Warner Theatre to host ‘Where We Live’ series

TORRINGTON » This summer, WNPR’s Where We Live sits down with three prominent Connecticut women from very different backgrounds in the Warner Theatre’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre. The threepart series begins on July 11 at 7 p.m. with Cindi Bigelow, President and CEO of Bigelow Tea.

The series continues on Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. with Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University. The series closes on Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. with Carolyn Kuan, Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Host Lucy Nalpathanchil will ask each about “her story” — the journey that led to her success in business, science or the arts, and explore questions like, how have they confronted gender bias in their careers? How do they balance work expectations with their personal lives? And what do they want the next generation of women leaders to know? This live series will also be taped for broadcast on the popular Where We Live daily radio program on WNPR. Join us for this 3-part summer series, and bring your questions! Tickets include a brief pre-event reception at 6:15 p.m. with Lucy Nalpathanchil and the featured guest, as well as the production team from WNPR.

Bigelow is the third generation President and CEO of Bigelow Tea, the US market leader of specialty teas that produces over 1.7 billion tea bags annually. She holds a BS degree from Boston College, an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, and an Honorary Doctorate from University of New Haven. Socially and community-minded, she frequently makes appearances speaking to students and industry leaders, sharing insights on business ethics and career development, and has received numerous awards for her years of community service.

Natarajan is a theoretical astrophysicist interested in cosmology, gravitational lensing, and black hole physics. Her research involves mapping the detailed distribution of dark matter in the universe, exploiting the bending of light en-route to us from distant galaxies. In particular, she has focused on making dark matter maps of clusters of galaxies, the largest known repositories of dark matter. Her work has demonstrated that cluster strong lensing offers a unique and potentially powerful laboratory to test evolving dark energy models. Natarajan was the chair of the Womens Faculty Forum from 2011-2013 at Yale. She was on the Steering Committee of the Womens Faculty Forum from 2003 to 2010. She is deeply interested in institutional change with regard to gender parity in the Academy. She is also on the Board of the Swiss Edge Certified Foundation that works toward gender equality in the workplace.

Kuan is recognized as a conductor of extraordinary versatility. She has enjoyed successful associations with top tier orchestras, opera companies, ballet companies and festivals worldwide. Her commitment to contemporary music has defined her approach to programming, and established her as an international resource for new music and world premieres. Appointed music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2011, she has recently signed a new six-year contract extending their creative collaboration through May, 2022.

Tickets are $15 for one night or $30 for all three nights of the series. To purchase tickets, call the Warner Box Office at 860-489-7180 or visit warnertheatre.org.

Library offers twosession book discussion

LITCHFIELD » Madame Bovary and The Bad Girl: Two Novels Sharing Common Threads, A Discussion with Aimee Pozorski, will be held Sunday, July 16 and Sunday, Aug. 13, 1-2 p.m. at the Oliver Wolcott Library, 160 South St., Litchfield. In this series, participants will look at the ways in which Nobel-Prize winning Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has revisited, revised, and updated for the 21st century Gustav Flaubert’s 19th century masterpiece, Madame Bovary. By first reading Madame Bovary, followed by The Bad Girl, the group will discuss how these novels consider such themes as revolution, the nature of realism, representations of women, illness, and narration as rendered in two different centuries from two different parts of the world while at the same time maintaining their focus on the unifying vision of a woman stifled by the social codes of her time.

July 16: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. The story focuses on a doctor’s wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

Aug. 13: The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa. Ricardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. However poorly she treats him, he is doomed to worship her.

All Oliver Wolcott Library events are free and open to the public. Space is limited. Registration is required and can be done by calling 860-5678030 or logging onto www. owlibrary.org and clicking on Programs/Adult Programs.