Pine Plains probably isn't the first place most think of when it comes to the performing arts. A postcard-panorama panoply populated by farm fields, rolling meadows, and the wooded mountain land alluded to in its name, the town and hamlet offer a whiff of fertilizer and the chirping of crickets—not the smell of greasepaint and the roar of the crowd (or vice versa). Pine Plains, though, actually does have some performance-related history: In the 1880s it was the winter home of P. T. Barnum's circus animals; its actor residents have included Bob Hastings ("As the World Turns") and Philip Amelio ("Life with Lucy"); and it has the renovated Stissing Center for Arts and Culture, which opened in 1915 as Memorial Hall, a vaudeville theater.
Still, rural it is. And while community productions of "Our Town" and "Grease" likely play well in such a setting, a three-weekend festival of experimental theater might face a challenge. But if there's one local who's up for that challenge, it's Robert Lyons, who ran Manhattan's legendary New Ohio Theatre for 30 years and is producing the first annual Downtown Upstate Theater Festival, which will take place in the Pine Plains area September 7-22.
"I actually like a good production of 'Our Town' or 'Grease,'" admits the playwright and director, who with his wife, performance artist Leonora Champagne, herself a playwright and actor who will offer a free workshop on solo and alternative performance at the festival, moved to town in 2016. "Theater's a big tent, and there's room for all kinds of styles. For us, 'downtown' doesn't necessarily mean 'inaccessible'; it means theater that's driven by idiosyncratic artists and passion. In contemporary culture there's a lot more theater and film that uses surrealism and non-linear storytelling than there once was. So you don't really see people worrying as much these days that they need to be 'sophisticated' to enjoy what's called experimental or avant-garde theater."
Staged at the Stissing Center and at the Ancram Center for the Arts in neighboring Ancram, the inaugural festival will present three intriguing works: Marguerite Duras's "La Musica Deuxieme" directed by Jessica Burr (September 7-8); Gertude Stein's "Plays" directed by David Greenspan (September 21-22); and Lyons's "Puzzling Evidence," which he will direct (September 14-15).
The selection of the Duras and Stein plays betrays a feminist thread that Lyons admits he hadn't considered when putting together the lineup. "That's a good thing but it wasn't necessarily a conscious decision," he muses. "It was more because the material itself appeals to me, and because of the directors involved. Jessica Burr is the founding artistic director of noted [theatrical company] Blessed Unrest, and David Greenspan is a legendary downtown director and writer who's won six Obie Awards."
Born in suburban Detroit, Lyons earned an English degree from Michigan State University and initially wrote poems and short stories. He got the playwrighting bug in the 1970s upon seeing an Israel Horowitz play performed as the opening act for blues guitarist Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson and hanging out with the troupe. In 1987 he moved to New York and took a job as the production manager for a play at the Off-Off-Broadway Ohio Theatre. That year he talked the landlord into letting him run the space, an endeavor that lasted for nine years at the Wooster Street site before the building was sold and the operation relocated to Christopher Street in the West Village. There, under the auspices of Lyons's Soho Think Tank organization, it reopened as the New Ohio Theatre. Over the course of his long leadership of the Ohio and New Ohio (the latter closed in 2023), Lyons oversaw productions featuring such artists as Taylor Mac, Mimi Lien, Knud Adams, Sam Gold, and James Ortiz and companies like the Mad Ones, Half Straddle, and Elevator Repair Service.
A prolific playwright, Lyons is the author of "My Onliness," "Yovo," and "Last Gasp of the Liberal Class," and many other works. His "Puzzling Evidence" is a comedic mini-musical that explores the relationship of two left-wing activists touring their self-described "Post-Capitalist Realist" concert program.
"People who haven't seen much experimental theater shouldn't be afraid to come check it out," he says. "We're not doing anything crazy or super-experimental. Just come and be open and you'll have a meaningful experience. We'll meet you halfway."
