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Superintendent Willard looks back on her first year IT lead teacher Jeffrey Richardson and assistant Alex Stuzhuk help students with the competition on Friday. (Photo by Amy Porter)
ally has a bunch of flaws and back doors. They then try to secure it, and are scored for their efforts by a scoring engine. He said the camp was similar to the AFA’s annual CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, in which students from WTA participated for the first time last year. The competition had two qualifying rounds, and scores were added together to form three tiers. WTA ended up competing in the top 30% tier. He said in Massachusetts they were competing against students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Academy of Math and Science, and the MIT Lincoln Lab, a Department of Defense sponsored program. WTA finished in the top 17% nationally. Richardson’s three assistants in CyberCamp, all 2017 graduates, were among those who participated in the national competition last year. John Hale and Mark Mkrtchian, who were helping the sophomores at the camp, have both enrolled in Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) in the fall. “The competition was a challenge, especially in our area and the big schools we competed against. We did okay,” Mkrtchian said. He said he plans to focus on IT security at STCC, and eventually to transfer to the
By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – Jennifer Willard officially became the Superintendent of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville school district on July 1, 2016 and has just completed her first year at the head of the district. In her first stint as a Superintendent, Willard looks back and certainly hasn’t regretted her decision. “Coming to SouthwickTo l l a n d Granville, I knew from the beginning, I just knew it was the right fit for me,” SUPERINTENDENT JEN WILLARD said Willard. “The staff, students, and parents are just truly an amazing group of people to work with.” With the town of Southwick having a population of less than 10,000 people, the small-hometown feel is what had always attracted Willard to her current position. “It’s like a family, it’s coming into a family every single day,” said Willard. During the past school year Willard can point to numerous successful advancements occurring throughout the district. One of the key highlights has been the shift to studentcentered classrooms. Willard described this as the teacher taking more risks and having the student do the majority of the work. The athletics in the schools was also note
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CyberCamp group photo on competition day. (Photo submitted by Jeffrey Richardson)
Westfield Tech hosts AFA CyberCamp By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD– Eighteen Information Technology sophomores and juniors spent last week honing their skills in cybersecurity during CyberCamp at Westfield Technical Academy. Sponsored by the Air Force Association’s (AFA) CyberPatriot National Youth Education Program, CyberCamp is designed to teach students cyber safety, cyber ethics and critical network security skills and tools. Information Technology lead instructor Jeffrey Richardson said last year was the first year his shop started dabbling in cybersecurity, which he called one of the fastest growing careers in the technology field. He said a report from Cisco in 2016 published in Forbes put the global figure at one million cybersecurity job-openings, and more than 209,000 unfilled in the United States. As an AFA CyberCamp host, WTA received software and a hands-on curriculum. The camp culminated in a team-based competition that put the campers in the role of IT administrators tasked with finding and addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated network environments. Richardson said during the competition, the students are given an image which intention-
Review: ‘Raging Skillet’ at TheaterWorks By MARK G. AUERBACH Correspondent TheaterWorks ends its stellar season with the world premiere of Hartford playwright Jacques Lamarre’s stage adaptation of foodie TV star Chef Rossi’s autobiography Raging Skillet. He’s a combination arts administrator and event planner who has written some prime comedy, from I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, which has been produced nationally since its TheaterWorks premiere; to a playlet for TheaterWorks’ annual laugh-athon, Christmas on The Rocks, and shows, films and videos for Varla Jean Merman, the drag entertainer who says she’s the love child of Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine.. Chef Rossi, known as New York’s #1 punk-rock caterer, was a rebellious teen, an out Jewish lesbian, when she was sent to live with Orthodox Jewish relatives. She developed an out-of-the-box cooking style, an independent spirit, and a creative edge that has made her popular as a caterer, chef, and media personality. Lamarre adapted her memoir for the stage, infusing it, as the food writers might say, great characters, ingredients, a dash of humor and pathos, and a delicious presentation. Lamarre’s script, set at a reading/book signing and food demo coordinated by Rossi to launch her memoir. The event takes a turn with the arrival of Rossi’s deceased mother. To aid in telling her story, a character DJ
