Last weekend, it felt like Fair Haven was the center of the cultural universe in New Haven. This weekend? Westville.

There are two exceptional small theatre shows in the neighborhood—A Broken Umbrella Theatre’s locally rooted ghost story Play With Matches ( my review is here) and Tony Juliano’s fifth annual Forgot to Laugh sidewalks and animation festival (my preview feature is here, with a review slated for tomorrow).

It’s also the middle weekend of City Wide Open Studios, an event at which Westville has always excelled. The area houses a number of notable artists willing to let folks tramp through their workplaces for the annual affair (the Erector Square section of CWOS was last week, with the Alternate Space, for those artists without studios to open, coming next weekend).

Windowshopping along Whalley Avenue last night en route to Play With Matches, I noticed what an active bar scene there is on Westville weekends as well.