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The Eaton Calendar – August 5

The Eaton Calendar – August 5

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 5, 2020

  1. Totally Ninja Raccoon Hunt Prize Winners Named on Saturday, August 1
  2. Pound Cakes Abound at Wellsboro Growers Market on Thursdays
  3. Sarah Knight Writes, Directs and Performs in Tune In To Radio HG Festival This Thursday Through Sunday, Aug. 6-9
  4. Radio HG Festival This Thursday-Sunday, August 6-9 is Experiment for Hamilton-Gibson Productions
  5. Free Jam Session is This Friday, August 7
  6. Scatter The Knickers to Play Traditional and New Irish Music at Free Concert on Friday, August 14

Diane Eaton
dianetn@ptd.net
(570) 724-3800

TOTALLY NINJA RACCOON HUNT PRIZE WINNERS NAMED ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 1

The drawing for the Totally Nina Raccoon Hunt prize winners was livestreamed on the From My Shelf Books & Gifts Facebook page beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1. Twenty-nine winners were named. None attended the drawing held at the bookstore at 7 East Avenue in Wellsboro.

“Forty-seven passports were turned in by 6 p.m. on July 30,” said Kasey Coolidge, bookstore manager. “Participation was down by more than 50 percent from previous years but we expected that because of the coronavirus,” she added.

“The majority of the youth that took part in this year’s Totally Ninja Raccoon hunt were from the Wellsboro area,” Coolidge said. “Also participating were youngsters from Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina and the Rochester area of New York who were visiting relatives that live in this area.”

Among the winners were Breona Deveney who won $100 in cash; Skye Lusk, a $50 gift certificate to From My Shelf Books & Gifts; Tate Cougill a bike light valued at $25 from C.S. Sports; and Lucas Crowl, a one-hour personal archery lesson from Moore’s Sports Center.

The names of all of the winners and what they won are listed on the bookstore’s Facebook page. “When I spoke with participating business owners, their response was enthusiastic. They had a great time with the families and were happy to contribute this year’s prizes.”

“We will try to hold a Ninja Raccoon Party some time this fall at Omi of the Canyon, since they have resident raccoons and many outdoor options for gathering safely,” said Coolidge. “Watch our Facebook page for more details. The party was to be held on Aug. 1 but we decided to postpone it until we could find a new location to provide those attending with the opportunity to follow social distancing guidelines.”

Contact the bookstore at (570) 724-5793.


Photo by John Eaton
Manager Kasey Coolidge (shown) draws the name of a winner from the prize jar at From My Shelf Books & Gifts in Wellsboro.

POUND CAKES ABOUND AT WELLSBORO GROWERS MARKET ON THURSDAYS

Kathy Siegrist the “pound cake lady” will be bringing eight of her 17 pound cake flavors to the Wellsboro Growers Market this Thursday, Aug. 6. The market is open from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. every Thursday through October 8 on the front lawn of the First Presbyterian Church at 130 Main Street in Wellsboro, weather permitting.

“I will be offering classic butter, fresh peach, blueberry, blueberry-cranberry, orange-cardamom, lemon glaze, pecan streusel swirl and serious chocolate loaf pound cakes,” she said. Her other pound cakes are almond, blueberry-cherry, cherry-cherry, chocolate stout, coconut, crumb and get it, lemon-blueberry, pineapple and triple berry.

“I bake a lot of different things but pound cakes are my forte. They are easy to care for. You don’t need to refrigerate them and can freeze them if you want to have some on hand.”

Her classic butter pound cake is her mother’s original recipe. “I make all of my pound cakes with Land O’Lakes butter. It’s the best,” she said.

Pound cakes were made in Northern Europe in the early 18th century, according to Siegrist. Each one weighed four pounds and was made of a pound of each of four ingredients: butter, flour, sugar and eggs. “I can’t tell you how much any of my pound cakes weigh because I sold out at the July 30 market,” she said.

Siegrist has been baking as long as she can remember. “When I was young, I was my mom’s baking buddy. She made everything from scratch. I would be by her side wearing my apron measuring the flour and the butter and pouring the milk. Mom always emphasized the importance of being precise and following the recipe. I have a sweet tooth and always loved to bake cakes.

