[Capdist-announce] A Hudson Valley Second Act for a Downtown Theater Legend

Fri Aug 2 17:30:13 EDT 2024

When the New York Times published its 2023 interview
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/03/theater/new-ohio-theater-robert-lyons-interview.html>
with
Robert Lyons upon the closing of the legendary New Ohio Theater, it ended
in a tantalizing "TBD." What would Lyons, who had served as New Ohio's
Artistic Director for 30 years and helped define "downtown independent
theater," do next?

As it turns out, he'll be bringing his award-winning brand of downtown
theater upstate to the Hudson Valley.

Lyons will be producing a new annual theater festival -- *the Downtown
Upstate Festival -- *with the goal of bringing independent theater to a
wider audience outside of Manhattan.

He says, "I see an opportunity to develop and present alternative,
independent theater with small budgets, in smaller theaters, that's more
experimental in terms of storytelling and more driven by idiosyncratic
artistic passion rather than broader mainstream fare trying to draw the
biggest possible audience. It's important that alternative theater has a
presence in that mix in the Hudson Valley."

In our region, a stronghold of summer theater revivals and standards, the
fact that Lyon's is focused on widening the audience for independent
theater is novel and exciting.

I'm handling media relations for the Downtown Upstate Festival, which runs
from Sept. 7-22, if you're interested in talking with Robert about the
project. Lyons and his wife, playwright, director, and performer Lenora
Champagne, live in Pine Plains where, in addition to their busy theater
schedules, they are deeply involved in their community, writing for the *New
Pine Plains Herald*, raising vegetables in a community garden, and
directing the annual Evergreen Cemetery Tour which raises money for the
local library.

The announcement press release is pasted below.

All the best,

Lauren Letellier

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

Contact: LaurenLetellier at gmail.com

917-747-5250

[image: Downtown Upstate logo (1).jpg]

*THE BEST OF NYC’S INDEPENDENT THEATER SCENE COMES TO THE HUDSON VALLEY
WITH*

* THE FIRST ANNUAL DOWNTOWN UPSTATE FESTIVAL SEPT. 7-22*

[Aug. 2, 2024, Ancram & Pine Plains, NY] -- The first annual Downtown
Upstate Festival will bring the best of NYC downtown theater to the Hudson
Valley from Sept. 7 - 22, 2024 and feature three different shows at two
different venues over three consecutive weekends. The festival is presented
by Ancram Center for the Arts and The Stissing Center for Arts & Culture,
and produced by Soho Think Tank with funding from the New York State
Council for the Arts.

Downtown Upstate marks a new chapter for Soho Think Tank’s Artistic
Director Robert Lyons, who recently wound down operations of the legendary
New Ohio Theatre in Manhattan’s West Village after more than 30 years as
Artistic Director. Lyons actively expanded the boundaries of what theatre
is, how it’s made, and who makes it. Projects developed, presented, and
produced by New Ohio have gone on to garner multiple Drama Desk awards and
nominations, Obie Awards, Edinburgh Audience First Awards, national and
international tours, and Off-Broadway productions. Under Robert’s artistic
leadership, New Ohio was honored with two Obie Awards for sustained
artistic achievement and was widely recognized as an indispensable pillar
of the NYC downtown theatre community. At the same time, Robert was also
Creative Director at Sarah Lawrence College from 2011-2021. He continues
now as Artistic Director of Soho Think Tank.

When asked about the timing of a downtown theater festival in upstate New
York, Lyons said, “Post COVID has been a time of transition. So many New
Yorkers have moved to the Hudson Valley and are looking for all things
cultural, including theater. I see an opportunity to develop and present
alternative, independent theater with small budgets, in smaller theaters,
that’s more experimental in terms of storytelling and more driven by
idiosyncratic artistic passion rather than broader mainstream fare trying
to draw the biggest possible audience. It’s important that downtown theater
has a presence in that mix in the Hudson Valley.”

The Festival schedule and venues are:

*Ancram Center for the Arts: 9/7 - 7pm; 9/8 - 3pm *

*La Musica Deuxième*

Written by Marguerite Duras
Directed by Jessica Burr

Tickets: ancramcenter.org

Written by the novelist, playwright, radical, and feminist Marguerite
Duras, *La Musica Deuxième* tells the story of lovers who reunite after a
separation. Their charged dialogue reveals the passions, betrayals and
savagery of their previous relationship. The author of novels, stories,
collections, plays and screenplays, she won France’s the Prix Goncort in
1984 for her novel *L’Amant*, and wrote the screenplay for the film *Hiroshima
Mon Amour*, based on her own novel. Lyons calls this piece “very physically
intense and highly theatrical.”

