Derby 'speakeasy' sets stage for Shakespeare festival fundraiser

Event featured Roaring '20s theme 

DERBY - I attended a fun fund-raising dinner Thursday at Twisted Vine restaurant for the Valley Shakespeare Festival. 
The basement of the 19th-century building that once housed the Birmingham National Bank was packed with enthusiastic supporters of the fledgling acting troupe. 

Jeremy Funke and Jessica Breda perform a scene from Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" Thursday at the Twisted Vine restaurant.

Here Funke listens to a rather stressed Steve Mazzoccone.

Funke and Mazzoccone hold Megan McGarvey during yet another scene.  


Valley Shakespeare Festival founder Tom Simonetti, a Shelton native, said he was pleased with the turnout Thursday.
He publicly thanked Shelton resident Cheryl O'Brien for all of her volunteer efforts in putting together the event.

 

Tom Simonetti, at right, wows the crowd as he talks about his Shakespeare troupe.
 

The free show will be performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Veterans' Memorial Park in Shelton.
Stay tuned for a story in Monday's New Haven Register.