The Ancram Opera House (AOH), an intimate performance hall in the hamlet of Ancram, in southeast Columbia County, was originally built in 1927 as the Ancram Grange Hall. It was repurposed and re-named Ancram Opera House in the 1970s. Co-directors Jeffrey Mousseau and Paul Riciarrdi, who purchased the space in 2015 and are in their eighth season of programming at the AOH, imagined an expanded footprint and a resurgence of the location as a community center.
Mousseau explains why they were initially keen on the site in Ancram. “We thought of this as a place to nurture, develop and create new work, as well as relationships with other artists and local residents.” Their recurring programs, such as “Real People, Real Stories,” along with recent initiatives, exemplify this goal.
This fall, a team of artists who did a reading at the AOH last May of a work-in-progress, “You Don’t Know the Lonely One,” are returning to attempt a first staging of the work. “It’s still preliminary, but a pass at what a staging might be,” Mousseau says. The artists involved, director Robert Falls, writer/performers David Cale and Dael Orlandersmith and songwriter and composer Matthew Dean Marsh, have notable careers in theater.
Falls was artistic director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago for 35 years, as well as a Tony, Obie and Drama Desk recipient. Cale has Obie, Drama Desk, and Lucille Lortel awards. Marsh has collaborated with Cale for several years, notably on “We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time” at the Public Theatre in New York City as well as at the Goodman. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play, “Yellowman,” and an artistic associate at the Goodman. Orlandersmith and Cale previously collaborated on “The Blue Album,” which premiered at the Long Wharf Theatre in 2007.