FPAC Announces "You Can’t Take it With You Cast"

The Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC) has announced casting for their upcoming production of the classic comedy You Can’t Take it With You. The cast will feature Equity actor Andrew Scott Holmes as Ed Carmichael. Holmes starred in FPAC’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last season. He has traveled the world working in regional theatre and cruise ships alike. From Goodspeed Opera House to Great Lakes Theater to Playhouse Square and beyond, Andrew has had the privilege of Playing leading roles as well as understudying Broadway stars. 

Andrew Scott Holmes

Amanda Dubois appears opposite Holmes as Essie Carmichael. Dubois’s theater credits include Godspell, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and It’s All Your Parents’ Fault!

Former Equity actor Nick Paone will appear as Paul Sycamore. Paone has been on the drama faculty at the Franklin School for the Performing Arts (FSPA) and an actor and director at FPAC since 2001. Kellie Stamp will play his wife, Penelope Sycamore. Stamp is a graduate of Stonehill College where she was an active member of the Stonehill Theater Company; she is the Dance Department Coordinator at FSPA. 

Susauna Wickstrom and Liam Devine will play Alice Sycamore and Tony Kirby respectively. Both Wickstrom and Devine were recently featured in FPAC’s sold out run of Disney’s Newsies.

The cast also includes Wendy Jones (DePinna), Shauna Martin (Kolenkhov), Christine DiMartino (Miriam Kirby) Ed Jones (Wilbur Henderson), Erin Lynch (Wellington), Mireille Eastman (Grand Duchess Olga Katrina), Lindsey Wyner (Reba), and Collin Hancock (Donald) of Franklin, Michael Baratta (Mr. Anthony Kirby) of Hopkinton, and Bob Matson (Martin Vanderhof) of Millis.

The Franklin Performing Arts Company presents You Can't Take It with You January 25-27 at THE BLACK BOX in Franklin, MA. You Can't Take It With You is a classic comedy about a family living “to the beat of a different drum”. 

Set in the summer of 1938 in New York City, the play introduces audiences to the freethinking Sycamore family and the mishaps and mayhem that ensue when their daughter's fiancé brings his conservative, straight-laced parents to dinner on the wrong night. You Can’t Take It with You won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the screen adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director.

Tickets are available at www.theblackboxonline.com or by calling the box office at 508-528-3370.

21 Franklin High School Musicians Perform in Central Districts

Twenty one members of the Franklin High School music program auditioned and were accepted into the 2019 Massachusetts Central District Honor Ensembles. The performance will take place on January 19 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA.

Participating in the Central District Band will be William Cerier -trumpet, Ari Delosreyes-White -french horn, Lauren Dennett -tenor sax, Nipun Goel -trumpet, Sean Hanly -tuba, Kathleen Houlihan -alto sax, Emma Kucich -flute, Augustine Marzoratti -clarinet, Prem Pendkar -alto sax.

Franklin High School students performing with the Central District Jazz Band will be Robert Castro - Drum Set and Ian Richardson -Bass.

Selected to perform with the Central District Orchestra is Elizabeth Ball-violin, Christopher Broyles -viola, Ryan Darcey -violin, Chai Harsha -viola, Warren Loukota -cello, Brinda Venkataraman -violin and Sarayu Vijayanagaram -violin.

Accepted into the Central District Chorus are Claire Bauer, Jenna VanHyning and John Pokorny.

Twenty one members of the Franklin High School music program

Both FHS girls and boys basketball teams post wins over North Attleboro by same score

Via HockomockSports and Twitter, we share the results of the FHS sports action on Tuesday, Jan 15, 2019


Boys Basketball = Franklin, 57 @ North Attleboro, 33 – Final
– Franklin created all the separation it needed with a big first half. The Panthers led 17-4 after one and took a 31-10 advantage into the break. Junior Chris Edgehill scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the first half for Franklin while Jalen Samuels and Will Harvey each added 10 points. North Attleboro senior Josh Montague scored a team-best 12 points while junior Ethan Friberg had nine points.

Girls Basketball = North Attleboro, 33 @ Franklin, 57 – Final
– Ali Brigham had 25 for the Panthers in the win.


For the other results around the Hockomock League
https://hockomocksports.com/tuesdays-schedule-scoreboard-01-15-19/

FHS Panther TV live stream the girls basketball game. You can watch the whole game via YouTube.

FHS Panthers

Franklin Youth Baseball: 2019 Skill Evaluation Sessions

Skill evaluation sessions for ages 9-15 are planned for March 9 and March 10. 

Players returning to Majors or Babe Ruth (National league) are NOT required to attend but are encouraged to in order to ensure balanced teams.

Players who would like to play in Majors or Babe Ruth (National league) & are new to those leagues MUST attend or they will automatically be placed in AAA or American Babe Ruth.

When: Mar 9 at 8 AM – Mar 10 at 5 PM

Where: Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School
147 Pond St, Franklin, Massachusetts 02038

Franklin Youth Baseball: 2019 Skill Evaluation Sessions

Follow the Facebook event for updates
https://www.facebook.com/events/343941836456603/

or visit the league website  http://www.franklinyouthbaseball.com

Join the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School for “No Strings Attached”

The Fine and Performing Arts Department at the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School is pleased to announce upcoming performances of “No Strings Attached” to be held at the Horace Mann Middle School located at 224 Oak Street in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Performances will be held on Friday, March 1 from 7–9:30 PM and Saturday, March 2 from 2–4:30 PM. The public is invited and welcomed to attend the show! Tickets are priced at $17 for adults and $13 senior citizens and children under ten. Tickets will be sold at the door or an order form will be available for download at www.bfccps.org.

