[Ancram, Aug. 27, 2025] — Ancram Center’s fall season kicks off with Penelope, a cabaret-style musical retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey told from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’s long-suffering wife. With music and lyrics by Alex Bechtel and a book by Bechtel, Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz, who also directs, Penelope will be staged Sept. 17-21, 25-28.
“Odysseus left his wife Penelope alone for 10 years while he was off fighting the Trojan War. Then he took another decade to meander back,” said Paul Ricciardi, Ancram Center Co-Director. “Meanwhile, Penelope – trapped at home, lonely and isolated — ran the city of Ithaca and fended off suitors. In Homer’s version, Penelope was a minor character, meant to be a paragon of fidelity. But this version is a refreshingly feminist take on the Greek epic. And this Penelope has a lot to say.”
McLean, a breakout star of Suffs on Broadway, plays Penelope, backed by a five-piece band, in this first-ever theatrical run to feature her in the starring role. Penelope has been generously supported by Richard and Hannah Ramsden via Goldman Sachs Gives.
On Sunday Oct. 19 at 4pm, Mary Murfitt’s Framed: The Murder of Beulah Simons, will be the second production of Ancram Center’s 2025 Play Lab series. Framed is based on true events: an Ancram love triangle in the early 1940s that ends with a murder, and a questionable trial that leads to the conviction of a young farmhand. Outer Critics and Drama Desk Award-winner—and Ancram resident— Murfitt will present scenes and songs from this musical work-in-progress. Play Lab provides theatre artists off all practices with time, space and resources to develop new, innovative theater projects to be presented at Ancram Center or elsewhere.
Every fall sees a new edition of REAL PEOPLE REAL STORIES, Ancram Center’s signature storytelling program since 2016, where area residents share humorous, poignant and surprising true tales about themselves. The Nov. 22 production will cap the 2025 season.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary season, Ancram Center for the Arts is an award-winning theater located in New York’s Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, Ancram Center is dedicated to presenting risk-taking productions and new work by nationally recognized theater artists in an intimate performance space. Ancram Center’s 2025 season is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.
FALL SEASON AT A GLANCE
PENELOPE
Music & lyrics: Alex Bechtel
Book: Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean & Eva Steinmetz
Directed by Eva Steinmetz
Starring Grace McLean
Sept. 19-21 & 25-28
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays @7pm
Sundays @3pm
Ancram Center
1330 County Route 7, Ancram NY 12502
PLAY LAB RESIDENCY: FRAMED
Book & Lyrics: Mary Murfitt
Music: Mary Murfitt and Pam Drews Phillips
Sunday, Oct. 19 @4pm
Ancram Center
1330 County Route 7, Ancram NY 12502
REAL PEOPLE REAL STORIES
Saturday, November 22 @ 3pm, Ancram Center
1330 County Route 7, Ancram NY 12502
Tickets and information available at www.ancramcenter.org