An Afternoon at The Schoolhouse Theater

If theater is your thing and you want a new experience (one that is right here in Westchester), take a quick ride up Rt. 684 to Croton Falls and stop at The Schoolhouse Theater.

Schoolhouse is in a beautifully renovated building, which was formerly the Croton Falls School. In the eighties, it was lovingly transformed into a visual arts center and over the following years it fully evolved as a black box theater.  The beauty of this theater is its mission to bring new, innovative and, under Artistic Director Bram Lewis, fully-equipped theater to the public before the said productions head to Manhattan’s Off-Broadway scene.

L.O.V.E.R is “on stage” through the end of this month and it is an almost “first look” at a one-woman” production that is full of great acting, loads of quirky humor and underlying serious themes about the lives of women. Lois Robbins is both the writer and “star” of the play, and delivers an attention-grabbing hour-and-a-half performance.  In true talk-back tradition, Schoolhouse’s plays are sometimes followed by an exchange with the audience.  In this case, Robbins made a sincere request as to how the play might be improved, giving the audience an opportunity to become part of its development.

A perk to visiting Schoolhouse is an opportunity to not only experience the well-appointed, extremely comfortable intimate theater, but audience members get “double the money” for the time spent in the Theater’s two-room, beautifully appointed brightly-lit gallery space. On exhibit now, and scheduled to travel, is a retrospective of the work of Gert Mathiesen (1951-2013) who was a well-known Danish painter, printmaker and ceramist who maintained a studio at Schoolhouse for many years.

Visiting cultural destinations like The Schoolhouse Theater, with an easy ride up Rt. 684 and no search for parking, makes for an easy way to have a fulfilling day. One can stop for a bite to eat along the way and return home feeling that the day had been rewarding.

The reward of supporting Westchester cultural organizations is that it is full of relationship building.  These people are neighbors and friends, and are committed to sharing their abundance of talent and skills.  Schoolhouse is only one of many places that enrich the Westchester community. One can literally find something wonderful to do in the County every weekend.

For more info, visit: schoolhousetheater.org.

Submitted by Judith Weber/ AW Volunteer Coordinator

Judith Weber, has been a ceramic artist for over 50 years, focusing on designing limited edition dining accessories.  Her work has been exhibited nationally in design galleries and specialized boutiques. She is the past president of the New Rochelle Council on the Arts and the President of the Board of Directors at Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY.  She was also a developing partner of Media Loft, Westchester’s only live/work condominium for artists. She presently teaches ceramics and is the Volunteer Coordinator at ArtsWestchester. // Facebook: facebook.com/JudithWeberstudio. Website: www.judithweber.com

About Judith Weber

As an artist who thrives on challenge and diversity, I am committed to exploring the techniques needed to create unusual and highly personal work.  My work strives to capture the essence of an experience, an environment, a memory, an issue, or current events—and from that information, create a permanent and intimate work of art.

I come to my exploration of paper and mixed media after spending most of my professional and artistic life as a ceramic artist. Motivated by the relationship between form and function, I designed limited edition dining accessories that have been exhibited across the country in galleries, museum shops, and specialized boutiques. I also tapped into the joy I experience from working with clients and experimenting with new media in unique environments through the creation of  custom tile installations for residential and commercial sites.

As an artist who thrives on challenge and diversity, I am committed to exploring the techniques needed to create unusual and highly personal work. My work strives to capture the essence of an experience, an environment, a memory, an issue, or current events—and from that information, create a permanent and intimate work of art. I come to my exploration of paper and mixed media after spending most of my professional and artistic life as a ceramic artist. Motivated by the relationship between form and function, I designed limited edition dining accessories that have been exhibited across the country in galleries, museum shops, and specialized boutiques. I also tapped into the joy I experience from working with clients and experimenting with new media in unique environments through the creation of custom tile installations for residential and commercial sites. After leaving behind the world of clay, I discovered paper—and learned it was built upon a foundation of play. Exploring mixed media techniques as they beautifully integrate with collage gives me the opportunity to experiment, imagine, and learn. The process itself is the bedrock from which the work rises; it is exciting to me that it is only after moving, cutting, tinting, printing, and layering does the final piece begin to emerge.