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The Ancram Opera House
1330 County Route 7
Ancram, NY
12502
518.329.7393
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SUMMER EVENING EVENTS
Film, Tap, Cabaret, Chekhov, Magic, Dance and More
June 28th - Drum Circle
August - Hand Drum Workshops
July 5th - A Tap Extravaganza
July 12th - The Linguists
July - Chekhov Stories
July - Aug - THE MILLAY SISTERS, a cabaret
Aug 8, 9 - A Black Arts Evening of Illusions
Aug 23 - Douglas Dunn Solo Inventions
Aug 30 - Nicki Denner Latin Jazz All-Stars
Sept 6 - Handmade / Handmaid: Performance Poems
June 28th
midsummer
DRUM CIRCLE
with Steve Collins
Feel the beat and the joy of making music together.
This evening drum circle is for all ages, and no experience is required.
Bring percussion instruments, dancing feet, good vibes and water. If you are curious about drumming and would like to give it a try, this is the night for you.
Families Welcome!
Steve Collins has performed with Sewa Folee, a West African rhythm ensemble, and in many other professional gigs. He owned a percussion store in NYC, Loud Joy. Steve has led many drum circles and studied with master teachers Yaya Diallo from Mali and Mamady Keita from Guinea.
Saturday · June 28th · 7:00 pm · $10
Steve Collins
Hand Drum Workshop
Saturdays, 12:00 - 1:30 pm
August 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd
$20/single $70/full series
Come learn African rhythms in Drum Circle style sessions. We'll begin with basic African beats and work toward Latin rhythms. We'll have a limited number of drums available, so bring your own drum or one to share. No prior experience required. Steve's clear instruction and upbeat style is great for beginners and seasoned drummers alike.
Steve Collins has performed many professional gigs, including with Sewa Folee, a West African rhythm ensemble. He owned a percussion store in NYC, Loud Joy. Steve has led many drum circles and studied with master teachers Yaya Diallo from Mali and Mamady Keita, from Guinea.
Click here to purchase tickets for DRUM WORKSHOPS
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A Tap Extravaganza
with Melissa Giattino and Richard Schwartz
Flashing Taps and SizzlingVocals
 Giattino and Schwartz met in 1994 in a production of Dames at Sea and have also appeared separately in the Tony Award winning revival of 42nd Street, the London production of Showboat, the Radio City Rockette's Christmas Spectacular, and the world tour of Peter Pan. Melissa recently supervised the choreography for the feature film Made For Each Other, and Richard appeared on the first season of Star Search. Giattino & Schwartz perform with Tedd Firth, piano, Michael Hashim, sax, Ed Ornowski, drums. For more, check their website: www.gottatap.com
Saturday July 5th
at 7 pm
White tablecloth cabaret seating with snacks and drinks: $40
Regular Seating:
$15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Click here to buy tickets online
Click here to listen to a Radio Promo (MP3 948kb)
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The Linguists
a very foreign language film
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival
A Benefit Screening for the Ancram Opera House
FromVanity Fair:
"As Sundance moved past the weekend it was fast becoming clear that ... the stars of the festival line-up would not be features but documentaries. One standout was The Linguists, a fantastic little film that follows professors David Harrison and Gregory Anderson as they crisscross the globe on a mission to document languages.... The excitement of these two professors proves contagious, and as the film reveals how cultural shame and colonialism have factored in the loss of these languages, their incredible dedication becomes all the more compelling."
"The talk of the town at Sundance" - Reuters
"A fascinating journey" - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Funny, enlightening and ultimately uplifting" - Kansas City Star
Red Hook Resident Seth Kramer has been producing, writing, and directing award-winning documentaries for more than a decade. With Daniel A. Miller, Seth co-directed, co-shot, and co-edited The Linguists. Seth will appear at this Opera House screening, answering questions after the film.
Saturday, July 12th, 8 pm
tickets $15 in advance; $20 at the door
Click here to purchase tickets online for the July 12th benefit screening of The Linguists at the Ancram Opera House.
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July 18th and 19th
Chekhov Stories
 On July 17th and 18th, we present a staged reading of two stories by AntonChekhov, "The Man in a Case," and "Gooseberries." Chekhov wrote these linked stories of rural life at his villa near Yalta in the summer of 1898; they seem particularly appropriate for a July evening in Ancram.
Raymond Carver wrote that Chekhov's stories, "are as wonderful (and necessary) now as when they first appeared, stories that lay bare our emotions in ways only true art can accomplish."
The works will be read by our resident Chekhov ensemble - James Occhino, Jan Hanvik, Alison Granucci, Joan Arnold and Jim Paul - performing in a lively treatment of these delightful and moving masterpieces.
Friday, July 18th, 8pm
Saturday, July 19th, 8pm
Regular seating: $15 in advance, $20 at the door
Click here to buy tickets online for this event.
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July 25th to August 3rd
THE MILLAY SISTERS
a cabaret
Join bohemian sex goddess Edna St. Vincent Millay - world famous poet of the 1920's - and her sister Norma, our Mistress of Ceremonies, for an evening of song, poetry and family secrets. The Millay Sisters is a moving and provocative imagining of Edna St. Vincent Millay's life story. A poor child from Camden, Maine, who insisted on being called Vincent as a girl, Miss Edna Millay rose to fame with her sister Norma by her side to become the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
Built in 1919, the era of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the Ancram Opera House is a particularly appropriate setting for The Millay Sisters. Millay's estate Steepletop, now the home of the Millay Colony for the Arts, is nearby in Austerlitz, New York.
