CAFTA to stage ‘Hansel and Gretel’

TORRINGTON — Summer day campers at Connecticut Academy For the Arts in Torrington have been hard at work rehearsing for their only performance of Englebert Humperdinck's 19th century opera, “Hänsel and Gretel.”

The show will be presented at CAFTA’s Cineteque Theatre, at 100 Prospect St., Torrington Saturday at 3 p.m.

Thursday night, CAFTA directors Teresa Graham Sullivan and John Sullivan took a break from preparing for the performance with a visit to Main Street Marketplace at Coe Memorial Park. The city’s annual street fair, which was rained out twice, was held at the park for its final night of the season. The Sullivans brought their three minature collies with them, and were immediately surrounded by children and their parents, most of whom knelt on the grass to pet the dogs.

“We had to get out for a little while,” Graham Sullivan said. “But I have to get back soon.” She said she was still painting scenery for the performance.

CAFTA has moved a few times since its arrival in Torrington, but the art school has been settled on Prospect Street for nearly three years. It has been a busy summer for the couple, with art students spending their days at the academy painting, drawing and creating. In its simple mission statement, “CAFTA is a non-profit cultural arts organization dedicated to providing individuals of all ages a means to identify, explore and utilize their creative ideas and talents with excellence and high standards on a competitively global level.”

The academy offers daytime and after school art classes for children and adults, a weekly film forum, and guidance in art portfolio development, mentoring and even college selection, according to the website.

On Saturday afternoon, CAFTA’s music director and flautist Kathy Marsh Tomerelli and Nancy Herzig will perform a duet of “The Evening Song,” and the show will also feature a special appearance by master puppeteer Marilyn O’Connor Miller, with one of her signature puppets, “Tiffany.”

Graham-Sullivan also revealed taht her husband John is playing the wicked witch in Saturday’s performance. “You should see him (in his costume),” she said. “He looks so great.”

Tickets are $5 at the door and will benefit CAFTA’s scholarship fund.

For more information, contact CAFTA.usa@gmail.com or Facebook.com/ CAFTA.usa or call 860 201-5706

Teresa Graham Sullivan / Contributed photo CAFTA’s students are presenting “Hansel and Gretel” Saturday afternoon in Torrington. Back row, from left, are Laciegh Tyler Richeme (Father); Tariana Medina (Mother); Madeline Vega (Gretel); Emma Wisniewski (Hansel); John Sullivan (the Wicked Witch); Nick Borja (Narrator); Dylan Theeb (Narrator). Front row: Heather Thompson (crew and Gingerbread Kid); Zalisha Borja (Sand Elf); Yereli Borja (Dew Fairy); Ella Hathaway (crew and Gingerbread Kid); Jayden Burrelli (crew and Gingerbread Kid); Kaylee Stickney (stage manager).