Compo Beach is still open. The Town of Westport keeps it open year-round, and the parking-fee season ended on Sept. 30. Since Oct. 1, leashed dogs have been allowed in designated areas of the beach, a rule that runs through March 30. In November the beach belongs to dog walkers and people taking long cold walks. Everything else on the calendar moves indoors.
Three indoor stages carry the month: Westport Country Playhouse, MoCA/CT on Newtown Turnpike, and the Westport Library on Jesup Green. Their seasons run in sequence. The Playhouse's big fall production ends early in the month, MoCA/CT's exhibition closes in the middle of it, and the Library fills the second half. The month's planning problem sits where those schedules overlap.
The Playhouse sets the first week
The opening act is a world premiere. Ken Ludwig's Pride and Prejudice, Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley runs at Westport Country Playhouse through Nov. 7, directed by Emily Mann. Tickets start at $50. Delphi Borich plays Elizabeth Darcy and Tony Roach plays Fitzwilliam Darcy. Reg Rogers plays Napoleon Bonaparte, Lucy Austin plays Lydia Wickham, and Kristine Nielsen plays Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
The premise is in the title. In the Westport Journal's preview, Austen's couple are settled into married life when Napoleon disrupts it. After opening night, 06880's Oct. 25 roundup reported strong audience buzz and a favorable take from a local photographer.
As of this Thursday the run has about nine days left, and after that the Playhouse calendar thins out. The Playhouse schedule lists George Barrett on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. and a Script in Hand reading, title still to be announced, on Monday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. The next full production is A Sherlock Carol, Dec. 12 to 20. Between the premiere's closing night and the holiday show, the Playhouse holds two one-night events and no full run. The other two stages pick up the month.
MoCA/CT takes the middle, then closes a chapter
MoCA/CT sits at 19 Newtown Turnpike and keeps Thursday-through-Sunday hours. Its current exhibition, Looking for History: Rick Shaefer, Ellen Harvey + Michael Borders, has been up since June 25 and closes Nov. 15. Because the museum is open four days a week, that leaves roughly a dozen open days between now and closing for anyone who hasn't seen it.
The museum's event calendar fills up in those final two weeks. On Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m., Night at the Museum: An Evening of Comedy brings Christian Finnegan and Heidi Grandberry to the galleries. General admission is $50, or $40 for members. That's the night before the Playhouse premiere's last performance, so one weekend can hold both an Austen sequel and a comedy show.
The museum's biggest night is the Saturday before the exhibition closes. The Heida Hermanns International Music Competition final round runs from 4 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 14. Tickets are $90 general, $80 for members and seniors, and $25 for students, and include cocktails, wine and light fare.
Saturday, Nov. 14: where the stages overlap
The museum's music final and the Library's biggest party of the month fall on the same evening. On the same Saturday, the Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce and the Library present a Special Dead and Drinks Edition of Supper & Soul. The Spadtastics will play a full two-set recreation of a Grateful Dead concert to mark six decades of the band. The show is in the Trefz Forum at 20 Jesup Road.
The Chamber's event page also gives the evening a downtown component. Two restaurants are pouring Dead-themed cocktails before and after the show. Walrus Alley has an Easy Wind, made with Hayman's London Dry gin, raspberry and flower, egg white, lemon and honey. Massi Co has a Corpse Reviver #2 with an absinthe rinse. All drinks are for purchase.
| MoCA/CT | Westport Library | |
|---|---|---|
| Event | Heida Hermanns International Music Competition, final round | Dead and Drinks Edition of Supper & Soul, with The Spadtastics |
| Time | 4 to 8 p.m. | 7 p.m. start |
| Tickets | $90 general, $80 member or senior, $25 student | $35 in advance, $40 at the door |
| Included | Cocktails, wine and light fare | Concert; themed drinks sold separately at Walrus Alley and Massi Co |
The two schedules overlap for an hour. Anyone set on staying for the end of the piano final will miss the start of the first set. Anyone heading downtown for a cocktail before the concert will need to leave MoCA/CT early. Listings differ on the concert's end time: the Library lists 10:30 p.m. and the Eventbrite ticket page lists 11 p.m. Either way it's a late night. Earlier that day, the Library has a quieter option for families: elementary-age children can drop into the Higgins Room from 1 to 4 p.m. that day to make a clay pinch pot.
The next day, Nov. 15, is the last day of MoCA/CT's exhibition. After that the Library carries the rest of the month.
The Library runs the back half
Through the second half of November, the Westport Library's calendar holds most of the town's evening programs, and most of them are free.
The week of Nov. 9 has the heaviest lineup. Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber discusses his book Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m., free. Two nights later, on Nov. 12 from 7 to 9 p.m., the Westport Prize for Literature marks its fourth year by honoring Patmeena Sabit's debut novel Good People, also free. The ceremony is in the Trefz Forum and includes a conversation with the editor of The Yale Review.
The following week the room changes over to local founders. PITCH 2026, StartUp Westport's annual pitch competition, takes over the Library on Thursday, Nov. 19, with three founders competing for $30,000. A reception begins at 6 p.m. in the Forum, and the main event runs from 6:30 to 9.
Then come two weekend events that have little to do with lectures:
- Train Room Re-Opening, Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Library's train set returns to the Higgins Room, and children and their caregivers can drop in at any time. Its last run in that room started May 9 and was scheduled daily through June 24, so families who found it in the spring will know the spot.
- Pieces of Silver, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2 to 3 p.m. JazzFC and the Library, with the NEA, celebrate Horace Silver, the Norwalk-raised NEA Jazz Master, in a free America 250 concert program.
Some of the month's appeal is in the regular programs. Mah Jongg Open Play meets in the Library Café on Thursdays, Nov. 5, 12 and 19, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., for $5 per session.
Thanksgiving week changes the hours. The Library closes at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25, is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, and is open only from 1 to 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 27.
The downtown changes alongside the stages
Westport's storefronts are changing this season too, mostly on a longer timeline than the stages. Stitch Haven has moved from Riverside Avenue to a larger space at 420 Post Road West in Birchwood Corners Shopping Center and reopened there on Thursday, Oct. 22, the Westport Journal reported.
Two openings on the way are set for early 2027. Barvida, the cold-pressed juice and smoothie shop with locations in Darien, New Canaan and Greenwich, plans to open at 14 Post Road East, across from Starbucks, according to the Westport Journal. Co-owner Brennan Branca told the paper the shop will have entrances in front and back, with all parking behind the building, and will likely open with hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pop-Up Bagels has signed a lease for 178 Main Street, the space formerly occupied by Cold Fusion Gelato, and expects to open in early 2027, the Westport Journal reported.
Once Thanksgiving passes, downtown becomes the stage. The Westport Downtown Association's Holiday Stroll is set for Saturday, Dec. 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. Vendors and live music are still to be announced. From there the season moves outdoors again, and the Playhouse opens A Sherlock Carol a week later.
My work as a REALTOR is mostly about timing and how one thing leads to the next, so a month that hands off from stage to stage holds my attention. If you're weighing the Nov. 14 overlap or have a Westport question beyond the calendar, Maura Gilson-O'Donnell would be glad to hear from you. Let's start a conversation.
