Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 3: Oh my godness, be Frank, where the only way to
Speaker 3: be is Frank. Hello, everyone in, welcome to being Frank.
Speaker 3: We're the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host,
Speaker 3: Frank Lebono, and I'd like to thank you for joining
Speaker 3: us on what we liked all the Intelligent Conversation podcast
Speaker 3: where no conversation is out of bounds and all points
Speaker 3: of view are welcome. You know, we go live to
Speaker 3: tape and we always give you the date so you
Speaker 3: have some context and relevance to our conversation. Is the
Speaker 3: twelfth of September. Well, they've done the impossible again for
Speaker 3: the third consecutive year. The Phoenix Theater Ensemble is staging
Speaker 3: thirteen live theater performance in just twelve days in and
Speaker 3: around six different venues in the charming hamlet of Nyack,
Speaker 3: New York. Of course, I had to say that because
Speaker 3: it's my hometown as well, and you know I'm always
Speaker 3: bragging about Nayak. This is another reason why. And you
Speaker 3: can imagine executing such an event as well Shakespearean in nature,
Speaker 3: and it takes a special team to pull it off.
Speaker 3: We have three key people who have been making it
Speaker 3: happen from the very beginning. I'd like to introduce you
Speaker 3: to first two guests and then a third coming up shortly.
Speaker 3: They're returning to Being Frank. They came last year to
Speaker 3: talk about the Phoenix Festival and they return. Craig Smith
Speaker 3: and the Leis Stone are founding members of the Phoenix
Speaker 3: Theater Ensemble, amongst their other accomplishments too many to read,
Speaker 3: and they are the creative heart and soul behind the festival.
Speaker 3: They also partners in life as well. So welcome back, guys.
Speaker 3: It's always a pleasure to host you here of Being Frank.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having us Ran.
Speaker 3: It's great to be here, Frank. Thank you. Okay, we's
Speaker 3: got a lot to unpack. What We've got to introduce.
Speaker 3: Our third guest joining us for the first time and
Speaker 3: indeed a pleasure, is Thomas Schneck. He's a president of
Speaker 3: Visit Nayak, and orization that promotes the village and tourism
Speaker 3: to the village. The Visit Night team has been involved
Speaker 3: since twenty twenty one and is of great value to
Speaker 3: the festival in a way. They are the uber project
Speaker 3: manager and Thomas knows the workings of the festival as
Speaker 3: well as anyone. He is also on the board Festival.
Speaker 3: Welcome Thomas, thank you for joining us here.
Speaker 5: Thanks Ran, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: All Right, as I mentioned, there's an awful lot to unpact.
Speaker 3: So but before we do, we get again. We mentioned
Speaker 3: thirteen live shows in just twelve days. That's massive. But
Speaker 3: let's refresh people if they didn't see you the first
Speaker 3: time around, Both Craig and at least talk a little
Speaker 3: bit about Phoenix Theater in general first and then the festival.
Speaker 3: Let's bring them up to speed. We've mentioned this is
Speaker 3: the third year. Let's take them back to the first
Speaker 3: the concept of it, and then we'll bring them to
Speaker 3: where we are now.
Speaker 6: We'll do Thanks Frank. Aleisa and I lived in New
Speaker 6: York City, in the East Ville for many decades. We
Speaker 6: met in the theater, we got married in the theater,
Speaker 6: We raised our kids in the theater. So the theater
Speaker 6: is part of our lifeblood.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 6: And then in twenty eighteen we moved to Nayak while
Speaker 6: maintaining our theater company in New York. And you know,
Speaker 6: this was a time that we could have a time
Speaker 6: of reevaluation, certainly for me it was a time to
Speaker 6: consider retirement and that type of thing and stepping away
Speaker 6: from the theater business.
Speaker 3: But the.
Speaker 6: Vibe in Nyak was just kind of amazing to us,
Speaker 6: and the passion of theater took over. Once Agare and
Speaker 6: we started looking at each other and said, no, maybe
Speaker 6: we could do a festival in Nayak, not knowing at
Speaker 6: all we had done small festivals before, we hadn't done
Speaker 6: anything large. So we did that. Then we got delayed
Speaker 6: by COVID for a couple of years, and then finally
Speaker 6: we did the first one in twenty twenty two, which
Speaker 6: was mostly outdoors again because of COVID. Successful artistically, very successful,
Speaker 6: and we had critics coming up from New York and
Speaker 6: they loved it.
Speaker 3: I have to, you know, in.
Speaker 6: Full transparency also say it was not successful financially. We
Speaker 6: lost money with it, and we kind of expected that
Speaker 6: somewhat with any kind of a new adventure. So we
Speaker 6: went back to the drawing board and we put together
Speaker 6: the twenty twenty three festival and we changed the formatting
Speaker 6: of it and tried to cut some expenses and to
Speaker 6: maximize the income and things like that, and we lost
Speaker 6: money again, but we didn't lose as much money is
Speaker 6: lost in twenty twenty two, so we were kind of
Speaker 6: moving forward in the right direction. So that brought us
Speaker 6: to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: This year.
Speaker 6: This is our third annual festival and we reconfigured it
Speaker 6: again this time is something that we were really interested
Speaker 6: in doing. One thing that I have noticed is the
Speaker 6: people in Nyack and Rockland County and Westchester are discerning
Speaker 6: and avid, are takers of performing arts, but they tend
Speaker 6: to go into New York and see a Broadway show
Speaker 6: and then they turn around and come back and they
Speaker 6: miss a total, dynamic, wonderful environment of exciting, innovative theater
Speaker 6: that they don't see. So at Leasa and I were
Speaker 6: talking and said, well, okay, they don't see that, maybe
Speaker 6: we should bring that to Nayak. And that's exactly what
Speaker 6: we did for this third festival. We started talking to
Speaker 6: some of our friends who are to artistic directors and
Speaker 6: producers of key, very exciting theater companies and dance companies
Speaker 6: and music companies and said, would you be interested in
Speaker 6: coming to Nayak as part of our festival and they
Speaker 6: said yes. So that kind of set us up for
Speaker 6: this one and this one where we have thirteen performances
Speaker 6: over eleven days, and it's kind of like the D
Speaker 6: Day in Asian, you know, kind of like that. And
Speaker 6: a Lease has been just amazing at organizing this, and
Speaker 6: she is a multitasking titan, and she makes up for
Speaker 6: me because I'm not, and then I we're and we're
Speaker 6: taping this on the day of our opening party and
Speaker 6: our opening gala. So we are at the same time
Speaker 6: enormously excited and looking at our telephones and seeing if
Speaker 6: anybody's going to call with any kind of issues. Been
Speaker 6: no issues so far. We are enormously excited about this festival.
Speaker 3: And we're going to talk about that because hopefully we
Speaker 3: will be streaming by this evening and people will see
Speaker 3: and hopefully joined the celebration at the Nayak Hotel. We'll
Speaker 3: talk all about that in some detail. But you've mentioned Elisea,
Speaker 3: and I want to bring her into the conversation now,
Speaker 3: especially since she has such an intimate involvement with the festival.
