Series ponders state of performing arts
Photo by Deborah Maier

Series ponders state of performing arts

Early on the crisp and sunny morning of Monday, Oct. 23, about 35 people representing regional groups gathered in the recently renovated Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., to explore the status and future of theater in our region, led by a panel of six.

This first session of the Performing Arts Business Series was organized by Brett Bernardini, the Stissing Center’s executive director, who moderated throughout. As a frame for the morning’s work, Bernardini had shared a recent article from American Theatre magazine titled “Theatre in Crisis: What We’re Losing, and What Comes Next,” which listed a history of theater closures and some pointed questions as to causes, including the traditional nonprofit business model.

Requesting personal definitions of “sustainability” and “regional theater” in the present terms, Bernardini then introduced  the keynote speaker, Harlem-based Jonathan McCrory, artistic director since 2012  of Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre (NBT). McCrory spoke of both spiritual and practical aspects of sustaining the community and practice of theater-going. 

Addressing the emotional tone of the article and the meeting’s purpose, he spoke of grief and vulnerability—as experienced via COVID-19 and in the circumstances of the field they love. 

Theater’s role, he continued, is to promote clarity of the heart, a softening of humanity, “space to fall in love—with others, with yourself.”

Panelists ponder ‘sustainability’

Panelists present in this first session were New York Assemblymember Didi Barrett; Ron Hicks of Dutchess County Economic Development; Lou Trapani, director of the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck; Ancram Opera House co-director Jeffrey Mousseau; and Michael Rhodes, artistic director of Tangent Theatre Company in Tivoli. A sixth scheduled panelist had tested positive for COVID and was absent.

A major point of discussion was real estate. Trapani called theater “a landlord’s game,” with the costs of running his own facility “$1,100 a day—to do no theater.” As to possible help from grantmakers, they are not interested in this type of community  theater, he averred.

McCrory outlined how NBT got its start with Teer’s purchase of real estate in Harlem, leading to its present home in a 21-story mixed-use tower on upper Fifth Avenue, with its commercial space fronting on 125th Street—“a place to live, serve and create.” For playwright and screenwriter Darrah Cloud, who was responsible for bringing McCrory to the presentation, this move away from depending on the nonprofit model makes sense, along with other changes to how things are done.

Declining audiences

“Older folks are not coming,” Trapani and others lamented, citing distance, COVID-related concerns, and late-evening performances. By and large, it has traditionally been older, more financially secure patrons who most consistently support live theater. More matinees or earlier evening start times might draw in those who don’t want to travel home at night, some suggested.

To an audience member’s question as to how NBT so successfully attracts younger audiences, McCrory noted that NBT offers student residencies that have so far accommodated 300 young artists, holding 23 readings a year in which playwrights and actors are paid for their work.  

As with other issues, the lack of affordable housing in our region loomed large in this discussion of creative businesses. “It all boils down to jobs,” Trapani said, citing an Arts Mid-Hudson survey outlining the profits generated by the arts for restaurants, hotels and other businesses. Ron Hicks, crediting Barrett’s $3 million affordable housing initiative, pled with the audience to “participate, know what affordable housing is!”

Future sessions in the series are scheduled for January, April, July and October 2024, similarly in each month’s third week, at the Stissing Center unless the group decides otherwise.

Latest News

'Gather' at Troutbeck

Romane Recalde speaking about her new business at Gather.

Natalia Zukerman

Hosted by Jason Klein and Sascha Lewis, an ongoing series called “Gather” at Troutbeck in Amenia brings together a curious crowd of local entrepreneurs, artists, and others with a story to tell for an intimate midday chat. On Thursday, Jan. 16, floral designer Romane Recalde, owner of the newly opened Le Jardin in Amenia, took center stage to share her journey from modeling in Miami to cultivating flowers in the Hudson Valley. Gather is a place to share stories, swap advice, and celebrate some of the unique businesses that make our area vibrant — all with a delicious lunch on the side. The gatherings are unconventional in the best way, with no agenda beyond good conversation and community building.

Recalde’s story isn’t just about creating a flower shop; it’s about a complete reinvention of self. “I hated Miami so much,” said the French-born Recalde, recalling her time in Florida before moving to New York. She worked as a model in New York, and eventually met her husband, James. Their pandemic escape to Turks and Caicos turned into a six-month stay, which in turn led them to Millbrook and finally to their home in Amenia, where Recalde’s connection to nature blossomed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition
Mad Rose Gallery director Michael Flowers contributed to the gallery's "Assembled" exhibit with a series of collaged landscape photographs
Nathan Miller

Mad Rose Gallery’s “Assembled” exhibition opened Saturday, Jan. 18, with a public reception.

The eclectic exhibition — on view until March 2 at the gallery on the intersection of Routes 22 and 44 in Millerton — gathers together work from a group of diverse artists with decades of experience between them. The exhibition itself is true to the name, featuring photographs, sculptures, drawings and mixed media works in all shapes and sizes.

Keep ReadingShow less
The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters' is written with such verve and poetic imagination that it’s hard to fathom how it could be the author’s first novel. Ms. Lerner, 64, has worked for three decades as a literary agent, editor, and non-fiction writer, but at some point during the Covid pandemic — without any forethought — she sat down and typed out the first line of the novel exactly as it now appears in the book, and then completed it without telling anyone what she was up to.

The novel takes place over twenty years — from the 1970s into the ’90s — and is a kind of guide for that era. It reads like a memoir accompanied by some bouncy dialogue, but is actually a work of what’s called autofiction in which Lerner mixes her own experiences — including her own struggle with mental illness — with things she simply makes up. The fictional narrator is Amy Shred, the younger of two sisters in an upper-middle-class, secular Jewish family living in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

This small stream is fishable, despite the wintry conditions. It probably won't be a pleasant or productive experience, but it can be done.

Patrick L. Sullivan

When syndicated columnists run out of ideas they do one of two things.

First they collect the last couple year’s worth of columns and call it a book. These are published to great acclaim from other syndicated columnists and show up in due course in gigantic, ziggurat-shaped mounds at Costco for $4.98 a pop.

Keep ReadingShow less