NaCl celebrates new winterized home

A weekend of gala events is planned

By TOM KANE

HIGHLAND LAKE, NY — 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.

“This makes it possible to hold a range of theatre-art events and training for students of theatre throughout the winter as well as the summer,” Krumholz said. Launching the year-round season will be is a solo performance by Kowalchuk, directed by Krumholz, on the weekend of March 24 through 25 at 8:00 p.m. The production is an adaptation of a novel by the Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, called “The Passion According to GH.”

“Other theatre companies who will rent our space will produce some shows in the winter, but we’re only in the discussion stage,” Krumholz said.

The schedule for the celebration weekend begins on Friday, February 3 with a sit-down benefit dinner. One-hundred twenty seats are available at $60 a plate in the theatre. The Carriage House in Barryville will prepare the meal. Entertainment will follow.

On Saturday, February 4, an Art Party will be jointly sponsored by NaCl and WJFF radio, and will begin at 7:00 p.m. with cocktails and a silent auction. The work of local artists, donated to NaCl, will be auctioned off. At 8:00 p.m. activities in the theatre will include stilt walkers, a trapeze artist, music, poetry, an accordion player and other surprises. At 10:00 p.m., DJ Chucks and Uncle Paulie’s Old Skool Session from WJFF will hold a live broadcast and a dance. Tickets are $5.

Monies raised at the Art Party will be evenly divided between the two sponsoring groups.

“On Sunday, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., a family theatre day and craft show will be held,” Kowalchuk said. “ ‘Time Cycle,’ a play for young people, will be presented. It’s about a time-traveler who gets lost. She meets a young Albert Einstein, Leonardo DaVinci and an alchemist woman disguised as a man. This play has been done in schools by NaCl and at the theatre. Students react well to it. They love it.”

Tickets are $5 each or $20 a family.

This is the main fundraiser the laboratory will hold this year. Sponsorships will be encouraged, with contributions ranging from the category of friend for $60, supporter for $250 to $500, benefactor for $550 to $1,000, sponsor for $1,000 to $3,000, and patron for $3,000 to $5,000.

Creative theatre by two creative people

You’re not going to find conventional theatre at NaCl. The best words to describe this kind of theatre are “creative,” “personal,” “experiential,” “experimental,” “community-based,” “progressive,” “non-linear,” and “free-ranging.”

“We emphasize physical training for our actors,” Kowalchuk said. “Our actors must move. The physical work is part of our philosophy. The actors build the plays. We are all writers, but not sit-down writers. We actually go in and work physically to compose our plays. In order to integrate new actors into the company, we have to show them how we work. The actor needs to keep the instrument alive.”

“We’re also a business,” Krumholz said. “Any business will attract a certain kind of customer. If you have a coffee shop and someone doesn’t drink coffee, they’re not going to come. We are showing a certain kind of theater and a certain kind of art, and if there are people who don’t like that, they won’t be expected to come and that’s fine. It’s the same as anything else. The people who do like it come.”

Vive la difference

“The reason we’re different is that our consumer-base is founded on the nature of the art we present, and also based on the friendship and community feeling that we exchange with our audience,” he said. “Our commodity is communication and expression and creativity, and that’s what people are interested in consuming when they come here.”

Brad is planning a new theatre piece next. “We’ll start work in ensemble in March, April and May. It’s about Sherlock Holmes. I’m not focusing on the form it will take but on the content, plot, characters, etc. and will add music later. It’s an ensemble piece with members of the company. We’ll take a break and resume in the fall again, and finish it and produce it in November.”

This summer, the company will again produce The Catskill Festival of New Theatre, a four-week festival that showcases experimental theater groups from around the globe. “We will invite some of the best groups in the world,” Kowalchuk said.

For more information on NaCl and its program, call 845/557-0694 or visit its website at nacl.org.

NaCL training retreat

HIGHLAND LAKE, NY — NaCl is now accepting applications for a training retreat for performers, directors and theater makers to be held this summer from June 18 to July 2.

During the retreat, participants will live and eat at the NaCl artists’ residence and train intensively with NaCl founders Brad Krumholz and Tannis Kowalchuk, and guest-teacher Ker Wells.

The retreat is designed for those interested in ensemble theater, solo work, devised performance, physical theater adaptations, and experimental and original theatre creation.

Tuition for the two weeks is $1150 for workshops, housing and food.

For more information call 845/557-0694 or visit nacl.org.