CAZENOVIA — This summer, Colleen Prossner, manager of the Catherine Cummings Theatre at Cazenovia College, presented her 20th annual Kids Theatre Workshop. She is also organizing The Gorman Foundation 20th Annual Jazz-N-Caz Festival.

Held at the Catherine Cummings Theatre at 16 Lincklaen St., the Caz College Kids Theatre Workshop is a weeklong program focused on the fundamentals of theatre, including movement, projection, theatre etiquette, stage direction, props, sets, lighting, and sound. The week concludes with a show for family and friends.

This year, the program ran from Aug. 1-5 with 29 participants ages 6-12.

“There are some children who prefer not to be on stage acting, and I find a place for them as well, learning the ropes backstage or on the light board,” said Prossner.

To wrap up the workshop, the kids sang and danced to Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Encanto.”

“These children were so excited to be on a stage together, many of them not knowing each other [initially] and creating their own community by the end of the week,” said Prossner. “Music and theatre brought these children to an incredible bonding experience.”

Prossner established the Kids Theatre Workshop after she started working at Cazenovia College 21 years ago. At the time, she was teaching a similar program at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park with her friend Margaret Potter, and after she started working at the college, she knew the program would succeed there as well.

Throughout the past two decades, Prossner has directed over 500 area youths, including her own children who are now 27 and 24.

Some of the programs have featured special guests, such as Elisabeth von Trapp who visited during the workshop and rehearsed a song from “The Sound of Music” that the children sang with her at her evening concert.

“I had 50 children that year because I couldn’t say no to someone who wanted to sing with Elisabeth von Trapp,” Prossner said.

Jazz-N-Caz

Cazenovia College will present the 20th Annual Jazz-N-Caz from Sept. 15 – 17 throughout the village.

The festival will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. on the The Brae Loch Inn lawn with a party featuring music by ESP Jazz Band.

On Friday, Sept. 16 at 5 p.m., Loren & L.J. Barrigar will perform at The Brewster Inn.

At 7 p.m., The Instigators will play at the Catherine Cummings Theatre, followed by Mark Doyle’s Guitar Noir at 8 p.m.

The day will wrap up with Jazz After Hours in the Seven Stone Steps tavern at the Lincklaen House at 10:30 p.m.

Saturday’s schedule includes a performance by Monk Rowe – The Five Families Ensemble at 7 p.m., the presentation of the Jazz-N-Caz Honoree Award at 8 p.m., and the Salt City Jazz Collective Big Band at 8:30 p.m. All three events will be held at the Catherine Cummings Theatre.

The weekend’s festivities will conclude later that night with Jazz After Hours at Seven Stone Steps at 10:30 p.m.

The Jazz After Hours house band is made up of Tom Witkowski on piano, Jason Jeffers on drums, and Mark Hoffmann on guitar. All musicians are welcome to join in.

This year’s Jazz-N-Caz Honoree is Frank Malfitano, the founder and executive director of Syracuse Jazz Fest.

According to Prossner, who has organized Jazz-N-Caz by herself for the past 18 years, Malfitano has been presenting music to the Central New York region and beyond for over four decades.

Throughout the years, Malfitano has brought some of the greatest names in jazz and American popular music to Syracuse, including Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, The Count Basie Orchestra, The Neville Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, and Sonny Rollins.

“[He] has employed hundreds of CNY area musicians over the years and has brought world class music to the area,” said Prossner.

Malfitano said he is honored to be a member of the international jazz community and to be presented the Jazz-N-Caz award on the same evening that jazz saxophonist and archivist Monk Rowe and The Salt City Jazz Collective All-Star Big Band are performing.

“To have been involved with this incredible American art form for more than 60 years is an honor that I share with many of the musicians I will be sharing the stage with on the evening of September 17,” said Malfitano. “As lifelong jazz educators, performing artists, and teaching professionals — each deeply deserving of this award in their own right — it’s an extreme honor to be in their company continuing to serve this music we all cherish so deeply. . . Those of us who have devoted our lives to presenting jazz and keeping this music alive for future generations know how lonely a road this can sometimes be to travel. So, to be acknowledged by and among one’s peers at this stage of the game is an honor beyond measure. . . It’s extremely gratifying to learn that others in our global musical community feel that I have contributed to the music in some meaningful way.”

Apart from the Salt City Jazz Collective, who performed at Jazz-N-Caz a few times previously, all the featured artists/groups are participating in the festival for the first time this year.
“This year, I am focusing on Central New York musicians, as many of them were hit hard by the pandemic and I wanted to employ our hometown musicians,” said Prossner.

Prossner said she attributes the longevity and success of Jazz-N-Caz to the community’s insatiable desire to witness local, regional, national, and international artists perform. She pointed specifically to performers such as the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, Melba Moore, Jane Monheit, Jennifer Holliday, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, Henry Butler, and Jack Maheu, as well as local and regional bands and other groups from New York City and across the country.

“Our sponsors and grants secured allow us to continue to present top notch talent in our historic theatre,” said Prossner.

Jazz-N-Caz is free and open to the public.

A $10 donation is suggested at evening events held at the Catherine Cummings Theatre. Learn more about the theatre and its history at cazenovia.edu/art-and-theatre/catherine-cummings-theatre.

The theatre, formerly known as Cazenovia Opera House, was first acquired by Cazenovia College in 1968.

Catherine (“Kay”) Cummings was born in Utica, NY in 1903, the oldest of nine brothers and sisters. She graduated from Cazenovia Seminary in 1925 and was employed by George Jr. Republic as an administrative assistant to the founder of the organization and worked in both Freeville, NY, and New York City.

While in NYC, Cummings contracted tuberculosis and sought treatment at the Trudeau Institute at Saranac Lake, NY. She settled in Saranac after her recovery and became a well-known local figure.

At Trudeau, she met Owen T. Gorman, a prominent New York City attorney. They married and made NYC their permanent home. Cummings assisted Gorman in his law practice until her death in 1977.

The Gorman Foundation, which serves as the living legacy of Cummings, her husband, and Alice M. Gorman, is a family foundation created in 2003 to support nonprofit organizations in Madison County through competitive grantmaking. To learn more about the foundation, visit gormanfoundation.org.

Thanks to the foundation, the Catherine Cummings Theatre provides a venue for cultural events, such as plays and concerts, as well as meeting space for the college and the village.

For additional Jazz-N-Caz event information, contact Prossner at 315-655-7238 or [email protected].