NACL THEATRE
110 HIGHLAND LAKE RD
HIGHLAND LAkE, NY
USA. 12743
PH: 845 557 0694
FX: 845 557 0393
Coming Events
Wormholes
Sunday, June 23, 2013
4:00 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
Wormholes or A Hypothetical Topological Feature of {19th Century} Space/Time
DDT
Inspired by quantum physics, insect mating rituals, texting emoticons, George Eliot’s Victorian novel Middlemarch, and a growing sense of disconnect, this piece explores the question: what happens when we lose the ability to communicate? With advances in technology making face to face connection less and less imperative, are we becoming more and more fragmented/isolated? This is a call to action, a chance to experience the panoply of the human condition! Come and be a part of the 'conversation' in this unique, interactive experience-- for without the audience's help, the story is forever stuck on page 661. DDT is a creative posse! raising the question: how can performative art be made both IN and FOR the 21st century? Featuring Dorothy Abrahams and Daniel Piper Kublick. Directed by Tracy Bersley.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Sunday June 23, 4:00pm
The Slipper Room Presents: Mr. Choade's Wild Ride
Saturday, July 20, 2013
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
MR. CHOADE'S WILD RIDE
The Slipper Room
The Slipper Room, New York City's renowned palace of variety brings its show to NACL for one special night of cabaret, burlesque, magic and contortion. Hosted by borscht belt legend, Mel Frye, the evening features burlesque legend Gal Friday, magic man Mat Holzclaw, go-go sensation Camillicious, acrobatic madman Topher, and contortionist Ekatarina.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Saturday July 20, Doors open at 8pm, Show at 9pm
This event is for ages 21 and over.
My Machine Is Powered by Clocks
Sunday, July 28, 2013
4:00 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
MY MACHINE IS POWERED BY CLOCKS
Sightline Theater
MY MACHINE IS POWERED BY CLOCKS considers a time when time travel has become a relatively common thing, when a future can be seen and a past can be changed. As with any kind of new technology, there are potential pitfalls and abuses. Like pieces in a game of Jenga, everything is stacked up on top of everything. You move something from the bottom; the top pieces collapse. You can escape your own time and context, but you may lose focus. You may even forget who you are. A fast-speed journey of people attempting to, succeeding in, and failing to change a course of events, MY MACHINE IS POWERED BY CLOCKS is the latest piece from Sightline, a company of collaborators that emphasizes social, intellectual, and aesthetic issues through story, image, sound, and movement. Sightline's performances bring together writers, actors, dancers, and designers to create original, science-themed, and form-bending theater.
"Startlingly visceral... Eerily beautiful... Brilliant ... Videt and her company reimagine the elements of the avant garde in their own, exciting terms—and with flashes of humor"
-Heather Violanti, TheaterOnline
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Sunday July 28, 4:00pm
The Weather Project Kick-Off Event
Saturday, August 10, 2013
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
The Weather Project
NACL Theatre, The Town of Highland, and Friends
NACL and a host of community groups kick-off The Weather Project—an arts and science project that will culminate in a massive community theatre performance in the Town of Highland in 2014. Bring the whole family, and find out about The Weather Project!
Oh yeah, and bring your umbrellas, too—it's the WEATHER project—so it's rain or shine!
The day will include performances, workshops, and information about how to get involved in collaboration with NACL, The Town of Highland, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Delaware Highlands Conservancy/Eagle Institute, Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development, Western Sullivan Public Library, Catskill Art Society, The Ottawa Stilt Union, and a mix of artists and scientists investigating weather and our current climate. For those of you who have attended our previous late summer festival days (Agrarian Acts and Eco-Loco)—Never Fear!—The Third Annual Lettuce Eating Contest will also be held during The Weather Project Kickoff (as the health of local lettuce is directly tied to weather). These events will be capped off, later in the evening, with live music programmed by Collabonation Productions, featuring The Great Danes.
So come spend the day with us in the Town of Highland, maybe have dinner at Henning's Local, and then head to the theatre for some late summer musical revelry!
This project is made possible, in part, through an Our Town award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
More information about The Weather Project...
THIS IS A FREE, ALL-DAY, ALL-AGES EVENT
Saturday August 10, 2pm-5pm
The day's events will be followed by a live music concert at NACL, starting at 8pm, featuring The Great Danes, from Callicoon, and special guest TBA.
The Pigeoning
Sunday, August 18, 2013
4:00 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
The Pigeoning
Robin Frohardt
THE PIGEONING is a darkly comedic puppet piece which uses bunraku puppetry, original music, and video to examine Man's obsession with cleanliness, safety, and control. The story follows one man (Frank) and his transformation from a state of order, fastidiousness, and hygienic neurosis to the careless dishevelment and mania of a surrendering madness.
To mount this production, creator/director Robin Frohardt will work closely with composer Freddi Price and a tight ensemble of five puppeteers to perform a series of articulate, humorous, dialog-free scenes that capture the absurdity of Frank’s journey.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Sunday August 18, 4:00pm
Black Wizard/Blue Wizard
Saturday, August 24, 2013
7:30 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
Black Wizard/Blue Wizard
Eliza Bent & Dave Malloy
Black Wizard / Blue Wizard is a musical fantasia depicting an epic duel between two opposing wizard philosophies in a modern and mundane age. Ideals of truth, knowledge, scientific advancement, information consciousness, network connectivity and excellence battle against beauty, nature, simplicity, holistic systems, magical realism, and intuition as the wizards rise on smoke emitting platforms. As the two wizards joust amidst a digital backdrop, ancient ideals of spirituality and morality contrast against a culture that promotes the shallow, quick and callous. Ultimately Blue Wizard / Black Wizard subversively explores the effects of instant access network technology and internet addiction on the soul.
"Terrifying. I've never seen anything like that."
