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Rick Woelfel| Correspondent

Fencer Curtis McDowald credits Olympic journey to his two moms

Olympic fencer Curtis McDowald credits his success at reaching the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to two amazing women, his mom and his 'fencing mom.'

Humankind, USA Today

Fencing is a sport that often doesnt get a lot of attention, except during Olympic years. To Vyn Le, however, it is a passion.

Le views fencing as a chess match; a test of his physical skills and mental acuity against those of his opponent.

A Langhorne resident and a senior at Holy Ghost Prep, Le took his first fencing lesson six years ago (he will turn 17 later this fall) at the Bucks County Academy of Fencing, in Lambertville, N.J., just across the Delaware River from New Hope. While he participated in Tae Kwan Do when he was in grade school, he lacked an affinity for team sports. The individual nature of fencing attracted him.

I think it teaches you a lot, he said, because its definitely an individual sport. If you lose, theres really no one else to blame it on, theres no one else to look at besides yourself. The same thing when you win, too.

"I think that taught me a lot, specifically that the wins are really satisfying and the losses are really hard. I think thats really what attracted me to the sport the most when I started competing.

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Les event of choice is the foil, one of fencings three disciplines (the other two are epee and sabre). Each has different rules and protocols.

Foil features a weapon that has a maximum length of 110 cm (43.3 inches, slightly longer than a baseball bat) and amaximum weight of 500 grams (10.58 ounces) although most are lighter.

A point is scored by making by making a valid touch with the point of the blade on the legal target area, which in foil is the opponents torso and a portion of the bib that is attached to each competitors mask.

A bout takes place on a strip that is 14 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, excluding adjacent safety areas. Bouts are normally contested to 15 points.

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A gifted pianist and an accomplished debater as well an athlete, Le changed clubs over the summer and now trains at the Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy in Fairlawn N.J., roughly 25 miles northwest of New York City. He makes the four-hour round trip two or three days a week for a two-hour class, followed by a private lesson.

He also trains at home in his basement, utilizing a dummy for target practice, and works with a personal trainer to enhance his speed and conditioning. Le utilizes the four-hour round trip to North Jersey to finish the schoolwork he didnt complete earlier in the day.

I have the whole car ride, two hours there, two hours back, he said. Also, Holy Ghost Prep offers a lot of free periods, and I have free periods built into my schedule.

"The moment I get homework, I write it down in my planner, and I immediately get it done, as much as possible during the free period, and whatever time I can get during lunch, during break, its always doinghomework, homework, homework, and studying. Then I come home; a lot of times before practice, Ill take a nap or something. And then, during the car ride, I can study again.

Coaching legend: Quest for 1,000: Holy Ghost's Tony Chapman takes it one game at a time as wins pile up

Les competition schedule keeps him busy most weekends (the bulk of the competitive season runs roughly from fall through the spring). He might be competing in a two or occasionally three-day local or regional tournament within an hour or two of home. On other occasions, he might find himself making a five-to-six hour trip to New England to compete.

I have it easy down here compared to some of the other fencers, he said. Fencers up north have to come down here.

Admittedly, it took Le some time to get comfortable on the strip, both physically and mentally.

I think maybe in the first year I was definitely just getting used to moving around, he said. "Fencing (has) a very hard learning curve. Its very different from other sports. On a very basic level, youre engaging muscles that you would never use or (use) not as much in other sports And, that definitely took a little bit, maybe a year or two just getting used to getting hit and competition and things like that.

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But mentally, I think this is a process thats still going on, getting comfortable on the strip and learning how tocontrol my nerves. I think this is a process that happens with everyone.

Every fencer has doubts in their mind they have to overcome, and I think being mentally tough is one thing, but mentally perfect is something that is very, very difficult and it takes a lot of work to get to that point.

For a fencer, part of the learning curve is understanding that early on, they are going to lose a lot of bouts.

I lose all the time, Le said. "Everyone loses way more than they win. Thats a very common thing in every sport, but especially in fencing. You lose so, so many bouts, and I feel like Im very used to it now. Losing is not a bad thing as long as I can take away something from it, thats a win, as long as I can learn how to counter it the next time.

"So, when I face (a more-experienced opponent) I just think about all the times Ive faced someone like that before; What do I have to do to beat someone whos better than me?'