“No Strings Attached”

When Carl, a teenager, wants to run away from home, he applies for a job with the mysterious Professor Pinecone and his traveling magical marionette puppet show. He quickly discovers, however, that the position comes with all kinds of strings attached. Once he feels the magical jolt in Professor Pinecone’s handshake, he embarks on the audition of his life. 

In this play-within-a-play, Carl becomes Pinocchio and improvises his way through the story, meeting some familiar characters — including a cricket with an attitude (“I’m Gonna Bug Ya”), the devious fox and cat (“Easy Money”) and the memorable Blues Fairy (“Blues Fairy Mama”) — as well as some new ones. With the help of this eclectic cast, Carl stumbles upon life’s lessons as he’s forced to make important decisions. After a string of poor choices (which makes his nose grow and ultimately leads him to make a donkey of himself), he finally does something good for a change by saving Geppetto from the mouth of a giant shark.

The production is under the direction of BFCCPS’s Fine and Performing Arts Director Mr. Christopher Heater, with a cast comprised of 36 students in grades Six through Eight. The cast is supported by a live orchestra and a dedicated 11 member backstage student crew.

The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School has been in operation since 1995 and provides a well-rounded, rigorous academic program designed to educate the whole child. BFCCPS’s educational philosophy, which is centered around strong core academic subjects, as well as yearlong courses in art, music, languages, technology, and physical education, integrated character education and community service, and strong parent partnerships, has led to local, state and national recognition.

If you’d like learn more about the educational mission of the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School please contact the school’s Marketing Coordinator, Joanne Basile, at jbasile@bfccps.org or 508-541-3434 x140.

In the News: speed a factor in traffic deaths; molasses wasn't slow in 1919

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"Speed remains a factor in nearly one-third of all traffic deaths in the U.S., with Massachusetts ranking 23rd among the states in speed-related deaths, according to a new report. 

The Governor’s Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit organization that studies traffic safety around the country, released the report, “Speeding Away from Zero: Rethinking a Forgotten Traffic Challenge,” on Tuesday and found that in Massachusetts, 28 percent of motor vehicle deaths in 2017 were speed-related. 

The report said speeding “remains a publicly-accepted driving behavior that is reinforced among motorists, policymakers and transportation stakeholders” and concluded that “overall progress on the issue of speeding has been limited at best.”

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20190115/in-massachusetts-speed-kills

The Great Molasses Flood

"Slow as molasses? This treacle didn’t trickle. It was a sticky, deadly tsunami that flattened an entire Boston neighborhood within seconds. 

On Tuesday, the city marks the 100th anniversary of its most peculiar disaster — the Great Molasses Flood. 

It struck without warning at midday on Jan. 15, 1919, when a giant storage tank containing more than 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of molasses suddenly ruptured, sending a giant wave of goop crashing through the cobblestone streets of the bustling North End. 

The initial wave rose at least 25 feet high (7.6 meters high) — nearly as tall as an NFL goalpost — and it obliterated everything in its path, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others. Rivets popped like machine-gun fire. Elevated railway tracks buckled. Warehouses and firehouses were pushed around like game pieces on a Monopoly board. Tenements were reduced to kindling."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20190115/100-years-ago-in-boston-day-molasses-was-deadly-fast

Dark Tide, Stephen Puleo's book on the Molasses Flood

Have you read Dark Tide, Stephen Puleo's book on the Molasses Flood? The library has a number of copies available as part of the program this year (2008) "On the Same Page".

The Senior Center is offering a talk by Dr. Gary Hylander on "The 100th Anniversary of Boston's Great Molasses Flood." This is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan 23 at 10:00 AM. Please call the Senior Center to sign up.
https://www.franklinma.gov/franklin-senior-center/events/191104

MassBudget: 14 Options for Raising Progressive Revenue

To help invest in our community

MassBudget    Information.    Participation.  Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center    Democracy. January 15, 2019 14 Options for Raising Progressive Revenue Good schools, public parks, reliable transit, and smooth roads help increase well-being and make a community prosperous. Together, we pay for these fundamentals through state and local taxes. How to collect enough revenue to pay for these investments - and how to collect that revenue fairly - are questions that every community, including our Commonwealth, must answer. Massachusetts' state and local tax system remains "regressive," meaning low- and moderate-income taxpayers pay a larger share of their incomes in taxes than those with higher incomes. A "progressive" tax system is one in which higher-income taxpayers pay a larger percentage of their incomes in taxes. A new Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) paper, 14 Options for Raising Progressive Revenue, explores ways the Commonwealth could make its tax system more progressive. The options described in the paper include: Personal income tax options, like raising both the personal income tax rate and progressive exemptions, Wealth tax options, like raising the estate tax, and Business tax options, like enacting a surtax on companies where CEOs' pay rates are excessively high compared with median worker pay rates. Read a PDF version of the report. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. MASSACHUSETTS BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER 15 COURT SQUARE, SUITE 700 BOSTON, MA 02108

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, 15 Court Square, Suite 700, Boston, MA 02108 Sent by mrivera@massbudget.org in collaboration with Try it free today