NEWSLETTER
Highlights include the premiere of Bobby Previte’s solo drum concert, No Bells; No Whistles; a screening of Shortbus (2006) with writer/director John Cameron Mitchell and producer Howard Gertler; and American Terror, a new opera by Jeffrey Lependorf exploring America’s involvement in Vietnam
Hudson, NY (May 16, 2024) -- Hudson Hall announces a celestial summer season including a star-studded film screening, cosmic visual art, fantastical community theater, jazz, and two brand new commissions by pioneering local composers: Bobby Previte’s solo drum concert No Bells; No Whistles (July 27) and a works-in-progress performance of Jeffrey Lependorf’s American Terror, a new opera based on the 1969 “Firing Line” television debate between William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky on America’s involvement in Vietnam. Lependorf also returns with the ever-popular Night of Neo-Benshi!, a wild and witty mash-up of classic film and spoken word co-presented by The Flow Chart Foundation (August 30).
Kasuri and Queer Ass Film Club partner with Hudson Hall’s Movies on Mainstreet series to welcome award-winning writer and director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and producer Howard Gertler (How to Survive a Plague) for a very special screening of their 2006 cult classic, Shortbus (July 12).
Free programming includes a family-friendly theater adaptation of the classic tale The Prince and the Pauper by the young people of Behind the Curtain Theater Club (June 28), the opening of “Cosmic Art”—an exhibition by the late visionary painter and recluse Hans Frank (August 3), and the return of the Hudson Jazz Workshop Concert (August 4) featuring guest trombonist and composer Ed Neumeister.
Tickets go on sale to members Thursday, May 16 and to the public Monday, May 20 at hudsonhall.org or by phone on (518) 822-1438.
SUMMER 2024 EVENTS
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MUSIC
BOBBY PREVITE: NO BELLS, NO WHISTLES
A Concert for Solo Drum Set
Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 7pm
Tickets start at $23 (includes $3 fee)
A world premiere coinciding with the release of his first solo drum record, Bobby Previte performs solo pieces for the modern drum set that will change your perception of the instrument’s identity. Seated in the round, up close to the instrument, the parallel worlds of player and listener dovetail into one.
The drum set is a circle with the drummer as its fluid center, rooted within the architecture but sending out flares of sound beyond the physical boundary. It is of course a glorious machine for rhythm, but by asking the listener to answer the questions posed by its unknowable timbres and pitches, it can also reach the furthest depths of melody, harmony, texture, and narrative. – Bobby Previte
No Bells, No Whistles has been made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
AMERICAN TERROR: AN OPERA
Discussion and work-in-progress performance
Written by Jeffrey Lependorf
Discussion with Jeffrey Lependorf and Dave King
Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 5pm
Tickets: Pay What You Will, reservations recommended
Join us for a discussion and work-in-progress excerpt from Jeffrey Lependorf’s chamber opera—a Hudson Hall commission—made from the 1969 “Firing Line” television debate between William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky on America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Strikingly relevant to world events today, these two masters of discourse voraciously argue about America sending military aid overseas, while somehow failing to effectively communicate with one another. Lependorf sets his original libretto, a kind of translation of the actual debate, by appropriating and reconfiguring music by Haydn and Scriabin.
American Terror has been made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
HUDSON JAZZ WORKSHOP CONCERT
With special guest trombonist and composer Ed Neumeister
Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 3pm
Free, reservations recommended
Now in its 18th year, pianist Armen Donelian and saxophonist Marc Mommaas’ immersive Hudson Jazz Workshop culminates with a concert at Hudson Hall featuring special guest trombonist and composer Ed Neumeister. Neumeister performs with Donelian and Mommaas alongside an international line-up of workshop musicians performing original new works created during the workshop process.