If I can hit them, then I can beat them. Thats my opinion on it. Its not like theyre untouchable. Itss not that theyre unbeatable. Anybody in fencing can beat anybody, And I know that can be me. I can beat this person. All I have to do is just find their weakness and maybe find the action I am doing well with today.

Watching the recent Olympic Games, Le was impressed by how well the finest fencers in the world execute the sports fundamentals.

They are Olympians, he said. But theyre not really doing anything amazingly special. They have the basics, and theyre not following a different set of rules. Everyone is playing the same game, its just how theyre looking at it, a lot of very simple actions. Theyre constantly their strategies to adapt to their (opponent).

Fencing can truly be a lifetime sport who those who, like Le, have a passion for it. For now, he is thinking about his more immediate future; specifically, fencing in college.

He is considering the University of Pennsylvania, which has a mens intercollegiate program and Brown, which does not. In any case, he is not anticipating putting down his weapon any time in the foreseeable future.

I would love to fence on a team, he said. Definitely, it does influence my decisions quite a bit. Fencing is very difficult nowadays, its mostly just me and my teammates in the club but if Im on a team I think that would be a completely different experience and Id love to be part a of it.

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'Everyone loses more than they win': Fencing a chess match for Langhorne teen Vyn Le - Bucks County Courier Times

In exceedingly welcome news, San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon returns to live, in-person performances with its presentation of CHESS in Concert, the 1980's musical with a much-loved score by ABBA's Bjrn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and renowned lyricist Tim Rice. It remains the only musical of the modern era to generate multiple, massive hits on the pop charts, including the delightfully seamy dance number "One Night in Bangkok" and the heart-rending ballad "I Know Him So Well." Co-Director Daren A.C. Carollo promises "This production will be unlike any other CHESS in Concert you have ever seen. We used six versions of the script to create 95 minutes of non-stop rock! We have 17 of the strongest voices in the Bay Area and 20 talented musicians who will be jamming through the most "80s" music you have ever heard." Performances of CHESS in Concert run Friday, September 24 through Sunday, September 26. For tickets and additional information, visit 42ndstmoon.org/chess.

Bay Area native Cate Hayman leads the large cast in the central role of Florence, a woman of torn allegiance between East and West. I caught up with Heyman by phone last week while she was between rehearsals. A recent graduate of the prestigious musical theater program at Carnegie-Mellon University, she is definitely a performer to watch. Still in her early 20's, Hayman already has a lot of irons on the fire - including stage, film and TV work, plus a little modeling on the side (as Bells Are Ringing's Ella Peterson would say). Bay Area theater audiences know her for her award-winning performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret at SF Playhouse and her rapturously-received turn as Diana in Next to Normal at the Victoria Theatre. She is a fascinating person to talk to as most of her cultural references are performers and music that were popular well before she was born, but at the same time there is nothing precocious or world-weary-before-her-time about her. She fairly bubbles over with enthusiasm for the career ahead of her and exhibits a self-effacing sense of humor about any bumps in the road she's encountered. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

You seem to be working everywhere these days. Are you still based in the Bay Area?

Yeah, well - kind of. I actually moved to New York 3 weeks ago, which is funny cause I'm already back! But I'm here to do Chess and then I move officially on the 28th. So I'm kind of based here, this is where my family is, but as of very recently I'm technically "based" out of New York.

Is Chess your first show with 42nd Street Moon?

It's my first show in person. During the pandemic I've done a couple virtual events for them.

How did you originally connect with Moon?

I connected with them years ago actually because my neighbor Pete Sorensen is on the board for 42nd Street Moon. When I was in high school, I think, he was like "You should go in and sing for them, and maybe they'll hire you for summer work." So I went in when I was not castable, I was too young, and I sang for them and they were very sweet. But that's kind of how I got on their radar.

And then the summer of 2019 I did a production at SF Playhouse of Cabaret where I played Sally Bowles, and I don't know if this is how I seriously got on their radar, but I won a couple of awards for that. When COVID hit they started asking me to do virtual things, and then for this they were just like "Do you wanna be Florence?" and I said "Sure!" ... and then I had to send them a tape because the director actually didn't know who I was. [laughs]

Chess is one of those shows with a killer score and a somewhat problematic book, which makes it perfect for a concert presentation. How familiar were you with the show before you were cast in it?

