The Staples High School Orphenians under the direction of Luke Rosenberg, performed at tonight’s Town Hall Christmas tree lighting ceremony. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Barbara K. Streicker of Westport, newly elected chair of the Westport Country Playhouse board of trustees, poses today with outgoing chair Michael Klingher of Weston in front of the Playhouse’s administrative conference room which has been named in Klingher’s honor. Klingher, board chair from 2013 to 2015 and a trustee since 2007, will remain on the board. Streicker has been on the Playhouse board since 2006. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Kat Gloor for WestportNow.com

Bedford Middle School’s Bedford Acting Group presents “Oliver!” this weekend and today held a dress rehearsal. More than 70 seventh and eighth graders appear in the production with performances Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets will also be sold at the door for cash or check only: $12 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets can be purchased at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2462225. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Scenes from today’s dress rehearsal by the Bedford Middle School’s Bedford Acting Group of its production of “Oliver!” this weekend. Performances are scheduled Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Food blogger Elissa Altman, winner of the 2012 James Beard Award for Individual Food Blog, will be guest Thursday at the Westport Library.

Elissa Altman: learned fancy is always best. Contributed photo

At the 7 p.m. event, she will speak about her book, “Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking.” Altman’s book grew out of her blog of the same name.

Born and raised in New York to a food-phobic mother and a food-fanatical father, she learned early that fancy is always best.

After a childhood spent dining at fine establishments she devoted her life to the gastronomical world. Then, she met and fell in love with a woman named Susan—a frugal, small-town Connecticut Yankee with a devotion to simple living.

By Susan Granger

In “Brooklyn,” the emotionally tempestuous, Irish immigrant experience serves as the basis for a sweetly poignant, assimilation story.

In 1952, the local Roman Catholic Church arranges for demure, 20’ish Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) to reluctantly leave her widowed mother (Jane Brennan) and older sister (Fiona Glascott) in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, to live and work in Brooklyn, New York.

Naïve and bewildered after her long ocean voyage, she arrives at a small boardinghouse run by stern, sharp-tongued Mrs. Kehoe (Julie Walters) and starts to work at a local department store, where her shy, prim demeanor doesn’t exactly encourage customers.

Wretchedly lonely and homesick, Eilis is sponsored by a sympathetic priest (Jim Broadbent), who suggests that she take night courses in accounting and attend church dances. That’s where she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), an impetuous Italian-American plumber who has a penchant for Irish girls.

The Westport Woman’s Club today hosted a Nutcracker Tea Party in partnership with the Westport Academy of Dance for the benefit of Waltersville Elementary School in Bridgeport. The event included a high tea, a “Nutcracker Story” reading by Melody James, set to music, along with vignettes by Westport Academy of Dance’s “Nutcracker” cast. Pictured are WWC volunteers led by Suzan Murphy, event chair. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com

A member of the Westport Academy of Dance shows some steps to guests at today’s Nutcracker Tea party at the Westport Woman’s Club.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com