The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Live Arts in Nyack

Peace & Kindness…

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I have a little announcement to make. After 25 years of Chappaqua living, I’m downsizing and moving this month to Pleasantville! I look forward to discovering the joy of a Mount Pleasant residency and all its treasures, to meeting new neighbors, and making new friends. I’m also viewing it as a boon to getting more fit as I’ll be just that much closer to two favorite walking destinations, the Rockefeller Preserve and Rockwood, and also to Club Fit in Briarcliff (where, note to self, I really MUST start reserving class time). I’ll also be closer to the upper West Side where my son lives, not to mention dear friends. Life is good.

It’s a demanding transition while producing magazines. In fact, it’s downright stressful! Nonetheless, I feel confident that once I get on the other side of it, a move here will have been worth all the angst.

And since I have ever more paper to shred, drawers to empty and boxes to pack, I’ll try to be brief!

In our June/Summer 2022 editions, I believe you’ll find a nod to the peace and kindness the Arts promote. The upcoming Pleasantville Music Festival is a local giant, and I’m glad we can provide an update on what’s planned in my new hometown. We are also so lucky to live a stone’s throw from some true splendor. I hope you feel enticed by our coverage to set aside time to enjoy the beautiful Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a Katonah-based, Hudson Valley destination. In Katonah too, there is a gem of a museum to visit and revisit: The Katonah Museum of Art.  And in September, it’s a short trip to the celebrated Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack; please do check out our spotlight on this intriguing festival, too.

Of course, right here at home, there’s never really any excuse to feel bored. Especially with a world class table tennis center in our backyard! So if you haven’t visited the Westchester Table Tennis Center recently, summer is a great time to grab a partner, and hone your ping pong skills. Please do say hello to owner Will Shortz if you spot him there. If he’s not too busy playing or perhaps writing a crossword puzzle, let him know you saw him on the cover of a magazine!

Of special note in Inside Armonk: During an extraordinary week of Yom Hashoah remembrance programming, the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, hhrecny.org,  honored Jennifer Laden, Social Studies Department Chair 6-12 of Byram Hills Central School District in Armonk at the 20th annual Susan J. Goldberg Memorial Teacher Award. https://hhrecny.org/susan-j-goldberg-memorial-teacher-award/ The award, presented at the annual William H. Donat Shoah Commemoration Event at Iona College on  April 27, preceded a lecture and Q&A with historian Dan McMillan, the acclaimed author of How Could This Have Happened? Explaining the Holocaust. 

As the HHREC related: “… Jennifer Laden has promoted global understanding through her development and teaching AP Human Geography and AP World History courses. As one of the developers of the three-year Global Scholars program at Byram Hills, she spearheaded the design of curricular units to help students understand important human rights issues, teaching them about the Uighur Muslims in China, the Rohingya in Myanmar, and the refugee crises in Syria and Yemen. Laden has also encouraged student partnerships with the HHREC, welcoming survivors of the Holocaust to the high school to accompany students to the annual High School Human Rights Institute.

This year, three BHHS students were recognized at the Institute for their commitment to human rights, community service, and racial equity, a testament to the profound impact Jen’s work has had. Byram Hills School Superintendent Jen Lamia thanked the HHREC Board of Directors “for recognizing Jen Laden for her work teaching about human rights and the violations that perpetuate adversity….”

In your Inside Chappaqua & Millwood edition, I note there’s a timeless sense of peace & contentment one feels at a local library, so delighted to read Ronni Diamondstein’s 10 reasons the future of libraries is bright, and of creative Chappaqua Library Centennial festivities.

I am intensely proud to feature Jean Sheff’s beautiful story about Danielle Leventhal’s life and legacy, of her family’s efforts to help realize ‘Danielle’s Dreams,’ and how you can help, too.

There’s always so much ‘good stuff’ happening around town, including Frank Shiner’s and the 914 Orchestra’s rollicking ‘Swingin’ into Spring’ eve introducing “the San Miguel Miracles” at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. All that, on the heels of the 2022 Rotary Citizen of the Year Awards to Frank and Suzanne Shiner, the Paul Harris Fellow Award to Eric Nicolaysen, and the Student of the Year Award to Kyra Chung-Olagbaiye.

In another arena, last month too, Town Supervisor Lisa Katz and the town of New Castle kindly introduced 10 food allergy awareness signs in our playgrounds. Local advocates Stacey Saiontz, Jared Saiontz and Heather Brown appeared with Katz and Council member Vicki Tipp to proudly share the news.

 I also learned that the New Castle Democratic Committee extended honors to Nichelle Maynard Elliott and Zabeen Mirza, New Castle Council on Race and Equity co-chairs, and to Vedat Gashi, 4th District Legislator. Congrats!

We were well into press when Grease rehearsals kicked off, but anticipating another amazing Greeley Senior Musical. Wishing all the 2022 graduates a grand future, and all the Dads, heaps of kindness and special attention on Father’s Day!  Peace out, 

 

Jared Saiontz, a student in Chappaqua and a food allergy awareness advocate, points out one of 10 food allergy awareness signs now appearing in New Castle playgrounds. PHOTO BY GRACE BENNETT
Horace Greeley High School Senior Musical, lead cast of Grease, with background setting of competition field. As we were going to press, we learned that, for the first time, the Senior Musical will be performed outside on June 2-4. PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON
During a May Open House at Caramoor: Inside Press spring and summer intern Adrianna Cmiel-Walsh, a 2022 graduate of Westlake High School in Thornwood, with Ed Lewis, the executive director of the Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts.
The Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center honored Byram Hills’ Jennifer Laden during a Yom Hashoah Remembrance event at Iona College
PHOTO BY GRACE BENNETT
Nichelle Maynard Elliott (left) and Zabeen Mirza, New Castle Council on Race and Equity co-chairs, were honored by the New Castle Democratic Committee this spring. Legislator Vedat Gashi was also honored.

