Westchester Fall Lectures, Readings, and Comedy: Bill Cosby Tony Kushner

An Evening with Bill Cosby
September 7
Westchester County Center, White Plains
(914) 995-4050; countycenter.biz
It’s fall—sweater weather. And we all know that no one has ever worn a sweater better than comedian Bill Cosby. Who knows if he’ll break out his signature Cosby attire when he brings his stand-up to the Westchester County Center, but we know he’ll still have the trademark wit that vaulted him to fame. 

Spoken Interludes
November 13
Riverview, Hastings-on-Hudson
(914) 307-1683; spokeninterludes.com
Spoken Interludes lineups are always full of names that excite the local literati, but the group that’s reading on November 13 covers an especially wide swath of interests. For the bookworms—and, if you’re there, you’re probably a bookworm—Dani Shaprio will read from Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life. For foodies—and, since a buffet dinner from Chutney Masala is served, it helps to be a foodie—former New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton reads from Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well. And, for the fashionable—with the cocktail-party-like atmosphere, Spoken Interludes is always fashionable—Barneys ambassador and fashion commentator Simon Doonan will read from his The Asylum. We think that should cover everybody. 

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre: TourCo
November 2
Emelin Theatre, Mamaroneck
(914) 698-0098; emelin.org
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater—or UCB for those in the know—is now up there with Second City and the Groundlings as a training ground for up-and-coming comedians. (Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation was a founding member.) See if you can spot the next comedic superstars when performers handpicked from the New York and LA troupes show off their improv chops at the Emelin Theatre. 

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Tony Kushner
November 14
The Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, CT
(203) 438-5795; ridgefieldplayhouse.org
When Steven Spielberg was looking for a screenwriter for Lincoln, there’s a reason he went to Tony Kushner. The playwright had already earned the Pulitzer Prize for Angels in America, plus a couple of Tony nominations for Caroline, or Change. (He’d also co-written Spielberg’s Munich.) Kushner will appear at the Ridgefield Playhouse to talk about all this heavy-hitting drama as part of the Moffly Media Entertaining Conversations Series. Bring your most thought-provoking questions for the Q&A session.

Also Consider: The start of Spoken Interludes’ season is just as strong as the end, with a kickoff reading that includes The Son’s Philipp Meyer, A Dual Inheritance’s Joanna Hershon, and Salt Sugar Fat’s Michael Moss (September 25) // Pick your Paul: Paula Poundstone (September 27) and Pauly Shore (October 4) each perform their very different brands of comedy at The Ridgefield Playhouse // Sue Grafton, Alice Hoffman, Scott Turow, and David Baldacci gather at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, for the Mark My Words fundraising event (October 9) // Curb Your Enthusiasm mainstay Richard Lewis tries to work up your enthusiasm at The Ridgefield Playhouse (October 18) // Ralphie May, the comedian self-described as “too big to ignore,” brings his stand-up to the Tarrytown Music Hall (October 19) // Funny ladies Michele Balan, Jane Condon, Bonnie Levison, and Kim Berns headline the Rye Art Center’s She Said What? evening of comedy (November 7).


What’s Dani Shapiro Reading?

When Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion and Black & White, gets up at Spoken Interludes, she’ll be reading from her new book, Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life. But what has she been reading at home for fun? “One of my favorite books in recent memory is a strange and beautiful little memoir called An Extraordinary Theory of Objects by Stephanie LaCava,” Shapiro says. “It’s the story of a life told through objects, with gorgeous spot drawings throughout, and fascinating digressions about things like the history of the cardigan, and the extinction of the Dodo bird. All the while we’re being told the moving story of a young American girl who grows up lonely and awkward in a suburb of Paris.” 

» For more from the 2013 Fall Arts Preview, click here

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