Continuing its 2023 focus on incubating and growing new artistic work, Ancram Opera House (AOH) will present a double-bill of innovative works-in-progress by Hudson Valley-based artists Seth McNeill and Emily Rubin. Performances will be at Ancram Opera House, 1330 County Route 7, Ancram, on Sunday, July 9th at 4pm. Tickets are $20, or $15 for students (with a valid student ID) and are available online at ancramoperahouse.org.
Bullet, by Seth McNeill, delves into the darkly comic depths of a solo play deconstructed through a hilariously failed TED talk, unraveling themes of depression, isolation, family trauma, and the internal struggle of artists to find their place in the world.
Cancer Cabaret, by Emily Rubin, Maryann DeLeo, and Christine Koenig, with music by Michael Inge, lets audiences experience the transformative power of musical theatre as these artists, who are also cancer survivors, interpret difficult moments and triumphs through song and storytelling.
In addition, as part of its mission to foster community connection through the performing arts, Ancram Opera House will host two free writing workshops led by Rubin and McNeill where attendees will participate in the same process the artists used to develop their Summer Play Lab works. In The Write Treatment Workshop, July 6, 3-5pm with Emily Rubin, attendees will use the craft of writing and sharing their work as a creative and therapeutic practice. In Seth McNeill’s MONODIALOGUE, July 8, 10-12, attendees will practice free-writing to construct delightful self-dialogues made up of the interruptions and self-contradictions in normal conversations and stream of consciousness. To register, visit ancramoperahouse.org/workshops.
About the Artists
Playwright and theatre artist Seth McNeill’s plays have been developed/presented at Gingold Theatrical Group, Valdez Theatre Conference, Dixon Place, and other venues. He has been a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Prize and the Shakespeare New Contemporaries Prize. His short play Sad Lonely People will be published in Smith & Kraus’ Best 10-Minute Plays of 2023.
Novelist Emily Rubin is a past nominee for the Pushcart Prize, the first recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writers Award, and a finalist in the International Book Awards. Her debut novel, Stalina, was a pick in the 2009 Amazon Debut Novel Award Contest. She founded “The Write Treatment” workshops for NYC and upstate New York cancer centers, teaching the process of writing as catharsis and empowerment and drawing on her own experience as a cancer patient. She has also edited an award-winning anthology of writing from workshop cancer patients, survivor, and caregivers.
About Summer Play Lab
Now in its fourth season, Summer Play Lab (SPL) offers artists of all practices a space to develop and present works-in-progress as part of AOH’s summer season. In May, acclaimed theater artists and 2023 SPL Residents David Cale, Dael Orlandersmith, Matthew Dean Marsh and director Robert Falls presented their new music-theatre piece in the making, You Don’t Know the Lonely One.
Ancram Opera House is an award-winning theater located in New York’s Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, AOH has since 2016 presented groundbreaking theater and musical performances by nationally recognized theater artists. AOH receives significant annual support from the New York State Council on the Arts and in 2023 was awarded a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information visit www.ancramoperahouse.org.