Two men travel the same road, decades apart — one to begin a life, the other to grieve its end. In “Where the Mountain Meets the Sea,” opening Friday, July 11, at the Ancram Center for the Arts, a Haitian father and his American-born son search for connection across distance, silence, and time.
The play’s director, Christopher Windom, lives in nearby Amenia. When a mutual acquaintance in Wassaic introduced him to Ancram Center co-directors Jeff Mousseau and Paul Ricciardi, he jumped at the chance to work close to home.
“It is such a benefit to get to be a local,” Windom told the Herald. “I want to feel like I am a part of the community, working on a play in my own backyard.”
“Where the Mountain Meets the Sea,” by Jeff Augustin, debuted at the prestigious Humana Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020 and ran Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2022.
“And now we’re creating a production that’s special and unique to the Hudson Valley,” Windom said.
Windom offered this synopsis: “It’s a father/son story about loss, longing, regret… and second chances. The reason we gather — we the audience and the cast — is to hear and see two people face up to second chances, to revisit the lives they lived and their relationship, and to discover new things, new truths in their personal histories.”
Jean, the father, is played by Tai Bennett. Jonah, the son, is played by Kristofer Ryan Wilson, who some audience members may recognize from his work with Shakespeare & Co.
Two stories unfold in parallel: a Haitian father recounts a road trip from Miami to Los Angeles with his pregnant wife; years later, his son retraces that route in reverse, from Los Angeles to Miami, to retrieve his father’s ashes.
“My family carried a tradition of storytelling with them from Haiti to America,” said playwright Augustin. “I grew up listening to fantastical stories, many based on Haitian folklore and voodoo figures. I never knew what was real or supernatural, or if the supernatural was just as real as I. In these stories, characters were constantly running from their family and their land in search of a new identity. I’m interested in our collective and individual battles with history. How it defines us and how we embrace or try to escape it.”
That sense of ancestry is echoed in the play’s music, composed by the Bengsons and performed live by Hudson Valley-based musicians Andy Stack and Kaia Dedek. The father marvels at the similarities between Haitian folk guitar and “mountain music” from the American South.
“Folk music and folklore allow generations to speak to one another,” said Windom. “To tell people who they are and how they got there and also lessons on the best way to live life. Folk has this long reaching voice of communication from the past to the present and the future. I feel, particularly with stories that deal with loss, that you just can’t ignore the sense of ancestry. I see the beauty in people who have lived before us. The power of folk is for the generations of the past to leave messages for and to speak to generations of the future.”
The Bengsons performed at the Ancram Center in 2022, and their score plays a central role in connecting the two timelines — and the two men. Two actors. Two musicians. Two timeframes. Two parallel stories.
“I’m going to do my best,” Windom said. “To create a production that will surprise anyone who comes into the Ancram Center. The Opera House theater has been reconceived as a honky-tonk venue, where two characters never share the space at the same time… until they do. This is going to be a special piece for the community up here. One not to miss.”
“Where the Mountain Meets the Sea” runs July 11, 12, 13 and 17–20 at the Ancram Center for the Arts. For tickets and information, visit ancramcenter.org.