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Area Students Invited to Participate in Festival of Theatre Arts

Willsboro, N.Y. – The Willsboro Central School Drama Club, in partnership the Depot Theatre Academy, will host a one-day Festival of Theatre Arts on May 14, 2022 from 9am to 4pm.

The Festival is free and open to all students in grades 7-12 from any school, and offers the opportunity for participation in workshops in singing, acting, dance, and behind-the-scenes technology with Depot Theatre teaching artists from Broadway and beyond.

“We’re pleased to offer this full, fun day of all things theatre,” said Jennifer Moore, Festival organizer, teacher, musician, and member of the Depot Theatre Advisory Council. “It’s a terrific opportunity for students to learn practical skills directly from professional artists, and even to explore theatre-related careers!”

“This event aligns perfectly with the Depot Theatre Academy’s plans to expand our education and outreach into regional schools,” said Ginene Mason, Depot Theatre’s new Academy Director of Outreach and Education. “We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Jennifer and the school to support their ongoing prioritization of arts and culture programming.”

Students are asked to wear masks when not performing. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Registration is open and should be submitted by May 10. Registration form is available online HERE. For more information, contact Jennifer Moore at jmoore@willsborocsd.org.

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ABOUT THE DEPOT THEATRE

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and it is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The Depot Theatre’s 2022 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Adirondack Foundation – Generous Acts Fund and the Essex County Arts Council.

The Depot Theatre Academy is a robust educational experience for area youth and a pathway for those interested in pursuing a profession in theatre—whether that’s backstage or on stage.

Depot Alumni – Apprentices and Academy Awards

“The creative arts are the measure and reflection of our civilization. They offer many children an opportunity to see life with a larger perspective…The moral values we treasure are reflected in the beauty and truth that is emotionally transmitted through the arts. The arts say something about us to future generations.”   -Ann P. Kahn, Former President of The National PTA

Many years before it was named the Depot Theatre Academy,

and before it absorbed the Boquet River Theatre Festival, the organization’s outreach and education program was called the Depot Theatre Apprentice Program.

There are many former students who have gone on to achieve success in the arts, including one who is nominated for a 2022 Academy Award for feature documentary!

Learn more about sisters Kira “Kiki” and Ani Simon-Kennedy below!

THEN

Drawing found recently in the Depot archives (artist unknown)!

“Ani & I learned so much as apprentices! From our wonderful teachers Lindsay & Mary Beth & Scott, we learned the basics of acting and so much more. We spent so much time backstage helping Jean adjust costumes and running lines with all the actors who all really knew how to have fun on the job! We have so many fond memories of being raffle sales kids and of ChooChoo the beloved trackside cat, growing up at the Depot was the best experience.”

–Kira Simon-Kennedy

 

Growing up, every summer I looked forward to our time in Westport. My fondest memories were having Lindsey open my mind to the power of Shakespeare as part of the Apprentice Program, and hawking raffle tickets at intermission, balancing the huge rolls of red tickets with a wicker basket full of dollar bills. Every time we would announce the winner and they would return their prize money back to the theater, my heart would swell with pride. This was the real meaning of community theater. Being a part of the Depot shaped me in a huge way – it was my gateway drug into the thrill of putting on a production from soup to nuts.

–Ani Simon-Kennedy

Even after the family moved to Paris, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Ani Simon-Kennedy spent summers in Westport. Kira and Ani became Depot Apprentices as soon as they could read a script in English, encouraged by librarian Judy Moore at the Westport Library. They were, respectively, 6 and 7 years old at the time.

The two did all their schooling in French until they came to the U.S. for college, Kira to University of Pennsylvania, where she studied Chinese, neurology, and photography, and where she was a staff photographer for the campus newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian.  She holds a BA degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and was a member of the inaugural class of Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice program in Social Impact Strategy and Arts & Culture. Ani headed to NYU where she majored in African Studies, film, and photography. After graduating in three years, she apprenticed in film production in New York City, and then studied cinematography and directing at Prague Film School.

NOW

During the COVID-19 pandemic of the past two years both released feature films. In 2020 Ani’s The Short History of the Long Road, which she wrote and directed, starring Sabrina Carpenter, Danny Trejo, Maggie Siff, and Steven Ogg was released by Filmrise. The film had made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival where it received a special mention for Best Screenplay; five years earlier its script received the inaugural Dernsie award at the Bentonville Film Festival.

In 2021, producer Kira’s Ascension, directed by Jessica Kingdon, about the changing nature of production, consumption, labor, leisure, and aspiration – the paradox of progress – in the People’s Republic of China was released by MTV. It had been awarded Best Documentary at its Tribeca debut and has been nominated for Best Documentary at the Gotham, Cinema Eye, Independent Spirit & the Academy Awards.

Congratulations to both women – we look forward to watching as you continue to grow!