-Mac Wellman, playwright
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Saturday August 24, 7:30pm
Same River
Sunday, September 8, 2013
4:00 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
Same River
Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble
NYC-based collective Strike Anywhere returns to NACL with SAME RIVER, a multi-media improvisation on “fracking” and its impact on a community. Each performance is unique, using material drawn from first-hand accounts in a structured improv format. The company uses music, dance, theater, video, and visual art to draw connections and give voice to multiple viewpoints.
Strike Anywhere created SAME RIVER in 2010, during a residency at NACL, by interviewing residents of Sullivan and Wayne Counties about the debate over fracking in their community. Over the last 3 years, the company has toured to many affected areas, each time connecting with the community, and customizing the show to reflect the new perspectives.
A town-hall style discussion will follow the performance. A pre-show art installation will feature artwork made by local community members and students.
Photo credit: Lorenzo Ciniglio
“As NY considers drilling as many as 100,000 wells in the watershed for over 16 million people, Same River brings the human stories of those who are in the pathway of this industry to the fore.”
-Rodale.com
This project is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Network of Ensemble Theater’s Touring & Exchange Network (NET/TEN), supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Sunday September 8, 4:00pm
The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol. 2
Saturday, September 14, 2013
7:30 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
THE COMPLETE & CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL, Volume 2: MORE Early Plays / Lost Plays
New York Neo-Futurists
The Complete & Condensed O’Neill, Volume 2 continues the adventure into the subconscious of an American theater legend by removing his dialogue and condensing his plays down to pure action. This is the second installment of what will eventually be a cycle of O’Neill’s complete plays condensed down to the stage directions and only the stage directions. Volume 2 focuses on another collection of his earliest and unknown works, carrying forward and provoking the experiment that began with Volume 1.
The New York Neo-Futurists are an ensemble of dynamic writer / performer / directors best known for the critically acclaimed, energetic show of original short plays, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes.) A non-illusory collage of the comic and tragic, the political and personal, the visceral and experimental, "TMLMTBGB" embraces chance, change and chaos as present catalysts of theater making.
Photo Credit: Anton Nickel
"A comic CAT-scan of O’Neill’s early work . . . nothing funnier than watching good actors attempt to play the unplayable . . . The Neo-Futurist‘s brilliant minimalists, all, actually get the plays across, in all their fatal glory, even as they are racking up guffaws."
-New York Magazine (Critics' Pick)
"a stoner convention for scholars."
-Time Out NY (Four Stars)
New York Neo-Futurists website
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Saturday September 14, 7:30pm
Insomnia: The Waking of Herselves
Saturday, September 28, 2013
7:30 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
INSOMNIA
The Waking of Herselves
Holly Holsinger, Chris Siebert, and Raymond Bobgan
Produced by Cleveland Public Theatre
Insomnia: The Waking of Herselves centers on the idea of women's inner voices. The voices we have created, the voices around us (both real and imagined). These voices have the potential to haunt, to heal, and to empower.
Insomnia delves into one woman’s journey of self-discovery. Attempting to unify the different parts of herself during one sleepless night in the attic, she faces the pleasures and terrors of haunting internal voices – ultimately confronting what it means to leave yourself behind in your own life. A story conveyed through childhood games, dress-up, and embodied memories, the piece examines themes of forgotten dreams, isolation from the self, and reunion. Created by Holly Holsinger, Chris Seibert, and Raymond Bobgan, Insomnia is directed by Raymond Bobgan and produced by Cleveland Public Theatre.
“This is a play everybody should see. But even more so, every woman.”
-Tony Brown, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The performers are essentially flawless in their interpretation of this unique material…If you enjoy theatre that challenges while it entertains, Insomnia is sure to keep you awake.”
-Christine Howey, Scene Magazine
Cleveland Public Theatre website
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Saturday September 28, 7:30pm
JUAREZ: A DOCUMENTARY MYTHOLOGY
Saturday, November 2, 2013
7:30 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
JUÁREZ
A Documentary Mythology
Theater Mitu
Juárez: A Documentary Mythology is a theatrical exploration of a place in conflict and its mythology, created from a series of interviews, experiences, and research in and around Ciudad Juárez, Mexico over the past two years; created by Theater Mitu in collaboration with citizens of Cd. Juárez/El Paso, and led by Juárez-born and raised director Rubén Polendo.
As the model of post-national, global dynamics continues to advance, one city - Ciudad Juárez - has become the “Murder Capital of the World”. Drawn by the vortex of questions within and around Cd. Juárez, Theater Mitu is creating a piece with and about its citizens; an exploration of, and collaboration with, their memories and hopes.
A key component of the presentation will be addressing material that by its very nature is bilingual. For the very first time in Mitu history, Artistic Director Rubén Polendo will engage in the performance, lending his voice and presence onstage. The company plans to experiment with the use of an onstage translation booth - with Polendo inside - to recount, translate and add personal connection to the Spanish language portions of the documentary material. Communicating with the performers via in-ear headsets and microphone, Polendo will act as an almost medium, channeling thoughts, voice and language through to the actors as surrogate for the Spanish-speaking representatives of the community.
“…strange, beautiful… lyrical… dreamy.”
-Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times
“…striking… the production opens a rare vista onto strange and fascinating theatrical territory.”
-Sam Thielman, Variety
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Saturday November 2, 7:30pm
Last Words
Sunday, November 17, 2013
4:00 PM
110 Highland Lake Rd. Highland Lake NY
Contact phone: 845-557-0694
LAST WORDS
Laura E J Moran
NACL resident poet/playwright Laura Moran has written a new work entitled Last Words. Both dramatic poetry and poetic drama, the performance is inspired by the last words of the first one-hundred women legally executed in colonial America, and is set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where riparian worlds collide: tame/wild, history/fantasy, spirit/body, male/female, church pews/secret coves, death/life. Where history silences, imagination blooms.
