2010 Starts with First Night

First Night, an annual Westport tradition to ring in the New Year begins at 3 p.m. today.

The community-wide event celebrates New Year's Eve through the arts with more than 30 events featuring performances for children, teens and adults in downtown Westport.

To attend the event, every participant must purchase a button, which serves as a ticket to enter. Buttons are on sale at the Westport Public Library, the Westport Weston Family Y, Oscar's Deli, Trader Joe's and the Weston Hardware Store or online through the website www.firstnightww.com. Buttons can also be purchased at the event today.

Here's a schedule of the First Night festivities:

• 3 to 3:45 p.m.: Tom Hanford and Nancy Finlay perform in the main lobby of the TD Bank. They perform animal songs, chants, singing games, movement with scarves, sing and play-along songs and audience role playing with Tom's painted masks. The Hanford and Finlay repertoire includes folk, pop, rock'n'roll and original songs accompanied by guitar, violin, harmonicas and percussion. They have repeat performances at 4:15 and 5 p.m.
• 3 to 3:45 p.m.: Lalie Madriguera performs Flash Bam AlaKazam, an interactive musical show. Repeat performances are held again at 4 and 5 p.m.
• 3 to 3:45 p.m.: The Mystery Tour reproduces Beatlemania with authentic instruments and costumes. A repeat performance is scheduled for 4 p.m.
• 3 to 5:30 p.m.: Dennis the Train Man will tell train tales at the Westport Public Library and display his collection. Included this year is Amtrak, Thomas the Tank Train, the NewYork City Subway and the very special Harry Potter Hogwarth's Express.

• 3 to 6 p.m.: Artist Pat Mason creates animal caricatures in the main lobby of the TD Bank.
• 3 to 6 p.m.: Inflatable park at the lower gym of the Westport Weston Family Y. Please remove your shoes and First Night buttons before jumping.
• 3 to 7 p.m.: Steve the Balloon Guy will be designing balloon creations in the main lobby of the TD Bank.
• 3 to 7 p.m.: Agostino Arts will be painting faces for a $3 fee. The face painting will be held in the Bedford Room of the Westport Weston Family Y.
• 3 to 7 p.m.: Mike Valentine will be drawing caricatures of you and your family members in the Bedford Room of the Westport Weston Family Y.
• 3:30 to 4:15 p.m.: Chris Coogan and his Good News Gospel Choir will sing original music and classic songs at the Christ & Holy Trinity Church Sanctuary. A repeat performance is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. Chris Coogan is also performing a jazz concert at 7 and 8 p.m.
• 3:30 to 4:15 p.m.: Internationally acclaimed soprano Jodi Keogan performs a selection of famous arias, holiday music and songs from the Great American Song Book (Broadway and Pop). A repeat performance in the Seabury Center is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
• 4:30 to 7 p.m.: Blues pianist Mark Naftalin, who was the original keyboardist in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, performs at the Westport Historical Society. Naftalin has recorded and concertized with John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Percy Mayfield, Buddy Guy, Van Morrison, and many other blues and rock greats. He will be accompanied by longtime Fairfield County percussionist Barry Urich, who has backed Jose Feliciano and Lester Chambers of the Chambers brothers.
• 5 to 5:20 p.m.: The Westport Community Theatre performs "The Hippo and the Wasps," a one-act comedy by Connecticut playwright Tom Rushen, directed by Richard Mancini and featuring Alexander Kulcsar and Ann Kinner. Garner and Darian Case are a happily married couple living in upper class suburbia. While they seem to have a perfect life, it becomes a bit undone when they are trapped inside their home by a hippopotamus that has camped out on their front lawn. The show will be in the lower auditorium of Town Hall. Repeat shows are scheduled for 6:30 and 7:45 p.m.
• 5:30 to 6:15 p.m.: Singer-songwriter and local Westporter Suzanne Sherman Propp performs. Another show is scheduled at 7 p.m.
• 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.: Harrison Lipton performs at Christ & Holy Trinity Church. Lipton is a 16-year-old singer/songwriter who has performed with Sean Lennon and Chris Coogan. Being a featured soloist of Chris Coogan's Good News Gospel Choir since age 9, he soloed with the choir for Mavis Staples at the Westport Country Playhouse. He will perform a mixture

  of original songs and covers with a four-piece band and six back up singers.

For more information, click here.