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Depot Theatre Academy and 4-H Bring Youth Workshops and Career Programming to New County Facility

April workshops launch the first public event in Essex County’s new Youth and Agriculture Building, with expanded career-focused programming to follow.

The Depot Theatre Academy and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County (CCE) will continue their county-wide 4-H youth partnership this spring with a new series of workshops in Essex County schools and community spaces.

The program will host an afterschool session on Friday, April 17 at the Mountain View Campus through OASIS, with a companion regional workshop scheduled for Saturday morning, April 18 at the newly constructed Essex County Youth and Agriculture Building at the Fairgrounds in Westport.

The April 18 workshop will mark the first public program held in the new facility, located at 6 Fairground Way, representing a significant moment for youth programming in the county.

In addition to the April workshops, the partnership will continue this spring and summer with a series of career-oriented theatre workshops open to 4-H and area youth, exploring careers in set building and carpentry, lighting and design, sound and acoustics, casting direction, and production management.

A Depot Dialogue post-show Q&A event will also be held in conjunction with Hadestown: Teen Edition on Friday, June 12, offering 4-H and area youth the opportunity to engage directly with artists and production staff in conversation about theatre-making and creative careers.

The partnership between the Depot Theatre Academy and 4-H is designed to support youth development through theatre-based communication, mentorship, and experiential learning aligned with the 4-H Thrive Model.

“Programs like this are about creating space for young people to find their voice,” said Elizabeth Lee, Executive Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County. “Through the 4-H Thrive framework, we focus on positive youth development, helping young people build confidence, connection, and competence. This partnership expands those opportunities in a creative and engaging way.”

The April sessions will be led by theatre artists Tyler Nye and Mason Barber, local professionals who are both part of the Depot Theatre community and whose work spans performance, directing, and youth arts programming.

“This is exactly the kind of work we hope to see happening through the Academy,” said Scott Gibree, President of the Depot Theatre Board of Trustees. “Creating opportunities for young people to build confidence and communication skills, whether at the theatre, in schools, or in new community spaces, is central to how we think about our role in the region.”

Together, these initiatives represent a multi-layered approach to youth development, combining communication skills, mentorship, and creative exploration within a supportive community setting.

For more information or to register for upcoming workshops, email essex4h@cornell.edu or visit https://bit.ly/CCE_DT.

About The Depot Theatre / Depot Theatre Academy

The Depot Theatre, located in Westport, New York, is a professional producing theatre dedicated to artistic excellence, youth education, and community engagement. The Depot Theatre Academy provides training, mentorship, and performance opportunities for young artists throughout the region.

About Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County provides research-based programming in youth development, agriculture, and community well-being. Through 4-H, CCE supports experiential learning, skill exploration, and leadership pathways for young people across the county.

See this article in the Sun Community News.

Staged Play Reading: THE THANKSGIVING PLAY to be held on March 9

WESTPORT, NY —The Depot Theatre and the Westport Wadhams Community Alliance are pleased to present a staged play reading of THE THANKSGIVING PLAY on March 9 at 3pm at the Westport Heritage House. The reading is produced by Saranac Lake-based Adirondack Stage Rats.

Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally woke teaching artists scramble to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.

Larissa FastHorse (a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe) is a playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California. In 2023, she became the first known female Native American playwright produced on Broadway with THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater.

The staged reading is directed by Beth Glover and features Peter Corley, Laura Farrell,
Tyler Nye, and Tara Palen.

The event is free and open to the public. The Westport Heritage House is located at 6459 Main St, Westport, NY.

About the Adirondack Stage Rats

ADIRONDACK STAGE RATS is a collective of theatre artists and devotees dedicated to creating theatre that inspires, enriches, and educates residents of, and visitors to, our region. Utilizing minimal lighting & set pieces ADIRONDACK STAGE RATS creates “small-batch” personal, intimate, thought-provoking productions for adventurous, discriminating audiences. adirondackstagerats.com

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.” DepotTheatre.org

About the Westport Wadhams Community Alliance

The mission of The Westport-Wadhams Community Alliance is to nurture collaborations among public and private entities and support economic growth, cultural vitality, and environmental sustainability in the Westport-Wadhams community. gowestportny.com

Staged Play Reading to be held at the Westport Heritage House

WESTPORT, NY —The Depot Theatre and the Westport Wadhams Community Alliance are pleased to present a staged play reading of ADMISSIONS by Joshua Harmon on November 16 at 3pm at the Westport Heritage House. The reading is produced by Saranac Lake-based Adirondack Stage Rats.

ADMISSIONS is a new play in which main character Sherri Rosen-Mason is head of the admissions department at a New England prep school, fighting to diversify the student body. Alongside her husband, the school’s Headmaster, they’ve largely succeeded in bringing a stodgy institution into the twenty-first century. But when their only son sets his sights on an Ivy League university, personal ambition collides with progressive values, with convulsive results. A no-holds-barred look at privilege, power, and the perils of hypocrisy.

