Fairfield County Business Journal 071618

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A BITE OF BRITAIN

STOCK ‘TOCK’

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JULY 16, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 29

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

westfaironline.com

Manny Torres finds his field of dreams in Technique Tigers Baseball Academy

Manny Torres

BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com

“Mamma Mia!” performers (from left): Jodi Stevens, Juliet Lambert Pratt and Sheri Sanders. Photo Credit: Michelle Spanedda Photography

Knocking ‘Em Dead NEW ACT THEATER LOOKS TO HELP MAKE RIDGEFIELD AN ARTS DESTINATION BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

B From left: ACT Artistic Director Daniel Levine; Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal; ACT Executive Producer Katie Diamond and ACT Resident Music Director Bryan Perri at the Ridgefield theater’s opening night gala. Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas.

ringing “Broadway-style” entertainment to a local community can be a hard promise to fulfill. But ACT (A Contemporary Theatre of Connecticut) in Ridgefield is doing just that, with Broadway-trained talent both on- and off-stage. “We thought that the one missing piece of the arts puzzle in Ridgefield was an Equity theater,” said Daniel Levine, the theater’s artistic director. “And to do this right, we wanted to make sure we were affiliated with the union.” The Actor’s Equity Association is the union for stage professionals; all Broadway shows, as

well as many national tours and regional theaters, operate under Equity contracts. The benefit, as opposed to putting on a show in an unaffiliated barn or high school auditorium, is that audiences are assured of seeing Broadwaycaliber talent, while the talent can legally and ethically make the trip to Ridgefield without jeopardizing their standing with the union, Levine said. Ridgefield’s arts community is well-established, from its numerous art galleries and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum to the Ridgefield Playhouse. Indeed, Levine — whose acting resume includes such Broadway shows as “The Rocky Horror Show” and » THEATER

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’ve been playing baseball since I was six,” recalled Manny Torres. “My passion has always been playing the game.” While Torres always had enthusiasm, he also had talent. As a student at Bridgeport’s St. Joseph High School, his pitching won him the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year and USA Today Connecticut Player of the Year in 1995. At the University of Alabama, he played in three College World Series as a pitcher and was twice named as an All-American. After college he played in the Cincinnati Reds’ minor league system, but in 2000 a severe shoulder injury required surgery and his dreams of professional baseball abruptly ended. “I didn’t want anything to do with baseball for a long time,” Torres recalled, adding that his self-imposed exile from the game put him “in a really dark place.” Realizing that his life was missing the structure and discipline that baseball provided him, he decided to start a new chapter in helping young players pursue their sports dreams. “I started getting into coaching by working with baseball clinics,” he said. “I fell in love with the game again.” But unlike Torres’ experience of rising through the school baseball ranks, he recognized that many Bridgeport-area youth had limited » BASEBALL

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