Speaker 3: A kind of a twofold question. What remains the same?
Speaker 3: What has changed over the course of the three years
Speaker 3: from the beginning. Give us your perspective.
Speaker 7: Let's see the first year we produced some really gigantic
Speaker 7: shows up at Marydale the second year. We wanted to
Speaker 7: and were requested to by local businesses who are our
Speaker 7: sponsors and supporters and partners, and bringing the festival to
Speaker 7: Nyak to bring more of the festival into town. We
Speaker 7: had some shows in town the first year, but not
Speaker 7: nearly as much as what we are doing now. So
Speaker 7: we incorporated that we did more venues in town, which
Speaker 7: puts us in very non traditional spaces because we don't
Speaker 7: have a theater space in town. There's really only one
Speaker 7: theater in town, as you probably know, which is the
Speaker 7: Elmwood Playhouse, and they use their space all the time.
Speaker 7: And so we are performing in places like the Nayak Center,
Speaker 7: the Library, the First Reformed Church last year, at Hudson
Speaker 7: House this year, also at Big Read Books and at
Speaker 7: Story Space Arts, so a lot of very unconventional places.
Speaker 7: We're asking artists to do dance in theater and concerts
Speaker 7: and this year really we're moving closer to how we
Speaker 7: have envisioned the festival to be and grow into the future.
Speaker 7: It had always been this model of the way the
Speaker 7: Edinburgh Theater Festival works, which is that the whole town,
Speaker 7: all of Edinburgh becomes a stage many different places, pubs, restaurants, stores,
Speaker 7: wherever anybody is willing to host a show, and people
Speaker 7: are willing to play, and people go, and the whole
Speaker 7: atmosphere is that you go in you see everything possible,
Speaker 7: So you'll go and see three performances for performances a day,
Speaker 7: whatever you can fill your dance card with. And it
Speaker 7: has long been our vision that, in fact, this would
Speaker 7: be a festival destination in Nayak, that people would come
Speaker 7: and be able to partake of cultural offerings. So this
Speaker 7: year we've really morphed closer into that because we are
Speaker 7: doing a solid twelve days of events happening, as opposed
Speaker 7: to trying to slot ourselves into a weekend run of something.
Speaker 7: And everything has one performance only, so people cannot hesitate,
Speaker 7: and some of our venues are quite small if you
Speaker 7: wish to see things. And I have to say, there
Speaker 7: is a ticket buyer today who I see has done
Speaker 7: the festival the way the festival should be done. They
Speaker 7: had started purchasing tickets to see as many events as
Speaker 7: that they can possibly can, and that's the.
Speaker 4: Way to take it in.
Speaker 7: We are bringing New York theater companies and artists up
Speaker 7: to Nyak for exactly this kind of Edinburgh type event
Speaker 7: that people can take part in. So I was excited
Speaker 7: to see that.
Speaker 3: A good friend, a local Nayaker, just came back posted
Speaker 3: wonderful photos of the festival in Edinburgh, and if we
Speaker 3: could in any way mimic that, that would be absolutely terrific.
Speaker 3: I want to bring I want to bring Thomas in
Speaker 3: at this point because I think it's important and you
Speaker 3: mentioned how you know, you have to run things and
Speaker 3: there are costs involved and no one likes to lose money,
Speaker 3: so it becomes part of the equation. How can local
Speaker 3: businesses support the theater, because once the theater is supported,
Speaker 3: the theory would be that people will come and support
Speaker 3: the businesses I either rest or, et cetera in the
Speaker 3: village as well. So it's a balance, I'm sure. And
Speaker 3: I want to talk to Thomas a little bit about
Speaker 3: how he came to becoming involved and how important that
Speaker 3: connection is with the community, the business community in particular,
Speaker 3: but the Nayak community at large in general. So Thomas,
Speaker 3: tell us a little bit about how you first became
Speaker 3: involved with the Hull Festival.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I got involved with the first festival. So
Speaker 5: we're going back now three years. At this point, I
Speaker 5: also already was the president of Visit Nayak. Maybe just
Speaker 5: a quick background, who Visit Nayak is Visit Niak has
Speaker 5: a longer profit volunteer organization, and we are basically the
Speaker 5: marketing destination organization of Nayak. So our goal is it
Speaker 5: to bring visitors and guests to Nayak. So they spent
Speaker 5: ultimately time and money here in Nyak to support our
Speaker 5: local businesses, which is very very important. Most businesses could
Speaker 5: not survive if it would not be for our external
Speaker 5: guests coming to Nayak. Yeah, and when Greg and Lee's
Speaker 5: contacted me and said, you know, they would like to
Speaker 5: have a local partner on the ground who knows us
Speaker 5: a little bit obviously our business community and you know,
Speaker 5: various locations and venues if and I would be interested
Speaker 5: in helping, we obviously were all over that. We said absolutely,
Speaker 5: it's a great concept. It's not something we've had before
Speaker 5: here Nayak. And that was that was really the start.
Speaker 3: You know, I want your you're feeling too, it's as
Speaker 3: being a naiactar. Now I'm not a native. It's only
Speaker 3: been forty one years, so they're starting to accept me
Speaker 3: grad You'll get there. Craig and AlSi forty one years,
Speaker 3: I'm still working a giant SERATORI zone. I went to
Speaker 3: Nayak High School, all right, I went to Fort Lee
Speaker 3: High School, forgive me, but I'm still anyway, you know.
Speaker 3: And the town, it does pride itself on being progressive.
Speaker 3: It has its issues. We've talked about here on being frank,
Speaker 3: some of the homeless situations, etc. Panhandling, just tip. That's
Speaker 3: a conversation for another day. But the point that I
Speaker 3: want to make is is how do you strike a balance.
Speaker 3: And it kind of reminds me of commercially successful singers. Okay,
Speaker 3: it's like, well, I never liked them, you know, I
Speaker 3: did like them until they were a commercial success. How
Speaker 3: do you convince people that the two things are related?
