SAM GOODYEAR

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ART BEAT

If you’re in the mood for some CHAI, KOPHE, KONFETI, BUTTERBROD and MUZIKA, then please note that the Cooperstown Theatre Festival, eight miles north of Cooperstown on Route 80, will be offering TEA, COFFEE, SWEETS, SANDWICHES and MUSIC 2-4 p.m. Sundays, Aug. 10 and 17. 
The grounds of the Cooperstown Theatre Festival contain several notable features, of which the unsurpassedly charming Barrymore Cafe is the venue for these leisurely Tea & Music afternoons. Gleaming and spotless, the cafe is presided over by Madame Bella Malinova (whose late husband was rehearsal pianist for the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow) and you will be afforded the enduring pleasure of cordial, old-world hospitality. Madame Malinova will welcome you with
a broad smile and exotically Russianized English.
Another landmark on the sprawling property is the barn/theater adjacent to the Barrymore. 
Inaugurated in the summer of 1984 for the Festival’s Equity plays over a period of five years, it is now used for productions of visiting theater companies, occasional concerts, and other public events.
On July 13, several scores of friends and guests of the Malinova/Sears families gathered for a somber and moving occasion.
Austin and Margarita Sears, son-in-law and daughter of Madame Malinova respectively, in the autumn of 2002 lost their son Will in a shocking and still not fully explained case of sudden death.
Will Sears, 19, handsome, charming and kind, was on his way to Olympic figure-skating glory, training rigorously and winning medals in important competitions when his life was cut short.
The memorial gathering paid tribute to the ill-fated athlete with music and poetry and the lovely rustic theater was filled with a combination of heartbreak and exaltation.
Following the formal proceedings, there was the dedication and unveiling of a statue of Will at the gardens on the south side of the property dedicated to his memory.
Sculptor John Belardo, whose commissions have included Lehman College in New York and George Washington University in the District of Columbia has caught the young athlete in an exuberant acknowledgement of the public following a skating program.
There are many reasons to go to the Cooperstown Theatre Festival on Aug. 10 (JOE ROSSI will sing and entertain, accompanied by ROB HUNT) and Aug. 17 (ARIELLE and DANIELLE, extraordinary 16-year-old duo-pianists from Boston who have been performing since the age of 2), for there will be sustenance for the ear, the heart, the body and the soul.
Please call me if you can find a better way to spend a summer Sunday afternoon.

Sam Goodyear’s column on the arts in and around Otsego County appears weekly.

Labels: Art Beat, Glimmerglass, Sam Goodyear