Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Keep up to date with the arts events in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

Focus: Backstage at RFH with Broadway Stars of the Future & Present

Stars were rising and shining on Monday night when talent from Monmouth County schools and a few Broadway stars got together Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) and sang and danced for a place to call home for homeless teens.

Teens, pre-teens and even some pint-sized tykes put on a Night of Future Broadway Stars show for the sake of Covenant House in Asbury Park.

They do it every year. 

Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect caught up with the stars and budding stars backstage at RFH before show time. Bravo, cast!

Take a look and see if you recognize anyone … (Oh, and don’t forget to click to enlarge the slideshow and photos below!)

— Elaine Van Develde

 

RFH Stage Set for ‘Night of FUTURE Broadway Stars’ Benefit

The stage is set for area teen talent and Broadway stars to bring down the house at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) to benefit homeless youth with the third annual Night of FUTURE Broadway Stars.

The proceeds of musical extravaganza set for Monday, April 3 at 7 p.m. go to the homeless youth programs and services offered at Covenant House in Asbury Park, serving Asbury, Long Branch, Keansburg and other shore towns.

Continue reading RFH Stage Set for ‘Night of FUTURE Broadway Stars’ Benefit

Rewind: A Look Back at Knollwood’s Chamber Music Recital

And the middle school musicians played on … in the Fair Haven School District’s annual Chamber Music Recital at Knollwood School recently.

Continue reading Rewind: A Look Back at Knollwood’s Chamber Music Recital

A Look Back at Knollwood’s ‘Beauty and the Beast Jr.’

A “tale as old as time” came to Fair Haven’s Knollwood School’s stage when 40 young middle school students performed a production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. a few weeks ago.

Continue reading A Look Back at Knollwood’s ‘Beauty and the Beast Jr.’

Show time at Knollwood: ‘Beauty and the Beast Jr.’

Thespians at Fair Haven’s Knollwood School are getting set to go on with a show in March — Beauty and the Beast Jr.

The 60-minute stage version of the 1991 Disney animated film and 1994 Broadway musical and is designed for middle-school aged performers.

The cast at Knollwood’s production is comprised of roughly 40 sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

The show tells the story of Belle, an adventurous young girl, and the Beast, her grisly captor, who is actually a young prince trapped under a spell. In order to break the spell, the Beast must learn to love another and earn love in return.

With the help of the staff at the prince’s castle, including a loving teapot, a charming candelabra, and a nervous mantel clock, Belle and the Beast find uncanny friendship and love. Beauty and the Beast Jr.  features classic songs from the Academy Award®-winning film score such as “Be Our Guest” and “Belle,” as well as original songs from the 1994 Tony®-nominated Broadway musical.

The March 2 Knollwood performance will be presented in the Knollwood School all-purpose room at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and donations of nonperishable food items for local food banks would be appreciated.

— Edited press release from the Fair Haven School District

Spotlight: RFH Student Artwork

There’s a new arts-inspired initiative at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) that is casting a bright spotlight on students’ artwork.

The RFH National Art Honor Society (NAHS) and the RFH Multiple Disabilities (MD) Program have teamed up to provide artisan frames for the display of creations by RFH students. Featured will be paintings and photography by NAHS and MD students. The collection will be rotated regularly and be featured prominently throughout the school building on an ongoing basis.

Photographs of works by RFH art students at all levels will also be enlarged and placed above the student locker areas.

“This project has brought warmth and enhanced the school climate,” said Special Services teacher Jennifer Dellett. “Our goal is to have all three floors at RFH filled with stimulating artwork by the end of the school year.”

The purchase of 40 frames was made possible by a grant from the RFH Education Foundation. The grant request was written and submitted by Dellett and Art teacher Kristen Lanfrank.

For those who would like a closer view of the artwork, an event dubbed Community Art Opening is planned for the spring of 2017.

As part of the event, students involved in the program will provide community members with a tour of RFH and a discussion of all the art and images on display.

— Edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH)

A Fair Haven Police Officer’s Part in the Fight Against Childhood Cancer


He’s a Fair Haven police officer. He’s a Middletown firefighter. He’s a husband. He’s a dad. And he’s a fighter for what he feels is the right thing to do. But, John Waltz will tell you that the latest volunteer project he was involved in was not about him or his fight at all. It was about kids all over the country and the fight to find a cure for childhood cancer. He just played a small part in the much bigger scheme of the cause and its hopeful end. Now he, and the others involved, are asking for your one-two punch in the fight as well.

In August, Waltz, along with fellow firefighters and a host of children with cancer, adults and others, fought their part of the good fight by participating in a music video aptly dubbed Fight and sponsored by Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer filmed at  Middletown Fire Department’s Fire Company 1, Station 8.

The video, released today, features the song written by singer/songwriter Taylor Tote and filmed by Right Stuff Studios. Its message is a simple, poignant one of the day-to-day fight.

“I have to say it was truly moving to be a part of it,” Waltz said in August after filming. “I couldn’t believe the suffering of these poor children and seeing how hopeful they are. Seeing the pain they are in made me very sad. But they are such heroes.”

Tote, after being chosen as the band for the next Infinite Love fundraiser, forged a friendship with non-profit founder Andrea Gorsegner’s children Natalie Grace and Hannah Rose Gorsegner.

Natalie Grace was the inspiration behind Infinite Love. Now 6 and in complete remission since 2014, she was diagnosed in August of 2012 with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The family launched into an effort to fund childhood cancer research and raise awareness of the disease.

“About two months into Natalie’s fight, the Gorsegners quickly started discovering the ugly truths behind childhood cancer, like for one that it’s the number one disease killer of our children in this country,” an excerpt from the Infinite Love website says. “As one shocking stat after another began to unfold they knew that they had to do everything that they could to raise both awareness and funding for research, and so they began campaigning via Natalie’s Facebook page asking that everyone send them just a single dollar to go towards childhood cancer research. In just three short years the family has raised nearly half a million dollars with every penny having gone towards fulfilling research grants!”

Funds have been raised and donations made to the cause in every way from personal family contributions, such as time and talent, to a $1 drive for the cause to bake sales and even firefighters just passing hats.

Mom Andrea “was the driving force for this project. She was determined to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer research,” Waltz said. A photographer, Andrea, for instance, has offered free photo sessions for cancer patients and families. There have been classic galas and more.  Anything and everything for the cause, the kids, the research, the cure.

Now, the latest effort is the video.

“I was absolutely honored to be a part of this and I really didnt know on such a large scale that children were so affected and I took a stance and a promise to Andrea that if she needs anything or I can help in any way with future anything she does or needs I am in the game 110 percent,” Waltz said.  “I was truly touched, saddned and honestly honored to be part of a collaboration that hopefully raises tons of money and the video goes viral.”

And that’s the goal.

The challenge is to make spread the word, purchase it from iTunes and spread the word. All proceeds from the iTunes purchases benefit the cause. So, getting it to go viral is the goal. To care, all you need to do is share … the video, Waltz said.

Read more about the video and Infinite Love by clicking here. 

For the full list of video credits, click here.