D-Day for the Big E

It's time for that New England-Palooza called the Big E, starting Friday, Sept. 16, and running through Oct. 2. Talent headliners are Darius Rucker, Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton, although they don't come around until next weekend or later – Reba performs on closing day. But Connecticut Day is Wednesday, Sept. 21.

The Big E, aka the Eastern States Exposition, is known for the Big E Super Circus, motocross championships, the Big E Cream Puff, the Graz-E Burger, the Avenue of States' small-scale statehouses and the thousands of 4H and FFA participants. Plus, imagine the magic of a Mardi Gras parade this far north and this far ahead of Fat Tuesday.

Some people think the Big E is all about the food. Some go for the giant country fairness of it all. Whatever the draw is for you, you've got 17 days to take advantage of it.

The Big E Fairgrounds are at 1305 Memorial Ave. in West Springfield, MA. This weekend, you can partake of the U.S. Freestyle Motocross National Championship Series and Frankie Lymon's Legendary Teenagers shows. Advance tickets online are $12 for adults and $8 for children, ages 6-12, with $1 service fee per ticket. Fair hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. For information, visit the Big E Web site.

'Angels' in Manchester

In a bold act, the Little Theatre of Manchester will produce the Tony Kushner two-part tour de force Angels in America on consecutive nights, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17 and 18, at Cheney Hall. Kushner's major work garnered award after award, including the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony for best play in 1994.

The epic drama with multiple story lines includes the first part, Millennium Approaches, which will be performed Saturday, Sept. 17, and the second part, Perestroika, on tap Sunday, Sept. 18. More than 30 characters are featured in the work that has been staged around the world and translated into several languages. The content deals with adult themes, including the AIDs crisis of the mid-'80s, in particular.

The Manchester production is directed by Mike Zizka and performed by John Michael Whitney, Todd Santa Maria, Todd Yocher, Debi Freund, Alysa Auriemma, Giovannie Mendez, Betsy Bradley and Chris Stone.

Curtain is at 7 p.m. each night for the 2 1/2-hour-long segments. Suggested donation is $10. For more information, call the Cheney Hall box office at 860-647-9824.

The Diana Legend on Tour

In an exclusive Northeast engagement, more than 150 personal items from the estate of Diana, Princess of Wales, including her historic royal wedding gown, are on display at Foxwoods starting Friday, Sept. 16, and running through Jan. 15, 2012. The items from the ancestral home of the Spencers include 28 designer dresses, family heirlooms, mementos and rare home movies.

Admission is $25.

The exhibit is in the Great Cedar Exhibition Hall Sundays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with last admissions sold an hour before closing.

Royal hotel, tea and Princess for a Day packages are also for sale.

For information, call 1-800-200-2882 or visit the Foxwoods entertainment Web site.

A Strong Heroine Who Fights for Right

A teen-aged midwife is the strong heroine who challenges the autocratic authority that divides a walled society, from birth, into elite and subservient parts in the new young adult trilogy, Birthmarked. Local author Caragh O'Brien will speak at Willington Public Library on Thursday, Sept. 15, about her trilogy for young adults that started with Birthmarked in 2010. The second book in the trilogy, Prized, will be released in November.

O'Brien's adventure tale centers on Gaia, who contests the way her confined world works and, meantime, struggles to free her imprisoned parents from it.

“It's a pretty dark, twisted, fun book,” O'Brien says of the trilogy's lead book, aimed at middle- to high-school-age readers but appealing to a larger audience.

You can meet O'Brien at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the library.

For information, call 860-429-3854 or visit the library Web site.

UConn Puppet Slam

Bold new works for puppet theater by artists from New York, Boston and the University of Connecticut will be presented at the Fall 2011 UConn Puppet Slam this Saturday, Sept. 17. Jenny Romaine of Great Small Works, Alissa Hunnicutt, Sara Peattie and Theresa Linnihan, plus students from UConn's Puppet Arts Program, will perform.

The free performance will start at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theater of UConn's School of Dramatic Arts, 820 Bolton Road, in Storrs.

For more information, contact the Ballard Institute Web site, or call 860-486-0806.

More Puppets Over Mansfield

This is a two-parter: This weekend you make the puppets depicting moments in Mansfield's history; next weekend you march with them in a parade.

With assistance from the Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry at UConn, wanna-be creators of all ages will make larger-than-life puppets under the direction of puppeteer Sara Peattie of Boston's Puppeteers Cooperative and with the historical advice of Ann Galonska of the Mansfield Historical Society.

Participants can stop in at workshops from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17 and 18, at the Mansfield Community Center. At noon on Sunday, Sept. 25, the puppets will be marched from the post office to E.O. Smith High School in the Celebrate Mansfield Parade. The event is presented by Ballard and the Mansfield Downtown Partnership Inc.

For information, call 860-429-2740 or visit the downtown partnership site or the Ballard Institute site.

Pirates Invade Wili

Those Bawdy Buccaneers, Capt. Lance D. Boyle and First Mate Truly Scrumptious, have no shame as they prepare to regale Willimantic Third Thursday festival fans on Sept. 15 with recast songs, such as “The Seas are Alive with the Sound of Pirates,” “A Grazing Mace” and “Thank God I'm a Pirate Boy.”

Such booty can only make onlookers envious of this talent, presented by the Connecticut Renaissance Faire.

The show will be at 7 p.m. The fair itself, which offers international cuisines, random acts of entertainment and weeknight frivolity, starts at 6 p.m. on its last night of the season.

For information, visit the Willimantic Third Thursday Web site.

Stafford Dems Play Off Humor

It's good for politicians to have a sense of humor about themselves, or at least hire the professionals to help them raise money. The Stafford Democratic Town Committee is sponsoring a comedy night Saturday, Sept. 17, with host Steve Diamond of Mansfield and featuring Connecticut comics Rodney Norman, Dan Kalwhite and Kevin Fitzgerald.

The show starts at 7 p.m. at the Italian Benefit Society, 12 Club Road in Stafford Springs. Tickets can be had at the door for a $25 donation, which will benefit the Democratic Town Committee. For advance tickets, call 860-684-9500.