A Cultural Hub in a Tiny Hamlet

The story is almost cliché. A star-struck youngster packs a bag and leaves a rural community for bright lights and big city, dreaming of acclaim on the stage. But Ancram Opera House artistic directors Paul Ricciardi and Jeff Mousseau rewound that tape when they took their flourishing careers in the arts from the Big Apple to a tiny agricultural town in upstate New York.

Improbable? Yes. Impossible? As it turns out, emphatically not. Since the men purchased the jewel-like Ancram Opera House in 2015, the venue’s presence in the community has grown steadily to embrace ever-widening circles of both the artistic world and the local community.

And it is continuing to grow.

“Lots of interesting things are happening,” said Ricciardi, adding that three major initiatives are simmering “on various burners.”

In 2021, for instance, aided in part by a $250,000 NYS Homes and Community Renewal grant, the Ancram Opera House, now a 501(c)3, purchased a 1780s home adjacent to the theater to create housing for interns as well as to provide a community room for workshops and the like.

“That is about to break ground,” said Ricciardi, adding that they are mid-campaign to raise funds to support the renovation. The grant will also be used to install a handicap-accessible restroom, ramps and outdoor spaces where people can congregate at the theater, itself.

“Acquiring the neighboring property is just part of our expanding footprint,” said Mousseau. “And, because we are expanding, we will change our name from the Ancram Opera House to the Ancram Center of the Arts. We feel the new name will better reflect the philosophy of the work we are doing in creating gathering places, literally being a center and anchor for Ancram Hamlet.”

The men said the current name is confusing because some patrons are disappointed when they learn that opera is not presented at the theater and other potential patrons are perhaps discouraged by the name from looking at its offerings.

The name change is not yet in effect. “The change will probably happen when we get working in earnest on the neighboring building or when we open its doors. Right now, we are doing the ADA bathroom in the opera house, but we are very, very close to having plans for the house ready to go,” said Ricciardi.

“It’s grown year by year,” added Mousseau, “but the fact that we are taking on this expansion is not what we envisioned at the beginning.”

They anticipate construction could start this summer and could be complete next spring. “The Community Room will offer great opportunities for professional development,” said Mousseau, “although we already have a pretty vibrant program through things like our summer play lab, our storytellers program and the community education program.”

In the latter, the Opera House staff partners with the local elementary school to help fourth, fifth and sixth graders develop and tell a story about a memorable event in their life.

The men are poised to announce their eighth season, which kicks off Sunday, May 14th, at 4 PM, with a pre-season Summer Play Lab event during which David Cale, Matthew D. Marsh, Dael Orlandersmith and director Robert Falls will share work from You Don’t Know the Lonely One.

That will be followed in July by the annual Play Lab, a residency program that supports artists in the creation of bold new works with showings, free community workshops and discussions. The application process for this year is currently underway.

“People have different ideas about what makes good theatre,” said Mousseau. “We are presenting all new works this year.”

There are two Real People, Real Story performances each year and this summer’s presentation is planned for Saturday, June 24, at 8 PM at Hilltop Barn in the Roeliff Jansen Park in Hillsdale.

“We want include everyone,” said Ricciardi, “and storytelling is at the center of everything. We work with people from the community who may never have been on stage before to tell something true and personal.”

Ricciardi and Vanessa Baer work with storytellers for up to five hours to help them structure their stories and to learn how to present them without a script onstage. Last year, for instance, outdoor educator and licensed guide Sarah Katan spoke about how her love for, and need of, maps impacted her life in unexpected ways. Katan went on to become a teaching artist with the Opera House, teaching story telling at Taconic Hills Elementary School.

“The workshops are a great way to recruit people,” said Mousseau. “It’s the key way we meet people.” A free storytelling workshop is planned forSaturday, April 22, from 2 to 4 PM.

While the partners were originally attracted to the Ancram Opera House because of its intimate performance space, in 2021, during the second year of Covid, they began to expand their scope to outdoors venues. “People really loved it,” they report.

The summer Real People, Real Stories program, presented at Roeliff Jansen Park, draws about 100 people, while the slightly smaller fall program is presented indoors at the Opera House.

The summer concert will also take advantage of the spectacular Columbia County environment. “Our summer concert, which will feature Todd Almond and Kate Douglas, will be held July 22nd at 8 PM “at the really lovely 1799 Barn in Ancramdale,” they said. The concert presents Almond and Douglas’s new musical, The Lucky Few.

Also in July are the Crystal Radio Sessions: Upstate, slated for Saturday, July 15th, at 8 PM, at the Hilltop Barn in Roeliff Jansen Park. During the session, short stories by Hudson Valley and Berkshire writers are read by actors from the region.

Finally, in August, from the 10th through the 13th, the countryside will be central to the presentation of The Plein Air Plays 2.0. Three site-specific new works will be presented as a roving performance with audiences traveling by car to each secret location to experience these self-contained plays in environments relevant to their content.

The partners eight-year odyssey in Ancram has been a revelation. “I don’t think we really understood what we were getting into,” said Mousseau. “We were guided by our passion for the space itself. It was originally a Grange Hall, so the idea of it being a community place for people to come together is part of its DNA. That was our north star and we have been lucky to have extremely talented artists say, ‘Yes, we will come.’”

“Jeff and I both have theatre background in smaller, intimate spaces,” continued Ricciardi. “And the Opera House is such an intimate space.”

Mousseau had run a Boston theater company with no fixed residence for a decade, while Ricciardi, an actor, voice coach and acting teacher, taught and performed across New England and New York. Both had worked at the Kennedy Center, as well as at Stageworks/Hudson, when they came to the Ancram Opera House in 2006 to see their friend Mark O’Connell’s production of Turn of the Screw.

Enchanted by the building, they acted quickly to purchase it when it came on the market in 2015. By that time, it had been the centerpiece for a planned Victorian opera village, home to Leap Productions, and a woodworking studio/basketball court.
Their venture was launched “on a wing and a prayer,” but their faith in their mission has been amply rewarded. With the cultural milieu of the community growing by the minute, the men report an element of wonder from those discovering it for the first time. But that is, indeed, part of the Ancram Opera House mission. “People say they can’t believe this is happening,” said Ricciardi. “But part of our mission is to surprise people with a theater in a little farming community.”

The Ancram Opera House is located at 1330 County Route 7, Ancram, NY.; 518-329-0114, info@ancramoperahouse.org.