SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — When the curtain goes up on Performing Arts of Woostock’s staging of Rhinebeck-based playwright Richard Nelson’s “Sweet and Sad” on Friday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m., the troupe will kick off its 60th season of staging community theater.
Directed by Ellen Honig and produced by Emmy-award-winning soap opera writer David Smilow, the play is the next chapter in the lives of the Apple Family previously chronicled by Performing Arts of Woodstock in their staging of Nelson’s “Hopey Changey Thing” last season. That production was a hit with audiences, Performing Arts of Woodstock President Adele Calcavecchio said.
“We wanted to give the audience (the chance) to watch the Apple family and see more about the family,” Calcavecchio said. “They are coping with what’s going on in their own lives while they’re reacting to outer world experiences.”
The drama, with a bit of comedy tucked in at moments, is set in 2011 around the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and one year after “Hopey Changey Thing” which was set in 2010, Calcavecchio said. Both plays take place in Rhinebeck. The two plays stand completely alone and no one will feel they missed out on anything if they didn’t see “Hopey Changey Thing” before seeing this production, she added.
The set flips the typical theater setup a bit with the audience sitting up on risers looking down on the cast, Calcavecchio said. This helps to bring the audience right into the Apple Family’s home much in the way a television sitcom does.
The play’s cast is John Bongiorno, Rebecca Brown Adelman, Sharon Penz, Chris Luongo, Doug Koop and Maria Elena Maurin.
“Performing Arts of Woodstock’s mission has always been providing entertaining, thoughtful, well-written plays from some famous and not famous authors,” Calcavecchio said. She estimated they’ve done 150 plays over the years, including staging plays by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill and Chekhov.
The Performing Arts of Woodstock story began back in 1964 when the company mounted its first-ever production, a staging of Eugène Ionesco’s “The Lesson” in a venue known as Cafe Espresso that later housed the Center for Photography at Woodstock for many years before it moved to Kingston.
The company was founded by the late Eda Crist and Edith LeFever, 89, a French-American immigrant who came to the U.S. when she was 6 years old.
Calcavecchio herself has been part of the Performing Arts of Woodstock for the better part of 50 years including producing nine shows and acting in more than a dozen.
She discussed why the company has persisted through the decades while showing off memorabilia like old programs spanning the company’s history she keeps at her Kingston home.
“It’s a love of theater, a determination to persist and a constant influx of interest from people,” she said.
She noted that commitment has attracted the attention of people who’ve enjoyed very successful careers in theater, film and TV and have volunteered to work with the company.
Calcavecchio said Performing Arts of Woodstock spent the better part of 40 years at the Woodstock Town Hall before a renovation project made the space the company was using look too much like a courtroom for them to stage productions. About five years ago, the company moved to their present home at the Mescal Hornbeck Community Center at 56 Rock City Road.
“We installed our own lights for the use of the community and adjusted them for our productions,” she said.
Calcavecchio estimates it now costs $10,000 to stage a production. “I can remember when it was $4,000, $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, $8,000, $9,000 and now $10,000,” she said. “We’re always dipping into our savings account to pay for our work.
She said the company pays a professional tech crew and a director while also paying cast members nominal stipends, she said.
She added like many other performing arts organizations, the company leans heavily on donors, members, support from local businesses and benefactors like the late Jane Axel, who left the theater group with $150,000 after her death. “That’s helped us a lot,” Calcavecchio added, emphasizing that donations of any size help to throw the troupe a line.
Turning back to this season, Calcavecchio shared the slate of upcoming productions.
Next up is Shelley Wright’s “God of Carnage” in March 2024. It’s a hit play that was also adapted into a famous film, she said.
Later in April and May, Performing Arts of Woodstock will partner with Egnigma Productions for “Equus.”
The season concludes in June with a “Director’s Showcase” featuring three directors, Joe Bongiorno, Lena Adams and Richard Ralff, each directing a one-act by Thornton Wilder.
She said she believes people continue to enjoy live theater because it offers an escape into someone else’s challenges while providing insight into the heart and mind.
“How do people behave and how could they behave,” she said. “Theater provides a lesson in how to behave and how not to behave in the wider world.”
New for this year are 20 separate assisted hearing devices for those who may have difficulty hearing the production.
“Sweet and Sad” runs Oct. 27-Nov. 12. Performances are Friday and Saturday nights, at 7:30 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 1:30 p.m.
Tickets are $21 and can be purchased at GetPawTickets.org.