Not at all! I knew the two main Florence songs, "Heaven Help My Heart" and "Someone Else's Story." I sang them a long time ago in my singing lessons, but never really did anything with them. I actually was surprised I still remembered the lyrics, but other than that I barely knew it at all. I didn't know what the story was, that it was written by Bjrn and Benny from ABBA, I didn't know anything. When I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, kind of moving in and sitting on my butt all day, it was great cause it gave me this opportunity to really familiarize myself with it. So for the most part learned all of it while I was in New York and then just came here and now I'm fine-tuning.

Currently, what is your own personal favorite song in the show?

I have to say "Nobody's Side." I love that song. It is so fun!

As a singing actor that song gives you a lot to play with because it really is written as a dramatic scene set to music.

Yeah, totally. Well, all of the songs are like scenes. An amazing thing about Chess is that even though it's written by pop icons, it's almost an opera. In all musicals, the songs are extensions of the drama that's happening in the scenes, but here especially cause there's very little dialog in this production, it feels like every single song is its own plot line, its own very important scene.

I have to ask what it was like playing Diana in Next to Normal. I just can't imagine taking on a role that challenging, both technically and emotionally, not to mention that it was written for an actor at least 20 years older than you were at the time!

Yeah, to this day that was my favorite production I've ever done. The theater company is called The Refuge and it's run by Dan Shaindlin who's a San Mateo local. His son Atticus was in my class at Carnegie Mellon and he was also in Cabaret with me, so we've done a lot of things together. Dan was like "Atticus, I want to start a summer stock company with students in San Francisco." So Atticus just asked some of his friends in our Carnegie Mellon class if they would be interested, like who he thought would be right for the parts, and so the cast was primarily made up of our classmates. And it was so amazing because it was after our freshman year so we were all hungry to perform.

But the role itself was extremely challenging. Vocally, it's quite a trip cause it's rock basically, and so singing a couple hours of like screlty rock is really hard, especially on a young voice. But it was so fun, because it was a cast full of people that I knew already and loved to work with. It was easy to really just take risks and throw my whole self into it, and it was a short rehearsal process so there wasn't too much time to overthink anything. I had the best time!

You're also great at singing jazz standards. [Check out Hayman's rendition of "Hit Me With a Hot Note" here]. That requires such a different vocal technique than singing something like Chess or Next to Normal. How do you manage such a wide range of styles?

Um... good vocal training? [laughs] I don't know! My favorite genre to sing is jazz standards. Like it's easy, it sounds nice, it fits really nicely in my tone, my range, so that's kind of where I feel at home singing. But I also love singing other things, too. I guess I've just been working on my voice long enough where it's still difficult to switch between genres, but it's something you have to do if you want to do this professionally. You can't limit yourself to one type of music. I always have a really great time singing more rock and pop things, especially with a live band. It feels so powerful and exciting to have all these big, loud musicians behind you kind of pushing you forward. So I'm really excited to do this show with an orchestra.

You graduated from Carnegie Mellon in the Spring of 2020 and then - boom! - you were launched into a world where suddenly live theater didn't really exist. What was that like?

It was definitely an adjustment; it was very strange. I went into the pandemic thinking "Oh, this will last a month." So I left all my things in the basement of my old apartment in Pittsburgh, expecting to come home [to California] for a second, and pick them up on my way to New York. And I just picked them up a couple weeks ago - they'd been there for a year and a half. [laughs] So I came home for what I thought would be a month without theater, and that was great cause it was also just basically, even though I was graduated, like my summer vacation.

And then as it kept going, it forced me to kind of take a step back and experiment with finding something else that gave me artistic fulfillment and let me talk to other creative people, which was the thing that I was missing the most. I missed theater, but I missed more than anything being with theater people and working with creatives. So the first semester after I graduated, I was tutoring kids doing Zoom school, and [laughs] I was a very bad Algebra II tutor for some high-schoolers. So I did a couple things and I was just like "This sucks, and COVID still doesn't seem like it's slowing down."

Then come January, I was semi-recruited by a modeling agency in San Francisco. I was a little bit negative about getting into that world, cause I was like "Ugh, modeling is so egotistical and everyone is mean." But as I did it, I realized that it is just rooms of creative people, and it gave me a lot to look forward to. I was really excited to go to jobs because I was talking to stylists and photographers and people who were really passionate about the arts, and some of them were musicians and DJ's that did this as their side job. So once I discovered that, being without live theater became a little easier in a way.