FILM
Movies on Mainstreet:
SHORTBUS (2006, dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 1hr 41min)
Friday, July 12, 2024 at 7pm
Co-presented by Queer Ass Film Club & Kasuri
Screening and Q&A with writer/director John Cameron Mitchell and producer Howard Gertler
Tickets: $18/$15 students (includes fees)
A sex therapist who has never had an orgasm, a dominatrix who is unable to connect, a gay couple considering opening up their relationship, and a colorful cast of characters all converge on a weekly gathering called Shortbus; a mad nexus of art, music, politics, and polysexual carnality. Steamy but sweet, writer/director John Cameron Mitchell’s (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) outrageously explicit cult classic explores the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex in a post-9/11, Bush-exhausted New York City.
Please note, this film is not rated and contains explicit content including depictions of consensual sex, nudity, drug use, and suicide. Please read this 2006 New York Times review before attending.
Movies on Mainstreet is made possible with support from The Law Office of John K. Friedman, LLC
The Flow Chart Foundation:
A NIGHT OF NEO BENSHI!
Friday, August 30, 2024 at 7pm
Tickets: $23/ $18 student (includes fees)
Back by popular demand! The Flow Chart Foundation’s annual “A Night of Neo-Benshi! features a new cavalcade of one-night-only performances of original words performed live to clips from classic films (plus an original short film).
This year, Charles Bernstein, Paolo Javier, Dorothea Lasky, Kamikaze Jones, and Dawn Lundy Martin are among the poets and artists to offer newfangled reimaginings of clips from films such as the Kubrick horror classic The Shining (1980), Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934), Village People disco extravaganza Can’t Stop the Music (1980), and Get Christie Love (1974).
VISUAL ART
HANS FRANK: COSMIC ART
Curated by David Ebony and Jan Orluck
August 3 - September 22, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 3rd from 5-7pm
When art critic and author David Ebony happened upon the paintings of the late Hans Frank in a Rhinebeck home, he was stunned. Brilliantly hued compositions of radiant orbs, sinuous lines and swirling, rhythmic forms covered the walls. Ebony immediately knew he was staring at the work of a bonafide visionary painter.
A German World War II refugee and recluse, Frank produced innumerable colorful, imaginative, hallucinogenic images of the universe inspired by scientific theories of the cosmos and his own explorations of the stars through his powerful studio telescope. After his death at the age of 62 in 1997, Frank’s sister Renata preserved his voluminous body of work—paintings on canvas of various sizes, and many works on paper—exactly as he had left it at the time of his death. Now, for the first time in 55 years, Frank’s extraordinary “Cosmic Art” will be on view in Hudson Hall’s first floor galleries.
COMMUNITY THEATER
Behind the Curtain Theater Club Presents:
PRINCESS AND THE PAUPER
Friday, June 28 at 3pm
Saturday June 29 at 7pm
Free; reservations recommended
Written, directed, and produced by the talented young creatives of Behind the Curtain Theater Club and performed by a cast of over 20 local actors of all ages, Princess and the Pauper is a family-friendly, fantastical retelling of the classic tale, The Prince and the Pauper.
Behind the Curtain Theatre Club was created to be a place for previously unheard youth to tell their own stories. They began as a kind of "spin-off" of the Diata-Diata International Folkloric Theatre. When Pamela Badila retired from over 20 years of writing, producing, and directing her own stories she "passed the torch" to two local young women (ages 15 & 13) who were looking to tell stories of their own and Behind the Curtain Theatre Club was born. A place to tell their own stories, and a place where teens could write stories that matter to them. Stories containing life lessons, morals, and principles that are relatable to them, and told in a way their peers can grasp. The club’s mission is to create an environment where everyone involved is encouraged to come "Behind the Curtain" — to be a part of the entire process. The club is led by Hudson’s youth, with all adult staff and volunteers being "silent partners". They invent the story, write the scripts, direct the cast, and design the scenery and costumes.
SAVE THE DATE: THE 2024 HUDSON JAZZ FESTIVAL
Hudson Jazz Festival, October 4-6, 2024
Hudson Jazz Festival Community Day, Saturday, September 28, 2024
After five years of heating up Hudson each February, the annual Hudson Jazz Festival embraces the natural beauty of Upstate New York by moving to the fall season: October 4-6, 2024, and kicking off with a free Community Day on Saturday, September 28. Lineup to be announced soon.
Photo: Bobby Previte, photo by David McIntyre