The staged reading is directed by Beth Glover and features Fran Yardley, Laura-Jean Swanson, Tyler Nye, Laura Menzie, and Peter Corley.

The event is free and open to the public. The Westport Heritage House is located at 6459 Main St, Westport, NY.

Meet the Cast


Peter Corley (Charlie Luther Mason) recently played Harrison in Analog & Vinyl at The Depot Theatre. In the last year he appeared in two Martin McDonagh plays, as Katurian in The Pillowman and Ray in Beauty Queen of Lenane, as well as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Billy in Stoppard’ s The Real Thing and Fred/Young Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, all in Northwest NJ. He’s a graduate of the musical theater program at New York’s Circle in the Square, where he played Konstantin in The Seagull, Cooper in Island Song, and as guest artist alum returned for productions of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See

Laura Menzie (Ginnie Peters) is thrilled to join the ADK Stage Rat’s for another reading. Previous acting credits with the Rats include Blackbird and Radiant Vermin. Laura has also worked with Pendragon Theatre, Saratoga Shakespeare, Titan Theatre Company, Stages Rep, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Franklin Stage, and others. She has also worked in Mexico with Icaro Teatro and in the UK with TCSquared Theatre Company. Laura currently teaches Acting and Voice and Speech at Skidmore College. For more information visit lauramenzie.com

Tyler Nye (Bill Mason) spent his summer in Westport performing Every Brilliant Thing at the Depot Theatre. Previously with the ADK Stage Rats: readings of None of the Above and Radiant Vermin. His credits at Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake include Our Town, Doubt, Deathtrap, Baskerville, and Shipwrecked!. Other regional favorites include The 39 Steps and See How They Run. Tyler grew up in the Adirondacks and appears as Uncle Drosselmeyer in the North Country’s Nutcracker. Off-Broadway: The Mystery of Irma Vep, Twelfth Night, The Glass Menagerie. Off stage: Associate General Manager at Lake Placid Center for the Arts. tylernye.com

Laura-Jean Swanson (Sherri Rosen-Mason) has several acting, directing, and choreography credits from NYC and Mpls, MN. She has been associated with over 30 Pendragon theatre productions and is a SUNY Plattsburgh Theatre Department professor. An improv specialist, she leads improv therapy sessions with Veterans and teen groups. LJ also does production work through the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Fran Yardley (Roberta) is delighted to be involved with yet another marvelous Stage Rats Production with some of her fave fellow actors. Some past roles include Fanny in Painting Churches, Kimberly in Kimberly Akimbo, Sister Aloysius in Doubt, and Abby in Arsenic and Old Lace. Fran’s memoir/history, Finding True North, explores her fifty years in the Adirondacks woven with the history going back to the mid 1800s. Thanks to Karen and Beth for creating a generous space for us all to aspire to really terrific theatre.

Beth Glover, Director (she/her) Her passion for theatre began with a Southern upbringing that valued storytelling. Directing credits: Analog & Vinyl at Depot Theatre, Honky Tonk Angels at Pendragon Theatre, 9 to 5at SUNY Plattsburgh, Southern Comforts & Bakersfield Mist for Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts & Adirondack Stage Rats, Wicked City & Heroes for Depot Theatre, and more for Adirondack Stage Rats, co-founded with Karen Lewis. Selected acting credits: 6 Broadway National Tours, Off-Broadway, Goodspeed Opera House, Papermill Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Co. of DC, etc. Favorite roles: Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, Big&Lil Edie, Grey Gardens (BACC Award Best Actress). Complete credits: www.Beth-Glover.com

About the Adirondack Stage Rats

ADIRONDACK STAGE RATS is a collective of theatre artists and devotees dedicated to creating theatre that inspires, enriches, and educates residents of, and visitors to, our region. Utilizing minimal lighting & set pieces ADIRONDACK STAGE RATS creates “small-batch” personal, intimate, thought-provoking productions for adventurous, discriminating audiences. adirondackstagerats.com

 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.” DepotTheatre.org

About the Westport Wadhams Community Alliance

The mission of The Westport-Wadhams Community Alliance is to nurture collaborations among public and private entities and support economic growth, cultural vitality, and environmental sustainability in the Westport-Wadhams community. gowestportny.com

EVERY BRILLIANT THING – A Review

Tyler Nye is a force in the Depot Theatre’s one-person production, EVERY BRILLIANT THING.

Adults with stacks of academic degrees from prestigious institutions have trouble understanding suicidal tendencies, so what chance would a child have? You might be surprised.

That’s the starting point of the one-person play, Every Brilliant Thing, which opened this weekend at The Depot Theatre. In it, an unnamed man, played by Tyler Nye, recalled his time as a youngster confronted with his mother’s attempted suicide, when he reacted as a youngster might: by trying to cheer up mom, in this case with a list of things that bring him joy. No. 1 on his list is ice cream.

