“Right Before I Go” at the Woodstock Playhouse
October 5-6
Written by and starring Stan Zimmerman (“Gilmore Girls,” “The Golden Girls,” “Roseanne”), the new play “Right Before I Go” centers on suicide awareness, focusing on the struggles of people from all walks of life who have died from suicide. The story brings to life the last words of letters written by individuals who were lost to suicide; included are texts by celebrities, veterans, children, and those identifying as LGBTQ who experienced a range of mental health calamities, as well as those who have survived suicide attempts. Also starring are Virginia Madsen and Zimmerman’s fellow “Gilmore Girls” actors Shelly Cole and Nick Holmes.
Field + Supply Fall MRKT at Hutton Brickyards
October 7-9
Founded in 2014 by interior designer Brad Ford, this curated makers’ market is back in-person at Hutton Brickyards in Kingston. Over 200 hand-picked vendors will be at the pet- and kid-friendly modern take on an arts and crafts fair. Smaller items including essential oil room sprays from Gestures and soaps from J. M. Generals will be available. Found My Animal will be selling its bespoke dog collars. Splurge on exquisite knives from Jay Morgan Handcraft, furniture from Sawkille Co., and sensuous ceramics from M Quan Studio. Shoppers can snack on culinary creations, sip craft cocktails, and browse to live music throughout the weekend.
“The Lifespan of a Fact” at Shadowland Stages
October 7-23
This one is for the media nerds out there. Based on a true story, it tracks the interpersonal dynamics between a writer loose with the truth and a fact checker with the bit in his teeth. A sinking literary magazine hopes an article by prominent essayist John D’Agata will changes its fortunes. Fresh out of Harvard, Jim Fingal is assigned to fact check the piece. When not everything checks out, Fingal and D’Agata go head to head as hard facts battle against emotional truths in a high-stakes and hilarious verbal showdown.
“Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros” at EMPAC
October 9
Globally influential Kingston composer Pauline Oliveros passed away in 2016, but her legacy continues to reverberate through the galaxy. How appropriate for EMPAC to host this special preview of Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros, director Daniel Weintraub’s new feature-length documentary on the experimental icon, given that she was a long-time faculty member at the facility on RPI’s Troy campus. The film combines rare archival footage with intimate interviews that illuminate Oliveros’s radical experiments with sound, technology, and philosophy that define her life of listening. A Q&A with Daniel Weintraub and Oliveros’s partner IONE will follow the screening.
“Art” at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston
October 13-23
Yasmina Reza’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama from 1994 is being staged by Voice Theater at their new home in Kingston. The play centers around three friends, one of whom buys an expensive modernist painting that is completely white. The painting, first a cause of tension between the men, then becomes an instrument through which the friends reveal their true feelings about each other. The cast includes: Robert Langdon Lloyd as Marc, Neil Howard as Serge, and John Gazzale as Yvan. The production is directed by Shauna Kanter.
“Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes” at the Bridge Street Theater
October 13-23
Here making its premiere this month at Catskills’ Bridge Street Theater is a new play by Hannah Moscovitch, the winner of the 2021 Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award for English-Language Drama. In the story,an acclaimed novelist and a star professor named Jon is racked with guilt when he finds himself becoming attracted to Annie, one of his students, after his third marriage falls apart. The 19-year-old student is a big fan of Jon’s work and just happens to live right down the street. Their mutual admiration grows, the sexual tension escalates, and the archetypal student-teacher romance gets turned on its head.
“I’m Not a Comedian, I’m Lenny Bruce” at the Mahaiwe
October 14-15
Critically acclaimed actor Ronnie Marmo brings his one-man show, directed by Joe Mantegna, to Great Barrington’s Mahaiwe Theater for two nights this fall. “I’m Not a Comedian” chronicles the life and death of Bruce, one of the greatest stand-ups of all time, from his early material to his numerous arrests on obscenity charges and accidental drug overdose in 1966. With free speech under fire in school censorship battles across the country, Bruce’s championing of the First Amendment is more relevant than ever.
Sheep & Wool Festival
October 15-16
Located at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, the 41st New York State Sheep and Wool Festival is offering a hybrid event this year. Attend in person sheep and goat shows, author talks, and see who will take home a ribbon in this year’s fleece to shawl fiber competition, where three teams spin and weave fibers to make a shawl from start to finish. There are multiple yarn-related products to peruse, including handmade portable spinning wheels from Athena Spinning, yarn from the sheep at Bay Haven Short Tails, and ceramic beads and buttons from Lisa Peters ART. Farm tours and workshops on yarn making will be offered virtually.
Limon Dance Company at the Egg
October 21
Modern dance company Limon Dance has been at the forefront of the medium since 1946, when it was formed by famed Mexican dancer and choreographer Jose Limon. Celebrated for its technical mastery, dramatic expression, and expansive yet nuanced movement in classic works as well as new commissions from contemporary choreographers, the ensemble exhibits the timelessness of Limon’s work and vision through the lens of its current artistic director, Dante Puleio. This event at the Egg in Albany is part of the “Dance in Albany” performance series, a joint venture of the Egg and the UAlbany Performing Arts Center.
Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcase
October 21-23
Now in its 11th year the Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcasewill once again be held at the Bearsville Theater Center. Described as an “alternative guitar show,” the three-day summit features fine, contemporary, handmade acoustic guitars and stringed musical instruments shown by their creators. The intimate gathering for the international community of acoustic stringed-instrument builders, players, collectors and enthusiasts is considered the leading event of its type in North America. The weekend promises continuous live music including luthier mini-concerts, demos, and special appearances during show hours, and is highlighted by the String Sampler Concert of acoustic music at the Woodstock Playhouse on October 22.
FilmColumbia Festival at the Crandell Theatre
October 21-30
Held at the historic Crandell Theatre in Chatham, FilmColumbia is an annual 10-day festival of world-class films that includes works from major studios, independent and international filmmakers, documentaries, animated features, and short children’s films. This season features Sony Picture Classics 30th anniversary with Living, with Bill Nighy starring in the British remake of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai-less masterpiece Ikuru and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a talkback with James Schamus and SPC copresident Michael Barker. Highlights also include Whale starring Brendon Frazer and directed by Darren Aronofsky; The Son starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, and Anthony Hopkins; and more.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” at the Denizen Theater
Through October 30
“But why does his heart not stop beating?!” Edgar Allan Poe’s immortal tale of madness and murder makes the perfect performance to take in as a tricky treat this Halloween season. First published in 1843, the yarn is related by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator’s sanity while simultaneously describing a murder that the narrator committed. The black-box Denizen Theater, adjacent to New Paltz’s Water Street Market, is staging this production of the sinister short story that’s overseen by director Andy Gaukel with Sean Meehan.
Tracy Morgan at the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater
October 27
Funnyman Tracy Morgan was active in standup comedy, movies, and TV before he became a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, but it was his time with that show (1996-2003) that established him as a major entertainer and led to his Emmy-nominated role on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock” (2006-2013). Currently, the Bronx-born, Brooklyn-raised actor-comedian stars in NBC’s “The Last O.G.” Morgan will light up the laughs when his “No Disrespect” standup tour takes him to the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater in Peekskill for this uproarious night.
Lucid Dreaming Minigolf
October 29 at Wassaic Project
Our pick for most fun event this fall. A roaming, existential, and artful putt-putt experience, Lucid Dream Minigolf aims to spark a sense of delight and playfulness creating an immersive storytelling experience that uses the medium of minigolf as performance theater and interactive narrative. Follow along with the story of the Swamp Monster—a bioluminescent pet alligator flushed down the toilet by a neglectful owner in Manhattan who then swam their way up the Hudson in search of refuge—as you play the course.
Gare St. Lazare Ireland presents “The Beckett Trilogy” Hudson Hall
November 4-5
Irish theater company Gare St. Lazare Ireland is internationally revered as the foremost interpreters of native literary genius Samuel Beckett, garnering universal accolades for their solo productions of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s prose. The troupe tramps to Hudson Hall for this two-night engagement of evening-length theatrical renditions of Beckett’s novels Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. Featuring excerpts from each novel, Gare St. Lazare’s preeminent Beckett interpreters Conor Lovett and director Judy Hegarty Lovett will offer profound solo performances that embody this existential trinity of his works.
Fall for Art in Kingston
November 5-11
Fall for Art is celebrating 26 years with its third virtual juried art show and sale. Landscape photography by John Fischer, whimsical ceramics of Brian Recchia, elegant jewelry from Mary Elwyn, and Justin Love’s colorful surrealist paintings are just some of the types of art available for purchase. Hosted by the Jewish Federation of Ulster County since 1997, proceeds from the event support the artists, Federation causes, and regional nonprofits, including the Hudson Valley Food Bank and Circle of Friends for the Dying.
Kevin James at UPAC
November 6
Comedian Kevin James comes to Kingston for this rare regional evening of standup comedy at the Ulster Performing Arts Center. The star and producer of the long-running CBS-TV smash comedy series “The King of Queens,” the Emmy-nominated James also starred in the CBS sitcom “Kevin Can Wait”; the Netflix standup specials “Sweat the Small Stuff” and “Never Don’t Give Up” and feature “True Memoirs of an International Assassin.” James made his feature film debut in 2005 in Columbia Pictures’ Hitch starring opposite Will Smith, and starred alongside Adam Sandler in Pixels, Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
John Mulaney at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center
November 10
Emmy- and WGA award-winning writer, actor, and comedianJohn Mulaney pays Poughkeepsie a pitstop on his “From Scratch” tour, which has sold out venues around the country. Mulaney, who began writing for “Saturday Night Live” in 2008, created memorable characters such as Stefon with Bill Hader and appeared as a “Weekend Update” correspondent, has himself hosted “SNL” five times. He has also written for IFC’s “Documentary Now!” and Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” on which he voices the character of Andrew. In December 2019, his critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated musical variety special “John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch” debuted on Netflix.
This article appears in October 2022.
