobb, Kelsey Kulk, Jason McLaughlin, Mark Santa-Donato, Chuck Stogel and Mike and Quincy Summers.  An overflow crowd was on hand in the High School Media Center to celebrate this wonderful accomplishment.

College letters are just starting to come in and we’re happy to report that WPHS seniors have received acceptances from schools such as Brown, Dartmouth, Tufts, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia,  Penn State, Hartwick College, SUNY/Albany, Hampton University, and Culinary Institute of America, just to name a few.  There will be many more to come!

Finally, we thought you would enjoy the photo below of Mr. May and our WPHS Tiger String Ensemble performing a holiday medley for the White Plains Rotary Club this week – it was a lovely opportunity to connect with an organization that both puts service above self and supports our Tigers through competitive scholarship opportunities annually!

Don’t forget to keep up with us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/wpschools our website, www.whiteplainspublicschool.org and X (Twitter):  www.twitter.com/@drjosephricca

Of course, please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions or comments.

Again – all the best for a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to sharing updates and good news with you in 2024!

Respectfully,

Joseph Ricca

Hits: 269

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. December 19, 2028:

Dear Members, Colleagues, and Supporters, Happy holidays! It’s been a busy and productive quarter for Sustainable Westchester, as we’ve continued to make vital contributions to the health, prosperity, and resilience of our entire region. Over the past several months, we’ve supported our member municipalities in achieving their sustainability goals and safeguarding communities against the threats posed by climate change through a variety of impactful programs and initiatives. At a glance, we’ve recently been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to lead New York’s portion of the $45 million Renew America’s Nonprofits program; unveiled a new “Sunshine to EV” electric vehicle fast charging station powered entirely by solar energy that is the first of its kind in New York State; stood with lawmakers enacting legislation advancing clean heating and cooling technologies; supported the installment of new and innovative Community Solar projects across the County; expanded our work delivering renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions through Westchester Power, the State’s first and largest Community Choice Aggregation program; conferenced with industry leaders and policymakers in Albany to discuss New York’s transition to clean energy; and helped scores of residents and businesses cut their electric bills and alleviate stress on our regional energy grid. And we’re just getting started! As Washington and Albany make unprecedented commitments to infrastructure, climate action, and clean power, Sustainable Westchester is ready to help our members understand and seize new and historic opportunities for progress. In the weeks and months ahead, we are looking forward to welcoming our new Executive Director Noam Bramson – who led the City of New Rochelle for the last 18 years and is widely credited with advancing the City’s sustainability goals – and hosting our Annual Members Meeting in February. Thank you for your ongoing support and readership. Sincerely, The Sustainable Westchester Team

Hits: 218

State of Affairs: Dec 19, 2023

Up, up, and away

BY DR.KATELYN JETELINA DEC 19 (REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION)

READ IN APP

In case you missed it, I need your help. Please take a short, 5-minute survey by going HERE. Thanks to all 40,000 (!) of you who have already taken it!

---

It’s mid-December! Which means shopping, cooking, Santa, school performances, trying to keep sane andddd respiratory illnesses.

Here is your state of affairs.

Influenza-like illnesses: Increasing

The climate of respiratory health in the United States (coined “influenza-like illnesses” by CDC) continues to increase.

This is not surprising, given the holidays and colder weather. What is surprising is that it’s stubbornly creeping up instead of growing exponentially, as it typically does once we pass the epidemic threshold. This should change soon—although I’ve been saying this for weeks.

Source: CDC; Annotated by Katelyn Jetelina/YLE

There are certainly regional differences in respiratory health. Two Southern states have turned “purple,” but many others remain “green” for now. In other words, more people in the South are feeling crappy than in the North.

(Source: CDC)

Our kiddos and older adults are feeling the brunt of severe illnesses.

Hospitalization Rates for Viral Respiratory Illness, by Age (Source: CDC; Annotated by Katelyn Jetelina/YLE)

Here’s a deeper dive into each virus.

Covid-19: High with potential to increase

On a national level, Covid-19 transmission is “very high.” After the post-Thanksgiving springboard upwards, wastewater levels have plateaued. But don’t get too excited. We have consistently seen this pattern in previous years.

National SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels (Source CDC/ Annotated by Katelyn Jetelina/YLE)

I expect transmission to continue increasing in the weeks to come. Two reasons:

1. Holidays. Our social networks expand as we travel and visit with people we don’t normally see. This allows the viruses to find more places to spread.
2. Subvariant JN.1 is coming onto the scene. Which one is JN.1 again? It’s the child of BA.2.86, which was discovered in summer. BA.2.86 was concerning because it came out of nowhere with 35 mutations on the spike protein. This is an insane amount of change at once; it’s as big of an evolutionary jump as Wuhan → Omicron. While BA.2.86 was a dud, it quickly mutated to gain one additional spike change (i.e., JN.1). This additional change greatly impacted the viruses’ properties— making it more immune evasive.

JN.1 has become the fastest-growing variant in the past two years. In the U.S., JN.1 is reaching dominance. But, in other countries where JN.1 is already dominant, like Europe, wastewater is uniformly and exponentially increasing, as shown below. This is even the case in Australia even though it is summer there.

Covid-19 wastewater trends across parts of the world, annotated by KKJ/YLE

The big question is if and how hospitalizations will follow wastewater trends, especially in places like the U.S., where vaccination rates are low. The U.K. and Singapore, which have high vaccination rates, are seeing a steep increase in hospitalizations now that JN.1 has taken over. Last week, CDC warned about the potential impact of low vaccination rates in the U.S.

Covid-19 hospitalizations by epi week (Singapore) or date (UK) (Source UK; Source Singapore)

There is considerable scientific debate about whether JN.1 should be given a new name (next in line would be “Pi”) or if it should still be considered “Omicron.” The Greek naming system was born during the pandemic to help with global scientific communication. However, I’ll be honest: The naming criteria are very unclear. If 35 changes to the spike, lab data showing immune evasion, and associated epidemiological increases don’t qualify for a name change, I’m not sure what will.

RSV: High and… peaking?

RSV decided to surprise many epidemiologists and continue to increase nationally. Hospitalizations have increased 60% over the past four weeks. For our kiddos’ sake, I hope this peaks soon.

RSV test positivity rate United States (Source: CDC)

Flu: Moderate and increasing

Hospitalizations among all age groups increased by 200% for influenza in the past four weeks but remain below Covid-19 and RSV hospitalizations. Flu hospitalizations also remain far below last season’s peak for now.

Hospitalization rate for Covid-19 and Flu, U.S. (Source CDC/ Annotated by KKJ/YLE)

Bottom line

There is a lot of sickness going around, and it will only increase in weeks to come. To improve your odds of staying healthy for the holidays, this is the time to tighten up— wear a mask indoors, get that air moving, and certainly get vaccinated if you haven’t already. And please keep the holiday shopping online if you’re sick.

We can minimize sickness in order to maximize family time coming up.

Love, YLE

---

In case you missed it:

• It’s the holiday season! Here are simple steps to navigate viruses
• Novavax is here!
• Don’t be surprised if masks come back to hospitals and nursing homes.

---

“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, data scientist, wife. During the day, she works at a nonpartisan health policy think tank and is a senior scientific consultant to a number of organizations. At night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support this effort, subscribe below:

Hits: 390

DECORATING THE LAST OF THE TREES. EASILY THE TALLEST OF TREES WE HAVE EVER HAD AND BRENDA STARR HAS  PERFECTING A 30 MINUTE PROCESS FOR STRINGING THE LIGHTS  COMPLETING THE PROCESS IN RECORD TIME NOW– FOR THE BULBS.

AMODIO’S NURSERY WHEN I WENT OVER TO PICK OUT A TREE YESTERDAY, THEY ONLY HAD 3 LEFT! AMODIOS TOLD ME THEY HAD BROUGHT IN 250 TREES ON THANKSGIVING AND HAVE SOLD ALL BUT 3.

THIS 9 FOOT TREE IS THE TALLEST AND AS I SAY EVERY YEAR ABOUT EVERY TREE WE HAVE EVER HAD (52 TREES) i ALWAYS SAY, “THIS IS THE BEST TREE WE HAVE EVER HAD!”

IT JUST STOOD OUT. REGAL. PROUD STANDING AS TALL AS CHRISTMAS ITSELF.

HE WAS A NATURAL.

Hits: 538

MYSTERY-AMBITION- LOVE CONFLICT AGAINST BACKGROUND OF DANGER. IT’S THE TOP. NON-STOP! 

The “Item” Couple: Anya (KATHERINE LINDSLEY) and Dmitry (Coleman Cummings) Reunited? Or Forever Parted? A Timeless Romance that will break your heart–AND HEAL IT AGAIN!