Last Words reconstructs the plight of Constance Greene, a young woman built from ephemera—part fiction, part poetry, part science, part artifact. The staged reading is directed by NACL resident director Mimi McGurl.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Sunday November 17, 4pm
Recent Performances, Projects and Events
Sundae Social
June 16, 2013
Sundae Social
Sunday, June 16, 2-5 PM
Please join Cass Collins and Jim Stratton for a "Sundae Social" at their home on the Delaware River in Narrowsburg, NY in support of NACL (North American Cultural Laboratory) and the theatre’s CHAIRity campaign.
Buy a new and comfortable chair for the theatre with your donation of $50 or more and enjoy an old-fashioned Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae from the Riverside Creamery's Pink Truck as you gaze at the fledging eagles in the Big Eddy or dance on our outdoor dance floor.
Bring your father to celebrate Father's Day!
RSVPs appreciated 845-252-3831
NOTE: This event is NOT at NACL
LOCATION: 52 Second Ave. Narrowsburg NY 12764
The Subtle Body
June 15, 2013
The Subtle Body
Gold No Trade
The Subtle Body is a historical comedy that tells the story of 18th-century British doctor John Floyer and his wife Charlotte, who travel to China to research Chinese medicine. Charlotte falls in love with her husband’s Chinese translator, and both lovers are forced to reconsider their views of love and marriage. A play in English and Mandarin (with subtitles) about the transmission of ideas across time and culture, developed in Shanghai and New York. Gold No Trade returns to NACL after wowing audiences with their award-winning 2008 production of Floating Brothel.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Saturday June 15, 7:30pm
struck
May 24, 2013
struck
"i. am. everything. i am everything for one moment."
Following a fantastic premiere run at Cleveland Public Theatre, struck comes home to open the NACL 2013 season. A multi-media journey into the mind, soul, and altered dimensions of a woman’s brain as she experiences a cerebral vascular accident (a stroke), struck features Brett Keyser and Tannis Kowalchuk, with neuroscientist Allison Waters. Directed by Ker Wells, with video, sound, and light installations by an international team of artists and designers.
"Your synapses are going to light up in new and different ways when experiencing this amazing event."
-Christine Howey, raveandpan.blogspot.com
"Keyser and Kowalchuk are arresting performers who are fascinating to watch."
-Andrea Simakis, The Plain Dealer
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
Friday May 24, 7:30pm
Saturday May 25, 7:30pm
Sunday May 26, 7:30pm
Friday May 31, 7:30pm
Saturday June 1, 7:30pm
Sunday June 2, 4:00pm
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED
The Little Farm Show: Margaretville Garden Festival
May 11, 2013
"If you can't get to a farm, find a farmer that will come to you!"
NACL brings the all-ages musical about food and farming to gardenFest 2013 in Margaretville, NY.
Presented by the Catskill Mountain Artisans Guild and sponsored by the Watershed Agricultural Council.
More Information about gardenFest 2013
Click here for more 'dirt' on The Little Farm Show
Announcing Our 2013 Season
April 20, 2013
A NEW SEASON OF STIMULATING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING ENTERTAINMENT
NACL presents its 13th season of new artworks featuring diverse local, national, and international artists. In addition to touring performances of The Little Farm Show and struck throughout the region, we are very pleased to present 12 unique performance events from May through November at our theatre center in Highland Lake, New York.
Become a CSArts member and get a season pass to all 2013 NACL events!
CSArts stands for Community Supported Arts, an opportunity for you to claim your share of exceptional "arts produce", becoming a part of the growing NACL community, while supporting the production of fresh art, and sustaining NACL through the year.
Become a CSArts member
Individual Share $150
Family Share $300
Send a check to NACL
PO Box 33, Highland Lake NY 12743
and we'll send you your CSArts Season Pass!
NEW FOR 2013
ONLINE TICKETING
This year we are offering the possibility of buying tickets online!
CHILD CARE
Forget the babysitter—bring the kids and use ours! This year we're piloting child care during performances. Please let us know in advance if you wish to take advantage of this service. Call 845-557-0694 for more information.
LOCAL LIVE MUSIC
Also this year we will feature live music events programmed by Collabonation Productions. Shows will be announced throughout the season, so check our Facebook Events or visit CollabonationProductions.net.
This season is supported in part by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, Sullivan County Arts and Heritage, the Network of Ensemble Theaters, Arnold and Roberta Krumholz, Catskill Farms, local businesses, and individual donors.
struck - premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre
March 21, 2013
struck
"i. am. everything. i am everything for one moment."
Cleveland Public Theatre is a co-producer of struck, and will host the world premiere in March 2013.
TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES
available at the CPT website
Shakespeare's Will
November 10, 2012
By Vern Thiessen
Saturday at 7PM and Sunday at 4PM
Written by award-winning playwright, Vern Thiessen, this full length one-act solo performance sheds light on William Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway. The play looks through the eyes and heart of a woman and mother who spent a lifetime with and without the great poet. This work is a celebration of a life unbowed by tragedy and unapologetic in the face of public scorn.
Performed as a chamber concert by Tannis Kowalchuk, with sound and music by Kurt Knuth, costuming by Karen Flood, directed by Mimi McGurl.
TICKETS
$15-$25 Sliding Scale, Pay What You Can
Free for CSArts Members
Please Reserve at 845-557-0694 or NACL@NACL.ORG
Maria Kizito **YES! It's ON!**
November 3, 2012
**POWER HAS BEEN RESTORED! THE SHOW WILL GO ON AS SCHEDULED. PLEASE JOIN US FOR A LITTLE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS.
THANKS
By Erik Ehn
Directed by Emily Mendelsohn (USA)
and J B Kyabaggu (Uganda)
Part of Soulographie: Our Genocides
Since 1991, playwright Erik Ehn has been documenting a spiritual history of the United States from the point of view of its genocides—as exercised through U.S. policy in the 20th century. The result is Soulographie: Our Genocides, a set of seventeen plays focusing on East Africa (Rwanda/Uganda), Central America (Guatemala/El Salvador) and Tulsa, Oklahoma (the Race Riot of 1921). These plays look at the causes and consequences of genocide and the genocidal imagination, specifically in terms of genocides in which the United States is complicit.
