This then, is a tale of two theaters, one thriving, the other threatened with extinction.
Mac-Hayden, which traces its roots to 1969 (Woodstock-I) is packed all summer. Reservations are advised if one is to have any hope for one of its 355 seats. As theater in the round, there are no bad seats. The staff, most of them volunteers, is friendly and helpful. The theater obviously enjoys wide-spread community support, with more than 400 names listed as “friends” in the program, and scores of others as gold-plated patrons. Tickets are reasonable at $30, producing a gross of about $10,000 a performances. The young thespians are talented and eager to please, the energy palpable.
This season opened May 27 with Annie Get Your Gun, followed by Anything Goes, The Secret Garden, Chicago (outstanding!), Damn Yankees (ending August 1) and the ever-popular Mame, running from August 19 through September 5.
At the fabled but almost boarded up Woodstock Playhouse, the venue consists of negotiations with semi-sympathetic local banks for relief on a $440,000 mortgage, and appeals to supporters and volunteers to keep the place open for maybe another year while directors tread water.
The rebuilt Woodstock Playhouse, which also has some structural issues (it’s just not a comfortable place to watch anything), seems to be caught in that vicious theatrical cycle once endured by UPAC in Kingston. In showbiz, names draw. To get names, you need money. To get money, you have to sell tickets. No names, no tickets. No tickets, no names.
Woodstockers like to think their name is a big part of the game and perhaps it is. A “Woodstock” address sells real estate at premium prices. I’d guess more than a few name bands were attracted to that cow pasture in Bethel back in ’69 by the Woodstock brand.
Obviously, that cachet is not working in the case of Woodstock Playhouse. No names. No tickets. No tickets. No money. But I digress. Can somebody please get the bank on the phone?
It may be that some radical approach will be necessary, a concept that should appeal to more than a few art colonists. UPAC emerged from the shadows by partnering with the Bardavon Theater in Poughkeepsie (which actually owns it now). The few shows that make the Kingston playbill are usually first-rate and usually sold out. UPAC may not be thriving, but it floats.
It can happen for the arts-colony playhouse. The hills of Woodstock are alive with moneyed types who made their dough cutting deals. More to the point, many came to Woodstock because…it’s Woodstock! And the Woodstock Playhouse for more than two generations through fire and revival has been an integral part of that community.
As for those parochial types beyond the shadows of Overlook Mountain, this is not just “a Woodstock issue.” A thriving summer theater (at the least) in Woodstock could be a regional draw. Why, some people might drive all the way from Chatham (50 miles away via the Taconic Parkway).
Role model
It’s not unusual for DWI charges against first-time offenders to be bargained down, but in the case of recently elected New Paltz school board president Don Kerr the stakes on a drug charge were considerably higher.
Kerr was arrested two years ago for speeding (60 miles an hour in a 45-milr-per-hour zone), driving while under the influence of marijuana, and possession of the drug. As often happens, the case dragged on while lawyers negotiated. .
A few weeks ago, Kerr, a veteran member of the New Paltz school board and by most accounts one of its more active effective members, was elected board president. One did not have to imagine the uproar in New Paltz over a man accused of drug/driving offenses being elected to head the town’s primary institution for the education and welfare of its children.
On the other hand, some, many of whom undoubtedly supported Kerr’s successful reelection last year, argued that a person is innocent until proven guilty. A few even referred to marijuana (like alcohol) as a “victimless,” socially acceptable drug. That may be a stretch, but the expression of ignorance by school board members and administrators about Kerr’s highly publicized situation was ludicrous. New Paltz is a small, close-knit town, its school system even more-so.
Former Ulster Republican chairman Pete Savago became the conscience of the right on this one. Curious. The partisan, political wheeler-dealer of his age, Savago was once at the height of his power charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. The self-proclaimed “judgemaker” became so furious he kicked a breathalyzer across a police station holding room. It went wide right.
I’m usually with the innocent-until-proven-gulilty faction, except when it comes to people involved with kids. In this case, the appointment as president should have been withheld until after Kerr’s legal matters were adjudicated.
As it turned out, Kerr was found guilty in Gardiner town court only of speeding, still not the best role model for New Paltz kids, but better than a convicted druggie.
This is only speculation, but I wonder whether Kerr’s recent election as school board president may have cut him some slack with the court. Probably not.
Kerr, from what I read in New Paltz Times, seems a solid citizen, this blemish the exception to a commendable civic record. This incident should prove a learning experience for the new school board president, and hopefully for kids as well.
Crap shoot
Other than a devastating fire or the bank taking the house, I can’t imagine any worse disaster for a homeowner than having raw sewage flooding the basement. Which is exactly what happened to half a dozen homeowners in the middle class section of Wilbur Avenue in Kingston six years ago. Words do not suffice.
Last week, Kingston mayor Jim Sottile announced a $293,000 settlement — less than $50,000 per home. In forwarding his recommendation for payment to the common council, the mayor opined that fighting the case in court could have trebled city exposure. Fighting the case, the mayor said, would have been “a crap shoot.”
Crap shoot? He was talking about raw sewage!
I cannot make this stuff up.
Or this: Will Chelsea Clinton really spend her honeymoon next week at the King’s Inn on Broadway in Kingston? Ah, the ambiance…++
Hugh Reynolds’ column appears weekly.
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