Putnam County Community Theater Showcase
Faced with the challenge of the pandemic, theater companies in Putnam County did what theater people always do – create. As theaters from Brewster to Garrison reopen for the 2022 season, they will showcase innovative ways of storytelling, new and renovated spaces, more community engagement and even new audiences.
Brewster Theater Company — The Net Has Been Cast
When the Brewster Theater Company opened the 2022 season in February with “Prescription Murder,” Stacy Dumont, president and co-founder, knew that her instincts were right.
“I thought people would be ready to come out now, and they were,” Dumont said. “We are doing it very thoughtfully and very safely. Our theater’s capacity is 100, but we are only filling the audience to half that, so people can spread out.”
The company may be limiting its audience, but it is not shortchanging on ambition.
In May, the company will present “Room Service,” which will be followed in the summer by the musicals “Barnum” and “La Cage Aux Folles.” There are open auditions for all Brewster Theater Company plays.
“We’ve been around 21 years and this season is the first time that we’re doing two musicals,” Dumont said. “So far, it’s going really well.”
The company started in the Brewster Library but were nomads for 15 years before settling in at the Drew Methodist Church in Carmel six years ago. Despite the change in location, it kept its original name.
A veteran of the Putnam theater scene, Dumont thought she had seen it all. This year, however, she has noticed some changes.
“It seems like it’s a little different audience this year,” Dumont said. “After the ‘Prescription Murder’ show, several people came up and asked ‘Where can we go to eat?’ They are not all from the local community. Some are from the city. Some may be newcomers who have settled nearby. Whatever the reason, the net has been cast and we are pulling people in.”
The Cultural Arts Coalition – A Taste of NYC in Downtown Brewster
The Old Southeast Town Hall stands like a promise in the middle of Brewster’s Main Street. The 1896 building houses a beautiful theater in which the Cultural Arts Coalition, last year, produced four events — including two staged readings and a cabaret.
“Just the idea of getting the doors open was huge,” said Judy Marano, president of the Cultural Arts Coalition. “We’ve worked a long time for that.”
The Coalition is renovating the theater, which they see as the cornerstone of the village’s revitalization, but it’s been slow going. Still, that hasn’t stopped the group from creating a lively arts, music and theater scene in the Studio Around the Corner. That space, which the Coalition also runs, is tucked around the back of the Old Town Hall building. It opened in 2011 and features art exhibits, concerts, plays and community events.
“We’ve been doing theater at the Studio since the beginning,” Marano said. “We try to do something for every age group. We bring in artists from all over. It’s a taste of New York City in downtown Brewster.”
The 2022 season promises to be a blockbuster. The group has a host of big events planned. In April, look for Art and the Blues, a month-long series of Blues-related art shows, workshops and live music. Then there’s the Summer Music Series at the gazebo in the Southeast Veterans Park and The Brewster Fall Festival, a lively street fair that helps raise funds for the Old Town Hall renovation.
The Philipstown Depot Theatre — Bridging the East-West Divide
The Philipstown Depot Theatre, in the former Garrison train station, spent part of the pandemic refurbishing its lobby and concession.
“When people come in, they are going to say ‘Whoa!’” Ned P. Rauch, the marketing director, said.
The renovation may not be the only reason folks will be happy to be back inside the 1893 depot building.
“During the pandemic, we held the storytelling outside the building and we were vulnerable to the blasts and hoots and noises of the train,” Rauch said. “The storytellers would just wait, or sometimes incorporate the interruption into their stories.”
The Depot’s 2022 season begins with documentary films, dance, music and storytelling.
The popular Night Train storytelling series returns at the end of March. The host, Joe Charnitski is a two-time winner of the Moth Slam, a live storytelling event held in cities across the country.
“We have had Joe here before, and the shows have been sold out every time,” Rauch said. “He’s great. Prior to the show, he meets with the storytellers and helps them hone their stories.”
During the pandemic, the Depot Theatre joined with two local arts organizations – Arts on the Lake and Tompkins Corners Cultural Center — to form The Putnam Theater Alliance.
The Alliance unearthed three historic radio plays, paired them with three contemporary plays and streamed them online, delighting audiences countywide.
“East-West doesn’t happen that much in Putnam,” Rauch said. “It was an attempt to bridge that divide. We are not that far apart and we can work together.”