WPCNR ON THE AISLE. Review by John F. Bailey. December 16,2023 UPDATED WITH PRODUCTION NOTES, 2 PM EST, December 17, 2023.

The overflow crowd at White Plains Performing Arts Center  Anastasia  opening last night  got it all:

They see Katherine Lindsley  in her WPPAC debut, as proud Russian girl Anya, suffering from amnesia, during the post Russian revolution in the 1920s..

KATHERINE LINDSLEY, ANYA IN SEARCH OF HER PAST WITH THE GHOSTS OF THE ROMANOVS AT A BALL IN THE WINTER PALACE OF THE CZARS IN ST.PETERSBURG. (Notice how the LED recreation of the Ballroom at The Winter Palace resembles the real ballroom pictured below) All Photos courtesy of White Plains Performing Arts Center, by Adam Honore,Lighting Designer

She delivers the classic Russian woman, perfectly made up with high cheekbones sensitive expressive eyes that go from blazing ire, to downcast sensitivity, to melting you with devotion. And she’s a belter. Her portrayal last night evokes the loyalty and sensitivity of  the fictional Sonya, the heroine of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s  Crime and Punishment.

Sweeping streets in Moscow, she is singled out by  enterprising entrepreneur Dmitry (Coleman Cummings)  and an aristocrat, Vlad who have hit on a scheme to support themselves by  finding a girl to train to impersonate the missing Anastasia. The “con” here is to win acceptance by the expatriate Dowager Empress (Patricia M. Lawrence) living in exile in Paris– that the bogus Anastasia is her surviving granddaughter. But is Anya just acting, or is she the real Anastasia?

The real Winter Palace in St. Petersburg Russia. 2015. (Photo, WPCNR)

We learn their deep relationship in the touching duet between Ms. Lawrence and Tala Simon (Little Anastasia) in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg Russia in the  opening ballad Once Upon a December. Grace Adeline Flynn alternates with Ms. Simon over the next 14 performances.

The actual ballroom in The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, 2015 (Photo by WPCNR)

The pompous aloofness of the Romanov family is highlighted by  the first of many dance numbers, the Last Dance of the Romanovs when during the ball a series of flashbacks demonstrates the Bolshevik fatal attack on the Romanovs.

Meanwhile, the impersonation is not going right for the two conspirators, but when they spot Ms.Lindsley’s charisma even with a broom fighting off a mob of attackers – they try her out.  As she shows them her natural royal manner, they think, maybe she’s the one Dmitri (Coleman Cummings) say’s “she’s a natural,” (and she is!)

In the delightful training, her mentors and Ms. Lindsley sing Learn to Do it. During the training, Cummings  and Lindsley’s  growing infatuation is a titillating promise of romance.

Gleb (Drew Becker), the soldier pursuing Anya  sings one of the signature songs of the show The Neva Flows. It sets the tone of this fiery dangerous romance with electricity between Lindsley and Cummings.

Why dangerous? The relentless Bolshevik, Gleb is after them!

The Bolshevik regime under the  ruthless rule  of the Bolshevik Secret Police head, Gleb (played with menace and agonized conflicted passion  by Becker) is searching for imposters pretending to be the Grand Dutchess Anastasia Nikolaenvna Romanov, thought to be still alive.

Gleb warns Anya repeatedly her involvement in being rumored  to be the lost Anastasia is dangerous for her. Gleb, though is  falling in love with her himself. Ahh, the torture of forbidden love. The suspense mounts. Gleb’s duty conflicts with his passion.

The three Dmitri, Vlad and Anya are forced to flee for Poland to escape the Secret Police.

Then the Set Design team of Christopher and Justin Swader pulls out the stops! They seamlessly, spectacularly throw and thrill you with mood lighting, LED moving pictures evoking place and time all too real and moving. You the viewer are drawn into the show with rapt attention!

The double edge sword of romance, deception, guilt and the pursuit, convinces Anya, Vlad and  Dmitry to flee the authorities. Using a series of  moving landscapes  on an LED screen,the halls and vaulted arches  of the old Winter Palace portray and give  the audience a feel for the magnificence  the distant past in search of a memory of  old Russia that has never been forgotten by Russians today.

The fleeing trio board a  train and and take flight to the border thanks to the LED moving visuals, the train rolls down  the tracks through the autumn Russian countryside– the rail car even turns when tracks meet a curve.  It’s wizardry LED  state of the art in context!

The three on the run  are about to be apprehended they jump off the train.  An outstanding special effect! Trooping across country they eventually reach Paris and the Eiffel tower looms up.

