THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Locals Dance to Raise Money for AIDS

Posted on April 2, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From City Center Dance. April 2, 2006: On Sunday April 23, at the Students from City Center Dance in White Plains along with over 100 other young dancers from all over Westchester County will dance their toes off to raise money for Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) in an event aptly titled “STARS OF TOMORROW, givine back today”

Money raised by these young dancers ages 7 years to 18 years will not only support performing artists nationwide but will bring continued support to the BC/EFA National Grants Program – In 2005 $55,000 was awarded to 9 AIDS & Family service organizations in Westchester & Rockland.

This year, STARS OF TOMORROW … giving back today, will feature a special performance by Tony Award™ nominee, New Rochelle resident ANDREA MCARDLE who will perform with the Purchase Dance Corps. ANDREA McARDLE is best known as the original Annie (both on Broadway and in London), a performance which earned her a Tony Award™ nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, in addition to a Theatre World and Outer Critics Circle Award. She has recently appeared at Joe’s Pub downtown and at Birdland with her one-woman show, “Andrea McArdle, NYC.” She starred as “Mama Rose” in Gypsy for the Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre and was in Japan where she reprised the role of “Sally Bowles” in Cabaret. The first time she played “Sally” in Japan was as a limited engagement following her starring in the U.S. National Tour. Before Cabaret she was playing another type of girl altogether, becoming Broadway’s longest running “Belle” in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. She was featured as “The Star to Be” in the new Emmy Award-winning TV movie version of Annie, on ABC TV. She has also starred on Broadway in Les Misérables, Starlight Express, and State Fair. In 1996 her television special “Andrea McArdle on Broadway” (also the title of her CD) aired on PBS. Ms. McArdle has toured with the late Liberace and the great Bob Hope and has had the privilege of singing for every U.S. president from Ford to Clinton. She is married to composer/producer Edd Kalehoff and their daughter, Alexis, is one of her frequent costars.

Tickets for “STARS OF TOMORROW .. givingn back today” can be purchased for $25 by contacting Center Dance in White Plains, The Westchester Dance Academy in Portchester, or any one of the other participating dance schools who are performing for this event.

For more information on this and other events sponsored by Dancers Responding to AIDS, visit the web at http:www.dradance.org

First Lady of White Plains Theater Opens Downtown White Plains Westco Offices

Posted on April 1, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. April 1, 2006: Today at the Westchester Arts Council Building, the producer’s dream came true: Westco Productions, the White Plains non-profit theatre company that is self-sustaining and has never had an operating deficit, in a 26 year run without interruption, opened its first executive office and box office in the downtown at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue. It’s in Suite 508, on the fifth floor.

“Look, Ma! I’ve finally got an office like a real Broadway Producer!” Susan Katz outside the Westchester Arts Council Building — New home to her company, Westco Productions, Westchester’s most consistently entertaining not for profit theatre company that packs them in year-after-year with “Katz Magic”. Photo, Courtesy Westco.

“Hey, I know what we’ll do, let’s put on a show!” Ms. Katz welcomes the media hordes to the new epicenter of her thespian empire with as always, just the right touch on the door of her 5th floor office. Peter Katz Photo, Courtesy Westco Productions.

A luncheon get-together featured The First Lady of White Plains Theatre, that local girl made good, Susan Katz –Ms. Westco herself, theatrical producer, Creator of “Living Walls” that turn hospital wards into healing environments, believer in theatre for the disabled, indefatigable, seen-everywhere, known-everywhere, community-involved, children-committed, production-obsessed, bottomline watching, creative dynamo right out of the movies — you know, the kind of kid you could expect to see in any Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie saying, “Hey, I know what we’ll do, let’s put on a show,” hostessing the historic opening of her first office on the brightly painted white walls on the 5th floor overlooking the Great White Way of Mamaroneck Avenue.

Angels, well-wishers and members of the Westco Board of Directors who never have to worry about deficits, wish the Wizardess of Westco in Red well at the Executive Office and Box Office Opening. Rosemary Williams, to the right of Ms. Katz, her Yoga Teacher explained Ms. Katz’s quarter century of showbiz hits, by comparing Ms. Katz’s personality to Yoga: “Yoga is about moving energy, how to identify it, how we can hold it, identify how we can access what’s out there and how we can move it. I thought Sue has been doing this way before she started Yoga. She’s built this incredible organization, which mind boggles me, how she gets all these people involved and creates this space and this joy and this love that she sends to the world.” Peter Katz Photo, Courtesy Westco Productions

Freeloading Broadway Flacks, White Plains Week news anchors, Jim Benerofe, left, The Dean of the White Plains Journalism, Editor of Suburbanstreet.com, and yours truly, John Bailey, The CitizeNetReporter mingled in the showbiz glamour and celebrity mix. Peter Katz Photo, Courtesy Westco Productions.