LOCALS!! ASCENSION will be screened at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts on Thursday, March 31, 2022! MORE INFO

Bio/Background

Kira Simon-Kennedy  

Kira Simon-Kennedy

After graduating from Penn, Kira helped start “Caoker, a music & video web startup in Beijing aiming to bring China’s indie artists to the world and international artists to China.”

Kira is co-founder and co-director of China Residencies― This multi-faceted arts nonprofit has supported over 100 artists since 2013 to foster sustainable creative exchange between mainland China, Hong Kong, and the rest of the world. China Residencies funds excellent creative people and projects & nurtures the next generation of cultural organizers.

Through the nonprofit’s fiscal sponsorship program, China Residencies supports creative collectives and community organizations like BUFU, a collaborative living archive centered around (pan)Black and (pan)Asian cultural and political relationships; Yellow Jackets, a queer/intersectional Yellow American collective collaborating towards radical futures that centralize marginalized bodies; and The W.O.W Project, a community space and artist residency shaping the future of New York’s Chinatown.

In summer 2021 with support from the Essex County Arts Council, China Residencies hosted three workshops in the Adirondack Mountains in the far northern reaches of upstate New York in August. “Originally intended to take place in spring of 2020 at the artist farm residency Lijiang Studio in Lashihai, a village in Yunnan province, we relocated and reimagined this project to a similar landscape in a different watershed in the rural towns where Shahong and Kira have lived full and part-time over the past year. Bringing into focus the local Adirondack Watershed, we partnered with local nonprofits and farms in the area to learn from, listen to, and create alongside the landscape shaped by this watershed and our collective presences here.”

Johann Diedrick led a walk through nature to listen to the present, past, and future of the Adirondacks, peeling back sonic layers to reveal the history of this landscape and speculate on its future.

Candace Thompson taught how to brew wild herbal ales from foraged plants while discussing humanity’s complex relationships with water contamination, intoxication, and remediation.

Laura Kung taught the multi-step process of natural dyeing textile with foraged plants like goldenrod, mugwort, and sumac.

Kira has been a fellow and mentor at NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator for art, design & technology, as well as the IFP Made in NY Media Center creating with Katrina Neuman & Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria  Rivet, a platform to connect artists with opportunities worldwide.

A photographer, Kira (aka Kiki) is a writer who has published the guides Applying for Things,  Holy Sh*t My Friend Has Cancer, and Kiki’s Guide to Kickstarter. She is also a translator of French and Chinese texts on art and philosophy. Currently, she is at work producing documentaries by Jiayu Yang (The Entomologists); Shelley Cheung Claudon (Laying The Last Track); Ana Mina (Rubbish).  Several other shorts & media projects are in development.

Before the pandemic, she split her time between China, France, and the US. Now, she now lives mostly online.

Ani Simon-Kennedy

Ani Simon-Kennedy

Ani Simon-Kennedy has written and directed two feature films. Her work has received grants and fellowships from Sundance, Tribeca Film, The Gotham (formerly IFP), Film Independent, AbelCine, and Yaddo. In 2011, she partnered with cinematographer Cailin Yatsko to form Bicephaly Pictures, one of the few female-led production companies in New York City creating narrative films, music videos, documentary series, and commercials.

Her first feature film was Days of Gray, an Icelandic dystopian fantasy. Deemed “an assured debut” by the Hollywood Reporter, the film played at top festivals around the world with an original live score by Hjaltalin. It was nominated for the 2013 Edda Awards (Icelandic Film Awards) and the soundtrack won Album of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards.

She then wrote, directed, and produced The Short History of the Long Road, a road trip drama starring Sabrina Carpenter, Steven Ogg, Maggie Siff, and Danny Trejo. It premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, receiving a Special Mention for Best Screenplay. Released by Filmrise, the film rose to #2 at the box office. A “breakout vehicle for its writer-director as well as its star” (Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus), the film’s screenplay now resides at the Academy’s library. It is currently available on all platforms.

As a commercial director, she has created award-winning campaigns for Lego, Colgate, and Smirnoff amongst many others. She has helmed ground-breaking documentary series for Glamour, The New Yorker, and Vice. Her branded documentary A Touch of Sugar, confronting America’s Type 2 diabetes crisis, was narrated by Viola Davis and screened at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.

Most recently, she was selected to participate in Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative television director mentorship program. She is currently in development on several projects for film and television.

Depot Alumni – Back on Stage in 2021

Yvette as Ursula at the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre.

Yvette as Ursula at the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre

As 2021 draws to a close, and the world of theatre is beginning to open up again in so many wonderful and exciting ways, we thought this would be a great time to check in with some of our Depot alumni and see who has begun to step foot “onto the boards” again, and what kind of theater they have been able to be a part of!

From this past season, our first fully in-person season in nearly two years, the stars of THE MOUNTAINTOP both went on to exciting projects. Yvette Clark played the evil Ursula in THE LITTLE MERMAID at Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, and Curtis Wiley has returned to his job in the Broadway company of the hit show AIN’T TOO PROUD, making us all proud of their triple-threat talents!

