Performers receive applause tonight at a Play With Your Food gala at Branson Hall, Christ & Holy Trinity Church. Proceeds went to benefit programming of the lunch time play readings. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Scenes from tonight’s Play With Your Food gala in Westport. Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Catherine Onyemelukwe: 24 years in Nigeria. Contributed photo

Westport author Catherine Onyemelukwe will be guest Wednesday at the Friends of The Weston Public Library Lunch and Learn program to talk about events in Nigeria and her recent book “Nigeria Revisited: My Life and Loves Abroad.”

She went to Nigeria as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1962 and stayed for 24 years. She married a Nigerian and went on to raise a family, teach, launch a business and ultimately, adopt the country as her own.

Onyemelukwe will address the current political situation in Nigeria as well as its history, legacy of colonialism and culture, an announcement said. Additionally, she will provide perspective on the tragic kidnapping of the Chibok school girls and their captors.

The Lunch and Learn progam from noon to 1:30 p.m. is free. Attendees can bring their own lunch; registration is not necessary. For additional information, e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call the Weston Library at (203) 222-2665.

By Susan Granger

In an astonishing technical achievement, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu films “Birdman,” a satirical backstage comedic drama, in what looks like one long, continuous take, transcending time and space, soaring into hallucinatory flights of fancy, while remaining grounded in the present.

Michael Keaton is Riggan Thomson, a fading, egocentric movie star, renown as the comic book hero Birdman. He’s determined to prove himself on Broadway in his own adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story - with the voice of Birdman firmly lodged in his brain

During previews, delusionary Riggan must cope with his just-out-of-rehab daughter (Emma Stone), embittered ex-wife (Amy Ryan), lawyer/manager (Zach Galifianakis), venomous theater critic (Lindsay Duncan), insecure leading lady (Naomi Watts), and her supercilious actor/boyfriend (Edward Norton).

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Birdman” is an intense, immersive 10, assuring an Oscar nomination for Michael Keaton.

The Staples Players ensemble takes a curtain call Thursday night after the final dress rehearsal of “Hello, Dolly!” The production opens tonight and continues next weekend. For more information and tickets, go to www.staplesplayers.com. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Steve Schneider, a bartender at the West Village cocktail haunt For Employees Only, does a guest bartending stint tonight at Westport’s Dunville’s, 41 Saugatuck Ave. Schneider and Dunville’s co-owner, Steve Carpentieri, were featured in Westport director Doug Tirola’s award-winning documentary “Hey Bartender.” Schneider agreed to the Dunville’s gig to celebrate its reopening after renovations. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

With removal of trees and ivy in front of the former Westport Weston Family Y building on Post Road East, two gargoyles above the main entranceway of the 1923-built building are finally seeing the light of day. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Tenth grade students from Bridgeport’s Bridge Academy charter school today visited New York’s Chelsea art district as part of the Connections program of the Westport Arts Center (WAC). Helen Klisser During, WAC artistic director, and WAC staffers Jill Sarver, Rebecca Brown,  and Marni Katz, as well as Laura Spada, a member or the WAC Education Committee, pose with the students in front of artist Takashi Murakami’s work on display at the Gagosian Gallery.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Westport Cinema Initiative and Project Return are partnering to present “A League of Their Own,” a 1992 fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis and directed by Penny Marshall, the comedy-drama will be shown Sunday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. at Westport Town Hall. Tickets are $10 and are available at http://www.westportcinema.org.

The film tells the story of the women’s baseball team as it tours the United States during World War II.  The light-hearted look at early professional female athletes shows just how ground breaking and resilient these early pioneers were in playing the sport that they loved.

The screening is sponsored by Lee Rawiszer of Paradigm Financial Partners. A brief talk back with Doug Tirola of the Westport Cinema Initiative board, and Meghan Skelton, from the Weston Public Schools, will follow. There will also be a pizza supper at Project Return for the first 30 people who RSVP, an announcement said.