Speaker 3: You can keep your artistic integrity. I guess that's the
Speaker 3: long winded point I'm trying to get to. How do
Speaker 3: you balance, you know, keeping the progressive artistic integrity if
Speaker 3: you will, with things that you know are important. They
Speaker 3: have to be somewhat commercial. As you said, things you
Speaker 3: have to pay for staging, sound people, lighting people. Those
Speaker 3: are realistic things. I worked in the news business, and
Speaker 3: everyone likes to think that news is for free, but
Speaker 3: I like to get paid for my camera work. So anyway, Tom,
Speaker 3: forgive me for the long winded. Like an organization at yourself,
Speaker 3: how do your marketing strategy in order to be able
Speaker 3: to convince people this is the right thing to do,
Speaker 3: it's good for the village.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I think there are different target groups we
Speaker 5: have in mind. So one is I think, Frank, you
Speaker 5: were talking about the business community, why would the business
Speaker 5: community support the Phoenix Festival, And you know, maybe have
Speaker 5: to to you know, zoom out a little bit here
Speaker 5: to talk about tourism in general, because I think it's
Speaker 5: it's important to draw a little bit of a bigger
Speaker 5: picture here. So tourism, I think ultimately you can think
Speaker 5: about tourism as a as a competition. We're competing as
Speaker 5: a naiak in many ways for the time and the
Speaker 5: share of wallet of potential guests. So take our typical
Speaker 5: target market. Let's say a family in New York City
Speaker 5: and they only have so many weekends or day trips
Speaker 5: they're going to make out of the city and you know,
Speaker 5: choose to go somewhere. And let's say they're saying Yeah,
Speaker 5: we want to go into the Hudson Valley. How do
Speaker 5: we make sure as visit Nayak now that they come
Speaker 5: to Nayak and then they're not going to Tarrytown, they're
Speaker 5: not going to Cold Spring, they're not going to Beak,
Speaker 5: and they're not going to Hudson. So that's a big
Speaker 5: challenge obviously. Now the good the starting point for us,
Speaker 5: and the good news is we have a lot to
Speaker 5: work with. You know, we have Hook Mountain, we have
Speaker 5: the river, we have great restaurants, we have great retailers,
Speaker 5: we have museums, we have galleries. So there's a lot
Speaker 5: to work with. I would say nig is very unique
Speaker 5: with all these different assets. That challenge we have, and
Speaker 5: it's really a challenge, is that a lot of people
Speaker 5: in New York City, let's stay with that target market.
Speaker 5: Many of those people only have a very vague idea
Speaker 5: what Niger is really like. They've heard of Niak, and
Speaker 5: I think we all have been there. You know, we're
Speaker 5: in the city, we talk to people, they ask us
Speaker 5: where you're from.
Speaker 3: Yes, you're right, yeah, exactly on you the guy on
Speaker 3: you guys near the bridge upstate, upstate. I've tightened that
Speaker 3: story many twenty five miles. Oh my god, it's okay, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's really upstate.
Speaker 5: On you, the guys with the street fears, on the
Speaker 5: guys with good restaurants, I say, yeah, it's all true.
Speaker 5: But ultimately that's really all they know about Naya and
Speaker 5: they've never really been here. So from a tourism standpoint,
Speaker 5: how we think of the Phoenix Festival as one of
Speaker 5: those what we called trigger events. Trigger events are those
Speaker 5: which are so rich and are so precious and so
Speaker 5: unique that people ultimately say, Okay, now I'm finally gonna
Speaker 5: make my long way up to Nayak.
Speaker 3: I heard about the upstate to see exactly.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna pack my backpack. I'm gonna take everything I
Speaker 5: have and go on this long haul.
Speaker 6: There are people who think that we're north of Albany.
Speaker 3: I've told this free, and I gotta jump in because
Speaker 3: I've told this story, you know, originally from Fort Lee
Speaker 3: and other Bridge to Georgia. When I first moved up here,
Speaker 3: my friends were shocked by my god, we're up up
Speaker 3: the country exactly.
Speaker 5: But here's the good news. So once we have them
Speaker 5: here and again, that's why we need those trigger events
Speaker 5: like the Phoenix Faus Festival. Once they're here, we know
Speaker 5: this too. They're fall in love with Nayak. They say,
Speaker 5: oh my god, this isn't better than I thought, and
Speaker 5: then I'm going to come back over and over and
Speaker 5: over again. And that's why the Phoenix Festival strategically is
Speaker 5: so important for us, because it provides us exactly with
Speaker 5: the opportunity to finally get people into the village. And
Speaker 5: that's also my pitch to the business owners here Ni
Speaker 5: to say, guys, you know, we have a lot here,
Speaker 5: but we have to find out that we break through
Speaker 5: this kind of channel awareness of Nile and really have
Speaker 5: people come here and experience this firsthand. And so that's
Speaker 5: why we are very much behind it and saying, yeah,
Speaker 5: this really moves the needle for us, and it floats
Speaker 5: a lot of boats in the village. And so that's
Speaker 5: really from our side, our pitch, how we get the
Speaker 5: business community excited about it terrific.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go back to Craig and Elise now at
Speaker 3: this point too. And you mentioned challenges and of course
Speaker 3: obviously a festival of this size, the staging some you know,
Speaker 3: it's one thing to put on twelve consecutive performances on
Speaker 3: a single stage stage is pretty well set. You may
Speaker 3: have to change some pieces every night. But however, this
Speaker 3: is why don't you talk first again another two part question.
Speaker 3: Talk a little bit about the unique challenges of staging
Speaker 3: something like this. You touched upon them, but if you
Speaker 3: can something that really sticks in your mind, that's wow,
Speaker 3: this is really I've done. And you've both been in
Speaker 3: the theater, as you mentioned, your whole lives. This is
Speaker 3: pretty unique to this particular festival. And then with that,
Speaker 3: of course, usually comes great rewards. What are some of
Speaker 3: the nicer things that you've heard and feedback that you've got,
Speaker 3: Some of the rewards that you've gotten for doing this well.
Speaker 6: One thing is that you know, the audiences love it
Speaker 6: because they love going into a place where they don't
Speaker 6: expect theater, and they go in and they see a
Speaker 6: storytelling thing, a quality storytelling thing, and they really enjoy it.
Speaker 6: They can go to a restaurant and sit down at
Speaker 6: the table, you know, at the Hudson House and have
Speaker 6: drinks at a cash bar and see a play, an
Speaker 6: extraordinarily well done play. So that's that's the good thing.
Speaker 6: The different thing is we come in with the actors
Speaker 6: and say, well, where's the dressing room, Well, there isn't
Speaker 6: a dressing room. Well we got a bunch of props.
Speaker 6: Where are we going to store the props? Well, there
Speaker 6: isn't any place to store the props, you know, and
Speaker 6: and and you know, and there's no lighting designer, there's
Speaker 6: no this, there's no that where we're going to put
Speaker 6: the box office where we're going to sell tickets. You know,
Speaker 6: all of these, you know, uh, the challenges that we
Speaker 6: have come up, and we've gotten.
Speaker 3: Pretty good at it.
Speaker 6: And then the other thing is that the audiences really
Speaker 6: roll with it.
Speaker 3: You know that they.
Speaker 6: Understand that this is this is a place where you
Speaker 6: wouldn't normally see a play, a quality play this, so
Speaker 6: that they kind of understand that there are going to
Speaker 6: be a few hiccups along the way. But I think
Speaker 6: we've done a really good job. And we just go
Speaker 6: back just a little bit where you were talking about,
Speaker 6: you know, you know, the commercialzation and and and and
Speaker 6: what you do. We have stayed very true to our mission.