Jonathan Hadley in the National Tour of CS LEWIS’S, THE GREAT DIVORCE.

Jonathan Hadley in the National Tour of C.S. LEWIS’S, THE GREAT DIVORCE

Jonathan Hadley (39 STEPS, PETE N KEELEY) was also able to return to his pre-lockdown acting job, playing multiple roles in the National Tour of CS LEWIS’S, THE GREAT DIVORCE. The same for Julianne Godfrey (NEW YORK WATER) who was able to return to the national tour of MY FAIR LADY.

Wynn Harmon who Depot audiences will remember from THE MOUSETRAP, BALMORAL, and HARVEY is ending the year on Nantucket playing Scrooge in A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS CAROL, and will soon head to Florida where he will appear in CAROUSEL. Take us with you to Florida, Wynn!

Amy Griffin as Mrs. White in CLUE at the Meadow Brook Theater

Amy Griffin as Mrs. White in CLUE at the Meadow Brook Theater

Depot alumni have a tendency to stick together, even after they leave the comfort and quiet of Westport. After playing Mrs. White in CLUE at the Meadowbrook Theatre, Amy Griffin (OUTSIDE MULLINGAR) directed a reading of a new musical at Music Theatre of Connecticut, and she cast Annie Eggerton (THE BIKINIS) and Annette Michelle Sanders (SOUVENIR) in the leads! Kathryn Markey and Bethany Gwen Perkins didn’t think one production of ALWAYS PATSY CLINE in 2018 was enough for them, so they did it again at the New London Barn Theatre, this time with Kathryn directing the production.

Speaking of directors, Evan Pappas (MY WAY, 2014) is now the Artistic Director of the Argyle Theatre in Babylon, LI, and he was able to successfully re-open the theatre with a full season this year – no easy feat, as our own Executive and Producing Artistic Directors can attest to. Lake Placid’s own Maggie Stiggers, who was in that production of MY WAY, as well as SAVIN’ UP FOR SATURDAY NIGHT, is the co-founder of Nikofrank Productions where she directs, writes, and produces the many hysterical videos and podcasts they create, and she is co-author of “Dear Future Producer,” now available on Amazon.

Maggie with her book

Maggie Stiggers with her book

Another actor turned producer is Depot-favorite, Beth Glover, who co-founded a new theatre company, The Adirondack Stage Rats, which performed its first shows al fresco around Saranac Lake, and last summer cast our esteemed board member Kathy Recchia in LIFESPAN OF A FACT. Always great to have more theatre in the North Country!

These are just a few Depot-ians who have begun to ply their craft once again and are certainly grateful and happy for the chance to do so. We cherish our alumni as we cherish you, our audience, and can’t wait to see you all back here next summer!

Happy New Year!

–Jonathan Hadley, Board Trustee and Actor

 

ALUMS: Send updates about your great work to Jonathan HERE to be included in the spring roundup!

Depot Theatre awarded NYSCA support toward local year round positions

WESTPORT, N.Y. —The Depot Theatre in Westport, NY was awarded two grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) for fiscal year 2022 as part of the state’s support of the recovery of the nonprofit arts and culture sector.

The Adirondacks’ only professional Equity theatre was awarded $10,000 from the NYSCA Recovery Fund and a NYSCA Support for Organizations grant of $49,500.

In addition to general operations, the funding will support the addition of two sustainable local arts positions that are necessary to meet the goals of the organization’s strategic plan.

“The arts have long been a critical sector in our economy, and as we continue to rebuild a stronger New York, it’s essential we do all we can help this industry thrive once again,” Governor Hochul said. “These awardees represent the best of what New York’s vibrant communities have to offer and with this funding in hand, they will be able to not only continue their creative and inspiring work, but help spur revitalization in their own backyard as well.”

‘We’re grateful for NYSCA’s continued support of the Depot Theatre and our mission,” said Kim Rielly, the Depot’s Executive Director. “This vital funding will increase our administrative capacity via two regional year-round positions, including an expanded operations manager role and the addition of an administrator to manage and oversee our growing Depot Theatre Academy outreach and education program.”

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and it is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The theatre’s upcoming main stage summer season and Academy opportunities will be announced in early 2022.

For more information about the Depot Theatre and its programs, visit DepotTheatre.org.

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ABOUT THE DEPOT THEATRE

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and it is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. In addition to its volunteer board of trustees, the theatre depends on the support and generosity of its loyal donors, volunteers and community members. Committed to promoting and providing exposure to the performing arts in the Adirondacks, the Depot Theatre invites all to “Take a journey without leaving the station.” The Depot Theatre’s 2022 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Adirondack Foundation – Generous Acts Fund and the Essex County Arts Council.

The Depot Theatre Academy is a robust educational experience for area youth and a pathway for those interested in pursuing a profession in theatre—whether that’s backstage or on stage.

Depot examines life of Billie Holiday

Playwright Lanie Robertson (L) joins actors Darnell White and Anna Anderson after a performance of LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL at the Depot Theatre.