DISCOVER The Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack

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Outstanding Ensemble Emphasizes Creative Freedom & Pay it Forward in its ‘Artistic Homeplace’

The Importance of Being Earnest     PHOTO BY STEPHANIE BERGER

To be, or not to be: that is the question.

Or, to be at the Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack or not to be: that is the real question. And the answer? Yes.

After being postponed for two years because of the pandemic, the first annual Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack, NyackArtsFestival.com will take place on weekends from September 16 through October 16, showcasing carefully selected productions meant to resonate with people and lift their spirits. All performances will be held outdoors at the Marydell Faith and Life Center in Upper Nyack and the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center in the heart of the village. 

“When we moved to Nyack, and particularly over the pandemic, we were watching as everyone was struggling to keep going,” Phoenix Ensemble Artistic Director Elise Stone said. “Hopefully the art uplifts everyone, and we all need psychological and emotional uplifting after the past couple of years..”

Elise and her husband Craig Smith, the managing director of the ensemble, are both long time actors and theater enthusiasts who actually met, got married and worked together at their old repertory. After years of wanting to be involved in something more artist-driven, they founded the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble in 2004, a multi award-winning, not-for-profit organization.

The ensemble prides itself in not only the work they do, which is primarily classical theater (which means more than just Shakespeare), but also in the creative freedom they give to their actors, directors, designers, writers and others on the team. If one of their costume designers has an idea for a show, they’re all ears. At Phoenix, everyone has a voice.

Skin of Our Teeth Photo by Stephanie Berger

Their goal with forming the ensemble was to create an artistic homeplace. And after moving to Nyack in 2018, they both saw the potential it had and became convinced that there was no better place to not only get the local and extended community involved with the arts, but to get involved with the community itself, which is one of their core values.

They started producing benefits and shows for organizations such as the Rockland Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education and the Nyack Library. The idea of a festival soon came to mind, and this fall it will finally come to fruition.

For the past few years, Smith and Stone began building an infrastructure to support the Festival by reaching out to political representatives and collaborating with local organizations such as VisitNyack.org and listening to merchants and businesses on how this Festival can work for  everyone.

They even specifically scheduled the shows to be in the daytime to allow attendees time to explore Nyack and all the mom-and-pop shops, restaurants, and activities that the village has to offer later in the evening. 

According to the results from a commissioned study by Brockport Research Institute of 2,000 tri-state arts enthusiasts and Rockland residents, $184,000 will be spent at local shops per 500 attendees. Smith projects that number to actually triple, which means that the festival would bring in half a million dollars to the community.

“Even though we’ve been in Nyack for four years, we were concerned that we would be thought of as the newcomers in a way,” Stone said. “Being part of a community is a key tenet of the ensemble, and we feel that we are part of [it] now and we want to give back to this community.”

Come One, Come All

But, just because the event is in Rockland County doesn’t mean that the event is only for those in the area. It’s for everyone and anyone!

“We’re hoping that people will come and see how close a world class performance is to them,” Stone said. “Whether you’re coming from Westchester or Jersey or from Rockland, a first-class professional theater experience is available right here.”

And as she wants to remind those in Westchester, “we’re right across the bridge!”

Headlining the program are three classic plays: The Skin of Our Teeth, an “epic” humorous tale of the “triumph of the human spirit,” The Importance of Being Earnest, the “funniest play ever written in the English language” (according to Stone) and Chekhov’s rarely performed gem The Harmfulness of Tobacco. 

The Children’s Shakespeare Theater and the Rockland Symphony Orchestra will also be performing, so there will truly be something for everyone. The Festival’s audio walking tour incorporating augmented reality, AR Adventures, Digital Dreaming, is available free of charge and will be a special experience. 

Both Stone and Smith believe that art should always be available and there should never be an obstacle in the way of that, be it financially or geographically. Because of that, they have a “pay it forward” program in place to give tickets to families who can’t afford the full-price and are working on a program for public school students. Additionally, they will have a shuttle bus available from downtown Nyack to Marydell in Upper Nyack. Like they said, it takes a village to be able to put together a festival like this. Corporate sponsors and individual donations are still being accepted.

Visit nyackartsfestival.com/become-a-sponsor to learn more about becoming a sponsor for the event. For further information regarding family discounts and student programs, contact Craig Smith at Craig@PhoenixTheatreEnsemble.org or 917-717-1617.

For more details and ticket purchases, visit NyackArtsFestival.com. Early bird ticket purchasers get special discounts. Ticket buyers should use the code WEST when ordering. As Stone put it, this experience allows you to witness the artists and the audience breathing together into a story.

So, to be at the festival or not to be at the festival…is that even a question?

Judas    PHOTO BY GERRY GOODSTEIN
Agamemnon Home    PHOTO BY GERRY GOODSTEIN