Speaker 6: We didn't come to Niak to change the mission. Our
Speaker 6: mission is we do plays that are rich in language,
Speaker 6: We do plays that touch on social justice issues, uh,
Speaker 6: and and plays that take you to a different landscape.
Speaker 6: They don't remind you of your own ordinary life. We
Speaker 6: want to take you to a place that's different, that
Speaker 6: you haven't seen before, maybe where you are slightly vulnerable.
Speaker 6: Even if even if it's a comedy, you know that
Speaker 6: we want something to be different. Because nayakas the Elmwood playoffs,
Speaker 6: they do a really great, terrific job, and we love Elmwood.
Speaker 6: We don't we we don't want to bring anything where
Speaker 6: we are in competition with them. We want to augment
Speaker 6: what they do and when people come and they see us,
Speaker 6: they will And we also promote Elmwood and promote all
Speaker 6: of the other nonprofits. Is make a day of it,
Speaker 6: Come and visit the Wonderful Village at twenty four miles
Speaker 6: from New York City and oh yes, and by the way,
Speaker 6: there happens to be a wonderful festival. But you're going
Speaker 6: to have a great time in this village. So those
Speaker 6: are some of the things we are answer that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there, I mean, there are certainly many challenges.
Speaker 4: As Craig said, you know, we have We've had.
Speaker 7: Situations where we have actors who are dressing and then
Speaker 7: we discover that's the only way to an accessible bathroom,
Speaker 7: and audience members are walking through.
Speaker 4: Like we've had, We've had to make a lot of.
Speaker 7: Adjustments to deal with the fact that we're not in
Speaker 7: theater spaces.
Speaker 4: There's nothing traditional.
Speaker 7: About what we are doing in terms of putting together
Speaker 7: a presentation for audiences, but we are. We're a professional
Speaker 7: nonprofit organization.
Speaker 4: This year we.
Speaker 7: Are bringing in several many other their professional nonprofit actors,
Speaker 7: theater makers, dancers, musicians, and where we are, as Craig
Speaker 7: said early on, we're trying to bring to our own
Speaker 7: backyard things that people would have to go into New
Speaker 7: York City in order to see, but they'd have to
Speaker 7: be a little more adventurous and step out of their
Speaker 7: comfort zone of Broadway. They'd have to go to off Broadway,
Speaker 7: they'd have to go to a place where a concert
Speaker 7: was being given, you know, that was not at Carnegie
Speaker 7: Hall or at Lincoln Center. And but all of these
Speaker 7: presentations are really just so amazing. I mean, you know, tonight,
Speaker 7: tonight's our official launch and one of the things that
Speaker 7: we've done this year is that because I really think
Speaker 7: that everybody should take of the cultural events for free.
Speaker 7: But we all know that they are not free, Frank,
Speaker 7: as you have said, professional artists have to eat and
Speaker 7: rent and everything else, and producing a festival like this
Speaker 7: is not free, you know, just the bones of it,
Speaker 7: the structure of it before we put anybody inside, is
Speaker 7: still cost money, right, mending venues, having the infrastructure of
Speaker 7: the people who run the festival and whatnot. But just
Speaker 7: to give you an idea of how important we think
Speaker 7: that is, is that this year we are presenting two
Speaker 7: free to the community.
Speaker 4: Productions in Memorial Park and we were hoping to get
Speaker 4: a large single sponsor to sponsors who would pick up
Speaker 4: the costs on this. They are not.
Speaker 7: So we're already losing money because we do have to
Speaker 7: bring pay the companies to bring them in. So you
Speaker 7: know what, let's as if there's I just want to
Speaker 7: jump in because let's do a little bitch here.
Speaker 3: Why not? It's my program and we're allowed. What kind
Speaker 3: of sponsorship? How can people? I know they can buy tickets,
Speaker 3: but if individuals might be interested or a small what
Speaker 3: would a sponsorship package like what you just mentioned in
Speaker 3: that venue? What kind of money are you talking about?
Speaker 6: Well, we have sponsorships available. They started two hundred and
Speaker 6: fifty dollars, you know, and they go up to five
Speaker 6: thousand dollars for a gold sponsorship for the For the
Speaker 6: sponsorship of the two performances at Upper Memorial Park, we
Speaker 6: were looking for seventy five hundred each, so fifteen thousand
Speaker 6: for both and even at that that we're still going
Speaker 6: to run into difficulty with that, and we didn't find
Speaker 6: the sponsor wanted to do that.
Speaker 4: It's one of the things.
Speaker 6: That we've learned a little bit, you know, in the
Speaker 6: three years, is that I over all overestimate individual contributions
Speaker 6: because we've moved, we've moved into rockland Niak when we're
Speaker 6: used to New York, and slowly we're getting to a
Speaker 6: place where I you know, we're getting better at that
Speaker 6: and that's just part of the culture with this.
Speaker 7: However, can I interrupt you just want to answer, Frank,
Speaker 7: is that you know something that like an individual can
Speaker 7: do say they you know, they can't do a two
Speaker 7: hundred and fifty dollars sponsorship. And there are some people
Speaker 7: who are doing this. When they're making their reservations to
Speaker 7: see Twelfth Night in the Park, they're donating five dollars.
Speaker 7: I mean, every little bit helps, So I just you know,
Speaker 7: I just want to be clear that every level of
Speaker 7: donating and sponsorship helps to bring this bring this festival here,
Speaker 7: and bring these free events to Nayak. And I truly
Speaker 7: believe that, you know, in my heart of hearts, we
Speaker 7: should live in a country where there is the kind
Speaker 7: of funding that makes it possible for artists to live
Speaker 7: and for people to partake of dance in theater and
Speaker 7: music and every and museums and everything without it being
Speaker 7: stretching their budgets.
Speaker 3: You know, I have a quote from Laurence Olivier. So,
Speaker 3: Laurence Olivia you may be familiar with that. I always
Speaker 3: kind of close the show with a quote. I've got
Speaker 3: to bite my tongue not to use it here because
Speaker 3: it would be perfect at this point, but file it
Speaker 3: away for when, for when you hear it. It's very
Speaker 3: appropriate to what you're talking about. The quality of a
Speaker 3: society of a place is in its arts. But he
Speaker 3: says it better than I certainly could. I mean, but
Speaker 3: please finish your thought. It mean to interrupt, no.
Speaker 4: So you know, I just you know, so that is
Speaker 4: very important to us. We lowered our ticket prices this
Speaker 4: year again for the same you know, it doesn't.
Speaker 7: It doesn't help us in ours side of things and
Speaker 7: trying because we're trying to break even.
Speaker 4: Right, people need to know we're not a commercial venture.
Speaker 7: We are a nonprofit arts organization that is also an
Speaker 7: education organization. We are full time in a New York
Speaker 7: City Title one public school where we teach classes four
Speaker 7: days a week, year round to students. So we're you know,
Speaker 7: we really we put our resources where our hearts and
Speaker 7: our ethos are. You know, if anyone thinks that we
Speaker 7: are somehow we have come in and we're making big
Speaker 7: profits on things, we're not. We lowered our ticket prices.
