Small town, big ambition. That’s been the quiet battle cry of Ancram Center for the Arts since it reimagined a former Grange Hall as a vital creative hub. Now, celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Ancram Center has stitched together a 2025 season that feels less like a greatest hits compilation and more like a boundary-pushing mixtape of what’s possible when you give theater artists a little time, a lot of trust, and a barn in Columbia County.
“Our 10th anniversary season is bracketed by two great theater pieces that explore searching and longing, family and legacy,” says co-director Jeffrey Mousseau. And if that sounds heady, well, the work lives up to it.
First up: “Where the Mountain Meets the Sea,” running July 11 to 20. This regional premiere, written by Jeff Augustin with music by The Bengsons, unfolds across two interwoven road trips—one by a Haitian father driving from Miami to California, the other by his gay son retracing the route in reverse. Think family drama meets folk concert meets emotional excavation. It’s directed by Christopher Windom and might just be the most intimate epic of the summer.
In September, “Penelope” goes centerstage. “Penelope,” the musical reimagining of Odysseus’s long-suffering wife, plays September 19 to 28 with music and lyrics by Alex Bechtel and a book by Bechtel, Grace McLean, and Eva Steinmetz. McLean, fresh from her Broadway breakout in “Suffs,” stars as the titular character in her first full-stage run. There’s a five-piece band, plenty of pathos, and more feminist reckoning than Odysseus ever bargained for.
But the Center isn’t content to stay inside. Their ever-inventive “Plein Air Plays” return August 7 to 10 with three new site-specific performances scattered around Ancram. Past participants have included downtown New York City icon Salty Brine and Oscar winner Celeste Lecesne. Locations are kept secret until showtime—because, in Ancram, the land is always part of the story.
The season also showcases new works in development via the Play Lab Residency. On August 16 and 17, David Cale (he of “Harry Clarke” and three Obies) brings “Blue Cowboy,” a solo tale about a New York screenwriter in Idaho and the mysterious rancher who upends his life. October 19 brings “Framed,” a musical by local luminary Mary Murfitt based on a true-crime love triangle that ends with a bang—literally.
And no Ancram season would be complete without “Real People Real Stories,” those evenings of homegrown storytelling where your neighbor’s tale of teenage heartbreak or haunted tractors gets the standing ovation it deserves. Catch it June 28 at Roe-Jan Park and November 22 back at the Center.
The whole shebang gets a blowout birthday bash on August 2 at The Farm at Pond Lily in Elizaville, with surprise guests, performances, and (one assumes) cake. Ten years in, Ancram Center for the Arts is still small, still mighty—and still making room for stories no one else is telling.
This article appears in April 2025.