This year, artists and theatre companies across the United States and Africa will further develop and produce the plays to converge at LaMama for commemorative performances, panel discussions, talkbacks, and workshops.
Maria Kizito is a spiritual biography of a Rwandan genocidaire, the young nun Maria Kizito, as mediated by a young American nun who attends her trial. Kizito and her Mother Superior were convicted of complicity in the deaths of 7,000 refugees who sought asylum at their convent. The story, Erik says, "implicated me as an American and as a Catholic, because their position as people of faith raised questions about my own limits of faith and understanding. And America, of course, was involved because we stood by, with most of the world, as it was happening.” The American/Ugandan ensemble has gathered history over years of traveling with Erik in Rwanda and Uganda to study witness and art’s participation in peace building. The production pushes against a global “center/periphery” frame by complicating our position outside of the events at Sovu.
A Deep Space Performance Residency
TICKETS
$15-$25 Sliding Scale, Pay What You Can
Free for CSArts Members
Please Reserve at 845-557-0694 or NACL@NACL.ORG
Yarnslingers: True Confessions - The Game Show
October 21, 2012
YARNSLINGERS
(n.) people who tell fantastic stories
True Confessions – The Game Show features a variety of masterful short-story writer/performers that spin first-person true and fantastic tales about their own lives. However, one storyteller is lying. It’s up to the audience to do the detective work by questioning and challenging each fabulist to determine who's talking fiction.
The Game Show is hosted by Newspaper Columnist and On-Air Radio Personality, Jonathan Fox, and directed by Reality TV star, Ramona Jan. There will be a drawing from those audience members who have guessed the liar and prizes will be awarded... and Dharma the Wonder Dog promises to delight you with her tricks.
TICKETS
$10
Free for CSArts Members
Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant
October 13, 2012
Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant:
"Irina's Name Day Party"
You are cordially invited to join the three sisters for a supper of borscht, black bread, and beer...
The party at the beginning of Chekhov's Three Sisters leaps off the page in surprising directions when served up by Conni and her able kitchen staff. Don't be late, or risk losing your place at the table. Reservations are Required!
Call 845-557-0694 or email Tannis
Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant (a Time Out New York favorite and Village Voice Choice), is a group of bold (if fictional) theatrical performers, devoted to the ongoing celebration of the work of Conni Convergence, the beloved (and again, fictional) icon of stage and screen.
Hailed as “devilish dinner theatre” by The New York Daily News, this performance will transform NACL’s theatre space into a lush banquet hall, where guests will be treated to a gourmet dining experience, with food carefully prepared on the spot and served with charismatic flourish by self-proclaimed geniuses of the avant-garde theater. With NACL’s hospitality, Miss Conni’s devotees will delve into classic text and debut an all-new production.
A Deep Space Performance Residency
Special Thanks to Catskill Distilling Company for their generous support of this presentation
Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant
TICKETS
$25-$40 Sliding Scale, Pay What You Can
Free for CSArts Members
Please RSVP at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis
Pulling Strings
September 8, 2012
Photo by Jim Moore
By Margolis Brown ADAPTORS
Saturday at 7PM and Sunday at 4PM
Conceived and directed by Kari Margolis, PULLING STRINGS is a visceral human puppet theatre where the actor’s every breath, shift of weight, gesture and emotion are precisely sculpted. Built on iconographic storybook imagery, cultures, language, and time periods collide head-on creating unexpected alliances and a world that exists out of time and place. These moments of unforeseen and seemingly impossible relationships expose the tenuous thread that connects all humanity. PULLING STRINGS plays on our notions of self, stereotypes, and our desire to mold each other into our vision of perfection—often at the cost of leaving our humanity behind.
The ensemble of Jonathan Beller, Helen Buron, Jarod Hanson, Jalyn Knobloch, Tania Liberata and Gregory G. Schott, has been researching, skill-set building, creating, and rehearsing PULLING STRINGS for two years. Soundscore and multimedia by Tony Brown.
A Deep Space Performance Residency
TICKETS
$15-$25 Sliding Scale, Pay What You Can
Free for CSArts Members
Please Reserve at 845-557-0694 or NACL@NACL.ORG
The Little Farm Show 2012 Tour Dates
September 8, 2012
NACL brings the all-ages musical about food and farming to communities throughout the region in 2012. Check the list below to find the date nearest you!
WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM? NACL Theatre explores this question with an all-ages musical extravaganza about FARMING, FOOD, and the ENVIRONMENT. From the inception of the solar system, to sunset on Millicent’s farm, the Magnificent MacDonald Twins give audiences a whirlwind tour of “The Greatest Show on Dirt!”
Click here for more 'dirt' on The Little Farm Show
2012 TOUR DATES:
Jan 27-29 Pontine Theatre Portsmouth, NH
Mar 28 Roxbury Arts Group Roxbury, NY
May 5 Unison Arts New Palz, NY
May 12 The Kimmel Center Philadelphia, PA
Jun 26 Walkill Public Library Wallkill, NY
Aug 4-5 Bard Spiegeltent Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Aug 11 Catskill Arts & Air @ Pakatakan Farmers Market
Halcottsville, NY
Sep 8 Touchstone Theatre Bethlehem, PA
Sep 23 Bethel Woods Harvest Market Bethel, NY
Sep 30 State Theatre Ithaca, NY
For specific inquiries or booking information, please email: Tannis@NACL.org
struck - a work in progress presentation
September 2, 2012
A work-in-progress by NACL
NACL’s newest play is being developed in 2012 with writers/actors Brett Keyser and Tannis Kowalchuk, director Ker Wells, neuroscientist Allison Waters, playwright Kristen Kosmas, digital artist Brian Caiazza, filmmaker Tina Spangler, and costumer Karen Flood.