Speaker 7: We're still offering discounts even though we kind of went, well,
Speaker 7: we won't need you know, we shouldn't discount. We're running
Speaker 7: several buy one get ones for a three day period
Speaker 7: of time. People should take advantage today, they should take
Speaker 7: advantage before it ends. A buy one get one for
Speaker 7: a Trojan Woman, which is amazing solo performance at the
Speaker 7: nine Center, happening this weekend on the fourteenth. We have
Speaker 7: another one running for A Boy My Greatness, which is
Speaker 7: also at the Nayac Center. We have another one running
Speaker 7: for the Autumn Serenades concert and for the emotions, physical theater,
Speaker 7: dance performance. Those are all buy one get ones, so
Speaker 7: that's buy a thirty five dollar ticket, get.
Speaker 4: One for free.
Speaker 7: When those promotions run, people should grab them. We're really
Speaker 7: doing everything we can to make the arts as accessible
Speaker 7: as possible for people in the community and also for
Speaker 7: bringing the tourists into the community so that they will
Speaker 7: come and spend their New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts
Speaker 7: and by the way, we had international visitors the last
Speaker 7: two years that they will come here and they will
Speaker 7: spend their dollars in the restaurants and shops and hotels.
Speaker 3: Time to put Thomas back on the hot seat. Now,
Speaker 3: what more? I know you're doing a lot. What more
Speaker 3: can your organization do? Well?
Speaker 5: From our side, you know, we have a weekly newsletter
Speaker 5: which goes out every Thursday, which basically promotes all the
Speaker 5: things going on in Nike, and obviously we have been
Speaker 5: promoting for many weeks the Phoenix Festival. We have been
Speaker 5: also helping with getting the word out with organic social media.
Speaker 5: We help with providing these a frames you see in
Speaker 5: the village in the front of a couple of our
Speaker 5: different stores, which has a very nice overview of all
Speaker 5: the different events at least already mentioned. So we were
Speaker 5: involved in getting the lawn signs out around town here,
Speaker 5: so when you drive around, especially at the exit points
Speaker 5: that a lot of people hopefully see that sign, we're involved.
Speaker 5: We have our own graphic designer and at the Inchneida,
Speaker 5: who is phenomenal. She put together postcards and the posters
Speaker 5: you see, so we did a postcard campaign in Nike,
Speaker 5: but also in surrounding, so there was a whole marketing
Speaker 5: you know, plan and visit. Nayak and our team we're
Speaker 5: very involved because I have a PR person, Elisa Rome.
Speaker 5: She was helping him putting press releases together. So it
Speaker 5: was really a team effort, I would say since probably
Speaker 5: we started to meet on a regular basis, I think
Speaker 5: back in May April May of this year, and uh
Speaker 5: really started in June to have weekly meetings where we
Speaker 5: just sync up and you know, one thing we have
Speaker 5: to realize we all volunteers, the Phoenix team, the visit
Speaker 5: Nike teams, so sometimes a little difficult to keep everything
Speaker 5: synced up as we have many moving parts here and
Speaker 5: so these these weekly meetings and a Google Google sheet.
Speaker 5: She had Google sheet are really key to making sure
Speaker 5: everybody knows what's going on. What the are the next things.
Speaker 3: We have to do? Yeah, and maybe a podcast like
Speaker 3: Being Frank and so we can talk about it. And
Speaker 3: then we are going to give more specifics too. We've
Speaker 3: got to take a quick break when we talk a
Speaker 3: little bit, when we come back about some of the
Speaker 3: challenges that COVID presented to theater. In general. It's come
Speaker 3: back in a big way, but has it come back
Speaker 3: all the way? What can we do in a broader sense?
Speaker 3: I want to do a little more detail a festival
Speaker 3: lineup and how people can get more information to get
Speaker 3: these tickets and possible sponsorships and so we can do
Speaker 3: all of those things. But we remember we talked about
Speaker 3: feeding the bulldog if you will. You know, our engineer
Speaker 3: Neil Richter makes so much money on these shows. We
Speaker 3: have to have a commercial break just just to pay
Speaker 3: his enormous salary. I'll pay for this, by the way, guys,
Speaker 3: it way. But this has been terrific, and we've got
Speaker 3: more to discuss. Really, I appreciate your time. Craig Smith,
Speaker 3: at least Stone, Thomas Schneck, we're talking everything Phoenix Festival
Speaker 3: here in the wonderful Hamlet of Nayak, New York. This
Speaker 3: is Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. Asked. I'm your host,
Speaker 3: Frank Lobano will be right back after these brief commercial messages.
Speaker 3: Please don't go anyway. This is a lot of fun.
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Speaker 1: This is Hudson Riverradio dot com, your local Rockland County station,
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Speaker 3: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. Thanks
Speaker 3: for staying with us. I'm your host, Frank Lebonna. We
Speaker 3: will reintroduce our guests in just a minute, but I
Speaker 3: want to remind you we bring our audience a fresh
Speaker 3: topic every week and we stream from Hudson River Radio,
Speaker 3: located in beautiful and historic Stony Point. But remember you
Speaker 3: can catch any Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite
Speaker 3: podcast that includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and all the others.
Speaker 3: Remember we are archived. That's why one of the reasons
Speaker 3: we give you the date, Because you can listen to
Speaker 3: any show at any time. You can find the link
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Speaker 3: or at our website Hudson Riverradio dot com. Just click
Speaker 3: and you're there. Okay, back to our show, our guests
Speaker 3: Craig Smith, Lee Stone, and Thomas Schneck. We're talking everything
Speaker 3: Phoenix Festival, live theater arts in the beautiful Bucolic Yeah,
Speaker 3: I can say that Bucolic hamlet of Nayak, New York.
Speaker 3: I never My friends tease me all the time and
Speaker 3: Brad always bragging about this place. But you guys are
Speaker 3: here for the same reasons that I am, and we
Speaker 3: like to share it with people in One of the
Speaker 3: ways to do it is to share it with live
Speaker 3: arts like the Phoenix Festival. But I teased it a
Speaker 3: little bit before the break. I want to talk about
Speaker 3: live theater in general and the huge hit that it
Speaker 3: took during COVID, which everything and everybody did. I don't
Speaker 3: even know if Niak is in full recovery since COVID.
Speaker 3: Mostly I think is a fair estimation. Fully is subject
Speaker 3: to opinion, I think anyway, So i'd like yours, particularly general,
Speaker 3: how to affect theater? Are we back? Will it ever
Speaker 3: return to the same levels? Has theater changed for good?