By Tim Rowland

The subset of the American population who remember Billie Holiday in her prime is precipitously dwindling, meaning we are more likely to remember her music, but not her.

Some might argue this is for the best. Even in the lengthy canon of artistic tragedy, the woman born in Baltimore in 1915 as Eleanora Fagan takes the cake.

Lying on her deathbed, she was under police guard, as if the emaciated, scarcely conscious figure under the sheets, with few remaining friends and 70 cents in the bank would rise up and do — what, exactly?

Holiday died in 1959 at age of 44, her liver finally calling it quits after a life of drugs and drink. Yet her talent was not in dispute. At the tail end of the jazz age, she patterned her voice after the sassy trumpet strains of Louis Armstrong, creating a memorable sound that sold out Carnegie Hall and earned her a trophy case full of honors — most of which were bestowed upon her after she was dead.

The Depot Theatre examines her life in Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, a play that debuted 32 years after Billie Holiday’s death. Set in a small club in March 1959, just months before she died, Lady Day is but a shell of the “old Billie” who was the Diana Ross or Nicki Minaj of her day.

Holiday, at first glance, might seem to herald the lives of Morrison, Joplin, Cobain, and Parsons, whose back stories often seem just shallow and sad if they seem anything at all.

But Depot Theatre artistic director Kenney Green is not in the business of exploring the mundane. Billie Holiday’s tortured existence played out against a backdrop of nightmarish racism and abuse, as opposed to more modern-day, privileged young rock and rollers, who can be thrown into deep depression if their allowance is late.

The reins of this show are placed in the eminently capable hands of Anna Anderson, who has brilliantly mastered the tones and inflections that made Billie Holiday’s voice so memorable and interesting, if not classically great. Anderson’s rendition of this playlist of songs stand on their own for Billie Holiday fans, but of course there is a lot more to the story.

Billie takes the stage unsteadily, supported by her pianist Jimmy Powers, played by Darnell White. As Jimmy takes his seat behind the piano, Billie cuts her eyes to him in fear, seeking assurance that the night will turn out all right, which of course it will not. This vulnerable glance might be the last we see of the real Billie before the booze starts doing the talking and the birdsong of her spine-tingling hits is interrupted more and more often by rambling sojourns into the past.

In a beautifully understated performance, White’s Jimmy lets us know that, most likely along with everyone else, he’s just about had it with Billie.

He wants the act to succeed, but he senses that ultimately it won’t — when Billie makes it triumphantly through the end of a song, his face reveals the terrified giddiness of one who has just managed to land an aircraft blindfolded.

Maybe out of respect, maybe because she’s his meal ticket, Jimmy does his best to hold the act together, enabling Billie’s addictions by making up a medical excuse when she flounces off the stage, and covering up the needle marks on her arm after she’s returned from shooting up. At one point he tries to do a little CPR on her mood, encouraging her to sing one of the old “good time songs.”

Anderson’s boozy Billie doesn’t really care what Jimmy thinks, and she makes no particular effort to make the audience like her, either. It’s way too late in her bruised and addled life for that.

While we feel pity, and maybe sympathy, for Billie, it stops there. For such a sad tale, there are no poignant moments that cause the eyes to well, or times when you want to put your arm around Billie and tell her “there there,” or, as Robin Williams repeated to Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, “It isn’t your fault.”

It is only on this realization that we notice something else: When we see Billie Holiday, we are not seeing a Black musician, we are seeing the reflection of a thousand ugly abuses perpetrated by a racist White nation that have hardened her soul like bitter steel to the point where not even her humanity can shine through.

She recounts many of these incidents, but laughs them off, or frames them as jokes — “I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” when you know she is not, as evidenced by her selection of “Strange Fruit,” a song about Southern lynchings so searing that in her real life shows it was saved for last so she could be quickly hustled away from the venue, if necessary.

Lady Day leaves us with a lot of sorting out to do. It blames her addictions not on white people, but on a destructive relationship with a man who asked her to shoot up to prove her love. Without children, she had nothing to nurture. Her only solace is song.

In the end, as she is plunging into the depths that are about to claim her life, we root for Billie to gather herself, to pull it together, to stick the landing one last time like the “old Billie” belting out one of her hits. Because that’s what we care about. If only we had cared more about her.

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Tim Rowland contributed this review by the request of, and in collaboration with the Depot Theatre. Rowland is a journalist and New York Times bestselling author, whose humorous commentaries explore an eclectic variety of subject matter, from politics to history to the great outdoors. He and his wife Beth live on the Ausable River in Jay, N.Y.

Forest serves as backdrop for Depot Theatre Academy’s INTO THE WOODS, JR.

UPDATE: Performing an outdoor production requires a lot of challenges, and of course, the weather is unpredictable. This weekend it looks like it is going to rain, with a probable thunder/lightning storm Thursday night. Considering this, the Depot Theatre has made the decision to move our performances of INTO THE WOODS, JR. indoors at the Whallonsburg Grange.