While the 5th floor event was underway, a cast of 40 was upstairs on the 9th floor rehearsing for Westco’s children’s workshop production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which takes place next Saturday at the Rochambeau School Theater, “The Roch” in White Plains, Ms. Katz schmoozed with members of her Board of Directors and distinguished members of the press representing The White Plains Times, Suburbanstreet.com, and yours truly.

“The new office will serve as both box office point and a distribution center for information, ” Ms. Katz told the CitizeNetReporter. “People can come here to the 5th floor and buy tickets to our shows as well as stop in and pick up our literature. The presence in the downtown at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue, Office 508, (914-761-7463), makes it much easier for those who live in White Plains and working in White Plains during the day to buy tickets and pick up information.”

Katz said the office was needed because the company simply could not be run out of her home office any more because of the expansion in recent years. “It’s an administrative office that’s serving two functions. Our Box Office Manager, from the New Orleans area after falling victim to Hurricane Katrina, will be here and our Production Manager will be here. So there will be a lot of stuff going on in the office concerning the productions, distribution of tickets and information. It’s a high energy building.”

She explained that for the past few weeks, Westco’s cast of 28 professional actors has been using the 9th floor space to rehearse for the upcoming production of the Broadway hit musical “Cats.” Ms. Katz emphasized that Westco shows performed for the public only use experienced actors, and differ from the workshops for children who aspire to become thespians, adding that many of Westco’s workshop graduates have gone on to professional careers at theatres around the country, such as Jason Summers who is directing “Cats.”

Joseph and the New Technicolor Dreamcoat, the production staging this weekend at Rochambeau School, “The Roch” is performed by Westco’s Creative Theatre Workshop and features 40 children ages 5 to 13. It’s a year-end workshop for “young thespians.”

Cats will be performed April 28, 29, and 30 at the Irvington Town Hall Theater. For more information, call Westco at (914) 761-7463 or visit their web site, www.westcoproductions.org.

Skyliners, NY’s 6th Ranked National Team Skates for the Cure in Shelton

Posted on April 1, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. April 1, 2006: While you were watching the Olympics, in a posh rink on the other side of the world, figure skating’s greatest secret: the growth of synchronized team skating was being displayed for all to see at the US Figure Skating Synchronized Team Skating Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Skyliners Skating their Long Program in spiral Block at the Synchro National Championships in Grand Rapids Michigan. Photo, WPCNR Sports

The Skyliners Junior Team (25 girls, aged 12 to 18) of the Figure Skating Club of New York and Windy Hill Skating Club (CT) finished sixth of 13 teams, skated their final synchronized skate of the season Saturday night in Shelton Connecticut at “the Skate for the Cure” Show as part of a program to raise funds for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation International.

The Skyliners shared the ice with World Bronze Medalist Caryn Kadavy, and US. Olympic Pair, 3-time US National Silver Medalists, Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov.

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Far from Torino in the “Valley of Synchro,” the Middle West, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the 2006 US Figure Skating Synchronized Team Skating Championships featuring 86 teams from coast-to-coast showcased 2,500 fearless femmes and gents of the ice in competition that dazzled, amazed, and made you catch your breath.

Look Out! The Skyliners Execute the “Blades of Death,” otherwise known as the backward Splice Lunge in their Long Program in Grand Rapids. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

The Skyliners, the tri-state area skating team of skaters from Westchester, New Jersey and Connecticut; Team Image from Yonkers, N.Y., Ice Magic from Katonah, the Ice-Alantics of New Jersey and Team Millennium of Connecticut, competed and held their own against the elite middle west teams and up-and-coming teams from the South and West Coast.

The skating was inspired and inspiring. The effort relentless and daring, the programs breathtaking and emotional, packed with high risk and embellished with the grace and beauty of fearless accomplished skaters.

Skyliner Juniors hold on, rank 6^th of 13 Nationally, 2^nd among Eastern Teams.

Friday evening the suspense of the afternoon became downright tension as the Junior Division’s 13 teams from coast-to-coast skated their 4-minute Long Programs in order of the Short Program finish in three separate groups. As each team takes to the ice, they know what they need to improve their standing. Then after they skate they stand in the entryway and wait up to five minutes for their score under the new International Judging System.