Speaker 3: Has media multimedia changed it? Probably a topic for another
Speaker 3: show that we got to cover in fifteen minutes, because
Speaker 3: I also want to talk specifics about the festival. So
Speaker 3: why don't we start from where where where I can
Speaker 3: see you guys visually, and Craig, you're at the top there,
Speaker 3: so why don't you start with that? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Well, thanks Rank. Yeah, COVID was kind of a disaster
Speaker 6: for us, and I think it was for most small businesses,
Speaker 6: you know, in the Hudson Valley and all over the
Speaker 6: entire country. The rule of thumb in the arts is
Speaker 6: that it was going to take fourteen to fifteen years
Speaker 6: for an organization and organizations to fully recover. Well, once
Speaker 6: that the shutdown stopped, you know, people didn't realize that.
Speaker 6: They thought, oh, well, we're going to go back to
Speaker 6: performances and everything's going to be fine. But the hits
Speaker 6: that we took, we took there was attrition. Certainly, there
Speaker 6: was attrition of our artists, our artists, you know, they
Speaker 6: rely on a gig economy, and that those gigs were
Speaker 6: not there, so a lot of them left the profession
Speaker 6: and they were very, very talented and they're doing something
Speaker 6: else because they just went on too long. And then
Speaker 6: there was attrition of audiences as well during that period,
Speaker 6: and with audiences goes contributions. So you take all of
Speaker 6: that together. That was very difficult and that was something
Speaker 6: I think we could understand. The thing we could not
Speaker 6: understand is that people got used to staying at home.
Speaker 6: They would they were at COVID, they would sit and
Speaker 6: they would watch television, they would watch Netflix, they would
Speaker 6: watch tars you know, or Prime Video or whatever it was,
Speaker 6: and they would say, oh, well, let's just stay home.
Speaker 6: So getting them to get out of the house and
Speaker 6: back into the theater is a significant challenge and a
Speaker 6: challenge we still have not we haven't addressed yet.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 6: At the same time, the pandemic lent us some handholds
Speaker 6: into the future, and that is that Okay, they're not
Speaker 6: they're going to come out of the house. What are
Speaker 6: they going to come out of the house for it?
Speaker 6: If they're not going to come out of the house
Speaker 6: to go to a theater and see just a play
Speaker 6: for two hours and go home. Again, that's not enough.
Speaker 6: It has to be a bit of an event around it.
Speaker 6: So that's one of the things that we started doing,
Speaker 6: and that was one of the things that's started about
Speaker 6: the festival is that, yeah, you can see some really dynamic,
Speaker 6: wonderful theater by award winning theater companies in this beautiful
Speaker 6: bookholic Picturesque Hamlet, and then at the same time you
Speaker 6: can have an event. You come into this village and
Speaker 6: you go into historic places and you see a play there.
Speaker 6: So it becomes an event, a thing to do. And
Speaker 6: as Thomas said, the thing that Nayak has, it's got
Speaker 6: all the restaurants, it's got the bars, it's got the walkability,
Speaker 6: it's got all of that stuff. And it's relatively easy
Speaker 6: to get to from the city. Certainly if you're driving
Speaker 6: a car, it's very easy, and even by public transportations
Speaker 6: it's not too hard. So those are the things that
Speaker 6: we are experimenting with. Then at the same time we
Speaker 6: have to take a look and say, okay, is our
Speaker 6: traditional programming doing enough to get these audiences back. The
Speaker 6: truth is, for our theater company and for every theater
Speaker 6: and performing arts company around the country. Is they all
Speaker 6: look like me. They are old white men.
Speaker 3: And it was just saying that, yes, well, what a
Speaker 3: great point, right, And that's.
Speaker 6: What it is, you know, and that that's been going
Speaker 6: on for like a long time. Everybody's we've got to
Speaker 6: find the new audiences. Well, if you're going to do
Speaker 6: the new audiences, you have to do something that is
Speaker 6: going to attract them. And and this is where, you know,
Speaker 6: the kind of the experimental work, the immersive we've we've done.
Speaker 6: So we did a COFCA play, We did Metamorphosis COPPCA play,
Speaker 6: which was done like a business corporate retreat, So you
Speaker 6: came in and everybody had headphones and everybody played games,
Speaker 6: you know, those stupid games you have to play when
Speaker 6: you go to a corporate retreat kind of thing. And
Speaker 6: it was incredibly exciting and and this was and was
Speaker 6: a new experience for our audience members, certainly for our
Speaker 6: older audience members, and it attracted a new younger audience.
Speaker 6: So those are the things that we're experimenting with. Is
Speaker 6: that we cannot go back to where we were in
Speaker 6: twenty eighteen twenty nineteen and expect everything's going to everything's
Speaker 6: going to work out.
Speaker 3: It's not even.
Speaker 6: Broadway is having difficulties with all of this as well.
Speaker 6: So it's not just us. This is around the world,
Speaker 6: and I think that the festival is doing what we
Speaker 6: wanted it to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Thomas, you want and then we'll get at least's
Speaker 3: perspective as well. Everybody gets a chuck ahead.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I just want to build on that what Greig just said,
Speaker 5: because I think there's a real interesting parallel when it
Speaker 5: comes to the retail and restaurant on world when we
Speaker 5: talk about recovery from COVID, So these changes in behavior
Speaker 5: Greg was talking about, you know, when it comes to
Speaker 5: theater and maybe now we have to challenge to people
Speaker 5: or we're comfortable with watching more Netflix or TV in
Speaker 5: general into convincing to go back basically to a live
Speaker 5: theater is very similar. You know what the restaurants and
Speaker 5: the rest and the retailers are facing. You know, we
Speaker 5: obviously during COVID we're all, you know, for to buy
Speaker 5: online and we were forced to order online at the
Speaker 5: restaurants and that was pretty comfortable, right, and so we're
Speaker 5: still recovering from that and we as a visit Nayac
Speaker 5: we have a job to do from our side also
Speaker 5: to change that and bring people back and experience live
Speaker 5: shopping and life restaurant. And that's where I see also
Speaker 5: the synergy at work between Phoenix and Visit Nayak, because
Speaker 5: this is one of these special moments where before performance,
Speaker 5: maybe I go a little bit shopping, and after the performance,
Speaker 5: I go for dinner or go for a drink, and
Speaker 5: that's very hard to replicate in an online environment. So
Speaker 5: in that sense, we really help each other making this
Speaker 5: special again and really building this really great experience. And
Speaker 5: again that's why the Phoenix Festival is so strategically important
Speaker 5: for us.
Speaker 3: Great perspective, at least yours your perspective.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So this behavior we were forced into, and I'm
Speaker 7: sure it's starting to feel a little like a distant
Speaker 7: memory to people, but when we were first forced into
Speaker 7: locking down in our spaces alone and not having human contact,
Speaker 7: that was really horrible for most of us, even those
Speaker 7: of us.
Speaker 4: Who are introverted.
Speaker 7: How extended that became, you know, because it stretched out
Speaker 7: beyond two weeks of all, I have a two weeks
Speaker 7: I have to stay home and not go anywhere. That
Speaker 7: stretched out and us being humans at some point we
Speaker 7: adapted to that, as Thomas and Craig had said, and
Speaker 7: people got used to that behavior, and so because it
Speaker 7: went on so long, that became the behavior.
