SPACE on Ryder Farm's Season of Public Events to Feature Resident Artists

From SPACE on Ryder Farm:

SPACE on Ryder Farm, the non-profit artist residency program located on Ryder Farm, an idyllic 200 year-old working organic farm on the border of Putnam and Westchester Counties, announces its 2016 season of public events featuring performances by SPACE’s resident artists. Founded in 2010 by Emily Simoness as a one-of-a-kind, artistic home away from home for artists and innovators, SPACE on Ryder Farm counts among its alumni Academy Award winners, Tony Award nominees and winners, Pulitzer finalists, Guggenheim Fellows, Obie Award winners and a MacArthur Genius Award winner.

“We are so excited to share the dynamic, vital and world class artistry happening at SPACE with the surrounding community,” said founder and executive director Emily Simoness. “So much of what makes SPACE special is Ryder Farm and the surrounding area -- the land, the history, the environment and the community. Our 2016 season of events is an opportunity to engage with the community that has given us so much.”

SPACE will host three Seasonal Suppers over the course of its season, each featuring a communal farm-to-table family style dinner on Ryder Farm’s outdoor lawn alongside a performance by a SPACE artist. The 2016 suppers will be held on June 25, July 9 and Sept. 10. This season’s performers include Brittain Ashford and Grace McLean. Ashford, who currently performs in Dave Malloy's Ghost Quartet and fronts her own band, Prairie Empire, was nominated for a 2014 Lucille Lortel Award for her work in the critically acclaimed "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812." McLean, called “electrifying” by The Huffington Post and “spectacular” by The New York Times, has been seen at Lincoln Center, New York City Center and BAM. SPACE is partnering with North Salem favorite Hayfields Market for the September Seasonal Supper.

Sharing SPACE, a free event series held three times throughout the season in partnership with Southeast Museum, invites the local community to sample SPACE’s many offerings, including readings of new plays, live music, farm-fresh fare and farming demonstrations. This series is made possible, in part, through the Putnam Arts Council’s Arts Link Grant Program, with public funds from Putnam County.

On June 26, SPACE plays host to Bandits on the Run. Made up of Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Torin Shepherd and Regina Marie Strayhorn, Bandits on the Run is a guerrilla music project playing what they describe as “Neo Cowboy Gypsy Rock or Acoustic Rock 'n Rolldies”.

On July 23, SPACE will partner with Concerts Around the Corner and the Southeast Museum to present a special exhibit, curated by Southeast Museum, followed by an evening of chamber music under the stars.

On Aug. 21, SPACE will present Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s touring production of So Please You and a performance by Rachel Bonds and The Bengesons. "So Please You" is a family-friendly comedy that tells the story of a servant, named Dennis, who appears only once in Shakespeare's "As You Like It," to announce that, “so please you,” there is a wrestler at the door! Rachel Bonds, a SPACE alumna and playwright whose work has been featured by Manhattan Theatre Club, Actors Theatre of Louisville and New York Stage & Film, is collaborating with musical duo The Bengesons, whose songs have three times been featured on the national television program, “So You Think You Can Dance”.

SPACE will host the Village of Brewster's acclaimed international Short Film Festival on Sept. 3, presenting a wide variety of fresh, high-quality shorts in all genres by talented filmmakers from all corners of the globe, including Putnam and Westchester counties. This is a free event with food by Clocktower Grill available for purchase.

On Sept. 17, join SPACE for The Roving Dinner, an eight-course farm-fresh meal paired alongside excerpts from new plays by members of The Working Farm, SPACE’s resident playwrights group, and served at historic locations around Ryder Farm. Members of the 2016 Working Farm are Eliza Bent, Adam Bock, Alex Borinsky, Cusi Cram, Daisy Foote, Ryan King, Basil Kreimendahl and James Tyler. Past members of The Working Farm include Robert Askins, Jeff Augustin, Sarah Burgess (who wrote Dry Powder - recently at at the Public Theater - during her SPACE residency), Samuel D. Hunter and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The Roving Dinner is the culmination of their five-week fully-subsidized residency.

Closing out its season, SPACE will host its first, annual gala in Manhattan, entitled “Farm in the City”, on Oct. 24. Featuring a cocktail hour, farm-to-table dinner, performances from six seasons of SPACE- developed work and an auction, the event will bring the spirit of Ryder Farm to the Big Apple.