This biographical sister act is a collaboration of Margi Sharp (Vincent) and Rachel Murdy (Norma), alumni of Columbia MFA acting program, and directors Cynthia Croot, and Deborah Philips. The Millay Sisters visits Ancram after a run at the legendary New York city cabaret venue Don't Tell Mama.
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Join us at summer's peak and see Vincent and Norma
harmonize, recite and reveal all! |
Friday, July 25th, 8pm
Saturday, July 26th, 8pm
Sunday, July 27th, 2 pm |
Friday, August 1, 8 pm
Saturday, August 2, 8pm
Sunday, August 3, 2 pm |
White tablecloth cabaret seating with snacks & drinks: $40
Regular seating: $15 in advance, $20 at the door
Click here to buy tickets for July 25-27
Click here to buy tickets for August 1-3
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August 8th and 9th
A Black Arts Evening of Illusions
with Magician Peter Samelson
 The New York Times has called Samelson the"soft-spoken conceptualist of sorcery." He co-produces New York's famed Monday Night Magic ("a lovely chamber session of magicians" writes Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker) and has starred
in two one-man Off-Broadway shows, The Magician and PaperWork. He has made dozens of television appearances, including the PBS special The Art of Magic, and creates illusions for commercials, films and theatre.
For this special presentation at the Opera House, Peter Samelson brings to Ancram his original Magic and Illusions mixed with vignettes and visions inspired by the Black Art theatres of Prague. A unique and sophisticated show for adult minds of all ages.
Friday, August 8th
and Saturday, August 9th, 8pm
White tablecloth cabaret seating with snacks & drinks: $40
Regular seating: $15 in advance, $20 at the door
Click here to buy tickets online for this event.
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Douglas Dunn
August 23rd
Solo Inventions
On Saturday August 23rd, we'll be pleased to present Solo Inventions, a modern dance concert by one of New York's most gifted dancer/choreographers, Douglas Dunn. Dunn and a guest dancer will reprise a performance they presented in New York, showcasing solo works.
Douglas Dunn began his career performing with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the groundbreaking improvisatory group Grand Union. For more than 25 years, Douglas Dunn & Dancers has performed nationally and internationally at venues such as Danspace Project, The Kitchen, P.S.122, and Dance Theater Workshop in New York, the Walker Art Center, Arts Festival of Atlanta, and Bennington College.
 The company's most recent performance, entitled Nothing Further, was noted as one of 2007's ten best by the New York Times. In February, 2009, the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival will present a major retrospective of Douglas Dunn's choreography for Stravinsky's Pulcinella at the Alvin Ailey Theater in New York.
Saturday, August 23rd, 8pm
Tickets:
$15 in advance, $20 at the door
Click here to buy tickets online for this event.
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Nicki Denner Latin Jazz All-Stars
August 30th
SUMMER DANCE PARTY
On Labor Day Saturday join us for our annual Summer Dance with a six-piece NYC band, the irresistible  Nicki Denner Latin Jazz All-Stars.
Dance Salsa, Tango, Bolero or just shake it out to the sounds of this fabulous dance band. Pianist extraordinaire Nicki Denner has released several CD's as a band leader, including Don't Just Stand There and El Médico de Coquí, which was listed for six months on Latin Beat magazine's Top 20. Her new CD is Moliendo Café.
Also appearing on stage: Manuel Alejandro on congas & vocals; Anton Denner on flute and sax; Willie Martinez on drums & vocals; singer Sofia Tosello and rock-solid bass player Jennifer VincentMembers of the group have performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Betty Carter, Frank Wess, Sheila E., Bobby Sanabria, Paquito D'Rivera, Chico O'Farrill, Bebel Gilberto and many others.
Be our guests for a most memorable and exuberant evening
Saturday, August 30th, 8pm
White tablecloth cabaret seating with snacks & drinks: $40
Regular seating: $15 in advance, $20 at the door
Click here to buy tickets online for this event
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September 6th
Handmade / Handmaid: Performance Poems
Barbara Kilpatrick and Elise Kermani
Handmade/Handmaid: Performance Poems is a new interdisciplinary set and sound installation by visual artist Barbara Kilpatrick and sound designer Elise Kermani. The ambient light, sounds and sense of space of the Opera House itself form the kernel of the piece, which began as a residency during which the collaborators created and photographed the work. For this evening the artists will show the video documenting their project.
Barbara Kilpatrick's sculpture functions as set, costume and installation. Elise Kermani's music combines the sounds of everyday life with citations and erasures from Scarlatti. She plays the "LumenTar," a new electronic instrument the triggers its sounds with light sensors.
Handmade / Handmaid refers to the ways that working women, mothers, daughters, and sweethearts carved out their creative lives amid the lives of others, creating small, intimate works (lap-work, such as quilts or doilies), then sewing them together.
Click here to buy tickets online for this event
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