There was a gathering of friends and family at the Westport Arts Center today to pay tribute to the late Westport artist Susan Malloy. Helen Klisser During, artistic director, showed a slide display of scenes from Malloy’s life as champagne toasts were made and guests snacked on candies wrapped in purple, Malloy’s favorite color.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Scenes from today’s Westport Arts Center tribute to artist Susan Malloy, including some of the photos shown in a slide show highlighting her life.. Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com and contributed photos

By Susan Granger

Granted, the title might be a bit of a turn-off, along with the fact that it’s about cancer. But let me assure you that “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is one of the best indies of the year.

High school senior Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) is one of those painfully shy, self-conscious kids who says he would rather remain invisible and eat lunch alone - or watching Werner Herzog movies in the office of his heavily tattooed history teacher (Jon Bernthal) - than join a cafeteria clique.

Yet, like everyone else, Greg yearns for acceptance. His best-friend is Earl (RJ Cyler), an African-American classmate. Aspiring filmmakers, Greg and Earl make short parodies of classic and foreign films, dubbing them “Senior Citizen Kane,” “Sockwork Orange,” “Breath Less” and “2:48 p.m. Cowboy.”

Greg lives in a middle-class Pittsburgh suburb with his eccentric professor father (Nick Offerman) and overbearing mother (Connie Britton), who forces him to befriend a neighbor’s (Molly Shannon) daughter, Rachel (Olivia Cooke), who has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Harold Bailey, chair of TEAM Westport (Together Effectively Achieving Multiculturalism), tonight introduces Margaret Nagle, screenwriter of the 2014 film “The Good Lie” about the “lost boys” of Sudan shown at the Westport Woman’s club tonight. The movie starring Reese Witherspoon tells the true story of five Sudanese children orphaned by a massacre of their village during the second Sudanese civil war. “I wrote the screenplay in 2005,” said Nagle. “It took a long time to finally get a producer for the film.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

The cast takes a bow tonight before an overflow crowd at the Westport Country Playhouse following the script in hand reading of the comedy “Country Club.” One of the loudest laughs in the script by Tony-nominee Douglas Carter Beane referred to the WASP domain where the play takes place that includes houses “that made Martha Stewart forget she was Polish.” Pictured (l-r) are Jake Robards, Rebekah Brockman, Monique Barbee, Kate MacCluggage, Matthew Amendt, Robert Eli, and Amelia Pedlow. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Westport Country Playhouse Managing Director Michael Ross and script in hand curator Anne Keefe celebrate tonight’s performance of “Country Club” with actors Amelia Pedlow and Matthew Amendt, who recently completed a two-month run in the play, “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” at the Red Bull Theatre Company in New York in which they played brother and sister. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Actors Kate MacCluggage who read the role of Soos and Robert Eli who read the role of Hutch in tonight’s Westport Country Playhouse script in hand reading of “Country Club,” are going a step beyond the script of the play and turning art into reality. The couple will marry next week. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com