NACL Theatre celebrates 15 years; Let’s walk down memory lane, shall we?

Posted 8/21/12

HIGHLAND LAKE, NY — Widely known as a “community treasure,” NACL Theatre is having its 15-year anniversary this year. The local theatre has grown over the years and is known for its avant-garde …

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NACL Theatre celebrates 15 years; Let’s walk down memory lane, shall we?

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HIGHLAND LAKE, NY — Widely known as a “community treasure,” NACL Theatre is having its 15-year anniversary this year. The local theatre has grown over the years and is known for its avant-garde and stimulating works, as well as its summer artist residency retreat, and a gang of stilt walkers who pop up at community festivals everywhere. The not-for-profit company was founded and is run by Tannis Kowalchuk and Brad Krumholz, and just this year it acquired a new general manager, Julio Garaicoechea, while Brett Keyser, who has been an associate artist with NACL for years, is now production manager.

The theatre’s home in Highland Lake is a restored church building with a renovated boarding house next door for housing visiting artists. In recent years, NACL has wowed audiences and received critical acclaim with performances such as “struck,” a play about a woman who has a stroke, starring Kowalchuk, and “The Weather Project,” a community play about climate change with over 50 performers. And there’s no slowing down for Kowalchuk and crew, who will be taking “The Weather Project” out on the road this year.

The River Reporter has covered this theatre since its inception, so we culled our archives and found these articles chronicling the life of NACL Theatre. Below are excerpts from these stories.

2000: Theatrical evolution in Highland Lake

By JORDAN KINZLER

This weekend and last, North American Cultural Laboratory Theatre (NaCl, yes-that’s the formula for salt) is hosting the first ever Catskills Experimental Theatre Festival in Highland Lake. Currently running through August 13, the festival features avant-garde performances from NaCl and a host of other acclaimed performers, workshops, collaborative forums, cabaret and even a dance party.

Housed in the former Catskill Actors Theatre, NaCl was founded and is currently run by a nucleus of three core members, artistic director Brad Krumholz and troupe performers Allison Waters and Tannis Kowalchuck. Their aim is to help foster the development of unique and challenging, yet accessible, theatrical work. In addition, the team handles all administrative affairs, placing emphasis on the maintenance of a creative decision-making process in which the group’s artistic aims are prioritized.

The River Reporter has covered this theatre since its inception, so we culled our archives and found these articles chronicling the life of NACL Theatre. Below are excerpts from these stories.

2002: New theatre at the NaCl

By MARY GREENE

In its third performance season, the North American Cultural Laboratory (NaCl) is presenting a festival of new theatre highlighting artists and ensemble groups from Canada, Thailand and the Ukraine as well as the U.S. The shows take place in the beautifully renovated Highland Lake theatre, a versatile space that was once a church. In this intimate and warm setting, the NaCl performances have one thing in common: they engage the audience in a way that is very important to co-founders Brad Krumholz and Tannis Kowalchuk.

“We are interested in connecting with a general audience,” said Krumholz. “Much of the energy in our work is in trying to connect with that audience. This connection is essential to our understanding of the piece. The theatre that is created is a gift for the audience, not for ourselves.”

NaCl was founded in November of 1997 in New York City, and moved its summer operation upstate in 1999. That summer, they were mainly involved in renovation work. They gave their first festival in 2000.

2006: NaCl celebrates new winterized home; A weekend of gala events is planned

By TOM KANE

The heat is on—literally.

A new system of radiant heat, installed under the floor of the North American Cultural Laboratory (NaCl) Theatre, will provide a means for this innovative art center, which creates and performs original theater that is process-oriented, actor-generated and director-devised, to function year round.

The installation of the newly arrived warmth will be celebrated with a gala weekend on February 3 to 5.

Since 1999, when co-founders Brad Krumholz and Tannis Kowalchuk moved the company from New York City to Sullivan County, performances of the extraordinary experimental theatre company, now in its seventh season, have been limited to the summer months. The theatre is a renovated church with a three-story ex-boarding house where festival participants are housed.

2010: Fabulous fun: the NACL turns 10

By JONATHAN FOX

Although no longer husband and wife, the dynamic duo behind the curtain determined years ago that their commitment was destined to continue in a different way: to each other, to their students and to their love of the theatre—a bond that keeps the pair permanently intertwined.

Considered by some as “one of the best-kept secrets in the Catskills” both Kowalchuk and Krumholz agree that they would like the “secret” of NACL to come out. “Our audience has grown exponentially over the years,” Kowalchuk said, “but we are always seeking new ways to reach the folks who are still unaware of the theatre and what surprises are in store as the festival unfolds this year.”

2012: From CSA to CSArts; NACL deepens its roots by reaching out

A tried and true practice that has sustained many farms and the communities they serve is being creatively applied to a respected regional theatre. Having experienced the transformative power of community through the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at Willow Wisp Farm in Damascus, PA, Tannis Kowalchuk, who assists husband Greg Swartz in operating the farm, began to see possibilities for a similar initiative at NACL Theatre in Highland Lake, where co-founder Kowalchuk is artistic director.

Now in its 12th season of innovative contemporary performance, film, music and art, NACL is bringing its homegrown product to the localvore movement through CSArts, based on the model of a farm CSA. A person or family would buy a share in the theatre at the beginning of the season and, as an invested member, reap the benefit of local arts produce.

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