Condrath is a bundle of energy on the road to stardom, soon to appear in a TV series called Pixar IRL on Disney+. And for this month only, she’s in New Paltz.
A man known for his personal environmental activism – particularly on the subject of fracking here in New York State – Mark Ruffalo the movie star disappears admirably into the role of a most unflashy, but doggedly tenacious, modern American hero.
This week Mohonk Mountain House served as a set for a party scene in the fifth season of the Showtime series Billions, which stars Paul Giamatti as a US attorney (loosely based on Preet Bharara) and Damian Lewis as the hedge fund tycoon he’s pursuing. In Hudson Valley Film Commission director Laurent Rejto’s view, 2019 has quite simply been “the most successful year to date for regional film and TV production.”
Sunday, Dec. 8: The Roman custom of celebrating Saturnalia with a temporary topsy-turvy social order, during which servants were permitted to lord it over their masters, persisted well after the Christianization of Europe. In his Anatomy of Abuses in England in Shakspere’s Youth (1583), the pamphleteer Phillip Stubbes railed against the ongoing practice of a Lord of Misrule being appointed by a mob to take over a country church at Christmastime. That odd tradition has largely been forgotten, but the Brooklyn-based Dzieci Theatre – known hereabouts for its performances of Makbet at Opus 40 – does its best to keep the memory alive.
A loving homage to all the classic whodunits that have gone before (especially in the Agatha Christie mode), Knives Out addresses the problem of every possible plot twist having already been used at least once by introducing a topical subtext of class warfare and anti-immigrant bias. It’s not mere PC window-dressing; it drives the plot in ways that can’t be ignored.
Friday-Sunday, Dec. 6-8: Ulster Ballet Company will present its 25th anniversary season of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic, exquisitely choreographed and directed by Sara Miot, formerly of the New York City Ballet.
She joins executive director Sonja Kostich at the helm of the prominent 30-year-old Hudson Valley dance organization. Says Kostich, “Stella is an extraordinary figure in the cultural world and an inspiring advocate for Kaatsbaan, both as a female Filipino-American leader and as an artist, and I’m elated to welcome her as my new partner at Kaatsbaan.”
It’s being touted as a serious contender for Best Picture honors at Oscar time – not Best Foreign Film, mind you, but Best Picture overall.
Sunday, Nov. 17: Set in Tibet between 1937 and 1959, with music by the Minimalist master Philip Glass, Kundun explores the finding and unique education of the child Tenzin Gyatso as he becomes the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. Based on the actual life and writings of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, the film culminates in his escape from Tibet and journey into exile amidst the terror of the Chinese invasion.
Thursday-Sunday, November 21-24: The title of this year’s festival comes from a Rumi poem, and it’s not an accident that this biennial is timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.