Director Jessica Burr is the founding Artistic Director of Blessed Unrest,
recipient of the 2019 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival
Commendation for Distinguished Leadership, First Prize for Secondo Festival
(Switzerland), a LPTW Lucille Lortel Award and multiple NY Innovative
Theatre Awards. Burr is an Artist in Residence at Sacred Heart University
for her work on The Untitled Othello Project. With Blessed Unrest, Burr has
directed and choreographed over 30 productions, including 15 world
premieres.

*Ancram Center for the Arts: 9/14 - 7pm; 9/15 - 3pm*

*Puzzling Evidence [Note to Media: No Reviews, Please]*

Written & Directed by Robert Lyons

Composed & Musical Direction by Rhys Tivey

Tickets: ancramcenter.org

Two left-wing activists tour their “Post-Capitalist Realism” concert -
singing, reciting beat poetry, and free associating an anti-capitalist
manifesto. But mostly they struggle to work through their complicated
relationship - on stage during the show!  A quirky, funny, mini-musical
with live music.

Robert Lyons is Artistic Director of Soho Think Tank and a NYC playwright
who writes dark, satirical comedies, literary adaptations, and experimental
performance texts. He has more than twenty New York City premieres to his
credit, most recently *My Onliness* (“A welcome gust of weird” *New York
Times*). His newest play *classdismissed.edu <http://classdismissed.edu>* will
premiere at La Mama (NYC) in Spring 2025.

*The Stissing Center for Arts & Culture:  9/21 - 7pm;  9/22 - 3pm*

*Plays*

Written by Gertrude Stein

Performed by David Greenspan

Tickets: thestissingcenter.org

Only Gertrude Stein could have written this hidden gem of theatricality and
wit, a provocative lecture on theatre, her development as a playwright, and
her exploration of sight and sound in the theatre. Starring six-time OBIE
Award winner David Greenspan, a legendary downtown theater performer and
writer, this show is mesmerizing. *The New York Times* wrote “In Mr.
Greenspan’s lilting delivery, this dense display of Stein’s curious mixture
of the obvious and the abstruse makes for delicious hearing. Adding just a
touch of humor by sardonic emphasis on a word here and there, he turns this
long, logorrheic meditation on the differences among life, literature, and
the stage into an endearing bedtime story.”

*Free Workshop *

*Performing the Real: Solo and Alternative Performance*

Downtown Upstate will offer a free two-part Solo Performance Workshop at
The Stissing Center for local residents, led by renown performance artist
Lenora Champagne. Participants must register for both sessions. To register
contact rlyons at sohothinktank.org.

Participants will create a short solo performance and learn strategies for
structuring larger pieces with exercises that engage the body, imagination
and memory. Contemporary experiences, classic characters, and social
concerns are integrated in a way that foregrounds each actor’s individual
voice, rhythm, and dynamics. The process involves improvisation (movement
and text) and re-working material.

*Workshop Dates:*

Wed. 9/11 – 4-6pm

Wed. 9/18 --4-6pm

*Lenora Champagne* is an American playwright, director, and solo performer
with years of NYC premieres (since 1981). Her solos have been presented at
The Public Theatre, Here Arts Center, Vineyard Theatre, New Georges, Dance
Theatre Workshop, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Primary Stages, PS122,
Franklin Furnace, Ohio Theatre, Soho Rep, and LaMama, among others. Solo
texts have been published in the journals *PAJ, Performance Research, *and *The
Iowa Review. *She has taught solo performance at SUNY/Purchase, NYU,
Trinity College, and Movement Research. She performed her most recent solo
text at Dixon Place in May 2024.

Ancram Center for the Arts is an award-winning theater located in New
York's Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, Ancram Center has
since 2016 presented groundbreaking theater and musical performances by
nationally recognized theater artists. Ancram Center for the Arts receives
significant annual support from the New York State Council on the Arts and
in 2023 was awarded a generous grant from the National Endowment for the
Arts. For tickets and information visit www.ancramcenter.org*.*

The Stissing Center for Arts & Culture seeks to positively impact our
community by partnering with artists, individuals, and organizations to
create meaningful programs, events, and opportunities. As a center for
diversity, culture, and civic life in a small town, The Stissing Center
aims to support local economic revitalization and job creation in Pine
Plains and the surrounding Hudson Valley regions. www.thestissingcenter.org.

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