As the CDC has now placed Essex County in a “High Transmission” zone – the audience will be limited to vaccinated members of the immediate household of participants. Masks will still be required for both the audience and cast/crew. 
 
Performances will be recorded so that the families can enjoy the wonderful work these artists have done!

 

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Whallonsburg, NY — All are invited to attend the performances of the Depot Theatre Academy production of INTO THE WOODS, JR., which will be held at the Whallonsburg Grange Hall on August 20 at 7pm, August 21 at 7pm, and August 22 at 2pm. 

The Depot Theatre Academy is an education and outreach program for artists ages 8 and older, led by theatre professionals from the only professional Equity theatre in the Adirondack Park.

The Depot Theatre Academy summer 2021 program features both junior and senior participants, and included workshops led by Actors’ Equity Association professionals in acting, voice, and dance, culminating this year’s production.

The senior participants ages 13 and older, will also be performing alongside Depot Theatre professionals in a special Academy Cabaret on Friday, August 27 at 8pm inside the Whallonsburg Grange.

Donations are welcomed for tickets for both programs, which will be available on site only for each performance.

The Depot Theatre Academy summer youth program is generously sponsored by the Rogers-Carroll Family Foundation. The Depot Theatre Academy is underwritten by The Brooks and Joan Fortune Family Foundation.

For more information or to donate online, visit DepotTheatre.org. Contact the Depot Theatre box office with any questions at 518.962.4449 or tickets@depottheatre.org.

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DEPOT THEATRE ACADEMY 2021 PERFORMANCE DATES:

INTO THE WOODS JR.

  • Friday, August 20 at 7pm 
  • Saturday, August 21 at 7pm 
  • Sunday, August 22 at 2pm

DEPOT THEATRE ACADEMY CABARET

  • August 27, at 8pm

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ABOUT THE DEPOT THEATRE

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and it is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. In addition to its volunteer board of trustees, the theatre depends on the support and generosity of its loyal donors, volunteers and community members. Committed to promoting and providing exposure to the performing arts in the Adirondacks, the Depot Theatre invites all to “Take a journey without leaving the station.” The Depot Theatre’s 2021 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Adirondack Foundation – Generous Acts Fund and the Essex County Arts Council.

The Depot Theatre Academy is a robust educational experience for area youth and a pathway for those interested in pursuing a profession in theatre—whether that’s backstage or on stage.

2021 Season Culminates with LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL

The Depot Theatre In Westport, NY closes the 2021 main stage season on a high note with its final main stage production of 2021, LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL, with performances from August 12-29.

The production recounts the heartbreaking, beautiful, and haunting story of Billie Holiday’s life through the songs that made her one of the most famous icons of the era. A “play with music,” performances include the singer’s “What A Little Moonlight Can Do,” “God Bless The Child,” and “Strange Fruit.”

“This play highlights the contrast between the amazing heights to which our heroes can soar, and the heartbreak that occurs when they fall,” said Kenney Green, Depot Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director. “Audiences should expect to experience a roller coaster ride of story and song.”

Anna Anderson returns to the Depot Theatre to play the role of Billie Holiday. Anna last embodied the soulful Holiday in Arizona Theatre Company’s Production of LADY DAY, a role for which Anderson was honored with a MAC award nomination (Manhattan Association of Cabarets). Ms. Anderson also received a second MAC nomination for her outstanding performances at Don’t Tell Mama cabaret in NYC. Other credits include the off-Broadway productions of GRAB AND GRACE, THE GREAT PIE ROBBERY, and the Depot Theatre’s 2018 production of AIN’T MISBEHAVIN.’

Darnell White makes his Depot Theatre debut as Jimmy Powers, who is more than an accompanist for Ms. Holiday. A native of the historical neighborhood of Harlem in New York City, Darnell White is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and The Juilliard School. A noted staple in New York City’s music scene, Darnell has developed a pristine reputation as a performer, composer, and musical director.  As a musical director he has collaborated with a number of noted artists including Melba Moore, Brian McKnight, Blaine Krauss, Amma Ossei, Willis White, Angela Birchett, David LaMarr, Carlton Jumel Smith, and many more. Both as a performer and resident artist, Darnell recently served as Musical Director for the off-Broadway show REVELATION, THE MUSICAL as well as the film adaptation of GOSPEL AT COLUNUS. He is currently the musical director for a few churches in the New York area and the chorus master for Trilogy: An Opera Company in Newark, NJ.

The Depot Theatre’s production of LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL runs from August 12-29 and is sponsored by Mountain Lake PBS. The Depot Theatre’s 2021 Season Sponsor is Casella. The show is rated PG-13. (Content includes adult themes and language, including issues of race, substance abuse, and abusive relationships.)

As a professional Actors’ Equity and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society-affiliated theatre, the Depot must adhere to both government and union health and safety guidelines. As such, audience members are required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Tickets and information updates are available by calling the box office at 518.962.4449 or visiting DepotTheatre.org.

