You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension — a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... Westport, Connecticut.
Award-winning author and resident Twilight Zone expert Arlen Schumer presents Westport in The Twilight Zone: A Symposium, a four-day event series that will explore Westport’s unique place in the unsettling, cerebral, and often macabre world of The Twilight Zone — and celebrate 100 years of Twilight Zone creator and iconic 20th century broadcast voice Rod Serling.
Starting Thursday, September 26, and running through Sunday, September 29, The Westport Library will host screenings of landmark episodes and films inspired by Serling’s signature series, punctuated by insightful discussions of all aspects of his life and work — including facts you never knew about Westport’s critical role in The Twilight Zone.
Thursday and Friday night’s presentations are 6 to 9 pm, Saturday is 5 to 9 pm, and Sunday is 1 to 5 pm. Tickets for this event are free. Register to attend here. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in their best black and white Twilight Zone outfits — and enjoy black and white cookies throughout the symposium.
Schumer will spearhead the proceedings, along with fellow authors and Serling scholars Nick Parisi (Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination and America’s Twilight Zone: How Rod Serling Foreshadowed the Age of Trump) and Mark Dawidziak (Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone.)
Schumer’s intention for Westport in The Twilight Zone is to enlighten local attendees with thematic elements drawn from Serling’s own life, particularly regarding his time in Westport.
“Serling lived in Westport for three years during the mid-50s, when he won three Emmy Awards three years in a row,” Schumer said. “That creative clout enabled him to go out to Hollywood to create The Twilight Zone — and some of its greatest episodes might have been influenced by his time in Westport!”
Those episodes include ones like, “A Stop at Willoughby” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” which Schumer delved into in his new book, The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone. In it, Schumer described Westport’s influence in Serling’s alternate dimension as “traces of the town's suburban, commuter and pastoral elements, as well as its dark underbelly.”
Advanced hardcover copies are available for purchase through online registration or during the event prior to the book’s official date of publication on October 2, which marks the 65th Anniversary of The Twilight Zone’s debut.
Thursday, September 26, will kick off the symposium with “A Stop at Willoughby,” followed by the 1968 Burt Lancaster film, The Swimmer, based on John Cheever's 1964 New Yorker short story of the same name. The Swimmer was partially filmed in Westport.
Friday delivers “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” followed by “The Shelter,” its sister episode. The evening ends with a rare one-hour episode that was truly ahead of its time: “He’s Alive,” starring Dennis Hopper.
Saturday’s double feature is the Oscar-winning episode (Best Short Film) “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and the 1990 cult classic film Jacob’s Ladder, inspired by that same episode.
Sunday closes out the symposium in style with a pop-up art show of Staples High School students’ artworks, inspired by one of the most memorable Twilight Zone episodes, “Eye of the Beholder.” A screening of that same episode will precede another thematically similar one: “Number 12 Looks Just Like You,” complete with original commercials from its airdate in 1964. The 1975 film The Stepford Wives, also partially filmed in Westport, will tie it all together.
Westport? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity… and is a part of The Twilight Zone.
