The Rural We: Vanessa Baer

One of the founders of Definitely Human Theatre (DHT), Vanessa Baer has lived in Poughkeepsie most of her life, and is a graduate of Dutchess Community College and Western Connecticut State University. She also works in administration and communications at the Ancram Opera House and is a teaching artist at Taconic Hills Elementary. She and her co-directors of Definitely Human Theatre are gearing up for their next production, “Dance Nation,” at The Center for Performing Arts At Rhinebeck from September 8-17, which Baer is co-directing.

My theater career started with the Dutchess Community College Theater Arts program, where I met all the founding members of Definitely Human Theatre. That where we developed our aesthetics and goals. We all went off to get our bachelor’s degrees and some got master’s, but came back to the Hudson Valley a little bit jaded with the processes at those institutions. People overlook how powerful a community college theater program can be; it’s what made us multi-hyphenate theater makers. We decided we could make theater ourselves, the way we saw it.

Definitely Human Theatre came about during the pandemic, which gave us space to think about what we wanted to do. We started out in 2022 with a production of “Howie The Rookie,” by Mark O’Rowe, with just the four of us co-founders, two being the actors and two working the production elements. Now we’re growing to a point that’s really exciting. We have a production crew of around 20 people. It’s a passion project: everyone volunteers their time.

DHT is interested in demystifying the theater process; we feel theater tends to be put up a lot of access barriers. We want to open the door to anyone who has interest in theater and feel that it’s important to bring the “weird stuff” to the community, and to grow in a way that feels community focused.

“Dance Nation” is collectively one of our favorite plays of all time. It was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in drama, and the playwright, Clare Barron, fascinates me with the way she writes. (“Dance Nation,” concerns an army of pre-teen competitive dancers who are plotting to take over the world.) The cast is made up of community members. Some have roots in theater, some are just people who are interested in it. It’s exciting to work with them: you’d be surprised with what people without experience bring to the table. It’s a special thing when someone comes in and doesn’t have experience but is eager to try.

We’re approaching tech week. The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck has been so supportive, giving us the space for rehearsal and our productions. We split the ticket sales, and luckily each show has gotten us enough to make budget for the next show.

I’m really proud of where we are. It feels like we can get to the finish line. To me the finish line is feeling confident about putting a show up every night, where everyone feels taken care of and comfortable on how to tell a story, together. We’re getting closer to that every day.