Little Theater on the Farm

What do you mean,” Tear it down”?

2010-03-20T08:49:00.000-04:00

When I bought the property in April 2001 I was delighted with the dilapidated little shed between the house and barn. It had all the charm of the little cottages featured in the “before shots” in gardening magazines. I even used the Norman Rockwell’s Spring Flowers as motivation, as I continued to teach in Brooklyn and commute on weekends. Someday I would renovate it, against the advice of many.

The floor joists were destroyed and one day I fell through the rotted flooring. Needless to say that was because you could see daylight through the roof. The end window opening was round and provided a grand entrance for the birds. The building was full of junk, everything from my cousin’s motorcycle parts, by the ton, and old gardening stuff that had belonged to my uncle. This picture will save a thousand words.

Once the theater was “finished” and most of the house restored, my mind was free to get into more trouble. (By the way, old buildings are never finished.) One day, while in Curves, I was ease dropping on a conversation. The owner wanted to know who knew where the transfer station was because her mother has lumber to get rid of. I sprang into action and offered my assistance. Within 4 hours I was the proud owner of pressure treated 14’- 2x6’s from two decks with the nails already pulled. That is the moment I decided to restore the shed.

The floor was in such bad condition that we suspended floor joists above it. ( made of the 2x6’s). I bought (hate that word) flooring. The windows were some of the remains from the solarium mentioned in an earlier post. The doors are discarded storm doors from the transfer station.

We had put a new roof on one side years ago and now we finished the other side. I bought novelty siding and had it all redone, except for one corner, which I decided to leave in disrepair as a constant reminder of how things were. I picture hollyhocks growing next to it.

It is absolutely delightful. I have decided to rent it out as an artist’s studio with the money going to help support the theater.

What leak?

2010-02-23T10:22:00.003-05:00

(Tom at the saw)

Right to left: lobby windows, sliding door to back stage, green room.

Large building is theater

As I have stated in earlier, the theater is in an 1840’s post and beam barn with several sheds attached to facilitate backstage and the green room. Whenever we had a serious rain storm there would be several leaks, especially in the backstage area, right above and on the electrical system.

To solve the problem we put flashing where the roof meets the barn and even installed a new roof. We believed the problem was solved. Wrong!!! It seems that when the storms come out of the south the leaks return. We had more opinions on what went wrong than you could possibly imagine. The leaks were not coming from any visible source. There was no way of tracing it back to the beginning.

Finally it dawned on somebody that the problem was not with the backstage area, but with the siding on the barn above the roof. Old barns have a board and batten siding. Rough cut lumber (board) is installed vertically and 2” strips of wood (battens) are attached to cover the cracks. The rain was blowing in past the battens and running down the cracks to the room below.

February was quite mild around here and we had men and boys from the county alternative sentencing program to work on projects around the theater. We asked them to remove the battens, therefore creating a flat surface. I bought novelty siding, which are the horizontal boards used on barns and houses. Our crew stained the boards Navaho red to match the other buildings and they installed the new siding. They were working on the roof in sweatshirts in the middle of February!

The Hudson River Shakespeare Company appreciates our attempts at a black box theater setting, but the window above the stage was a problem. We had it covered and when the new siding went on we uncovered it briefly so the new siding could cover it. This allowed a beautiful stream of light to flood the theater. We were finally able to capture interior shots of the theater.

Along Came Tom

2010-01-28T16:21:00.001-05:00

I cannot take credit for developing the theater by myself. A friend came to my rescue, but he says that if he had known what he was getting into…

Tom DuFore was a delightful addition to the project. I was new to the area and he knew everybody. One day he stood in the doorway of the back barn and said he had the perfect name,”Little Theater on the Farm”. I knew instantly that he was the right. It would be several years before we learned the history of “Little Theaters.”