Speaker 4: But because of that isolation, you know, I.
Speaker 7: Think we also have an epidemic of loneliness and disconnect
Speaker 7: with other human beings, which is why coming out out
Speaker 7: and partaking of meals with your friends in a restaurant
Speaker 7: or going shopping where there are human beings that you
Speaker 7: can talk to in retail spaces and the shopkeepers. So
Speaker 7: it's really you know, the thing is is that isolation
Speaker 7: and loneliness and that ability for us to adapt to
Speaker 7: that environment and how hard it is to bring people
Speaker 7: back out.
Speaker 4: Is that we actually need.
Speaker 7: Those connective moments of community, which is what live performance,
Speaker 7: live theater, music and dance and more. Is what I
Speaker 7: like to say about the festival, because we have live theater, music,
Speaker 7: dance and more. Things that come outside of that box
Speaker 7: are so important. We need to be together in community.
Speaker 7: We need to reconnect as human beings in these of
Speaker 7: shared experience, and we need to We're human, so we
Speaker 7: are communal. We are a communal species, and it is
Speaker 7: healthy for us to laugh and cry and experience together,
Speaker 7: to shop together, to eat together. That is actually our
Speaker 7: normal default setting, and we're way out of whack of that,
Speaker 7: which means that we have forgotten actually how to be
Speaker 7: kind to one another and civil to one another because
Speaker 7: we engage in all of these very anonymous online spaces.
Speaker 4: We need to come back together because when you are
Speaker 4: face to face in a room full of human beings,
Speaker 4: you remember that you're human beings.
Speaker 7: And as I always try to remind people, scientifically, it
Speaker 7: has been proven that we when we partake of a
Speaker 7: piece of theater or dance or music together, we actually
Speaker 7: start to synchronize our breath and our heart beats with
Speaker 7: one another because we are not a separate thing. We
Speaker 7: are a communal organism altogether. So I think it's just
Speaker 7: incredibly important that people come back out and enjoy dinners together,
Speaker 7: and shop together, and meet the people who own the
Speaker 7: shops in their town, and go to the libraries and
Speaker 7: the museums, and come to performances at the Phoenix Festival.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm no luddyite, but I still like shopping in
Speaker 3: person because there is an experience. This is an out dining.
Speaker 3: There's a vibrant music scene here in Nyak and Rockland
Speaker 3: County in general. And those are all things that are
Speaker 3: are communal. And you mentioned the sense of community is important.
Speaker 3: In the time we have left and we have a
Speaker 3: few minutes, I don't think we can talk about each
Speaker 3: and every single event, But why don't we mention what
Speaker 3: you believe the highlights of the fat fulsome you know,
Speaker 3: no miss And then then let's give websites where people
Speaker 3: can really get all the information they need as in
Speaker 3: terms of times, dates, costs, all of those things. So
Speaker 3: let's start with the like two or three guys, what
Speaker 3: do you think where the you know, what you might
Speaker 3: see as the real highlights of the festival. I'm sure
Speaker 3: all of it, but is there one or two or
Speaker 3: three that she can can really point towards.
Speaker 6: I think one that gets overlooked is going to be
Speaker 6: the concert at first First Performed Church on Broadway, and
Speaker 6: that's Ella Mendel and Jessica Crandall. Ellen is a very
Speaker 6: accomplished composer and she uses as her springboard the poetry
Speaker 6: of Cummings, Samuel Beckett, Shamus Hainey, Glenn Maxwell, et cetera,
Speaker 6: and also the paintings of Edward Hopper, and she writes
Speaker 6: these incredible songs. And there's some.
Speaker 3: Too, Edward Hopper, we should mention as so great connection
Speaker 3: there too, least to give the interruption.
Speaker 6: Exactly, and and and and Jessica has this amazing voice,
Speaker 6: and it's done in the church. The acoustics of the
Speaker 6: church are just like for this are just incredible. So
Speaker 6: so the space itself just lifts the entire thing. And
Speaker 6: it's a it's an unforgettable experience.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 6: And it's in danger of being overlooked by a lot
Speaker 6: of the theater because it's a concert. They want to
Speaker 6: see the plays, they want to see this, but they
Speaker 6: should go see this concert because it is exquisite.
Speaker 3: At least you're you're what what what? What? One or
Speaker 3: two you might point towards that you really are excited about.
Speaker 4: I'm excited about everything, of course everything. But I do
Speaker 4: think that.
Speaker 7: The the chance to see a Trojan Woman on the fourteenth,
Speaker 7: if people can get to it. It came via the
Speaker 7: Interbalkan Festival in Athens, and it has made its way
Speaker 7: to the festival on its way to Belfast. You have
Speaker 7: like one chance to see that here. I think it's
Speaker 7: just an enormous piece of theater. It is a one
Speaker 7: woman show telling the story. That's why it's a trojan
Speaker 7: woman telling the story, and I think it's rather phenomenal.
Speaker 4: I hope people will be able to come out to
Speaker 4: see that damas.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 5: I would just say check out the website Life Life
Speaker 5: Arts in Nyac dot com, one word Live Artsinnaya dot com.
Speaker 5: These are all wonderful performances and you will see all
Speaker 5: information on there. Maybe just one more thought, we have
Speaker 5: time yeah from a visit Niac standpoint, which really shows
Speaker 5: again how much on brand really the Phoenix Festival is
Speaker 5: when it comes to Nayak. We just finished a survey.
Speaker 5: We asked over two hundred people what they love about
Speaker 5: Nayak and the number one thing which came out was walkability.
Speaker 5: So the idea that you can walk around Nyack and
Speaker 5: everything is reachable. You know, it doesn't matter if you
Speaker 5: want to go to the river, if you want to
Speaker 5: go to a restaurant, you can go up to a mountain,
Speaker 5: you can reach the hotels. And this is exactly also
Speaker 5: how you can experience the Phoenix Festival. You can stay
Speaker 5: here for a couple of days, park the car somewhere,
Speaker 5: and then any of our three hotels we have in Nayak.
Speaker 5: The actually our gold sponsor is Hotel Nayak. But from
Speaker 5: there you can just walk into town to all these
Speaker 5: different non traditional spaces and enjoy live performances and before
Speaker 5: and after really enjoy retail shopping and all the different
Speaker 5: restaurants we have. So again it's only Nike that you
Speaker 5: can do that without really having a car or anything else.
Speaker 3: You know. And it's very interesting and we won't get
Speaker 3: into it today, but we'll bring you one another time.
Speaker 3: The biggest complaint about Naia too is the parking, which
Speaker 3: is absurd. There's plenty of it. You just got to
Speaker 3: walk a little bit and it's worth walking.
Speaker 5: We have some good ideas about that as well, as we.
