Jack Klugman: cancer survivor. File photoActor Jack Klugman has been selected by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to be the recipient of the first-ever Champions of Hope Award to be presented at its 10th annual “Broadway on Beachside” event in Westport Sunday, July 17, it was announced today.

Jim Calhoun, University of Connecticut head basketball coach and a cancer survivor, is scheduled to present the award to Klugman, 83, best known for his portrayal of the slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison in “The Odd Couple” television series.

Karen Rouse, senior vice president of marketing and communications for the ACS’s New England Division, said the award is “for giving voice to the fight against cancer through education and advocacy.

She said that Klugman, who lost a vocal cord to cancer in the early 1990s, has since continued his stage and on television acting while supporting health issues and doing an ACS public service announcement.

J.M. Barrie’s “Dear Brutus” debuted Thursday night at the Westport Country Playhouse. The second production of the summer, it runs through July 24. Pictured are front (l-r): Emma Roberts, Meg Gibson, Noble Shropshire (kneeling), Beth Fowler, and Corinne Chandler. Rear (l-r): Cheryl Lynn Bowers, Curzon Dobell, Christopher Evan Welch, Simon Jones, Allison Mackie, and Patrick Horgan. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) T. Charles Erickson/Westport Country Playhouse photo

A symposium, “Illusions and Second Chances,” is scheduled to be presented by the Westport Country Playhouse on Sunday, July 10, at 5:30 p.m. following the afternoon performance of “Dear Brutus.”

The whimsical play by J. M. Barrie, the author of “Peter Pan.” is about second chances and paths not taken. A second performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. that day.

Free and open to the public, the symposium features Toni Dorfman, director of undergraduate theater studies and associate professor of theater studies at Yale University, and Lois Spivak, Ph.D, a psychologist and sex therapist with a private practice in Woodbridge.

They plan to discuss Shakespearean illusions and references in “Dear Brutus,” and how second chances in relationships work out in the real world. The play’s title, “Dear Brutus,” comes from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”

Tonight’s entertainment at Westport’s Levitt Pavilion was provided by The Crawdaddies. The Baltimore-based band was founded in 1995 on the premise of “why not, it might just work,” according to its Web site. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jonathan Thrope for WestportNow.com

Tonight was a good dancing night at Westport’s Levitt Pavilion with music provided by The Crawdaddies. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jonathan Thrope for WestportNow.com

The U.S.Navy Northeast Showband performed at Westport’s Levitt Pavilion tonight. Music selections included standards by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller as well as a jazzed up rendition of “America the Beautiful.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jonathan Thrope for WestportNow.com

Young and old enjoyed the big band sound from a U.S. Navy band at Westport’s Levitt Pavilion tonight. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Gordon Joseloff/WestportNow.com photo

Honored guest: Jamie Tanzer Contributed photo By James Lomuscio

Jamie Tanzer, a 7-year-old Westporter, recently had an opportunity that few adults, let alone children, do.

She received a special invitation to a ribbon cutting ceremony with U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) at a new elementary school library in Mount Vernon, N.Y

“I kind of felt proud,” said Jamie, who attended the event two weeks ago with her mother Nancy Judson. “When we went to the thing, I was the youngest kid there.”

The honor for Jamie,  who will enter third grade at Westport’s Coleytown Elementary School in the fall, and her mom, too, stemmed from a newspaper article her mother read.

New Trustees: (top) Hooper and Wachsler; (bottom) Andrade and Velez Contributed photosThe Westport Public Library today announced the appointment of four new members to its Board of Trustees. John B Hooper and Robert A. Wachsler were appointed by the Library Board, and Eduardo N.T. Andrade and Linda V.Velez were appointed by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).

Hooper, 64, recently retired from Eastman Kodak Co. where he was director of research and development. He has a Ph.D from Carnegie-Mellon University, a M.A. from Clark University and has completed a fundraising essentials graduate course at Columbia University.

Wachsler, 71, is a former marketing and market research consultant and has a Ph.D. in psychology from Ohio State University. He is vice chairman and one of the founding trustees of The Medici Archive Project of Florence, Italy, and a trustee of The Goodspeed Opera House in Haddam, Conn.

Eduardo N.T. Andrade, 36, is vice president, associate general counsel for Priceline.com Inc., and has a J.D./MBA from the Georgetown University Law Center/McDonough School of Business.  He is a trustee and chairman of the executive committee for the Rectory School in Pomfret, Conn.