Theater company known for intimate stagings and gourmet cuisine thrives in North Bennington
By Telly Halkias, Vermont Country correspondent.
NORTH BENNINGTON — When William Shakespeare had Hamlet utter “the play’s the thing,” he couldn’t have known how that simple phrase would be co-opted by centuries of future theater professionals, often to describe the singular focus of how everything in the industry is in support of the brief moments actors have on stage.
Or, as the case may be, in the kitchen and at the dining table.
For the denizens of Living Room Theatre (LRT), now in rehearsals for their one-show slate opening July 24, the professional company’s 12th season has evolved into a communal experience. The company members hone their performances through possession of a sixth sense of each other — right down to their meals. But more on food later.
The North Bennington troupe was co-founded by artistic director Randolyn Zinn and her husband, actor and director Allen McCullough.
The couple, based in Brooklyn, and both with long New York stage careers to their credit, began offering short summer seasons consisting of one or two plays, and have become a local fixture. Their productions have included, among others, works by Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, as well as those of contemporary playwrights such as Lucas Hnath and Annie Baker — and Zinn’s re-imagining of several classic works.
In fact, most recently, during the company’s 2023 season, “Her Name Means Memory,” Zinn’s creative take of Euripides’ “Trojan Women,” garnered world premiere and new play nominations from the annual awards of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association, and consideration for honors from the prestigious Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award of the American Theatre Critics Association.
Such an impressive evolution did not happen overnight.
Staged on the grounds of the historic Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion, the company’s plays were presented both in the mansion’s carriage house and outdoors around the estate. More recently, though, in keeping with the themes of development and progression, LRT has found its own innovative theater-in-the-round: the estate’s abandoned swimming pool, where nightly audiences of 50 to 60 can realize the effects of an outdoor amphitheater-like fishbowl, while being almost right on top of the action.
The couple owns a farmhouse on the lands; McCullough is a direct descent of the eponymous former owners of the grand Victorian mansion museum.
This summer’s offering
Indeed, this year’s production, “Amor and Psyche: A Mythological Comedy,” is written and directed by Zinn, and its run will be from July 24 to Aug. 4. The play itself has been in the works for awhile, according to Zinn, and she seemed delighted to reveal that, reaching back millennia, she “followed Socrates’ advice to write a comedy, next, and turned to one of my favorite tales, ‘Cupid and Psyche.'”
“I’ve poured over the story (by Apuleius) for years, as Psyche is the only mortal woman in the Western mythological canon to take the hero’s path,” Zinn said. “Cleary, motifs from the story are familiar in many European fairytales, and continue to be refreshed in works of literature and music.”
Zinn kept the major events and characters intact from the original work, she continued, while refreshing the story by finding equivalencies for references that audiences in the second century AD would have understood, that contemporary audiences might not.
“I’ve also employed assorted English language dictions to mash-up time periods as Psyche’s quest transcends time, for an effect that is akin to holding up an ancient mirror wherein we recognize our contemporary world,” Zinn said, “I find it remarkable that this ancient story emphasizes feminine independence and personal transformation as the necessary components for nurturing true and equal partnerships in love.”
McCullough added that his wife’s work has been produced at New Georges and other theaters in New York as well as the nearby Williamstown Theatre Festival, and that “Amor and Psyche” is a well-timed addition to LRT’s evolution.
“Our mission has always been to produce new as well as classic plays,” McCullough said. “I think right now is the time to hear the strong female voices, concerns and characters. Plus, it’s very funny.”
It takes a kitchen
While the LRT brain trust prides itself on the different types of plays it works to bring on stage, they also take a different tack from other professional acting companies in their methods.
To that end, a sense of community and communal living — centered on cast and crew meals — reverberates throughout sessions from Brooklyn to North Bennington. Zinn said the cast and crew investigate scripts “with joy and depth, accompanied by good food.”
“With each new rehearsal period, we begin with a read-through and dinner with the cast at our home in Brooklyn,” Zinn said. “We provide snacks in the studio, and sometimes improvisations will center around a meal or a picnic.”
Then, Zinn continued, when the troupe arrives in North Bennington for concentrated rehearsals and staging the play(s), they live together at the McCullough estate farmhouse and pull ingredients from the couple’s organic garden, and others, and cook together.
Nearby community members and longtime LRT devotees also contribute farm-to-table offerings, a practice almost as sacred to locals as securing a highly sought-after ticket — a number of 2023’s performances were standing-room-only.
The kitchen is where the LRT artists discuss their work, continuing for hours around the dinner table, and after performances when they still work on the plays, Zinn added. As the nicer weather of summer permits alfresco dining, the troupe continues its give-and-take begun in the kitchen, under blue Vermont skies.
“Kitchens are a lot like rehearsal rooms because both rooms balance creativity and generosity and end up nourishing everyone involved,” Zinn said. “Audiences will feel the special camaraderie among our actors onstage.”
If you go …
“Amor & Psyche: A Mythological Comedy,” will run from July 24 to Aug. 4 at Living Room Theatre, on the estate of the Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion, 1 Park St., North Bennington. Performances are Wednesdays through Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Buy or reserve tickets at: 802-442-5322 or info@lrtvt.org
Telly Halkias found his way to Bennington County on a blind date while in college, and vowed to live here one day. While the romance fizzled, years later he made good on that promise. Telly has spent two decades freelancing features, reviews and columns for so many regional outlets that he’s often mistaken by readers as a staff writer somewhere — but where exactly they have no clue. Telly has also been fired a few times, only to be rehired almost immediately after minor subscriber revolts. His greatest source of joy is when locals stop him while grocery shopping to discuss 15-year-old columns from which they can still quote lines. Reach award-winning freelance journalist Telly Halkias: tchalkias@aol.com, X: @TellyHalkias