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The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and it is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. In addition to its volunteer board of trustees, the theatre depends on the support and generosity of its loyal donors, volunteers and community members. Committed to promoting and providing exposure to the performing arts in the Adirondacks, the Depot Theatre invites all to “Take a journey without leaving the station.” The Depot Theatre’s 2021 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Adirondack Foundation – Generous Acts Fund and the Essex County Arts Council.

Review: WORKING: A MUSICAL

“WORKING’s goal is to elevate the worker, making us see the person instead of the job.”

Kenney Green (center) drives the number “Brother Trucker” along with Xavier Reyes (L) and Terry Lewis in Depot Theatre’s WORKING: A MUSICAL.

The Depot Theatre had planned its production of the Broadway musical Working back in the dark ages of 2020, which was only one year ago, yet in some ways seems like a million. 

As live theater was succumbing to COVID regulations last summer, it would have been impossible to forecast that Working would in some ways be a beneficiary, since its granular examination of the American labor scene has become wildly relevant in the meantime.

WORKING is based on a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel, who, before oral histories were really a thing, let average employees tell their own stories in their own words.

His 1974 book “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do,” explored a broad cross section of jobs, from the thrilling to the mundane, and, if you squint hard enough, you can see some seeds of what has come to pass some half-century later.

Between 2020 and 2021, the modern-day labor force has been transformed, or if that’s too strong a word, at least shaken to its core by too many unsatisfying jobs chasing too few people who are still willing to do them.

Brandi Massey (center) raises the roof in her role as a cleaning lady.

Kenney Green, producing artistic director for the Depot Theatre, likes to choose works that have social relevance, and events of the last 16 months have given WORKING just that, and then some. Laments that are 50 years old sound perfectly fresh today. Art has figured out a puzzle that has bedeviled science.

Director Julie Lucido takes full advantage, giving the production a poignancy fitting with the times. Xavier Reyes, who is delightfully funny — young enough that the gravity of a dead-end job seems not to have quite registered yet — plays fast food worker Freddy Rodriguez, as the remaining cast runs in circles delivering meals in cat-chasing-tail fashion, giving a distinctly modern feel to a show that, at its inception, could never have anticipated Uber.

Xavier Reyes plays a delightful fast food worker in WORKING: A MUSICAL.

WORKING requires actors to step into multiple roles, representing jobs that are primarily, but not exclusively, the type we think of as being low pay and low reward. This can be tricky, but the cast never misses a beat — Terry Lewis, for one, is just as convincing as a hedge fund manager as he is an ironworker.

Terry Lewis as an iron worker in WORKING: A MUSICAL.

These scenes play off each other and blur the lines of what we might think of as legitimate and illegitimate careers. From across the stage a fundraising socialite (Amy Fitts) and sex worker (Brandi Chavonne Massey) ruminate on their careers in a way that leaves us wondering which really has the worse end of the deal.

Terkel’s book was published long before the modern day political catchphrase “dignity of work,” but as the laborers tell their stories, dignity, or at least a sense of recognition, is what they seek. It is hurtful to be thought of as “just” a laborer, or “just” a waitress.

Amy FItts (center) as a waitress in WORKING: A MUSICAL.

As a peppery waitress who wants to excel, Fitts soars in dance, her heavy black shoes the only reminder that for most of us, her job is anchored to the ground in thankless drudgery. When Green, who takes the stage himself in this production and is central to two of the more memorable scenes, appears as a UPS driver, he cheerfully reports that it is the random topless sunbather who gets him through the day.

Yet when Green takes the role of retiree looking back on his life, his fulfilling memories are of the time spent with friends and family — work, not so much.

Maybe that’s for the good. WORKING shows the risk in being defined by one’s career. Fitts tugs at the heart playing the role of a pinched schoolmarm, whose eyes shine when she speaks of teaching children, then dull with confusion and bitterness at a world that has passed her by, as the old order of things, which included segregation and corporal punishment are no longer tolerated.

Thani Brant (R) leads the cast in repeating the mundane tasks of a factory worker.

So too does promising young actor Thani Brant make us wonder what is to become of the factory drone who is no more appreciated than a piece of equipment. Her laugh at her position is dry and mirthless, and she makes us feel the injustice of one who has reached a dead end at such a young age.

Still, WORKING never feels heavy or depressing. It is in the main a story of resilience, and of people who have faith in themselves even if no one else does.

The score of WORKING is not as memorable as longer lasting productions, but it has its moments, and when Massey starts to sing, time stops. Lucido’s choreography is notable, be it the light playfulness of those who have not been worn down by their work, or the heavy metal-on-metal robotics of those who have.

WORKING did not last long on Broadway, but perhaps the greater question is how it arrived there at all. More social commentary than mindless entertainment, at first blush it is almost as improbable as making show tunes out of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

Yet without the art of music and dance, Terkel’s oral histories might sink of their own weight. WORKING’s goal is to elevate the worker, making us see the person instead of the job. Next time we encounter a waiter or a truck driver, instead of seeing a waiter or a truck driver we may instead see a life. And, as we have learned over the past year and a half, that’s what’s important.

