BUZZWORTHY
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Kinnelon
LAURA BENANTI TAKES OVER
AS ELIZA DOOLITTLE ON
BROADWAY
UPDATE
FIELD TRIPS ARE FAMILY
AFFAIRS FOR ESL STUDENTS
Students enrolled in the WAYNE TOWNSHIP PUBLIC
SCHOOLS ESL PROGRAM have more to look forward to this
year than reading, writing and arithmetic. The school system
is continuing its popular series of Saturday family field trips,
when students, their siblings and parents travel on school
buses to fun and interesting destinations such as the American
Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, the Gingerbread
Wonderland at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morris Plains
and the Turtleback Zoo in West Orange. Title III federal
funds underwrite the program, which begins in December.
“We’re thinking about a musical or play, and maybe an aquar-
ium, though the bus ride can’t be that long,” says Cristina
Pignataro, an ESL teacher at Pines Lake Elementary School,
who, with Pines Lake principal Jose Celis, heads up the pro-
gram. The number of participants who can be accommodated
depends on the event cost, says Pignataro; last year, 150
students and family members attended the museum and zoo
trips. “The parents are so appreciative, and the kids come
back to school with something to talk about,” she says, noting
that the number of students who speak Arabic, Turkish,
Chinese, Korean and other foreign languages in the Wayne
schools has gone up every year. • For more information,
email her at [email protected].
8
HOLIDAY 2018 WAYNE MAGAZINE
Wayne
TOYS R BACK?
Toys R Back?
Not quite, but
the first signs of
how the finan-
cial firms who
carved up TOYS
R US plan to
resurrect the
iconic brand
from the ashes
of its bankrupt-
cy and liquidation have started to emerge. The lenders
who own a key piece of the old Toys R Us have revealed
that they are keeping the corporate brand names and
intellectual properties, including Geoffrey, the brand’s
giraffe mascot, and are dipping their toes back in the toy
business with a wholesale venture called GEOFFREY’S
TOY BOX. That new venture, for the time being, is being
operated out of the Toys R Us headquarters building in
Wayne, where a small number of former Toys R Us
executives and employees continue to report to work.
US:
Wayne
Kinnelon native
LAURA BENANTI
[“Laura Benanti
Aspires to Do It All,”
Back to School 2018]
lends her massive
talents to the Bartlett
Sher revival of My Fair
Lady at the Vivian
Beaumont Theater in
Manhattan. Benanti
recently replaced
Lauren Ambrose, who
left the show to film
an untitled M. Night
Shyamalan series.
“Eliza Doolittle has been my dream role for as long as I
can remember, so I couldn’t be more excited to join this
brilliant company,” Benanti says in a statement. “Working
with Bart and getting to be part of this show is a dream
come true.” Benanti’s limited engagement extends to
Feb. 17, 2019.