Skyliner Juniors Skate Listen to Your Heart their Short Program in Grand Rapids, February 23 nailing it Thursday night. They skated it for the final time Saturday night in Shelton, Connecticut. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

The Skyliner Juniors who had not skated their Short Program to “Listen to Your Heart” to its fullest potential all season nailed it in Thursday’s skate. They skated second after the defending champions, The Hockettes from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and turned in a fourth place finish on the strength of their technical score (execution of footwork and formations), putting up a 33..07 compared with the Hockettes 39.82. The Skyliners Techinical was a mere 1 point off the Hockettes technical score. Eleven more teams skated and the Skyliner score held up, creating a proud moment for the team and saying the Skyliners had arrived as genuine contenders nationally.

The electrifying Splice Coming Together in the Short Program Thursday afternoon. Photo, WPCNR Sports

Juniors Finish 6^th Nationally.

The Friday night long program skate for all the ice chips, with the Skyliner Junior Team scheduled to skate next to last of 13 performances was high drama which intensified with each posted score as one great skate after another was turned in.

One by one teams from Illinois, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, Michigan skated, yet still the Junior team was not eclipsed out of Fourth Place until a flying, powerful, confident and elegant skate to “Man of La Mancha” by Team Braemar of Minnesota skating 9^th, turned in a 65.43 nosing the Skyliners out of 4^th place by an ice flake. The Skyliners had to turn in a 66 when they skated.

The Hockettes and the Chicago Jazz went blade to blade in the 10^th and 11^th skating positions for the lead. The Hockettes, the 2005 National Junior Champions showed how demanding synchro is by experiencing two unfortunate falls in a formation and a line that cost them the championship. The Hockettes carded a 67.85 losing 4 points on mandatory deductions that dropped them to third with 107 points.

The Chicago Jazz took the ice next and flew into First Place for their third Championship of the 2006 Nationals with an unbelievable 79.85 score on their long program. The Jazz also one Novice and Intermediate Divisions.

Spinning Tops: Juniors Finish with a Flourish in their Long Skate Good enough for 6th in the Nation February 25. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

It is a pressure thing to follow the two best teams in Junior Division, but that was the Skyliners’ fate. They took to the ice, knowing they needed a 66 Score to capture the 4^th place medal.

They performed their program firmly with heart, a little tentative, but no falls, no mandatory deductions – lines, blocks were strong, intersections and splices clean, no technical deductions. Team Braemar’s lead could not be overcome when the score went up the Skyliners carded a 58.86 for a total score of 91.93. Not enough for the pewter prize (4th Place).

The Colonials from Massachussetts skated last and turned in a total score of 111.31 for second place nosing out the Hockettes for second place.

The Skyliners Junior Team held up beautifully under the pressure of a medal skate, and all the girls are better for it. By finishing sixth nationwide they finished as the 2^nd best team from the East behind the fabulous Colonials The Skyliner Juniors showed they were competitive with the Midwest “Valley of Synchro” clubs, from Wisconsin and Minnesota, stepping up to another level in figure skating accomplishment.

Josh Babb and Jenny gibson, coaches of the Juniors said they had worked the girls on improving their footwork all season to bring technical scores up, and that next season they would be dealing with the posture and upper body attitudes required to score higher in the artistic element of the Free Skate.

The Skyliners Brain Trust: Larry Rosen, left owner of The Athlete’s Foot, White Plains, Club President. Josh Babb, Coach, second from left, Jenny Gibson third from left, Tina Staples, fourth from left and Ena Shae, line mothers. Photo, WPCNR Sports

In synchronized skating, every team member has to be good. One off performance wrecks the whole performance. It is the truest team sport.

They skated for the final time this season in Shelton Connecticut at a jam-packed Skate for the Cure Saturday night performing both the trademark Listen to Your Heart program and their long program at The Rinks arena in Shelton, CT .

Third Youth Charged in Pelletier Killing.

Posted on April 1, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From White Plains Department of Public Safety. April 1, 2006: White Plains Police reported Friday a third youth has been charged with Gang Assault in the First Degree in connection with the street stabbing of Jermaine Pelletier Monday, March 27. The teenager, who is 17 years of age, a resident of 11 Fisher Avenue, White Plains, turned himself into police. Police have also charged Chad Green, 19, also residing at 11 Fisher Avenue, and Ronnie Thomas, 20, 17 Cabot Avenue, Elmsford with Gang Assault in the First Degree.