STRUCK is an exploration of neuroscience and brain trauma. It is a poetic dance on the razor-edge of mortality, as the brain and body look for meaning and struggle to communicate, recover and re-discover the sense of "self” after a crisis. Inspired by her real-life experience of stroke and recovery, Tannis Kowalchuk and her colleagues explore the subject with convergent technologies for creation and expression, bridging the domains of art and science.
TICKETS
$15-$25 Sliding Scale, Pay What You Can
Free for CSArts Members
Please Reserve at 845-557-0694 or NACL@NACL.ORG
CSArts Members and Donors Special Event
September 1, 2012
In appreciation of our CSArts Members and Donors
A special preview of our work-in-progress STRUCK, followed by a private party catered by Henning's Local.
CSArts Members and Donors are invited to attend an advance showing of NACL’s newest play in development with writers/actors Brett Keyser and Tannis Kowalchuk, director Ker Wells, neuroscientist Allison Waters, playwright Kristen Kosmas, digital artist Brian Caiazza, filmmaker Tina Spangler, and costumer Karen Flood.
STRUCK is an exploration of neuroscience and brain trauma. It is a poetic dance on the razor-edge of mortality, as the brain and body look for meaning and struggle to communicate, recover and re-discover the sense of "self” after a crisis. Inspired by her real-life experience of stroke and recovery, Tannis Kowalchuk and her colleagues explore the subject with convergent technologies for creation and expression, bridging the domains of art and science.
TICKETS
By Invitation Only
Two Rivers (Half a World)
August 25, 2012
Poetry from the Delaware to the Danube
Saturday at 8PM
American poet Laura E. J. Moran and visiting Romanian poet Peter Sragher present a night of confluence: language and music flow from Eastern Europe to eastern America. Music by Maestro Kurt Knuth.
TICKETS
$10 (Admission includes one complimentary locally crafted signature cocktail by our special guest mixologist.)
Eco-Loco
August 19, 2012
CALLING ALL FAMILIES to NACL Theatre
Join Farmers, Environmentalists, Seed-Savers, Musicians, Actors, Timber-Framers, Drummers, Pie-Makers, Lettuce Eaters in…
"ECO-LOCO": An Interactive Afternoon in Celebration of Art, Action, and Ecology for FAMILIES
NACL is pleased to present an afternoon of family theatre, music, workshops, demonstrations, and displays that celebrate art and ecology. The day features a performance by Richard Grunn, and the work of many community groups, environmental organizations, farmers, and individuals working to develop sustainable and ecologically progressive communities. This event is for the whole family to participate in and enjoy together.
The day will start at 12 noon with a POTLUCK lunch, accompanied by live music with Sean Zigmund and friends, Korean drumming, and a short performance by Seon Wellbeing Academy. PLEASE BRING FOOD TO SHARE.
At 1:30 pm revel in a hysterically funny family comedy performance of Urbano's Circus, by Richard Grunn with Sheridan Grunn. (See below for more information.)
At 2:30 pm a number of workshops will be held along with ongoing demonstrations. These include:
Rain Barrel Painting (Delaware Highlands Conservancy)
Food Preservation (Maria Grimaldi and Seon Wellbeing Academy)
Seed Saving (Dirt Diva and Jen McGlashan)
Timber Frame Building (American Joinery/George Whitehouse)
Puppet Making w/ Recycled Objects (Richard Grunn)
Hoop House Building (Sean and Cheyenne/Root 'n' Roost)
Pie-Making (Eleanor Blakeslee)
Silk-Screening (Youth Economic Group)
My Energy Plan (Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development)
Face-Painting (Tara Backlund)
At 4 pm sign up for the 2nd annual Lettuce Eating Contest, followed by puppet parade, and more amazing music and songs to close the day.
Demonstrations and displays by: The Delaware Highlands Conservancy, Shop Local Save Land, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Root 'n' Roost Farm, The Dirt Diva, Seon Wellbeing Academy, PASA, SkyDog Farm, SASD, CRAFT, YEG, American Joinery, Eleanor Blakeslee of Berry Brook Farm, and scores of wonderful people.
Featured Performance: Urbano's Circus by Richard Grunn, with Sheridan Grunn
Inspired by Alexander Calder’s “Circus of Wire,” Urbano’s Circus is created and performed by actor/dirctor/teacher Richard Grunn (founder of Brahman Arts Center). The performance is a fusion of commedia dell’ arte and puppetry, performed with his son Sheridan. The show opens in an Italian restaurant where Urbano is frantically trying to deliver food orders. In his efforts the food flies off the plates and is then placed in the lap of an audience member, but the food is not real food—it is made out of yarn, garbage bags, and many other found and recycled objects.
TICKETS TO THIS ALL-DAY EVENT
Adults $15-$25 Sliding Scale; Kids $5
Special Eco-Loco Family Pass $20
There There
August 12, 2012
By Kristen Kosmas
Christopher Walken, on tour in Russia with a solo show inspired by everyone's favorite Chekhovian sociopath, Vasilly Vassilyevich Solyony (from Three Sisters), falls off a ladder mysteriously and is unable to perform. Karen, who apparently proofread the script once, is asked to go on in Walken's place. A precarious bilingual performance duet ensues between Karen (played by Kosmas) and Russian translator, Leo. Kristen Kosmas's There There is a wildly unpredictable yet strangely moving theatrical roller coaster about being the completely wrong person in the totally wrong place at the exact wrong time doing and saying all the most wrong things.
