MILLERTON — Parents and children streamed onto Century Boulevard on Saturday, April 19, to board six hay wagons assembled in front of the Millerton Fire Department that would take them to Eddie Collins Memorial Park.
There was a hint of rain in the air. A few sprinkles came and went as families lined up to board the wagons, and there was plenty of talk of the 70-degree temperature.
The Millerton Fire Department hosted the event, and Kelly Roger, treasurer and a fire police captain, recalled how in past years the Easter egg hunt unluckily came with rain and even snow.
Once everyone was on board, the wagons, pulled by tractors, headed up North Maple Avenue to Beilke Road then to Route 22.
A sizable crowd was already waiting at the park, where open spaces had been sprinkled with plastic eggs filled with candy and prizes. The hunt was organized by age groups with every category including a couple of golden eggs, which came with a big prize-filled basket.
Millerton Fire Department’s Kelly Roger climbed a hay wagon as families gathered for the start of the department’s egg hunt event on Saturday, April 19. Roger points to the Little League field that is covered with brightly colored eggs.Photo by John Coston
Sebastian Romualdo, 8, and his sister, Estefania, 4, of Millerton, each found a treasured golden egg.
Once the fields had been scoured for the eggs, parents and children settled down to pore over their treasure and do some trading. Others enjoyed a hot dog, courtesy of the Millerton Fire Department.
Celebrating its 45th year, the Grumbling Gryphons will perform at HVRHS Friday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.
“We’re a touring company that is participatory,” Elias said with her trademark storytelling cadence. “Even when there’s no pre-performance workshop, it’s still participatory. Always.”
Founded in 1980 “in a little basement apartment on the lower east side with co-founder Vanessa Roe,” said Elias,Grumbling Gryphons (recipients of the 2003 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award) has long occupied a unique niche: part performance troupe, part educational outreach, part community ritual. Whether dramatizing Greek myths, Native American legends, or original tales about bees and bogs, the company’s ethos centers on inclusion, transformation, and hands-on engagement.
This summer’s camp offers children ages six and up five fast-paced days of storytelling, acting, mask-making, and rehearsal. The first three days will take place at Elias’s own home studio — a tucked-away space filled with costumes, puppets, and instruments — before moving into full performance prep mode.
“In the ideal world, we would have more time,” she laughed. “It’s a lot of pressure to be performing for the public after five days. But we’re going to do our best.”
The gala performance, she explained, is a kind of theatrical mosaic — scenes and excerpts from Grumbling Gryphons’ vast repertoire, some showcasing seasoned adult performers and others giving campers center stage. The cast will include returning campers, newcomers, and guest artists drawn from the Gryphons’ decades-spanning circle of collaborators including mask maker and artist Ellen Moon.
“We’re still figuring out exactly what we’ll do,” said Elias, “but it’s kind of like a smorgasbord… a celebration. And it’s open — if anybody wants to get their kids involved, or even volunteer, we welcome you.”
Photo provided
Elias’s own theater background winds through early improvisational schools, Viennese dance traditions, and experimental spaces like Henry Street Settlement. As a child on Long Island, she studied with jazz pianist Ivan Fiedel and dancer Rosalind Fiedel, eccentric mentors who nurtured her taste for the surreal and spontaneous.
“Mr. Fiedel was a character,” she recalled. “He would smoke a cigar… and take the cigar in his ear and the smoke would come out the other end. I don’t know how he did it.”
Elias built Grumbling Gryphons with this sense of magic — not as a traditional company, but as a living, evolving story in itself. Whether working with preschoolers or middle-schoolers, audiences in botanical gardens or historic town halls, the Gryphons invite kids to become creators — to chant, to improvise, to embody archetypes from ancient lore or environmental parables.
And that’s what this summer’s camp and gala are all about. “It’s more than theater,” Elias said. “It’s myth, poetry, movement — it’s about building self-esteem, imagination. It’s about transformation.”
For more information, to register a child for the 2025 Summer Theater Camp, or to inquire about volunteering, visit grumblinggryphons.org