Speaker 3: Can discuss that another time. But Craig, I know also
Speaker 3: tonight and we're taping it because this is archives and
Speaker 3: people may see it sometimes somewhat after, but you will
Speaker 3: also stream this evening and you're opening tonight. Tell us
Speaker 3: a little bit about tonight, the twelfth of September. Again,
Speaker 3: if people are listening today, they can join you at
Speaker 3: the hotel. Tell us tell us about the opening and.
Speaker 6: It's at Hotel Nayak and it's they are a Gold sponsor,
Speaker 6: so they offered the speakeasy bar to us and it's
Speaker 6: a wonderful facility. We're going to have some Irish music
Speaker 6: by traditional Irish music with an Irish music band by
Speaker 6: Matt Stapleton who's a member of our ensemble and his
Speaker 6: friends are going to be there. We're going to have
Speaker 6: a champagne toast. There's going to be a cash bar.
Speaker 6: We're going to have some speeches. I'm going to say
Speaker 6: some thank you Joe Randa Mayer is going to talk,
Speaker 6: Elijah's going to talk as well. Elijah's also on our board,
Speaker 6: and we're going to have performance, some preview performances from
Speaker 6: Dorothy Parker. Uh Margo Avery has come up and she's
Speaker 6: going to do this as the International tour and she's
Speaker 6: going to do a piece from that as well. And
Speaker 6: then at Lease and Karen case Cook are going to
Speaker 6: do a piece from Vida and Virginia Vita and Virginia Wolf,
Speaker 6: which is going to be done at Big Red Books,
Speaker 6: and we're looking to you know, it's it's it's casual.
Speaker 6: It's not like a regular gala where it's it's after work.
Speaker 6: It's six thirty, so we want people to be comfortable,
Speaker 6: and we want people to just really have a good time,
Speaker 6: and we're going to be talking about the festival and
Speaker 6: we want people to come and and and and enjoy it.
Speaker 6: You know, That's that's what we are.
Speaker 3: Well, if it's anything like the conversation we had today,
Speaker 3: they should certainly enjoy I certainly did. This was really
Speaker 3: really a lot of really a lot of fun, informative
Speaker 3: light and and good people doing good things for the
Speaker 3: right reasons. That's kind of kind of what we're about.
Speaker 3: It kind of what Nike is about, isn't it gay?
Speaker 3: A lot of people titled right? Yes? Do we have
Speaker 3: a lot of friends? Last websites? Quite where now? And
Speaker 3: at least, where where can people get the most information
Speaker 3: about tickets dates? We go from the twelfth through the second,
Speaker 3: twelfth through the twenty second. I know I wrote it
Speaker 3: down somewhere. I always do that. Now I can't find
Speaker 3: where I wrote it down. Wonderful to twelfth through the
Speaker 3: twenty second. But where's a website that people can go
Speaker 3: to and get all that information right in front of them?
Speaker 7: You can go to live arts in nyak dot com
Speaker 7: Live Arts Nayak dot com.
Speaker 4: Even I can remember that without so much information there.
Speaker 7: There's so much information there, but the quickest and easiest
Speaker 7: thing click on the get tickets and you will you know,
Speaker 7: the our calendar will also come up there and you
Speaker 7: can directly click on the buy button for whichever show
Speaker 7: you want. But we have so much information on visiting Nayak,
Speaker 7: where to stay, suggestions of things to do while you're here,
Speaker 7: and we also, because we are very community minded, have
Speaker 7: included other events that are happening outside of the festival for.
Speaker 4: People who want to explore beyond that.
Speaker 3: So Greg Smith, you.
Speaker 6: Can also google Phoenix, you know, the like the city
Speaker 6: Phoenix and then Nyack. Just google Phoenix Nayak and the
Speaker 6: festival will pop up.
Speaker 3: You just have to know how to spell phoenix. You
Speaker 3: should see me. Oh my god, it's horrifying. I'm not
Speaker 3: even dyslexic and i still can't spell it. But that's
Speaker 3: that's part of being Frank. I want to thank you
Speaker 3: all so much, my fellow Nayakers. You know, we share
Speaker 3: the love for this village and the people in it,
Speaker 3: and you've made it a very pleasant being. Frank, thank
Speaker 3: you so much, guys for joining us here. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Frank.
Speaker 3: Thank you for and of course we like to offer
Speaker 3: special thanks to our listeners. We take the time to
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Speaker 3: us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. You
Speaker 3: can leave us a comment and we hope you consider
Speaker 3: sharing Frank with others. As is my tradition, I leave
Speaker 3: you with two things and now the quote that I
Speaker 3: promised you guys from Lawrence Olivier, and I think it's
Speaker 3: I try to choose one that's appropriate, and here it is.
Speaker 3: I believe that in a great city, or even in
Speaker 3: a small city or a village, a great theater is
Speaker 3: the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.
Speaker 3: One rather long sentence, but just one sentence says it all.
Speaker 3: And I want to leave people with something that's very heartfelt.
Speaker 3: This week, the very vibrant music scene in Rockland County
Speaker 3: lost its beating heart. Mister tim o'donniue a troubadour in
Speaker 3: the truest sense of the word. His music and his
Speaker 3: very being spread a legacy of everlasting love. The tremendous
Speaker 3: outpouring of affection was very much an evidence in the
Speaker 3: tributes that poured in at the word of his passing.
Speaker 3: So let's honor him by having way too much fun.
Speaker 3: And if you know Tim, you'll know exactly what that means.
Speaker 3: With the music he left behind. Here's are my thoughts
Speaker 3: with you. I'm Frank Wagono and I hope to see
Speaker 3: you on the next being. Frank, We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: Gonna plant me something then brought me and I'll shut
Speaker 2: Get me some trees. Tell me and I stand down
Speaker 2: a corner, the flag down a street car. Go somewhere
Speaker 2: and phone her and ask her where her thoughts are?
Speaker 2: Just gonna sing Or my thoughts with you, man, how
Speaker 2: twisted they are? Man? Since you went away from me?
Speaker 2: Leep it thinking to street.
Speaker 4: The dog.
Speaker 2: Get gonna cut me an hour, sit down in the morning.
Speaker 3: Dow.
Speaker 2: Listen every hour. I'm gonna turn out the lights, turn
Speaker 2: on the night, give up the fightful for a fight,
Speaker 2: Catch me a kite of cares if I'm right or wrong,
Speaker 2: Catching with the mom and me a room stand in
Speaker 2: the gloom.
Speaker 7: All theme.
Speaker 3: Crying go to turn.
Speaker 2: Out the lights, turn on the night, give up the
Speaker 2: fightful or a light catch me a kite of cares
Speaker 2: if I'm right a wrong, Get to the moon, ready
Speaker 2: a rooms into the clone.
Speaker 7: All the mom.
Speaker 4: I'm crying for my bot.
Speaker 2: You band, I'm listed.
Speaker 8: They are.
Speaker 2: Genuent only from me Apendecantin Street.
Speaker 4: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.