Playwright/Performer Kristen Kosmas and Director Paul Willis have collaborated on numerous projects over the last fifteen years including her solo performance play The Scandal! which received critical acclaim in Seattle and was nominated for a New York Independent Theater Award for Best Short Script (2009). Writer/Translator/Editor/Publisher Matvei Yankelevich has worked closely with Kosmas on her last several scripts for the theater including her chamber opera libretto, You My Mother (commissioned by The Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, NYC) and her multi-voice performance text This From Cloudland which appears in the latest issue of PLAY: A Journal of Plays.
A Deep Space Performance Residency
TICKETS
$15-$25 Sliding Scale, Pay What You Can
Free for CSArts Members
Please Reserve at 845-557-0694 or NACL@NACL.ORG
The Little Farm Show @ Barryville & Callicoon
July 28, 2012
Bring the family to the Barryville Farmers' Market on Saturday, July 28 at noon, or to the Callicoon Farmers' Market on Sunday, July 29 at noon for a FREE showing of The Little Farm Show
We're swooping in for two local stops on our "barnstorming" tour of The Little Farm Show, our critically acclaimed, all-ages musical extravaganza about farming and food justice.
Created and performed by Tannis Kowalchuk and Brett Keyser, who star as "The Magnificent MacDonald Twins", The Little Farm Show will be performed FREE due to generous sponsorships from local businesses and organizations:
Farmhearts, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, Catskill Farms, Silver Heights Nursery, CopyWatch, The River Reporter, Café Devine, Jeff McMahon, Jesse G’s Nursery, River Market, Delaware Home, River Road Arts & Antiques, Jeff Bank, Catskill Harvest Market, Catskill Regional Medical Center, and Joe & Elise Freda—Freda Real Estate.
More "dirt" on The Little Farm Show
THE MAIDS
July 21, 2012
Kicking Mule Theatre Company
Directed by Francine Roussel
In this dark 1947 play written by French playwright Jean Genet, two maids, resentful of their low social status “play” at destroying their employer. Inspired by Genet’s multiple incarcerations, director Francine Roussel has set the play in a prison environment, and cast men in the roles of the three women characters. Every night, the two sisters Solange and Claire attempt to murder Madame, their mistress. The game is never accomplished, as the transgression of roles is more important than the objective to kill. It was Genet’s wish to have the three female characters of The Maids (Les Bonnes) performed by men, to inspire multiple readings of the story: male actors play the role of maids who play at being their mistress or each other.
The play features Will Porter, Danny Ryan, Jim Ludlum, and is directed by French actress and director, Francine Roussel. Translation by Martin Crimp.
Instant Misunderstanding
July 14, 2012
Goat in the Road Productions
This is the third work in a trilogy of plays by New Orleans troupe, Goat in the Road, that offer a sharp, humorous look at the core of American politics. Instant Misunderstanding is the classic tale of a man, another man, and a computer. Employing a minimum of technical elements, the piece revolves around two characters—low level bureaucrats and pencil pushers who are charged with showing a computer how to act like a vice presidential candidate. In the process, the piece explores the use of language in politics and the weapon of confusion it has become in our modern political cycle. Instant Misunderstanding explores the world of instant and sometimes obfuscated information that has become available with the swipe of a finger.
A Deep Space Performance Residency
DIGit FEST
July 6, 2012
DIGit FEST: An Exhibition of Convergent Art Forms
Friday 7-9pm, Saturday 12-9pm, Sunday 12-4pm
DIGit is a 3-day “salon exhibition” celebrating the convergence of art forms including performance, poetry, photography, drawing, fiber, ceramics, music, video, and sculpture. The Upper Delaware River will be a featured subject this year, along with the contributions of Apple Computer. DIGit will exhibit an extensive convergent body of work created by DIGit co-founder Pat Carullo, the work of collaborating artists living within the Catskills and Watershed region, and performance by NACL (to be seen on a center-stage holographic cube, blank canvases, and giant HD screens). The art will be presented on dozens of iPads, iPods, LED-HD monitors, and by means of miniature projectors. Art will be offered for sale. FREE admission.
WAITING FOR YOU
June 15, 2012
Created by Sojourn Theatre and The TEAM
How do we make the world we imagine real in the world we inhabit? Waiting for You follows the stories of six characters who live and work in Kansas City, but who dream in a mythical land called IOWA! The performance is created by an exciting young company, The TEAM from New York City and Michael Rohd, director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland (last seen at NACL directing American Value). Researched on the ground in Kansas City and in Iowa during the 2012 caucuses, the performance is being developed through conversations with public policymakers from both sides of the political aisle, Waiting for You combines traditional dramatic storytelling with moments of vibrant participation to engage its audience in the same quest its characters pursue.
A Deep Space Performance Residency
SOLD OUT! HUMAN LARD DOG and The Band of Shy Featuring The La'Delles
June 8, 2012
Throw the kids in the car and join us for a pre-show spaghetti dinner beginning at 6pm!
The Human Lard Dog and his 10-piece Band of Shy, featuring a stand-up horn section and the atomic-powered vocal cords of the glorious gospel-singing La'Delles will give some wang dang diddle to your inner soul.
This former Belopian child star—now middle-aged geek chic entertainer—has a voice hailed by critics as a cross between Chet Baker, Hank Williams, and a wood chipper. You might soon find yourself jumping into the nearest puddle, helping yourself to a slice of Mr. Beeple's pie, or listening to the Bob Hope in your heart. Lard says, “It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. Shyness is POWER! And eating pretzels and digging holes are among the finest of virtues.”
This is a performance for the whole family, so bring the kids and plan to dance, sing, and cry—tears of sheer joy!
A Deep Space Performance Residency
For more LARD be sure to visit www.houseoflard.com
Rumblestrips
May 26, 2012
Rumblestrips, a film by the Adams Family
PLEASE NOTE: THE RIVER REPORTER AD LISTS THE INCORRECT DAY. RUMBLESTRIPS WILL BE SCREENED ON SATURDAY, MAY 26. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE CONFUSION.
