The Kazzrie Jaxen Quartet drew a large crowd to the Westport Library today.  The quartet’s music includes standard tunes, jazz lines, originals, and occasional excursions into the abstract. Westport jazz fans had a feast today with the Westport Arts Center also presenting an afternoon jazz concert with Rhythm Future Quartet. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The cast and director celebrate tonight’s opening night performance of the Westport Country Playhouse production of Arthur Miller’s “Broken Glass,”  Based on the time of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) in Nazi Germany, a Brooklyn Jewish couple’s marriage begins to shatter. Pictured (l-r) Mark Lamos, the play’s director and Playhouse artistic director, John Hillner, Stephen Schnetzer, Merritt Janson, Steven Skybell, Felicity Jones, and Angela Reed.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Husband/wife actors Mia Dillon (l) and Keir Dullea (r) pose with Todd Cerveris and his wife, Angela Reed, tonight following the opening performance of Arthur Miller’s “Broken Glass” at the Westport Country Playhouse. Both couples performed together in the the play “On Golden Pond” at the Bucks County Playhouse in July. Reed played the role of Margaret Hyman in tonight’s production. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Last minute preparations were under way today for Chowdafest, the annual chowder competition featuring restaurants throughout New England, which takes place Sunday 11 a.m.to 3 p.m. at Sherwood Island State Park.

Chowdafest drew thousands to the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport in 2013, so many that it sought a larger venue in 2014.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

More than 40 restaurants are participating in eighth annual edition, which marks a homecoming to Westport.

Begun in the Westport Unitarian Church on Thanksgiving weekend in 2008, the event grew over the years, moving to the Bedford Middle School cafeteria, the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, and last year, Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk

It is the second time the event will be held outdoors and will go ahead rain or shine, said founder Jim Keenan. Chowdafest last year drew about 5,000 persons, he said.

Voices Café, live music at the Unitarian Church in Westport,  opened its fifth season tonight with singer-songwriter Pierce Pettis. He accompanied his folk-country music with guitar playing and the occasional harmonica. His songs have been performed by many well known musicians, including Dar Williams, Garth Brooks and the Indigo Girls. The vision of Voices Café is to be a center of inspiration and spiritual growth for those who come to experience performing artists whose messages are powerful, provocative, fun, and uplifting. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jane Sherman for WestportNow.com

The Westport Arts Center and Saugatuck Sweets today hosted a Reach Out For Outreach event at the Saugatuck Sweets courtyard. Families decorated pumpkins provided by Saugatuck Sweets in a series of project stations managed by Westport Arts Center and National Charity League volunteers. The event was designed to build awareness and support for the Westport Arts Center’s outreach programs which provide artistic experiences to underserved and unique populations within Fairfield and New Haven counties. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Westporter Sybil Steinberg drew her usual large crowd Friday to the Westport Library as she unveiled her latest list of good reads. Steinberg, who edited the book review section of Publishers Weekly for several decades and is now a contributing editor, said she has read 50 books since her June appearance at the library. Topping her fiction selections was “Purity” by Jonathan Franzen—“Franzen’s wide-ranging novel is his best so far, chronicling the lives of three characters involved in a South American cult and murder.” The top nonfiction selection was “Between The World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates—
“The condition of being black in contemporary America is powerfully expressed in this meditation on pervasive racism.” See complete list here.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Westport photographer Árpád Krizsán addresses guests at the Westport Library tonight at the opening reception of “Athens – Tale of a Bailout,” a collection of his photos of the Greek capital. Krizsán traveled to Athens in January as Greece tried to cope with its ever-worsening, never-ending economic crisis. His photographic glimpse of everyday life in the Athens was shot entirely in downtown Athens in a narrow area between the Acropolis and Syntagma Square, which houses the Greek Parliament. The photo on the left shows pedestrians walking past Athens graffiti. The exhibit runs through Jan. 6. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Helen Klisser During, artistic director at the Westport Arts Center (WAC), has resigned effective Dec. 1, it was announced today.

Helen Klisser During: “deeply grateful.” Contributed photo

Klisser During, who in six years at WAC has brought world-class artists, exhibitions, and personalities to Westport and attracted support from major museums, galleries, and collectors, said she wants to “devote full time to special projects and advising domestic and international clients.”

Her departure is the second major leadership change at WAC this year. In June, Cynthia Armijo was named executive director, succeeding Peter Van Heerden, who left after three years to join the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University.

“I am deeply grateful for my six years at the Westport Arts Center and having the trust and creative license to use the Center as a canvas for a global and hyper-local dialogue with our dynamic community prompted by pictures on a wall,” Klisser During said in the announcement.

By Susan Granger

Along the lawless border between the United States and Mexico, drug cartels rule, and “Sicario” means hitman. That’s where French-Canadian director Denis Villenueve focuses in this grim, grisly thriller.

After idealistic FBI field agent, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her SWAT-team partner, Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya), discover a stash of rotting corpses stashed behind a drywall in an Arizona subdivision, she’s recruited by a shadowy government task force, headed by scruffy, sandal-clad Matt Graver (Josh Brolin).

The covert black-ops squad is led by a burly, vengeful Colombian “consultant,” Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), who cryptically tells Kate as she dons her Kevlar vest: “Nothing will make sense to your American ears, and you will doubt everything we do.”

First on the agenda is an unorthodox trip over the Rio Grande and through the dry, cactus-filled Chihuahua Desert to Juarez to retrieve a prisoner to make him squeal on the Sonora cartel, leading to the capture of businessman Manuel Diaz (Bernardo Saracino) in order to flush out the kingpin, Fausto Alarcon (Julio Cesar Cedillo).