The pandemic has also given me the opportunity to try film and television. I have a manager in LA and he's been sending me in for film and TV stuff. I managed to pick up an indie film [Before It Ends] that shot for a couple weeks in Los Angeles, and then I also was a guest star on the CBS show Evil. I'm on Episode 8, "B is for Brain." That was fun and it shot in New York. So I've just been sending in auditions and trying to fine-tune those skills as well because ideally I want to make a career of doing both live theater and also film and television.

And I also did a production of Songs for a New World at SF Playhouse. It was pre-recorded so we were all lip-synching and had to get tested every day and you know keep six feet apart from each other onstage, so it was bizarre, but I also was able to do that. So even though live theater didn't exist, I still found little pockets in which I could do some creative things, whether it was theater or film or just being with creative people. So I figured it out, but it was definitely an adjustment to begin with.

As somebody who's still early in their performing career, do you have any personal heroes or role models, performers you look at and think, "I want a career like that!"?

Oh, gosh. I'm not sure if there's someone who I'm like "I want that career," but there are definitely performers I idolize and want to be like. All the classic divas, like Ethel Merman, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, all of those like old-timey Broadway divas. And in a way I want to have a similar career, cause they all made their impact onstage, but then also did movies. So, yeah, they are what I want to be.

I'm fascinated that your main cultural references are these women whose heydays were long before you were even born. What music did you listen to growing up?

Growing up I listened to a lot of jazz standards. My dad had a Nina Simone CD in his car that I would play whenever I went anywhere with him as a kid. I was obsessed with Nina Simone. I'm obsessed with all of those jazz women - Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Eydie Gorm. That's kind of the beginning of me being like "I love this kind of music and I love their voices. They're so rich and warm and delicious and I want to sound like that."

Do you have any musical theater dream roles you hope to age into one day?

That is such a loaded question! I want to do so many things. Funny Girl is coming back to Broadway, and I would go crazy to play Fanny Brice. Any role portraying Marilyn Monroe, even though I'm about a foot too tall, I would die to do.

So if that "Smash" musical ever actually happens...?

Oh, yeah, count me in! That's my cuppa tea! And if like when I am actually of an appropriate age to play Diana, if Next to Normal has a revival, I would be so thrilled to be in that. But also, at this point in my career, I will take anything! [laughs]

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Interview: Cate Hayman of CHESS IN CONCERT at 42nd Street Moon Aims to Be an Old-School Diva for Our Times - Broadway World

A BUDDING chess star from Herefordshire has won a place at a grand final where he will compete against the world's best child players.

Committed and promising young chess player, Dillan Duke, from Herefordshire, has won a hard fought place in the UK Chess Challenge National Final.

Dillan, aged 14, will be up against 11 other top players in the UK in his age category, fighting for the number one spot.

This national chess event will take place next month at Blenheim Palace, the home of the Duke of Marlborough and the birth place of Sir Winston Churchill.

The competition has grown into the largest children's chess tournament in the world and attracts thousands of entrants every year.

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Dillan has already come through the first three rounds of this competition, which took place online due to coronavirus restrictions.

He was placed second and third in two of the rounds.

The grand finale will be played over the board in rooms at the palace, with the use of live boards where moves are instantly relayed online.

Spectre, the James Bond movie, was partly filmed at the location.

His father Paul Duke said: "Dillan is very much looking forward to the challenge ahead and continues to work hard in preparation.

"When not leaning over a chess board, Dillan enjoys power boating in Devon, sea fishing, surfing and skiing in the Scottish Mountains."

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Herefordshire youngster to play chess against world's best - Hereford Times

Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa won all five rounds to lead the table after the first day of Hou Yifan Challenge online rapid event, part of the $100,000 Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour on Saturday.

In the 17-player round-robin event, Praggnanadhaa opened his campaign by beating Balaji Daggupati (U.S.A.), and then defeated elder sister R. Vaishali, Zhu Jiner (China), Yahli Sokolovsky (Israel) and Lei Tingjie (China) to stay one point clear of Germanys Vincent Keymer.

Compatriot Leon Mandonca (3.5) was tied for the third spot after beating Sokolovsky and Tingjie but lost to U.S.A.s Awonder Liang, drew with Russias Volodar Murzin and got past Polands Oliwia Kiolbasa.

Aditya Mittal (3) was tied fifth after wins over Jiner, Sokolovsky and draws with Tingjie and Awonder. He lost the fifth round to Murzin.

