BETTER THAN HEARSAY Then Summer and Then the Players Return

It was Shakespeare with a Woodstock Festival ’69 twist when the Onteora Park Theater staged its annual in-house (and guest actor) performance, last weekend. Traveling from Windham to the other side of the mountain to take various roles were (front, left to right) brother and sister Matthew and Colleen Weiman (back, left to right) dad and mom Dave and Tara Weiman and extended member of the family Billy Solley, a veteran stageman.

In the land of make believe, back stage at the Onteora Park playhouse with its many props and sets (including a noble knight created by Colleen Weiman).

Onteora Park Theater took their “first ever crack at the Bard,” last weekend, celebrating their 99th year of resident and guest actor stagings, performing William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” 

ONTEORA PARK - In their nearly century-old land of make-believe, nobody in the Onteora Park theater troupe could imagine how they had never staged anything written by William Shakespeare.

’Twas true, but ‘tis no longer that. 

“We’re taking our first ever crack at The Bard,” said Natalie Harrington, a member of the Onteora Theater Committee, last Friday night, moments before the curtain was raised on “Much Ado About Nothing,” penned in 1598 by the English Enchanter himself.

The quaint little playhouse, intimately tucked in the hills above the village of Tannersville, didn’t disappoint, continuing a tradition begun 99 years ago.

Onteora Park performances are the essence of community theater, calling upon the thespian wherewithal of folks living here and whose roots can reach back to the late 1800’s when the Club was founded. 

The place has always drawn people imbedded in the arts, such as Huck Finn’s literary father Mark Twain and Maude Adams, the first Broadway actor to portray Peter Pan, retiring to and dying in these mountains.

Nowadays, there are two shows each year including a children’s program, and then the Bigger Kids, who aren’t shy about carrying a piece of paper onstage with their lines plain to see, if need be.

It’s not the memorization that matters, and there is every reason to believe generations of family members have braved the same amateur footlights.

This version of “Much Ado About Nothing” had a Modern Day twist. Carolyn Wright, the co-director, adapted the action to the summer of 1969 and the legendary Woodstock Music Festival.

“One of the reasons I love Shakespeare so much is the way we can continue to return to the text and make it relatable,” Wright said.

“For more context, most of this show is a nostalgic romp during Woodstock. I urge you to pay attention to the moments in life when people need love and kindness,” Wright said.

Music from the 60’s weaved through the presentation which was dedicated to the memory of Christopher “Kit” Cade, beloved Onteora Theater artistic director and co-founder of the local Maude Adams Theater Hub.

“Onteora Theater exists - and blooms - because of Chris Cade,” the playbill states. “We are blessed to have known him and shared this sacred space.”

Cade, as Shakespeare might say, was by any other name omnipresent, helping out wherever needed, with things magnificent and miniscule.

It is in that exact vein that a family from the Windham side of the mountain made their collective presences felt, here there and everywhere, staying mostly behind the scenes, where the magic takes shape.

On deck for the Friday and Saturday night gigs and rehearsals leading up to showtime were mom and pop Tara and Dave Weiman, their daughter and son Colleen and Matt, and extended family member Billy Solley.

Tara is well known for her coming-up-with-something-out-of-nowhere costume designing, doing it for Windham-Ashland-Jewett school performances the past two decades.

She also works with the Maude Adams Theater Hub, never getting into costume herself, avoiding any possibility she could be mistaken for somebody wanting to be nudged into the limelight.

Dave will get dressed up, but overwhelmingly prefers the invisibility of a stagehand. “I pick things up and put things down,” he says, smiling.

Matt, a WAJ senior, had his first role in 5th grade as Winthrop in “The Music Man,” nailing it, planning to study criminal justice as a collegian.

Colleen, an accomplished visual artist, is slowly but surely getting bitten by the theater bug, serving as stage manager for “Much Ado About Nothing.”

“This is all my mom’s fault,” Colleen claims. “She roped me into helping her with props for “Mary Poppins” which means Matt got roped into it too.”

Solley, theatrically in the thick of it for 30 years, serendipitously became a Shakespeare aficionado. “Somebody gave me a sonnet to recite when I was in college. I was hooked,” he says.

Silence will mostly fill the Onteora Park theater as daylight darkens sooner and autumn acquiesces to winter. But if spring and then summer return, if they do, its players will be close behind.