Tom was the local code enforcement officer and building inspector. Everything we did had to be according to code. Ray Campanaro called him and said he had a barn full of theater seats, did he know anyone who could use them? “Free” is my favorite word. When Tom told me about them I arranged to pick them up, just one mile from my home. We say that the theater seats 71 ½. The old wooden seats came in sections of up to ten seats, which would not fit on my truck. I took a sawzall and cut a couple of seats in half so I could transport them. When we did the layout for the theater we had small spot to fill, therefore we added the ½ seat, which my granddaughter Maggie thinks is her special spot.

We saved money whereever we could. I am a recycling fanatic. A man, who was demolishing an 1840’s house in Fort Edward, asked Tom how he could dispose of the beams, lumber and bricks. Within an hour I was there with my trusty-rusty red truck. We used these materials to build the lobby and restrooms in the area where they used to load the manure spreader

Tom’s son, a contractor, was hired to demolish a 50’ solarium and brought us all of the windows and aluminum trim. We used some of the windows in the lobby and recycled the aluminum for $340.00. We became known as, “The stop before you take stuff to the transfer station.” What we could not use we sold at garage sales.

Immediately upon planning the project I formed a non-profit corporation. Once again Tom came to the rescue. The people who headed the Washington County Alternative Sentencing Program asked Tom if he knew a non-profit that could use help. They had to place their “clients” in work projects. Within two weeks we had a steady flow of workers. You know your project is on the right track when things fall into your lap like this. One of the first people to show up was a master electrician with 400 hours to serve. He rewired the main barn, lobby, theater and backstage.

The is the north side of the dairy barn when I bought it. My son just shook his head. It has been fully restored, including an interior steel beam found at a garage sale ,of course.

The picture to the right is of the theater when we removed the back to put in 2 -14' doors to accomodate overflow crowds. Tom's idea and handiwork.

To the left, a shot of the complex featuring the theater in the center with backstage being the lower building attached. The last is the green room.

This is the entrance to the complex. Patrons enter the dairy barn,

walk past the exhiblits to the lobby where they buy tickets and use restrooms. They proceed into the theater and are amazed by the charm of the 1840's barn.

For more pictures visit our website: http://www.littletheater27.com/

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They said I was crazy!!!

2010-01-06T13:34:00.001-05:00

I purchased a house, barns, sheds and ten acres in Fort Edward in 2001 and believe it or not I commuted on weekends from my teaching job in Brooklyn. That’s 4 hours each way!
How a Dutchess County “girl” ends up teaching in Brooklyn and buying rundown property in Washington County is a long story, for another time.
I love to renovate and was very busy stabilizing the house and had totally forgotten about the 1840’s post and beam barn at the end of the complex of barns and sheds. I remember being in there once and saying this would make a good conference center, but decided that was too boring and forgot about it.
One morning, about 2 years after the purchase, I woke up with a vision. The idea of a theater was laid out before me in great detail. I had retired from teaching and this project definitely seemed to match teaching in Bedford Stuyvesant for excitement.
I had an exhilarating burst of excitement which did not seem to fade. I started telling friends and family. They all thought I was nuts! You see, the barn in question had been used as a hay and heifer barn. This equals 4 feet of manure and hay over a decade old. I found out later that God was the only thing holding the barn up.
The closest I every came to being connected with theater is the 6 years my son Rob went to acting lessons in Poughkeepsie at Estelle and Alfonso Studios. Major productions were held alt least twice a year and I was always backstage helping with quick change. My cousin Jack Koenig is a well known, award winning, Broadway actor, but I had no such desires. I’m an organizer, not an actor.
Within a week I went to Sandy Hills Days in Hudson Falls (a big 3 miles away) and stumbled across the booth of the Hudson River Shakespeare Company. I asked Andy Daly, “If I build a theater will anyone come?” He could hardly contain his excitement! He assured me that they had always wanted to have their own theater, but couldn’t afford it.
They just completed their 4th successful season this summer and are booked for 2010 season which runs from April to the end of October. http://www.hudsonrivershakespeare.org/ for the rest of their schedule, in warmer digs.

Here is why we are a seasonal theater!

Learn more about us without waiting for my next post. http://www.littletheater27.com/