Caryl Churchill's A Number closed in October at the Ancram Center for the Arts, 1330 County Route 7. The final two dates on the 2026 calendar are a new music-theater piece still being written and an afternoon of Ancram-area residents telling stories from their own lives.
Neither one is a finished show, and that suits the building. The hall was put up in 1927 to bring a farming community together in one room, and both November events need an audience in the room to finish the work.
A hall built for the people in the room
The Center's history page explains that the building opened in 1927 as Ancram Grange #955. It was a chapter of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, formed "to address the social, educational and economic concerns of the region's farmers." It sits above the Roeliff Jansen Kill.
Since then the building has gone through several identities:
- 1927: Ancram Grange #955, a meeting hall for the area's farm families.
- 1972: Renamed the Ancram Opera House and reused as an arts venue for light operatic fare. Over the years it also hosted film showings, vaudeville acts, lectures and social gatherings.
- 2016: New leadership turned the hall toward "inventive contemporary theatrical performances to be shared by a rural community." The Center describes this as a return to its origins.
- 2022: The organization announced its new name, Ancram Center for the Arts, along with a larger campus that adds space for community meetings, gatherings and housing for artists and interns. Berkshire On Stage reported the change on September 8, 2022.
The expansion included an Annex next door at 1326 County Route 7. According to Berkshire On Stage, the co-directors described it as a response to requests for more programming and more ways for the community to take part.
Jeffrey Mousseau and Paul Ricciardi, the Center's directors, have led it since that 2016 turn. In their note for the 2026 season they say "The Ancram Center is entering its second decade," and they describe theater's shared experience as a way to "take stock and reflect on what keeps us open and humane."
That emphasis on a shared experience explains how the season ends.
Sunday, November 8: a residency's last afternoon
The first of the two closing events is part of Play Lab 2026, the program's seventh year. Play Lab gives theater artists time, space and resources to develop a new project. Each selected team spends a week in residence in Ancram and finishes with a work-in-progress showing. During that week the Center tries to connect the artists with the community through workshops, open rehearsals and audience discussions.
This Sunday, November 8, at 4pm, the showing is Be Safe I Love You, a new music-theater piece with a book by Darrah Cloud and music and lyrics by Stephanie Salzman. It is based on Cara Hoffman's novel and follows Iraq War veteran Lauren Clay as she comes home to Watertown, New York, where she tries to protect her family from a threat only she can see. The Center calls it "a story about class, loyalty, and the wars that follow soldiers home." Tickets are sold through the Center's ticketing page.
Play Lab's first 2026 residency, in late May, was Clarence, in a Pause: A Listening Party by MacArthur Fellows Taylor Mac and Heather Christian. Both showings sold out. Earlier Play Lab seasons developed David Cale's Blue Cowboy and Mary Murfitt's Framed: The Murder of Beulah Simons in 2025, and Centuries by Kate Douglas, Matthew Dean Marsh and Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez in 2024. So the November showing is the second Play Lab of the year, and the format has a track record.
A work-in-progress showing is the end of a working week, presented to the public while the piece is still being written. The artists find out what is working by watching the audience react, so whoever comes on Sunday afternoon becomes part of how the piece develops.
Saturday, November 21: the stage goes to the neighbors
Thirteen days later the Center hands the stage to people who are not professional performers.
Paul Ricciardi started Real People Real Stories in 2016, the same year the new leadership took over. Berkshire On Stage noted in 2022 that the series had run every season since. Residents shape their personal stories into monologues in workshops led by Ricciardi or lead teaching artist Sarah Katan, then perform them for the community.
The fall edition is Saturday, November 21, at 3pm, and features three storytellers:
- Frédérique Abramovici lives in Ancram. She draws and writes poetry and short stories, and the Center's page says she feels at home in Ancram "because it is very much an artistic hub." Her story is about unexpected connections she made while swimming at Jacob Riis Park Beach on a hot July day in 1972.
- Carol Morley lives in Castleton-on-Hudson and is a cyclist and long-distance walker. Her story begins with a 2007 newspaper notice for a photo exhibit and follows where it led her years later.
- Martin Schwartz of Ancramdale will tell a story about an unusual challenge he faced while growing his business.
Tickets are on the Center's ticketing page. The fall storytelling afternoon is the last upcoming event on the 2026 season schedule.
The series also keeps an open door for future storytellers. Anyone who has a story to tell is asked to email Paul Ricciardi at [email protected]. The page lists no application form and no deadline.
November 21 is also the market's last Saturday
The storytelling afternoon falls on the closing day of the Copake Hillsdale Farmers Market. Its 2026 season runs Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, from May 16 through November 21. The market and the Center's final event share a date, so it is possible to shop the market in the morning and be in Ancram for the 3pm show.
Other November dates nearby fit the same pattern of local programming at a small scale. The Roe Jan Community Library calendar lists a screening of The Extraordinary Caterpillar on Saturday, November 14, from 2 to 3:30pm, and a webinar called "FDR and Veteran's Day" on Monday, November 16, from 6:30 to 7:30pm.
| Date | Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, November 8 | 4pm | Be Safe I Love You, Play Lab showing | Ancram Center for the Arts |
| Saturday, November 14 | 2–3:30pm | Film screening, The Extraordinary Caterpillar | Roe Jan Community Library |
| Monday, November 16 | 6:30–7:30pm | Webinar, "FDR and Veteran's Day" | Roe Jan Community Library |
| Saturday, November 21 | 9am–1pm | Final market day of the 2026 season | Copake Hillsdale Farmers Market |
| Saturday, November 21 | 3pm | Real People Real Stories, fall edition | Ancram Center for the Arts |
What the building is for
The Grange that built this hall in 1927 used it to address farmers' social, educational and economic concerns, together and in person. Ninety-nine years later the Center's last two events of the year follow the same idea. A visiting artistic team tests a new piece in front of the people who live here, and then three storytellers, two of them from Ancram and Ancramdale, stand on the same stage and speak directly to their neighbors.
The building has had three names and several kinds of programming. The 2016 history line, "to be shared by a rural community," describes its purpose in every one of them.
Many of the properties we represent across Ancram, Ancramdale and the Roe Jan valley have long histories of their own, and how a place has been cared for over the decades is part of its value. If you own one of them and are thinking about its next chapter, the Hudson Valley Team at Compass can help you plan that transition with discretion and attention to its history. Start a Confidential Consultation.