“I started my baking business Bakery 303 four years ago in 2016. That’s when I became a licensed baker,” Siegrist said. “I was working part-time as the Wellsboro Senior Center manager and Shirley Alexander of Copp Hollow Bakery was a volunteer. “We baked and cooked together for fundraisers for the center. She told me about being a vendor at the Wellsboro Growers Market, encouraged me to consider starting my own bakery in my own kitchen at home and how to do it.”

On the back of her business cards, Siegrist explains how the name Bakery 303 honors her mother who inspired her love of baking. Her mother died of cancer when Siegrist was just 23 years old. “One night I prayed asking my mom to give me a sign that she could hear me. I awoke at 3:03 and on the digital clock, 3:03 spells mom. Since then my mom has sent me lots of 303 messages.”

“I enjoy coming up with new and improved flavors. Baking is a creative outlet for me and fun for my husband because he’s the lucky guy who gets to be my taste tester. My daughter Molly trained as a pastry chef. She teaches now but is the one I turn to when I am working on a new recipe. She suggested what to add to my peach pound cake to strengthen the taste.

“We moved from Sussex County, New Jersey to the Wellsboro area in 2009, the same year I went to work at the senior center. We found Wellsboro by accident. We dropped off our daughter Valerie at her college in Allentown and stopped in Wellsboro on the way to taking Molly to her college in Erie.”

Customers at the market are asked to wear face masks and maintain six feet of distance between themselves and others.

Vendors who want to participate are asked to call Thomas Putnam at (570) 439-2000 or email him at wellsborogrowersmarket@gmail.com.


Photo by John Eaton
Kathy Siegrist holds pecan streusel swirl and classic butter pound cakes she baked.

SARAH KNIGHT WRITES, DIRECTS AND PERFORMS IN TUNE IN TO RADIO HG FESTIVAL THIS THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY, AUG. 6-9

During the Fourth Annual Tune In To Radio HG Festival, Sarah Knight of Wellsboro is directing four original plays she wrote and performing in two of them.

A play Knight is acting in or is directing will be performed each day of the four-day festival starting this Thursday, Aug. 6 and continuing through this Sunday, Aug. 9.

“My fiancé Mitch Kreisler and I play husband and wife, Goodman and Jane Ace in the Easy Aces episode titled ‘Jane Thinks Mink’,” Knight said. Directed by Sarah Duterte, it airs this Thursday. Easy Aces is an American serial radio comedy that ran from 1930 to 1945.

“Two of the Radio HG Festival comedies I wrote and acted in were well received when they originally premiered so the decision was made to present them again this year. On Friday night, I will perform in the ‘Community Pet Corner’ from 2019 and on Saturday night in ‘The Telephone Game with Nancy St. Stacey’ from 2018.

“‘DadTective’ and the ‘Children’s Soap Opera Network’ are the two new ones I wrote and directed this year. Both will premier Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. All family members, children and adults, can watch any radio play I write. I’m a teacher and that’s what I do all the time, try to involve the whole family.

“All of this year’s radio plays have been digitally prerecorded and for the first time will be live-streamed online in this unprecedented year of COVID-19,” Knight said.

“I moved to this area seven years ago in 2013 when I began teaching at Westfield Elementary School. I have taught both second and third graders.

“My cousin who lives in Wellsboro and I first became involved with Hamilton-Gibson Productions in 2015. That February, Gabe Hakvaag directed ‘Fools in Love’. We thought it would be something fun to do. In October, Gabe directed the audio drama ‘Dracula: A Symphony of Terrors’. I was in that, too. That’s where I met Mitch and we became best friends. We had roles in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ in March of 2017 and began dating after the show ended,” Knight said.

“I’ve written since I was a child. I wrote my first two radio plays for the first Tune In To Radio HG Festival in 2017. They were: ‘Kate Kactus: Cowgirl Magician’ and ‘Ranger Jim and the High School Homicide’. I love writing in the ‘classic’ radio style because it’s so open, especially for light and reverent parody, which I try to bring to all of my scripts.

“I decide what to write about by bouncing ideas off friends and Mitch, who also writes radio plays for the Radio HG Festival.

“I don’t get nervous when I act or am directing. If we were doing the radio festival performances in front of a live audience, as the director I would be backstage pacing up and down waiting to hear how the audience reacts to what I wrote. I want them to like it. The waiting is nerve-racking for me. Acting is not a big deal mainly because at this point HG is like a family. I know everybody and am comfortable with them I don’t worry about what the audience is thinking about my acting. I’m on stage having fun, expressing myself.”

