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John Patrick Shanley directs Kyra Sedgwick and Annika Boras in "The Danish Widow." (Photos by Buck Lewis.)
By Robert Burke Warren Chances are good that at least one great playwright is, at this moment, making last minute adjustments to his/her script for a Powerhouse Theater performance of a future award-winning work. It wouldn’t be the first time; Tony winners American Idiot and Doubt began at Powerhouse. And just this season, Powerhouse enticed leading playwrights Terrence McNally, David Henry Hwang, Marsha Norman and others to contribute to one of its productions. Few endeavors are more aptly named than the Powerhouse Theater. Currently enjoying its 30th season, this collaboration between Vassar College in Poughkeepsie and Manhattan-based theater company New York Stage & Film helps emerging and established playwrights develop and produce new work, mounting up to 20 productions in a compressed 8-week span, and inviting audiences to join the fun. 2014 highlights include The Danish Widow, a new play from Tony/Oscar/Pulitzer-award-winning John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Joe Versus the Volcano), and performances from bona fide screen stars Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Robert Morse (Mad Men), and T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy), plus direction from Broadway eminence Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal).
Leslie Bibb and Josh Radnor in "The Babylon Line."
Co-founder Mark Linn-Baker – known to many as Cousin Larry from the long-running sitcom Perfect Strangers – launched NYSAF and Powerhouse to emphasize experimentation and risk-taking, qualities most Broadway producers abhor. “We value the artist, and the impulse," says Linn-Baker. “We give the work a chance to grow on its own terms. There are fewer and fewer places to do that." Each summer, New York Stage & Film imports 250 pros — directors, actors, technicians, playwrights, screenwriters — and 50 apprentices to Vassar’s sylvan setting, on which sits a century-old red brick building that once housed the generators used to power the college (hence the name). Extensively revamped, the Powerhouse now contains a main stage, plus smaller theaters for readings and workshops. Inspired by Lee Strasberg’s legendary Group Theater, which fled Manhattan summers to work in the Connecticut woods, NYSAF founders specifically chose a locale two hours from urban distractions, where creative juices flow unimpeded amid the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley. “Vassar is fertile soil," says John Patrick Shanley, whose Savage In Limbo was part of Powerhouse’s first season way back in 1985. “It’s got an energy that’s emanating from New York City, like satellite radio coming in to this strange, pastoral dream of a place." Kyra Sedgwick, who appears in Shanley’s The Danish Widow, from July 16 -27, appreciates the distance from paparazzi and the press. “There aren’t many places where people can be imperfect," she says. “At Powerhouse, you can try new things, and have a place to play without being criticized." For audiences, the Powerhouse season offers chances to witness and even influence art in its infancy. “The audience is genius," says Shanley. "You just have to listen to them. The response is warm, but they’re not fools. If it sucks, it sucks."
Adesola Osakulumi and Oneika Phillips in rehearsal for "In Your Arms."
Artistic director Johanna Pfaelzer treasures the unique audience-as-creative-force aspect of Powerhouse. She notes how feedback to this summer’s acclaimed dance-theater-video piece In Your Arms affected the show’s development, a one-of-a-kind collaboration between Tony-award-winning choreographer Christopher Gattelli and ten playwrights, including Carrie Fisher and Christopher Durang, with music by Stephen Flaherty (Rocky, Ragtime, Seussical) and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime, Anastasia). “The creators gauged how the audience reacted to the first three performances, and they re-crafted the opening accordingly," she says. “And our audiences know their reactions impact the work, and that’s thrilling for them." Apparently, word gets around; attendance to Powerhouse productions increases every year, even in light of the current Golden Age of Television, plus Netflix, et al. “TV writing in particular is at an all time high," Pfaelzer says. “But rather than try to compete with that, we recognize the experience of going to the theatre, of a story told to a collective group, is no more or less valuable, just wildly different. It’s always scary to see shifts in taste and practice, but there's something really transformative that happens to people in the collective experience of live theater." The next few weeks of Powerhouse include The Danish Widow (starring Kyra Sedgwick), the musical adaptation of the 1999 movie A Walk On the Moon (directed by Michael Greif), and a reading of Laugh, a new play by Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart). Powerhouse Theater, through July 27 Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie (845) 437-5599
