Curtains Up On Summer: Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham enters 51st season

TimesUnion.com | May 24, 2019

On a sinuous country road lined with emerald fields and foliage, between the John Deere dealership and the county fairgrounds, sits a theater with a round stage 22 feet across, nestled amid 350 seats that each summer hold crowds exceeding 35,000. Now in its 51st season but the first without either of its founders, Mac-Haydn Theatre is a throwback that’s also finding its future. It is a true summer-stock company, in the old-fashioned sense of the term, meaning it is built on guest artists in leading roles and a core group of young actors who stay for the whole season to act in or otherwise work on most if not all of the seven Main Stage and three Children’s Theatre productions that run from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends.

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Inside One of the Last VHS Rental Stores in America

Inside Edition | April 6, 2019

Nestled in the quiet town of Chatham, New York, is Video Visions, one of the last-remaining video stories in America. Steven Campbell opened Video Visions in 1984 with Jim Donovan. At the time, they had just 200 titles. Now, they have over 26,000 that customers can rent for a few bucks a day.

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A View from the Tracks: Day Tripping in Chatham & Ghent, New York

Greylockglass.com | Tuesday, April 2, 2019

The morning sun reflects off the remnants of a hard crust of snow with a luminous quality that makes the towns of Ghent and Chatham, New York, appear suffused by stage lights. It’s been a long winter—about six months’ worth, by most people’s accounts, though they use much more colorful language; like the Inuit and their multiple words for snow, residents of upstate New York have a remarkable array of vivid, sometimes profane, epithets for the season.

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Crandell Theatre Elects New President

Lydia KukoffThe Crandell Theatre website | Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The Crandell Theatre’s Board of Directors elected a new president and other officers at their annual meeting on January 27. Lydia Kukoff, elected as President, will take over for Fred Ulrich, who steps down from that role after five years but remains on the board. Other officers elected by the board include Sara McWilliams as Vice President for Theater Operations; Peter Biskind as Vice President for Programming; Lael Locke as Secretary; and Viki Sand as Treasurer.

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Call for Entries Farm Film Fest 11

Film entries are now being accepted for Farm Film Fest 11, the annual event sponsored by the Chatham Agricultural Partnership, the Columbia Land Conservancy, and the Crandell Theatre. The one-day film festival takes place on Sunday, March 24, 2019, at the historic Crandell Theatre in Chatham, New York.

The festival will screen films that focus on farms and farming issues with special consideration for those that have a regional connection. Films can have a running time of 5-20 minutes and submitted either in DVD or digital format. The program will include films made by professional and amateur filmmakers. Students of all ages are encouraged to submit entries. Deadline for submissions is March 1, 2019.

DVDs can be sent to:
Farm Film Fest 11
c/o The Crandell Theatre
PO Box 305
Chatham, NY, 12037

Digital links can be sent to .
Submission requirements are also available at FarmFilmFest.org.