Tickets can be purchased online from BookTix through the Hamilton-Gibson Productions website at www.hamiltongibson.org or by visiting hgp.booktix.com. A ticket with a link to the scheduled performance will be emailed to the buyer. Open the link before the start time and watch the show from a computer, phone, or any other streaming device.
An individual pass is $10; a family pass is $20; and a festival pass for all four performance dates is $30. For more information, call (570) 724-2079.


Photo by John Eaton
Director Sarah Knight is shown during a “Children’s Soap Opera Network” rehearsal with Sylvia, Milo and Oliver Duterte.

RADIO HG FESTIVAL THIS THURSDAY-SUNDAY, AUGUST 6-9 IS EXPERIMENT FOR HAMILTON-GIBSON PRODUCTIONS

COVID-19 is presenting many challenges for people everywhere. The need to wear a mask, stay at least six feet away from other individuals and not gather in large groups has been particularly hard on businesses and organizations of all types, including those that offer live theater experiences.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Pennsylvania, Hamilton-Gibson Productions, a community theater performing arts group based in Wellsboro, has been struggling to find a path to survival.

A combination of sponsors, ticket sales, donations, grants, a cadre of volunteers who direct, act, serve as light and sound technicians, costumers, scenery designers, etc. and a loyal audience is what has kept HG going since its founding in 1991.

Now in its 30th season, HG has dropped many of its planned large cast productions in favor of smaller casts and crews in order to continue offering live theater experiences as the pandemic rages across America.

But the clock is ticking.

“This year’s Tune In To Radio HG Festival is a grand experiment,” said Thomas Putnam, founder and artistic director of Hamilton-Gibson Productions.

“Gabe Hakvaag and his team of writers, directors, actors and sound effects crew have come up with a unique approach to offer the four performances of radio shows online this Thursday through Sunday, Aug. 6-9. The challenges have been huge but the results may prove to be well worth it. Families can hear and see the radio shows from their homes with a different lineup of radio plays for every scheduled performance,” Putnam said.

““We’re very excited to be able to offer this new entertainment experiment. Tickets can be obtained online through our new ticketing system. This is the first time we’ve used this system and we’re still exploring all its options, so we’re asking audience members to bear with us as we navigate new waters,” said Putnam.

“Community theater groups depend on ticket sales,” Hakvaag said. “Due to necessary state-imposed guidelines to get the virus under control, the size of our audience has been limited – first to 30 people and now 20. Ticket sales have dropped considerably. Without sponsors and donations, we would already be out of business,” said Hakvaag.

“HG’s online ticket sales company offers live-streamed shows through their platform for people who purchase tickets so we decided to do a trial run to see if it will work for our HG audience.”

Patrons can purchase their tickets online from BookTix through the Hamilton-Gibson Productions website at www.hamiltongibson.org or visit hgp.booktix.com. They will receive an email ticket with a link to the scheduled performance. Open the link before the start time. “The shows can be watched from your computer, Smart TV, phone, or any other streaming device,” Hakvaag said.

An individual pass is $10; a family pass is $20; and a festival pass for all four performance dates is $30. For more information, call (570) 724-2079.

Wellsboro’s Broadcast Free Radio (WBFR) Performances are August 6, 7, 8 & 9

For the Tune In To Radio HG Festival, voice actors stand before microphones with scripts in hand and perform accompanied by music and sound effects in Wellsboro’s Broadcast Free Radio (WBFR) studio.

Thursday, Aug. 6 at 7:30 p.m. old-time radio play episodes (Rated PG) are being presented. They include: “The Whistler: Stranger In The House”, a mystery; “Easy Aces: Jane Thinks Mink”, a comedy; “Sam Spade: Blood Money”, a crime story; “Fibber McGee and Molly: Mayor LaTrivia Won’t Leave”, a comedy; and “Gunsmoke: The Guitar”, a western.

Friday, Aug. 7 at 7:30 p.m. will be three contemporary comedies (Rated PG), including: “Sesame Mucho”; “The Pepperonis” and “Community Pet Corner”.

Saturday, Aug. 8 at 7:30 p.m. will be three contemporary radio plays (Rated PG), including “The Telephone Game with Nancy St. Stacey”, a comedy; “The Fall of the House of Usher”, a Gothic mystery; and “A Brief History of 20th Century Theater”, a comedy.