Arts on the Lake Zoom is Radio With Pictures
The historic radio plays developed and streamed by The Putnam Theater Alliance last year had a big impact on this year’s season at Arts on the Lake.
The group’s theater director, James Shearwood, is using the radio play concept in his Forgotten Voices Restored Project.
At the end of March, Arts on the Lake will present “Ben, Trevor and Judith Discover ‘One-Third of a Nation.’” A 1938 play, “One-Third of a Nation” was originally developed as a WPA Federal Theater project. Arts on the Lake’s update of it, which Shearwood is directing, takes on the current affordable housing crisis.
“As with any new form, new ways of using it come about,” said James Shearwood, theater director at Arts on the Lake, in Kent. “On Zoom, we’re starting to experiment with opening and closing windows and short sound effects. I now view Zoom as radio with pictures.”
It will be presented at the end of March at the theater in the old firehouse, 640 Route 52, in Kent.
Another good development came out of the pandemic.
“We found ways to involve more people from the local community,” Shearwood said. “Many people who were living here and commuting, or just coming up from the city for the weekends, spent a lot more time here during the pandemic, and they became more active in the community. We’re like an off, off, off Broadway theater now.”
Tompkins Corners Cultural Center — Bringing History to Light Through Theater
Tompkins Corners Cultural Center opened in 2015 in a former Methodist Church in Putnam Valley.
“We are primarily known as a music venue,” said Judy Allen, theater director for the center. “We’ve developed quite a following. Last year, at the Pete Seeger Festival, 240 people arrived. They just spilled out of the woods and onto the lawn.”
From Irish music at the end of March, to the annual Pete Seeger Festival on Sunday, May 1, the Cultural Center has an eclectic 2022 line-up that includes writer’s workshops, poetry nights, singer songwriters, bands and documentary films.
“The most significant thing we’ve done in theater was with the Putnam Theater Alliance,” Allen said.
Now, in the spirit of that Theater Alliance project, in which the themes were justice, fairness and civil rights, Allen is working on a two-year project involving the region’s own history.
“We’re working on a project about Chief Daniel Ninham of the Wappinger Tribe whose land was stolen by the Philipses,” Allen said, referring to Frederick Philipse and his descendants whose landholdings spread from the Bronx to the Hudson Highlands. “The Philipses had slaves that built their beautiful stone manor in Westchester. We’re trying to bring the history to light through theater. It seems like the right thing to be doing at this moment in Putnam County history.”
Whipple-Feeley Chapel – The perfect place to present a show
When late summer turns to fall, a new play that’s just right for the season will be presented at the Whipple-Feeley Chapel in Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park.
“Hearts of the Hollow,” a musical inspired by the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was written by Patricia White, a screenwriter, lyricist and children’s book author who taught English at Valhalla High School. White is also producing the show through her non-profit, The Global Wholesome Network.
The play is scheduled for weekends from September 9 through Halloween and open auditions will begin soon.
“When I walked in and saw the chapel, I almost cried,” White said. “I knew right away that this was the perfect place to present the show.”
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival It’s a Little Bit Different This Year
The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has always been known for the stunning Hudson River landscape that it incorporates into its productions. Now it has moved down the road apiece, but the Hudson Highland views from the Shakespeare company’s new, permanent home are even more beautiful – if that’s possible.
The festival’s first season at its new property, the former Garrison Golf Club, kicks off with an age-blind version of “Romeo & Juliet.” Then there’s a post-disaster play that reimagines The Simpson’s, called “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play.” The final show of the season will be “Where We Belong,” a one-woman show by an Indigenous Mohegan artist and performer and her experience learning about Shakespeare.
“It’s a little bit different this year,” Managing Director Katie Liberman said of this year’s season. “We’ll have one Shakespeare title, one title that reflects on Shakespeare and one title that relates to the world today.”
For now, the performances will be inside a tent while the permanent open-air venue is built.
The pre-show dinner is also about to change. The Valley, a restaurant and bar at the property, will expand its hours to accommodate theater-goers.
“It’s a whole new dining experience,” Liberman said. “It’s very high quality. People can sit inside the restaurant, get drinks outside or purchase a prepared picnic dinner. Of course, people can still bring their own picnics. That’s part of our identity; it’s an essential part of who we are.”
This fall, the company hopes to realize a long-held dream and begin to offer matinees to school groups.