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Important election dates and deadlines upcoming By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD—For residents looking to run for political office or to vote, remember that final dates for registration of these activities are coming up. The last day for potential candidates to take nomination papers out is this Friday, Aug. 4 at 5 p.m., with the deadline to turn them in just four days later, on Tuesday, Aug. 8 by 5 p.m. In addition, deadline to register to vote in the preliminary election, which would occur if multiple candidates are vying for one vacant position, is Wednesday, Sept. 6 by 8 p.m., and the deadline to register to vote in the November election is on Wednesday, Oct. 18, by 8 p.m. The city’s preliminary election, if it is held, will occur Tuesday, Sept. 26, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Then, the general election will occur on Tuesday, Nov. 7, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. According to Karen Fanion, city clerk for Westfield, there are still a lot of nomination papers that have yet to be returned in the city. Each nomination paper must receive at least 50 signatures from registered voters that live in Westfield if running for a position that is city-wide; if ward-based, 50 signatures from registered voters that live in the particular ward must be procured. Fanion said that the department suggests potential candidates procure at least 60 signatures however, due to the potential inability to certify each one. This may be due to name, ineligible voter status or even the address being incorrect. In addition, Fanion urges candidates to return their nomination papers sooner rather than later, in order to both avoid a back-up of certifying paperwork and to
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Review: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ at Berkshire Theatre Group
Dana Smith-Croll in Raging Skillet. (Photo by Lanny Nagler)
Skillit is her sous chef, mix-tape man, and plays a group of men and women that Rossi meets on her journey. George Salazar gives a great performance as DJ and provides a lot of the levity and glue that elevates Lamarre’s play from extended comedy sketch to a more substantial theatre piece. But, Raging Skillet is the story of a stereotypical Jewish mother, played by Marilyn Sokol, and a rebellious daughter, played by Dana Smith-Croll, both often at odds and seldom in synch. The mother-daughter relationship is complex, and Lamarre has written the character of Mom with a lot of schtick. It’s not until late in the play that Rossi peruses a scrap book left behind by the mother, a series of beautifully written moments that give Raging Skillet its depth and soul. The moments are breif, and Raging Skillet returns for the laughs. John Simpkins staging is terrific, and there’s lots of audience engagement, some real cooking onstage, and some food samples passed See Raging Skillet, Page 3
By MARK G. AUERBACH Correspondent When Berkshire Theatre Group announced that Arsenic and Old Lace, was on the season roster I was excited, because I’d never seen this comedy classic on stage, and because one of the story’s main characters is a theatre critic. So, how awesome is that to see your profession dramatized in an American comedy that was one of the biggest hits of the early 1940s. Arsenic and Old Lace opened in January, 1941, and ran for over 1,333 performances on Broadway, a record for its time. Jean Adair, Josephine Hull, and Boris Karloff were in its original cast, and when Frank Capra turned the play into his 1944 movie hit for Cary Grant, they repeated their roles. Arsenic and Old Lace has been given TV adaptations, first in 1955 with Helen Hayes and Billie Burke– Judy Garland’s Glinda. Hayes and Lillian Gish starred in a 1969 TV version. But wait! Arsenic and Old Lace is inspired by a serial killer who lived just down the road in Windsor, CT–the infamous Amy Duggan Archer Galligan, who poisoned at least five elderly gentlemen including her second husband–and possibly up to 58 more–in her Prospect Street Archer Home for The Elderly and Infirm. The Hartford Courant spilled the beans on Sister, as she was called, in 1916. She was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, retried, found insane, and sent to the asylum in Middletown, CT, where she died in 1962. In Arsenic and Old Lace, the drama critic,
Mortimer Brewster, engaged to the girl next door, goes to the family house to share the good news with his eccentric aunts, Martha and Abby, who house an equally eccentric family including Mortimer’s brother Teddy, who fancies himself to be Teddy Roosevelt. Martha and Abby have dispatched a dozen lonely old men to the cellar, where Teddy buries them in the locks of the Panama Canal he’s building. Bad brother Jonathan Brewster returns home, and the Brewster household is thrown into disarray. Kesselring’s script is a gem with great plot development and twists and turns, good characters, and some rich lines, but like other Graham Rowat and Timothy Gulan in Berkshire Theatre Group’s Arsenic and Old Lace. (Photo by .Emma Rothenberg-Ware)
plays of yore, it takes its time developing the twists and turns. So, if you’re expecting the crime solved and perps rounded up in less than sixty minutes, be warned, it’s a long journey with two intermissions to get to an ending that is predictable, yet full of surprises. Gregg Edelman’s staging is great, and Randall Parson’s set is absolutely perfect–the best stage design for a non-musical I’ve seen this year. I loved Hunter Kaczorowski’s costumes, particularly those for the elder sisters See Arsenic and Old Lace, Page 3