An independent film written, directed, and performed by local artists John Adams and Toby Poser, featuring their children Lulu and Zelda, Rumblestrips centers around Toby, a mom who is broke and emotionally blistered after the death of her husband. Toby turns to a beloved pastime—growing marijuana—to provide for her family. When she is arrested and convicted, she packs up the RV and takes her two young daughters on a far-flung road trip while uneasily awaiting sentencing. The film is beautifully shot and features cinema verité acting and gorgeous American landscapes. Please bring along food and drink to share for an informal potluck, fire, and marshmallow roast with the Adams Family and friends after the screening. FREE
Watch the Rumblestrips Trailer
Announcing Our 2012 Season
April 13, 2012
Rooted, and growing, NACL presents its 12th season of new artworks featuring diverse local, national, and international artists. In addition to touring performances of The Little Farm Show throughout the region, we are very pleased to present 13 unique events from May through November at our theatre center in Highland Lake, New York.
Read the feature article in The River Reporter
Become a CSArts member and get a season pass to all 2012 NACL events!
CSArts stands for Community Supported Arts, a new membership opportunity for you to claim your share of exceptional "arts produce", becoming a part of the growing NACL community, while supporting the production of fresh art, and sustaining NACL through the year.
Individual Share $150
Family Share $300
Send a check to NACL
PO Box 33, Highland Lake NY 12743
and we'll send you your CSArts Season Pass!
Download and Print the Membership Form (PDF)
Tickets at the door are $15-$25 (sliding scale) for adults
$5 for children under 12
This season is supported in part by an award from The National Endowment for the Arts, by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, and a grant from Sullivan County Arts and Heritage.
Where the Light Falls
November 13, 2011
Einy Åm / EyeKnee Coordination
In this new work, Where the Light Falls, by the contemporary dance theater company EyeKnee Coordination, Norwegian choreographer Einy Åm elegantly merges the mediums of dance, theater, video, and music to give the audience a glimpse into the world of a woman in a state of waiting and anticipation, peeking into a surreal world of memories, embracing both the beautiful, bizarre, and serious.
Supported by the DEEP SPACE Performance Residency Program.
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$20 Pay What You Can
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis@nacl.org
New York Neo-Futurists - Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
October 30, 2011
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
(30 plays in 60 minutes)
Created by Greg Allen
Written by the New York Neo-Futurists
"Our show is an ever-changing attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes--an original concept by Greg Allen and the Neo-Futurists. The single unifying element of these plays is that they are performed from a perspective of absolute honesty. We always appear as ourselves on stage, speaking directly from our personal experiences. Each short play is written by a performer, honed by the ensemble, and randomly collaged with twenty-nine other plays through high energy audience participation. Each night of performance, we aim to create an unreproducable living newspaper of the comic and tragic, the political and personal, the visceral and experimental."
Supported by the DEEP SPACE Performance Residency Program.
Tickets: $11 + the outcome of your roll of a 6-sided die
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis@nacl.org
The Baker and Dunham Project
October 16, 2011
This multi-media dance theater collaboration between theater director Mimi McGurl, choreographer dancer Maria Bauman and dancer Dawn Robinson explores the lives of two of the most extraordinary women of the twentieth century. The story centers on the first meeting in 1948 between Josephine Baker, the iconic and glamorous star of stage and film who chose Paris as her home and Katherine Dunham, modern dancer, anthropologist and one of America's most influential choreographers. Featuring Maria Bauman as Katherine Dunham and dancer Dawn Robinson as Josephine Baker. Choreography by Maria Bauman. Conceived and directed by Mimi McGurl.
Supported by the DEEP SPACE Performance Residency Program.
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$20 Pay What You Can
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis@nacl.org
Actionable
October 1, 2011
Blending music, video, slides, and monologue, Canadian musician and performer Bob Wiseman performs ACTIONABLE, a play about the sometimes litigious results of his songwriting, as he establishes his solo career post Canadian pop group Blue Rodeo. He rubs shoulders with lawyers for Prince, lawyers for Warner Music, lawyers for Pepsi-Cola, lawyers for David Geffen, lawyers for Blue Rodeo, and Canadian lawyer Doug Christie, whose clients include historical revisionists and members of the KKK. These often hilarious tales are presented utilizing super 8 film, video projection, power-point, and musical breaks on accordion, guitar, and keyboard. Mr. Wiseman will be representing himself in this performance. Directed by Sean Dixon.
Supported by the DEEP SPACE performance residency program.
"So Simple. So brilliant!!!!” —GUY MADDIN
“Wiseman may not be a professional theatre guy, but you'd never know it. The high artistic value of Actionable is unlike anything you've seen before or could even try to imagine." —ADRIAN CHAMBERLAIN, Times-Colonist (Victoria, BC)
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$20 Pay What You Can
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis@nacl.org
Check out Bob's website
Agrarian Acts
September 25, 2011
Agrarian Acts is a contemporary county fair and production celebrating the multifarious ideas, enterprise, and creative work of a New Generation of Farmers. Inspired by the tradition of the country fair and carnival, traveling Chautauqua, and vaudeville stagecraft, Agrarian Acts joins the revival of American rural celebration and community improvisation.
Presented by NACL and The Greenhorns, the day’s featured performances will include a screening of the new documentary film The Greenhorns, about the struggle and valor of young farmers in America; live performances by NACL; the stage adaptation of the children’s story Cornplosion! by Carly and Scott Sell; and The Vagabond's Vaudeville, a play about the life of poet and rambler Vachel Lindsay, by Charlie Traeger.
Throughout the day view photographic art by young farmers, hear Kurt Knuth and friends delight with bluegrass and old-timey music, and enjoy facepainting using natural dyes with Acadia. Workshops include stilt walking with Brett Keyser and seed saving with the Dirt Diva. Audiences will be invited to sing work songs from around the world with Bennett Konesni, barter garden produce at a Crop Swap, listen to entertaining and enlightening Soap Box Speakers, compete in a lettuce-eating contest, and hug a piglet from Majestic Farm. Farm and food organizations including The Greenhorns, Pure Catskills, and Shop Local/Save Land will share their organizational missions and resources.
