As Bryan would say, it’s time for an Honesty Moment.
As many of the visitors to this website and most of my friends know, the better part of my summers as a child (teen, whatever the hell I was back then) were spent at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts training center in the Catskill mountains. I have more great memories of that place than I can fathom – and a few of those great memories quite literally went up in flames yesterday.
On one of the edges of the property along Karmel Road sat an old barn that had been converted into an ersatz theater many years ago. (Actually, many spaces on the grounds had been converted into ersatz theaters, but that was part of the Stagedoor charm.) That barn (the Barn Theater, natch) was home to 6 major productions a summer, as well as acting classes, discussions about the industry, rehearsals for student directing projects, and several bats – many of whom enjoyed swooping down in the middle of performances. There wasn’t much to it; aside from porches on either side of the building functioning as “wing space”, it was indistinguishable from any normal Barn. Well, except that it had singing emanating from it most afternoons.
The Barn Theater burned to the ground yesterday morning, victim of an electrical fire.
Everyone always joked about the Barn at Stagedoor – wondering when it would roll down the hill, collapse under its own weight, or otherwise just evaporate into dust. But for all the joking, the Barn Theater was a constant – unchanging (except maybe for a new paint job every now and then) and comfortable. I have so many memories of that theater – Jack Romano’s Acting Technique classes, during which the Barn became a subway platform, a crystal forest, an audition room, a jungle…rehearsing and performing 5 major productions over an eight year period (and fighting for a little space in the cramped backstage area)…my first real venture into Stage Management, Lauren Gleisher’s student director’s festival production of “Sorry, Wrong Number” came together in the Barn…Jack’s “Theater Talks” sessions, where he held court twice a week, answering questions from impressionable youths trying to get their start in the business…
I’ve been told that they’re going to rebuild on the site. That the new theater will be state-of-the-art, with full-size dressing rooms & brand new everything. But as much as it will fill a need for a new theater, I don’t think it can ever replace the Barn.
Jack Romano died in 1991. The Barn Theater (his theater) died 10 years later. Another piece of my childhood gone – unrecoverable. And another piece of the Stagedoor Manor Experience is lost for future generations.