photo to blackmail for more, threatening to send the photo to the child’s parents or friends — or publish it online for the world to see — unless the child provides something racier and racier.

In a case last month in Indianapolis, the FBI said a man pretended to be a young woman on Facebook, then made contact with teenage girls and offered to trade self-made photos.

And an Alabama man was sentenced in January to 35 years in prison for what was described as a massive sextortion scheme. To gain the trust of girls in at least six states, he posed as a new kid in town looking to make friends, or even as Justin Bieber, authorities said.

Once he had their trust, he turned friendly conservations into something moreSaturday, December 5, 2015

The Passage to Manhood

Over 90 years ago, Warner Brothers
released “The Jazz Singer,” starring Al Jolson. It was the story of young Jakie
Rabinowitz, who runs away from his home and his Jewish heritage to become a
jazz singer. Ultimately, his father’s illness brings him back home, and he
sings Kol Nidre as the spirit of his father hovers nearby.

Fast forward nine decades to
Playhouse on Park in West Hartford and we have “Passing Strange,” directed by
Sean Harris and exuberantly choreographed by Darlene Zoller, in which a young
black man, simply called Youth (Eric R. Williams), a neophyte songwriter and
musician, rejects his heritage and leaves his home and his mother in search of
his Muse, traveling first to Amsterdam and then to Berlin, gaining experience
and lessons about the heart, only to be