Nye brilliantly expresses two emotions at once, as a patina of mirth tries to tamp down the great fear and uncertainty we sense roiling just beneath the surface. His co-star is the list itself, which grows by hundreds, then thousands upon thousands of entries of little things in life that are joyful.

Many entries on the list are called out by audience members, who also make brief stand-in performances as important people in the man’s life. The house lights remain on throughout the show, further integrating the audience into the performance. It is Nye himself who scoots among audience members pre-play to arrange their roles, which further breaks down the wall of separation between actor and audience.

As the walls of depression close around his mother, so does the demand for levity, as a self-defense mechanism if nothing else.

His list of brilliant things continues to grow and become part of him, a tool for communication, entertainment, and perhaps self preservation. As it expands into the hundreds of thousands, the list takes on an organic life of its own, and we wonder if the man is keeping the lengthy document alive or if it’s the other way around.

As we have come to know, illnesses physical and mental are often hereditary, and many a child has looked at an afflicted parent and wondered if that’s what’s in store for them. And maybe what has clearly become this man’s obsession is a clue.

Yet keeping these small, everyday nuggets of happiness at the fore is, in this case, an effective foil. There is beauty all around us if that’s what we choose to focus upon.

Every Brilliant Thing, directed by Chan Harris, is deliberately and effectively minimalist, leaving nothing but a couple of folding metal chairs to distract from the onstage emotion. In his notes, Harris says care is taken in the play to treat mental illness with the gravity it deserves, and in this it succeeds.

Critics might note that mental health is not that simple, that the hackneyed “but you have so much to live for” entreaties fail to understand that a positive outlook is no antidote for clinical depression.

But Every Brilliant Thing supposes as much; responding to a suicide attempt with visions of ice cream is indeed a child’s attempt to make sense of something that has no easy explanation. As the man’s list of things that make life worth living grows toward its one-millionth entry we know that the list isn’t for his mother, it’s for him — and for all of us who have been blessed with the good fortune of being able to choose whether we are happy or not. It is the perfect message for today’s world.

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.

Depot Theatre brings EVERY BRILLIANT THING to the main stage

Westport, NY — The Depot Theatre is pleased to announce the cast of its main stage production of EVERY BRILLIANT THING.

EVERY BRILLIANT THING is a feel-good show that ironically explores depression with the help of audience participation. It is a hilarious, heart-wrenching, and heart-warming play about the efforts of a young boy to will his chronically depressed mother to live by creating a list of all the best things in the world; everything worth living for.

Tyler Nye will play the role of the narrator in this transcendent one-man play. An Adirondack resident, Tyler is a familiar face with a long list of regional credits, including OUR TOWN, DOUBT, DEATHTRAP, AMADEUS, BASKERVILLE, and SHIPWRECKED! at Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake, readings with ADK Stage Rats, including RADIANT VERMIN at the Westport Library, and THE 39 STEPS and SEE HOW THEY RUN at Saint Michael’s Playhouse. Off-Broadway credits include THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, TWELFTH NIGHT, THE GLASS MENAGERIE.

The play explores themes of depression and loss, but its central theme is the profound impact of seemingly small, beautiful things in our lives.

“We have done our best to approach this production with sensitivity and care, recognizing the delicate subject matter of mental health,” said Chan Harris, director. “It has been our aim to portray these themes with authenticity and respect, while also highlighting the play’s message of hope and resilience. Our wonderful Depot team has collaborated closely to ensure that every moment on stage is truthful and impactful.”

“When you experience EVERY BRILLIANT THING you’ll appreciate how anxious we were to find an actor who could win over an audience without acting; a relatable everyman who makes us feel safe, and makes us laugh about serious topics,” said Beth Glover, half of the Depot Theatre’s Artistic Production Management team along with Karen Lewis. “As much as Tyler is our guide, director Chan Harris — a Depot alumnus — has been equal parts his conductor and his pilot in this diamond of a theatrical balancing act. Together they’ve created a memorable performance you won’t forget.”

Performances will run from July 18 to August 4. A portion of opening weekend ticket sales will be donated to the Essex County Suicide Prevention Coalition. Tickets can be purchased online at DepotTheatre.org or by calling 518.962.4449.

The Depot Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station in Westport, NY, and it is the only theatre in the Adirondacks that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association.

For more information about the Depot Theatre’s main stage and Academy youth programs and for news updates visit DepotTheatre.org.

EVERY BRILLIANT THING
July 19 – August 4, with a $25 Preview on July 18
By Duncan Macmillan
With Jonny Donahoe

RATED: PG-13 (themes of mental health and suicide)
PRODUCTION SPONSOR: Mountain Lake PBS

“Every Brilliant Thing” is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint. (www.dramatists.com)

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 2024 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 Essex County Arts Council. The Depot Theatre 2024 Season is sponsored by the Rogers-Carroll Family Foundation.

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.

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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