Anya delivers a marvelous solo at the close of act one— in her tremulous sympathetic and compelling contralto, Journey to the Past

ACT TWO   opens with more special effects by pictures and moving landscapes on the projection screen as the people of 1927 Paris promenade along.

Anya meets the Dowager Empress and how does that turn out?  I cannot spoil this ending for you. Patricia M. Lawrence as the Dowager Empress provides a touch of superior royalty and humor and her interaction with Ms. Lindsley in two different scenes at the finale is the key to selling this fantastic tale.

Ms. Lindsley gave this part all she had. She delivered the goods the greats-to-be have to deliver:  the emotions of a young woman the confidence and courage singing lyrics plaintive, hurt, pleading, melancholy, righteous, touching your heart  because she’s feeling it. She carries it, ladies and gentlemen!

The audience sees the splendor of Paris. The audience sees watching the  very theater they are watching this show in majestically  turn into the Paris Ballet complete with balconies and a performance of Swan Lake (truncated but perfect–it got an ovation!)

A Russian émigré’ hangout brings Count Vlad together with Countess Lily, an old flame  of his, (now the Dowager Empress’s companion). The Vlad-Lily  attraction is aflame again  (after a frenetic dance number featuring 1927 dances is a smash and very amusing). Vlad(John Treacy Egan)) and Countess Lily (Caroline Huerta) carry off coy romantic commingling and nail it coquettishly coy~tasteful!

Meanwhile as Anya attends the Paris Ballet she is target of the relentless Gleb. (The atmosphere recalls that of The Fugitive.

Vlad (John Treacy  Egan) center at a news conference with Countess Lily, as Anya who has been confirmed by the Dowager Empress as being the missing Anastasia.

Is Anya the real Anastasia? What will happen or will Gleb her pursuer from the Secret Police eliminate her? Audience is on edge with tense suspense.

The Dowager Empress holds the key. In fact Patricia M.Lawrence with her dead solid perfect calm manner with Anya “sells” the ending of this show.  Both Ms. Lindsley as Anna and Ms. Lawrence interactions are dramatically effective  leaving  the audience spellbound at the end of this cliffhanger of emotions, uneasy to the end.

A hint: keep your eye on the music box.

Post Production Notes from John Bailey.

This show was directed by Frank Portanova, a veteran director who has directed 8 WPPAC directions and is also theater mentor at Stepinac High School. He has the distinction of directing what I feel, though I have not seen all the WPPAC shows, is the most demanding, effective, and creative production I have seen there. The cast pulled this complex ambitious performance off in just two weeks as Mr. Portanova mixed the state off art of tech with a talented professional cast and created an appropriate success worthy of  celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the White Plains Performing Arts Center.

And a word about LED–

–The use of LED in Anastasia, creates a context for the production that is better and the best I have seen.

It is another compelling actor in this cast.

The designers using the giant LED wrap around screen, seamlessly fits the LED context of place and feeling into the to the sky,  towering side sets of multi role arches and towers to the sky , and by doing so, have masterfully given a new role for LED screen in entertainment, it is part of the ensemble.

LED  in Anastasia, instead of being just “holy cow-what an effect wowcandy” for the audience,  has created a new role, advancing to seamless creativity and interaction with the actors,  by the set designers and the LED master–Brad Patterson, Video Designer of this breakthrough WPPAC production

The WPPAC is  not just now Westchester’s theatre!

It’s the theatre of the future–a writer’s extra member of the cast because LED in this production of Anastasia gives creators LED as a new creative tool to reach out and grab the audience’s imagination and perception with more real feeling.

You’re in the Czar’s palace, You’re on a train to freedom. You’re in Paris.

Creators of plays and musicals should see this and write LED that “acts” into their shows.

I do not know how actors feel about this, but if your senses feel the magnificence of The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, if you and your lead actor feel you’re walking in Paris. You’re in Paris. What a high the LED effects must have brought to the actors in this show. The perspectives the LED gives the audience and the actors gave the impression the proscenium had been rebuilt and expanded.

The actors gave it all they had. It was them and the LED magic creating new theatre magic. 

Anastasia will have 13 more performances. Go see it. 

Is a Hit, mon! Go to www.wppac.com for dates and times.

The grand entry grounds of The Winter Palace, Home to Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Czar Nicholas I, as it looked when I visited it in 2015. The production of Anastasia recalls the heritage and heartbreak of the Russia of memory. (Photo by WPCNR, 2015)