Sunday afternoon, Aug. 9 at 2:30 p.m. will be three family shows (Rated G): “Popeye The Sailor: Popeye meets Robin Hood”, a comedy; “DadTective”, and “Children’s Soap Opera Network”.

FREE JAM SESSION IS THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 7

This Friday, Aug. 7 at 6 p.m. a jam session featuring local musicians performing a wide variety of music from folk, rock and country to bluegrass, old-time, ragtime and standards from the Great American Songbook will be on the Central Avenue side of the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

The jam session will be outdoors with the performers set up on the side of the lawn nearest to the Deane Center’s Warehouse Theatre rather than on the outdoor stage. Central Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic between Main Street and the Warehouse Theatre from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. People are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and sit on the lawn and in the street, wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines.

Among those who will be performing are Daria Guelig, Dave Driskell, Bob Rubin, and Dan Krise. Musicians who want to participate in the jam session are asked to contact Guelig beforehand by emailing her at dlguelig@gmail.com.

The remaining concerts in this free series are: Scatter The Knickers, an Irish band, on Friday, Aug. 14 at 6:30 p.m.; the Vineyard Band at 6 p.m. on Aug. 21; Like A Hurricane, a Neil Young & Crazy Horse tribute band at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28; Dave Brown & The Dishonest Fiddlers at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4; and Take2 & Friends at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11.

For more information, call the Deane Center at (570) 724-6220, email office@deanecenter.com, stop in at 104 Main Street between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays or visit deanecenter.com.

SCATTER THE KNICKERS TO PLAY TRADITIONAL AND NEW IRISH MUSIC AT FREE CONCERT ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 14

Scatter the Knickers will play and sing traditional Irish songs as well as originals on Friday, Aug. 14 at 6:30 p.m. as the free concert series continues on the outdoor stage at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

Formed in 2019, this Twin Tiers trio is firmly rooted in Irish traditional music, a genre that includes jigs, reels, barn dances, pub tunes and ballads developed in Ireland. Their performance will include a variety of traditional songs and new, original compositions that will get the audience stomping their feet and clapping their hands or enjoying sad Irish tunes that always end on a note of hope.

The three band members individually developed a love for Irish music, which led them to form Scatter the Knickers. Abbie Dolan of Horseheads, N.Y. plays fiddle and is known for her sweet and soulful vocals. Brian Casey of Elmira, N.Y plays the concertina, bodhrán and percussion, and Greg Smith of Columbia Cross Roads, the guitar, tenor banjo, double bass, and Irish flute. Each man writes Irish-style originals for the band to play.

Dolan is a classically trained violist and violinist and has performed in various orchestras, string quartets, and musical groups in the area. She began playing traditional Irish music in college and was instantly smitten. The time she spent in Ireland playing on its trains and streets, at festivals and in pubs fueled her love of Irish music. An art historian, Dolan is drawn to the meaning behind the music she plays. “Traditional Irish music speaks of life, love, and loss,” she said. “It has a unique depth that touches the soul. It brings people together. Being part of Scatter the Knickers allows me to play the music I love alongside two amazing musicians,” she said.

Casey began playing drums and other percussion instruments at an early age. From then through graduation from college, he played in various marching bands and rock groups. Over the years, due to his frequent business trips to Ireland, he became an Irish music fan. While living and working in Manhattan, N.Y. he was involved in the Traditional Irish music scene, first learning to play the bodhrán drum and later the concertina. He is still an active member of the New York City Irish music scene and participates in frequent workshops and festivals in Ireland.

“I first started playing Irish music after spending a few weeks in Ireland, many years ago,” Smith said. “During those weeks, I listened to different musicians every day. Since then, I have been playing Irish tunes all the time.” He first began playing electric bass as a teenager one hot night in Kansas. A bassist for many years, he has played jazz, bluegrass, and contemporary folk music in many area bands and is also known as a harmony vocalist. Smith has made 17 stringed instruments including the upright bass and guitar he currently plays.

For this free concert, bring lawn chairs and sit on the grass in front of the outdoor stage or on Central Avenue, which will be closed to traffic between Main Street and the Warehouse Theatre to provide space for social distancing. Donations are appreciated.

Visit deanecenter.com, email office@deanecenter.com, or call (570) 724-6220 for more information.


Photo provided
Members of Scatter the Knickers are (from left to right) Brian Casey with his bodhrán, vocalist Abbie Dolan with her fiddle and Greg Smith with his Irish flute.

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