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Tim Rowland contributed this review by the request of, and in collaboration with the Depot Theatre. Rowland is a journalist and New York Times bestselling author, whose humorous commentaries explore an eclectic variety of subject matter, from politics to history to the great outdoors. He and his wife Beth live on the Ausable River in Jay, N.Y.

WORKING: A MUSICAL features 6 vocal powerhouses

Depot Theatre’s second 2021 main stage production celebrates everyday heroes

Westport, NY — The Depot Theatre is pleased to announce the cast of its second 2021 main stage production, WORKING: A MUSICAL, with performances from July 22 – August 8.

Nominated for six Tony Awards, WORKING: A MUSICAL features vibrant portrayals of 26 real-life American workers – including a schoolteacher, trucker, housewife, fireman, and millworker – played by 6 actors. The show conveys how people’s relationships to their work reveal key aspects of their humanity. The musical includes songs by Tony Award-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda and favorite numbers by Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, and James Taylor.

Six vocal powerhouses comprise the cast, including Broadway and Depot Theatre alumni, along with some artists making their Depot debut. 

The Depot’s own Producing Artistic Director, Kenney M. Green, will take the stage as Man #1 for this production. Along with being a seasoned director, choreographer, dancer, and musician, Green’s acting credits include:  Off-Broadway: FINKS! (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and GROWING UP 70’s starring Barry Williams (Luther).  National/European Tours: SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ starring Gladys Knight (Victor/Dance Capt.), AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’, and THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER (Ensemble). 

Broadway alum Brandi Chavonne Massey will play the role of Woman #2. Her credits include: West End Nala in Disney’s THE LION KING. Broadway and National Tours include roles such as Nettie/Celie in THE COLOR PURPLE; Elphaba in WICKED; The Radio in CAROLINE OR CHANGE; and Lucy in JEKYLL AND HYDE. New York projects include Ghetto Superstar singing background for Billy Porter as well as Sam Smith; Kira in BARE; Pam in BABY; Myrt in CARMEN JONES at the York Theater; Muse in the Nike workshop of Ball with L.L. Cool Jay and Savion Glover; Linda Eder’s Christmas Concert; and Dionne in HAIR in the Encore Series. She also has several T.V and film credits.

Amy Fitts is thrilled to be back at the Depot in the role of Woman #3. She’s worn many a wig and dress on the Depot stage, playing Philia in FORUM, Woman 2 in I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, Yum Yum in MIKADO, and more. In NYC she’s performed in shows at The Mint, Lucille Lortel, Joe’s Pub, and other downtown venues. She traveled Japan singing Disney songs with the Tokyo Philharmonic and performed closer to home at Peterborough Players (Laura, GLASS MENAGERIE), Weston Playhouse (HAIRSPRAY/AS YOU LIKE IT), and Cohoes Music Hall (Gooch, MAME).  

Xavier Reyes plays the role of Man #2. Reyes is a storyteller from Puerto Rico and a graduate of upstate New York’s Ithaca College. Some favorite credits include Broadway’s National Tour of KINKY BOOTS in the USA, Japan, and Canada; Roy/Mark/Peter in FUN HOME at American Stage; Angel in HAIR at the Titusville Playhouse; Graffiti Pete in IN THE HEIGHTS at Geva Theatre/Melissa Rain Anderson; and Lynn Nottage’s SWEAT at Pioneer Theatre Company.

Terry Lewis and Thani Brant will be making their Depot Theatre debuts in WORKING. Lewis plays the role of Man #3. Favorite roles include: Frank-n-Furter in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW at Selma Arts Center, Cinderella’s Prince/The Wolf in INTO THE WOODS, and Black Stache in PETER AND THE STARCATCHER at Stageworks Fresno. 

Thani Brant will play the role of Woman #1. A 2021 graduate of the University of Michigan, with a BFA in Musical Theatre, recent credits include Touchstone in U of M’s AS YOU LIKE IT and Anna in SPRING AWAKENING with Exit Left Theatre Co.

The show is directed by Julie Lucido, an associate member of the Stage Directors & Choreography Society and a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz in Theatre Arts. Lucido is thrilled to be making her Depot directing debut. “Celebrating the ‘every’ person, the worker, as the backbone of what makes the world go around is particularly important in this time,” said Lucido. “As we have been reminded, we should honor the essential workers, and how interconnected we are; the stories we will weave, share, and sing are so very important.”

The Depot Theatre’s production of WORKING: A MUSICAL runs Thursdays-Sundays from July 22 through August 8, 2021, and is sponsored by Chazy Westport Communications/Westelcom. The 2021 Season sponsor is Casella.

As a professional Actors’ Equity- and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society-affiliated theatre, the Depot must adhere to both government and union health and safety guidelines. As such, audience members are required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Tickets and information are available by calling the box office at 518.962.4449 or visiting DepotTheatre.org.

