From out of Shadowland, a Shining Light for Ellenville
By M.R. Smith

Image One: 1984, a vacant movie house, old-school Art Deco, in the middle of a southern New York town, well off the NYC/Albany corridor. Built in the 1920’s, in what was then the heart of town, this was once the main source of entertainment in a 50 mile radius, along with the Norbury Theatre, one street over. It still showed movies into the 1970’s, when, like so many smalltown theaters, it was abandoned. First vaudeville, then the cinema, now dust.

Image Two: 35 NYC theatre artists united, creating Cooperative Artists in the early 1980’s. Led by Ron Marquette, they opted to move en masse upstate, creating a non-profit, and pursuing their creative muse in a much less severe environment than the Great White Way. A certain art-deco movie house became available, in the middle of a well, here’s where the images superimpose.

The Resulting Image: Shadowland Theatre is reborn as a live theatre, and over the next ten years, audiences swell, budgets improve, the season expands, and renovations are made. While maintaining the art deco interior, the theater is shortened from both the front and back, more backstage room is created, with the lobby extended. Shadowlands is transformed over the next 10 years into a comfortable 148-seater with a semi-thrust stage, where everyone has perfect sight-lines and is within 35 feet of the performance. Equity (Actor’s Union) staus is achieved in 1995, under the guidance of Bill Lelbach. With steadily better shows and bigger names, Shadowland proves itself to be an indispensible source of pride in a town that could, well, use it. Coming into the summer season, the theatre is looking at having its best year yet. So far, this is shaping up to be one of the rare good stories about a smalltown theatre.

Brendan Burke is glad to be here. As a NYC-based actor, who first got a role at Shadowland in 1994, he found himself returning for more year after year. When the artistic director job came up in the trade mags, he jumped at the chance to work in a familiar and friendly house, suddenly finding himself wearing a wide variety of hats: director, actor, designer, and administrator. But most importantly, he found himself in a place where a fully supportive board of directors gave him free rein to select the season, and guide the vision of the company towards its mission statement, which (to paraphrase) is this: to produce a mixture of classics, contemporary and new plays, including thought provoking socially relevant work with vision, at an affordable price. He does this very well.

“If you think about how many plays you get to do in your life, it’s going to be a relatively small number, so why not choose the important ones?” When Burke says this, it is with the understanding that a successful season still needs its anchors: one well-chosen musical, one good-time comedy, and one great modern work, like All My Sons (2005), or Proof (2004). When it’s time to pick the rest, Burke keeps an open mind. “I like to go to my design teams, and directors, and just say: approach me with the projects you want to do,” he confides. This approach has paid off.

Flash back to 2003: Playwright David Wiltse had underwhelming reviews of his new play The Good German, when he introduced it as a resident at Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s Westport County Playhouse, in Connecticut. Longtime (15 years) Shadowland director James Glossman still believed in the play, and contacted Burke to help fix it. After readings with Burke, Edward Herrmann, Austin Pendleton, and later, Stephen Colbert and Paul Murphy, the play was produced at Shadowland to great reviews in the 2006 season. It has since moved on to the Playwrights Theatre, Madison, NJ, and the New Jersey Repertory, and, according to Burke, has recently been selected by the American National Theatre for its spring season. “Usually, in a case like this, it’s just the script makes it to the next step. “With The Good German, it’s all going intact: cast, design, pretty much the whole thing we developed here,” says Burke, with just a hint of well-earned pride.

This season provides more fresh works. Coming off a surprisingly successful season premiere of the baseball comedy Rounding Third, Shadowland’s July schedule features Natural History (June 22 thru 7July 15) by up-and-coming playwright Jennifer Camp. Tony Award winner Michele Pawk, and her husband, Tony-nominee John Dossett, approached Glossman about directing this romantic comedy, who then ran it by Burke, who upon seeing who was in the cast, became enthused. “It’s smart, and funny, and it suits the place and the season wonderfully,” adds Burke. Then, after a 4-day turnaround, up goes Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan (July 20 thru August 12), a dark comedy from one of Ireland’s top young writers, who by the age of 24, has already had four shows at London’s West End. Says Burke,” I knew we had to do this, when I was reading it on the subway, and I was laughing out loud by the second page, while everyone was looking at me funny!” Look for thick brogues, belly laughs, and a surprise ending. Later in the season: Old fave from the Fantasticks writers, I Do!, I Do!, and the disturbingly comedic Pulitzer-winner How I Learned To Drive, which closes the season on September 30.

Shadowland’s impact has gone beyond just consistently great performances. As the only Equity house in the Mid-Hudson Valley, it provides a great environment for young people to get their start in the theatre arts, working alongside Equity professionals. Notes Burke: “Kids start hanging around here at the age of 12, and they start out at concessions, and handing out playbills; eventually they decide to go into another department, such as lighting, set design, stage managing. Now, some of these kids are at Purchase, NYU, SUNY New Paltz, and some are even interning for Broadway shows.” Shadowland even has direct relations with regional university programs at SUNY New Paltz, via lighting designer and professor Jack Wade, and Lehigh University, courtesy of resident set designer Drew Francis. For those who are still not quite Equity-eligible, Shadowland allows EMC (Equity membership candidacy) points, on top of a modest stipend, paving the way for professional status. Burke has the unenviable task of winnowing down over 2,000 applicants to 16, but that’s just how the business is.

But, even more important is how the theatre is assisting the revitalization of Ellenville. The local business community enthusiastically supports Shadowland. “I’ve never seen anything like the sense of community here. If there’s a problem, they’re only 2 or 3 phone calls away,” Burke says, with a grin. When extra space was needed to construct set pieces for upcoming shows, a local hardware store leased them space down the street, for $1. The board of directors, which includes publisher Martin Rabkin and musi-cian/producer John Simon, are truly committed to seeing their hometown thrive, and they’re getting results. As Burke puts it, “It’s easy to say: I’m going to give my money to the arts, it’s really one of our important priorities. But, the thing I’m starting to see more and more of around here, is that we serve as an economic catalyst as well.The reality is that 700 people will be in town this weekend, for THIS place, and they gotta eat.” Fortunately for theatre patrons, choices abound in Ellenville, notably Aroma Thyme Bistro, just two doors down the street.

A cursory glance around the streets of Ellenville still shows much of the same kind of slow decay evident in so many of the older Upstate towns. The Norbury still stands a street over, now not much more than a taxi stand. But a closer look reveals new businesses sprouting up around the area of Shadowland: restaurants, service, retail. The town seems to be shaking off a 50-year nap, and finding itself to be a desirable community with an truly artistic soul. Shadowland is the little theatre that could, providing a living heartbeat to this farm town, as it once did at it’s inception back in the ‘20’s, and is well worth making that beautiful drive down Rt. 208, alongside the Shawangunks. If the script plays as written, it looks like the story of Shadowland will be of the happily-ever-after variety.