Vaishali started by holding higher-rated Polish International Master Pavel Teclaf, then lost to Praggnanandhaa and recovered well to beat Russias Leya Garifullina and Balaji. She enjoyed a fifth-round bye.

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Praggnanandhaa in the lead in Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour - The Hindu

MORRISTOWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Majesco, a global leader of cloud insurance software solutions for insurance business transformation, today announced the availability of a new Celent research report commissioned by Majesco, Reshaping the Distributor Insurer Relationship: A Survey of Independent Insurance Agents.

The report, commissioned by Majesco and executed independently by Celent, is based on survey data of 231 independent agents to better understand how they prefer to interact with insurers across a broad set of activities and their current satisfaction with their digital interactions at a transaction level, as well as the activities needed to run the agency. It assessed the level of digital interaction they would like to see over the next three years across a broad array of areas important to them. In addition, the report looks at the generational impact to see if the agent of tomorrow had different views than the agent of today (or yesterday).

Shifting customer expectations are creating a new need for new business models. As the current workforce ages, insurers are exploring new distribution strategies that can fill this hole, capitalize on trends, and implement the necessary cutting-edge business operations that can strengthen distributor and channel relationships. With the emergence of technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, insurers can quickly match customers and agents, provide recommendations on best next steps, and align compensation and services where they will have the greatest impact. Much like the rest of the industry, independent agents are going through their own digital transformation and demanding new capabilities. Understanding agents perspectives on how they want to digitally engage with insurers is critical to succeeding both today and in the future.

Insurers are increasingly focused on digitally enabling the independent agency channel, while exploring new distribution channels, stated Denise Garth, Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco. This report underlines both the operational and strategic importance of insurers accelerating their distribution management maturity through digital transformation from the front-end experience through the back-end distribution management capabilities. Agents have high expectations today, but even higher for tomorrow. Simply building a portal will not meet their expectations. Instead, investments in new digital experiences with a 360 view of agents engagement to robust distribution management that enables innovative compensation, digital onboarding, online reporting and more will improve the agents ability and desire to place business with an insurer to drive growth.

Surprisingly 30% of Generation Z respondents prefer to do everything via phone, email, or in person rather than using technology (such as portals). This raises the question of what generation is more likely to prefer to use technology. Is it that younger generations are more familiar with technology but less familiar with insurance and want additional guidance and advice from experts? In addition, the report underscored the difference between how life agents and property casualty agents interact with insurers. Property casualty agents are more likely than life agents to interact digitally or mostly digitally when quoting personal and small commercial lines for new business.

The fight for shelf space is heating up, stated Karlyn Carnahan, Head of Property and Casualty, North America for Celent. These increasing mergers and acquisitions are placing greater pressure on the process of onboarding agents, managing licenses, handling commissions, managing increasingly complex hierarchies, and providing more support in reporting capabilities. Insurers looking for help prioritizing their investments in digital and distribution management capabilities for agents also have to think through where to use humans to deliver differentiated services.

Technology remains a major play in the digital chess game but investing in the right solutions for agents is key to winning. To drive growth and deliver on agent needs, carriers must leverage a combination of automated support for day-to-day transactions and provide additional tools and services to help the agent manage business operations. The game of chess is played by thinking one to two steps ahead of your opponent. Insurers must do the same by leveraging data and analytics to better meet the needs of todays digitally committed agents.

Learn more by downloading Reshaping the Distributor Insurer Relationship: A Survey of Independent Insurance Agents from the Majesco website or by emailing info@majesco.com.

About Majesco

Majesco is the leading software partner to both the P&C and L&A insurance markets to modernize, optimize and innovate their businesses at speed and scale. Over 330 insurers, from greenfields, start-ups and MGAs to the largest insurers, reinsurers and brokers use Majescos next generation SaaS platform solutions of core, data and analytics, digital, distribution, absence management and a rich ecosystem marketplace of established and InsurTech partners to build the future of insurance.

Our technology, expertise and leadership help insurers innovate and connect to build the future of their business. With over 825 successful implementations and over 65% of our customers on Cloud with Majesco platform solutions, together we have an amazing track record of innovation and real-world results. For more details on Majesco, please visit http://www.majesco.com.

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New Celent Report Commissioned by Majesco Highlights the Digital Chess Game of the Independent Agent - Business Wire