Starting Thursday, July 8, 2010
6:30 to 7:30 cocktails at the Club
7:30 Dinner
8:15 Speaker

 

A long standing tradition at the Norfolk Country Club, the Thursday Night Speaker program offers insightful, fun, entertaining and intellectual evenings.  Come early for a drink and get a chance to meet the speaker for the evening.  Review the list below and make your reservations soon!

 

Reservations are due by the previous Tuesday at 5 PM.  Please contact manager@norfolkcountryclub.com to book, or contact 860.542.5606.

 

 

July 8               TINA PACKER

 

“Shakespeare's Women”
 
Founder of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA and actor, director, teacher Tina Packer launches our Thursday speakers dinner series with an insightful look at the women in Shakespeare's plays.  Featuring a glimpse of her own new play "Women of Will", being performed this summer at Shakespeare & Co, Tina follows the feminine in Shakespeare... highlighting the growth of his female characters and how they make their way in a shakespearean world of comedy, intrigue and power. Do not miss this educational as well as entertaining evening with the sharp-edged and remarkable Ms. Packer.

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July 15             ALEXANDER TAYLOR III

                       

            “The Collapse of GM”

 

What caused the spectacular failure of our nation’s biggest automaker? Award-winning journalist Alex Taylor III—and Fortune magazine’s own ‘car czar’ for the past 30 years—says it was actually a meltdown 40 years in the making. Author of Sixty to Zero: An Inside Look at the Collapse of General Motors—and the Detroit Auto Industry, Taylor will offer a tell-all tale about the many missteps of GM.

 

 

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July 22             ELLEN GRIESEDIECK

 

“The American Mural Project”

 

Ellen Griesedieck, local artist and founder, is spearheading the production of the world’s largest indoor collaborative artwork as a tribute to working Americans.  The 3D painting, known as the American Mural Project, is 120 feet long, five stories high and up to ten feet deep, so large that a special building is being created to house it in Winsted. Ellen, who has exhibited in NY, CT and Paris, and designed the first label for Paul Newman’s salad dressing, has engaged over 10,000 people so far, in diverse communities across the country, to create pieces of the mural. The mural has been called a time capsule of the American people at the turn of the century.

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July 29             EVAN THOMAS

 

            “Teddy Roosevelt and the Rush to Empire”

 

“Remember the Maine,” the battle cry at the start of the Spanish-American War, was really the first pretext in a spate of empire-building, says Evan Thomas. The Newsweek Editor-at-Large, Inside Washington commentator and bestselling author will talk about the imperial ambitions of Teddy Roosevelt and his circle, based on his new—and controversial—book The War Lovers:Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire 1898.

 

           

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August 5           SALLY BEDELL SMITH

 

            “Bill and Hillary Clinton and the White House Years”

 

Bill and Hillary Clinton are two of the most familiar faces in American politics today. But who are these people, really? Sally Bedell Smith, celebrated biographer, Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of For Love of Politics - Bill and             Hillary Clinton:The White House Years will get inside the heads of these two complicated, fascinating personalities.

 

 

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August 12         RICHARD LEVIN, M.D.

 

“Your DNA meets your Rx”
 
Dean of Medical Faculty at McGill U, former dean at NYU School of medicine, cardiologist, educator and innovator Richard Levin will describe for us how the spectacular progress of modern biology and the development of genomics are ushering in "an era of personalized medicine".  A patient's disease will be understood in the most intimate terms and therapy designed accordingly. At the same time, Dean Levin will address the paradox presented between society's expectations regarding the march of science and the need to contain runaway health-care spending. Will you be able to afford your future sci-med?

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August 19         PATRICK TYLER

 

“America and the Middle East”

                       

In his thirty years first as foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and then as Chief correspondent of The New York Times, Patrick Tyler had access to all the key players in the White House, Knesset, Pentagon, Saudi Court and Palestinian Authority. He will provide insights about America’s foreign policy in the Middle East, and talk about his recent book, A World of Trouble: America in the Middle East.

 

 

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August 26         JOHN CARIANI

 

            Last Gas (a new play reading and discussion).  Two brothers.  A                                 gas station.  In northernmost Maine. . .

Don’t miss the last act of the 2010 Thursday Speakers Dinner Series!

Actor/playwright John Cariani grew up in Presque Isle, Maine, graduated from Amherst College, moved to New York, and now Law & Order fans know him from five seasons as Julian Beck, the very-eager forensics technician. John made his Broadway debut in 2004 in the revival of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he received the 2004 Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony Award nomination.  His first play, Almost, Maine, debuted Off-Broadway in 2005 and has since been produced by over 300 theatres in the U.S. and abroad.