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About The Depot Theatre

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. In addition to its volunteer board of trustees, the theatre depends on the support and generosity of its loyal donors, volunteers, and community members. Committed to promoting and providing exposure to the performing arts in the Adirondacks, the Depot Theatre invites all to “Take a journey without leaving the station.” The Depot Theatre’s 2021 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by Essex County Arts Council. www.DepotTheatre.org

Depot Theatre Announces Cast of THE MOUNTAINTOP

Broadway alum and Depot Theatre favorite to take the stage on July 1

The Depot Theatre is pleased to announce the cast of THE MOUNTAINTOP, the first of the theatre’s 2021 main stage lineup.

THE MOUNTAINTOP is a reflective, often funny, touching, and gripping reimagining of the night before the assassination of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in which he examines his achievements, his failures, and his unfinished dreams. THE MOUNTAINTOP will run from July 1 through July 18. This play’s Broadway run in 2011 starred Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.

THE MOUNTAINTOP is written by Katori Hall, two-time Tony award nominee and winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

“The Depot Theatre is very proud and blessed to have two extremely diverse and intense actors kick off our season in THE MOUNTAINTOP,” said Kenney Green, Depot Theatre Producing Artistic Director. “These two powerhouses perfectly embody the essence of Katori Hall’s beautiful words!”

Curtis Wiley, Jr

Curtis Wiley, Jr.

The role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be played by CURTIS WILEY, JR. Wiley comes to the Depot Theatre direct from his Broadway debut in the production of AIN’T TOO PROUD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS

Prior to joining the Tony Award winning production, Curtis was seen in NYC at Lincoln Center in the “American Songbook” concert series with Stew + Heidi. Curtis first worked with Stew + Heidi in the world premier of THE TOTAL BENT at NYC’s Public Theater. Other NY credits: ATTACK OF THE ELVIS IMPERSONATORS (Lion Theatre); ROTHSCHILd & SONS (York Theatre Co.); THE ARTIST & THE SCIENTIST (Cap21); STRAIGHT FACED LIES (Fringe NYC); PAGEANT: THE MUSICAL (Off B’way Revival); THE GREAT SOCIETY (York Shakespeare Co); TUT (NYMF); KING LEAR (Exit, Pursued by a Bear); THE WILD PARTY (Columbia Stages). Big musical credits include: DINER THE MUSICAL;  JERSEY BOYS; THE LION KING; and a really cool gig with MOTOWN THE MUSICAL. Curtis is an alumni of the Sundance Theatre Institute, WIG OUT (playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney). Curtis had the distinct pleasure of working with Negro Ensemble Co., MARTIN: BEFORE THE DREAM, and has been featured in the “Future Classics Series” at Classical Theatre of Harlem.

Yvette Monique Clark

Yvette Monique Clark

Depot Theatre alum and favorite YVETTE MONIQUE CLARK returns in the role of Camae. Yvette is ecstatic to be back at The Depot where she debuted her cabaret LET’S GIVE ‘EM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT, and she has performed in productions of AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (Nell) and SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE (BJ). Other credits include GUN AND POWDER (Sissy), THE WIZ (Aunt Em, Evillene, Glinda), and UNiSON (Momma, Terror #7). During the past year she has kept herself busy producing her own virtual cabarets entitled “DIVA OF THE ‘DEMIC.”

The Depot Theatre’s production of THE MOUNTAINTOP runs from July 1-18 and is sponsored by The Galley Restaurant and Bar at Westport Marina. The Depot Theatre’s 2021 Season Sponsor is Casella.

As a professional Actors’ Equity and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society-affiliated theatre, the Depot must adhere to both government and union health and safety guidelines. As such, audience members are required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Tickets and information are available by calling the box office at 518.962.4449 or visiting DepotTheatre.org.

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About The Depot Theatre

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, N.Y., and is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. In addition to its volunteer board of trustees, the theatre depends on the support and generosity of its loyal donors, volunteers, and community members. Committed to promoting and providing exposure to the performing arts in the Adirondacks, the Depot Theatre invites all to “Take a journey without leaving the station.” The Depot Theatre’s 2021 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Adirondack Foundation – Generous Acts Fund and the Essex County Arts Council.

Our Mission & Vision

Mission: The Depot Theatre is to entertain, enrich, and educate through professional theatrical arts and related programs based in a historic train station.

Vision: The Depot Theatre will have a robust, regional, and year-round presence by creating the highest of quality programs, building strong partnerships, and enhancing community engagement while promoting diversity in all that we do.

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The Depot Theatre receives funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

With special thanks to the following for their support of the Depot’s ongoing strategic objectives: Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust, Cloudsplitter Foundation, J.M. McDonald Foundation, Inc., Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, Charles R. Wood Foundation, Adirondack Foundation, Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Rogers Carroll Family Foundation, Brooks and Joan Fortune Family Foundation.

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