The day kicks off at Noon with a potluck lunch—a "Localvore Challenge" in collaboration with Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. So please bring some local food to share. A full and detailed schedule will soon be available.
Sponsors/Friends and Collaborators in Agrarian Acts include NACL, The Greenhorns, Pure Catskills, Shop Local/Save Land, The Watershed Agricultural Council, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Farmhearts, and many area farms and farmers.
Video/radio work by Adam Weinreich.
Presented as part of the NACL Deep Space Performance Residency Program.
(A Family-Friendly Event)
Tickets: Children $5, Adults $10, Family $20
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email brett@nacl.org
Watch The Greenhorns trailer
More Greenhorns information at: The Greenhorns
Dance Y'rself Green at Callicoon Creek Park
August 6, 2011
On Saturday, August 6th the Callicoon Creek Park will be hosting an OUTDOOR DANCE PARTY and FUNDRAISER for NACL Theatre.
Fun starts at 6:00pm with a DJ from 7:00 to 11:00pm
Suggested donation for dance party is $10
(children under 12 free)
The mission of Callicoon Creek Park is to:
1. Serve as a perpetually open space for the enjoyment of local residents and the general public.
2. Preserve and enhance the natural beauty and environment of Callicoon Creek and the hamlet of Callicoon.
3. Provide an open-air facility for organized community functions approved by the Town of Delaware: concerts and cultural performances, educational programs, memorial services, farmers' markets, etc.
The Little Farm Show: New York City
July 31, 2011
"If you can't get to a farm, find a farmer that will come to you!"
NACL brings the all-ages musical about food and farming to The Living Room in New York CIty, a premiere downtown venue this summer.
Click here for more 'dirt' on The Little Farm Show
Tickets: Children $5, Adults $10, Family Pack (4) $25
Tickets are available at the door a half-hour before showtime, or may be purchased in advance at www.TicketWeb.com
Check out The Living Room's Kids Shows page
For venue details & directions: The Living Room, NYC
LEARN TO WALK ON STILTS
July 25, 2011
Yes you can! Rise above! Expand your horizons! A four-day Stilt Walking Workshop led by the amazing NACL stilt professionals.
Monday, July 25th through Thursday, July 28th, 2-5pm
$125
Limited class size. Call 845-557-0694
or email Tannis@nacl.org
to reserve your spot.
Photo Credit: Joni Starr
Buddha and the Rock Star
July 17, 2011
Next up in the DeepSpace Residency Program, Buddha and the Rock Star
Is thrill seeking wise? Buddha and the Rock Star is a bawdy, experimental dance-theatre performance that explores that question. Performed by an ensemble of Montreal video artists, actors, and dancers, and directed by Rosaruby Kagan, the high-energy performance incorporates video, text, live music, theatre, and a wide range of dance styles, from ballet to hip-hop, to engage audiences in a kinesthetic and lyrical stage experience that delves into sex, drugs, rock and roll, and humanity’s attachment to fear, false identifications, and patterns of behavior. The performance is structured as a woman’s daily meditation, running the gamut of human experience from the spiritual to the erotic.
(Contains Adult Content)
Tickets: Sliding scale $10-$20 Pay What You Can
Join us afterward for Spaghetti Dinner with the Artists
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis@nacl.org
Photo Credit: Caspian Kilkelly
Season Opener - Darwinii: The Comeuppance of Man
June 26, 2011
For our first DeepSpace Residency of the 2011 Season NACL will host Nightjar Apothecary, the Philadelphia-based production company founded by NACL Associate Artist Brett Keyser. Darwinii was a favorite among audiences at the 2010 NACL Catskill Festival of New Theatre—If you missed it then, here's your second chance!
"...one of the most mesmerizing pieces of theater this town has seen in a decade…. A bright but brooding portrayal of an unstable yet penetrating mind that mines both the antics of vaudeville and the philosophical implications of Darwinian theory to produce a thoughtful and thorough exploration of a debate that still rages in American politics today.”
—Tony Brown, Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Written by Glen Berger (co-bookwriter of Broadway’s SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark) and performed by co-creator Keyser, Darwinii is a delightful and madcap public apology from an Argentine thief named Cristobal owning up for his unauthorized acquisitions of rare Darwin documents. Originally commissioned by the American Philosophical Society Museum of Philadelphia, the performance snaps, cracks, and rocks, evolving on a long strip of red carpet, with audience members seated close up, on either side. "One hell of a ride!" —Audience Comment, Cleveland
Tickets: Sliding scale $10-$20 Pay What You Can
Join us afterward for Spaghetti Dinner with the Artists
Reserve at 845-557-0694 or email Tannis@nacl.org
Photo Credit: Steve Wagner
EXILIO: My Life as Bolaño in Guadalajara at Teatro Experimental
February 16, 2011
NACL artists Tannis Kowalchuk and Brett Keyser travel to Guadalajara Mexico this winter!
EXILIO: My Life as Bolaño is a work-in-progress created by a team of North American theatre artists: NACL Theatre (USA), Lydia Margules & Zazil Servin Luna of Museo Deseo Escena (Mexico), designer Flavia Hevia (Mexico/Canada), and Ker Wells of Hopscotch Collective (Canada).
EXILIO is inspired by the life and work of writer Roberto Bolaño, exploring different states of exile and an artist's response to change and conflict, both personal and political. The project will be completed in two stages: A 6-week development period at the University of Guadalajara, culminating in a work-in-progress showing there (Feb 2011); and a 6-week development & rehearsal period at NACL followed by a 2-week run at HERE Arts Center (Dec 2011).
WORK IN PROGRESS Presentation, February 16 and 17, 8:30 PM, Teatro Experimental, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
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