In 1969, the city of Cohoes purchased the abandoned National Bank Building at the northern end of Remsen Street for $1 to save the prominent 1874 edifice from imminent destruction. As city officials began examining the building’s interior, they couldn’t find any stairs to a third floor. Eventually, they broke through a ceiling panel, only to discover that hidden away in the top half of the building was a gem of a theater, complete with a small stage, a fly space for dropping in sets, and seating for 350 people, including a wrap-around balcony.
In the ensuing years, the space has been used for a variety of civic activities, and there have been attempts at having a resident organization, such as a professional repertory theater company, a community theater troupe and a folk music group. But since 2003, when Cohoes native and off-Broadway actor Jim Charles, 47, moved back home with his partner Tony Rivera, 35, a dancer with a background in management, the city of Cohoes has had not just a theater but also a professional theater company.
C-R Productions at the Cohoes Music Hall, as their nonprofit organization is known, has a paid staff of five, an annual lineup of a half dozen musicals and a hopping box office. Between the main productions and a variety of children’s programs, last year’s performances were attended by more than 20,000 people. The company has a base of 1,000 loyal subscribers. Its final production of the season, Stephen Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
“Their performances have brought thousands of people to downtown, where we never had anybody coming to downtown previously,” says Cohoes Mayor John T. McDonald III. “The shows bring people from a radius I never would have dreamed of, like people from the Berkshires. Five or six years ago, I never would have believed that would happen.”
Although Charles and Rivera carry the respective titles (and ensuing duties) of artistic director and producing director, they occasionally appear on stage as well. Charles himself is leading the cast of “Forum.” He plays Pseudolus, the high-strung singing and dancing slave who goes through madcap antics to gain his freedom.
Actually, the role isn’t much of a stretch for Charles, since juggling myriad tasks and maintaining a generally good humor is how he and Rivera run the Music Hall on a daily basis.
“We’ve been here four years, but just now got the go-ahead (from the city’s historic preservation watchdogs) to put some stuff on the walls,” says Charles, standing in the lobby and rolling his eyes at the empty brown walls as only an actor could. “We’re very lucky,” he continues, “the community loves this place.”
Charles and Rivera’s first show in Cohoes was “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight!” a one-night-only revue in March 2002. It was born out of a post-9/11 desire to look beyond life in Manhattan, where the couple had been living.
“We called about 15 of our friends from off-Broadway and television and said we want to do a revue-type show,” recalls Rivera. “We got a cellphone with a 518 area code, and that was our box office.”
“Tonight” included local as well as out-of-town talent, as have all subsequent productions, and met with huge popular success. And it led to Charles and Rivera being courted by new fans in Cohoes.
“I used to call them every other day and say, `Get up here,’” recalls Eunice Antonucci, owner of Smith’s Restaurant. As one of the only dinner spots in Cohoes, Smith’s has benefited from the traffic brought in by the theater, and Antonucci has joined the board of C-R Productions. But she appreciates more than the commerce.
“We like coming out of their shows singing and tapping our feet,” she says. “We need that. This is a depressed area with a loss of the mills and business.”
“We’ve cornered the market on the musical theater fix people need from September to May,” says Rivera, who played Bernardo in the 2004 production of “West Side Story.”
Every season at Cohoes includes a mix of classic Broadway musicals alongside newer staples from the ’80s and ’90s. For example, next year features “Carousel” and “42nd Street” as well as “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Miss Saigon” (but don’t look for a helicopter on the small Cohoes stage).
Each show is rehearsed and mounted in a tight two-week production period and runs for three weekends. A typical cast numbers 12, with half that many more musicians in the pit. Last fall’s “Ragtime” was the largest production to date, with an onstage company of 37.
What sets Cohoes apart from almost any other professional house in the country is the absence of amplification. In contrast to today’s Broadway, where the sound is as powerful as at the movies, hearing the natural voices of the performers re-emphasizes the intimacy and immediacy of live theater.
“When Jim first told me it was an acoustic house, I said, `You’re kidding.’ That’s very rare and it means we have to get actors who can handle it,” states music director Michael McAssey. A 20-year veteran of off-Broadway and regional theater, McAssey relocated from Aspen to join the Cohoes team this season. He continues, “In a lot of ways (singing without a mike) is a lost art.”
That observation is borne out every time auditions are held.
“A lot (of young actors) don’t get the concept,” says Charles, “I say, `We’re an acoustic house,’ and they say `What?’”
“C-R Kids” is the umbrella name for a variety of educational activities at the theater. Coming up is a Circus Summer Camp. In December, 3,000 children saw school-day performances of “The Sound of Music.” The January production of “Disney’s High School Musical” featured a local cast of 32 kids, culled from 250 who auditioned.
“We treated them like professionals. We’re not like the high school, where you rehearse for four months,” says Charles, who recalls that his own teenage theatrical ambitions were met with a dearth of local opportunities for training and performance. He’s gratified that one place where he did connect with like-minded souls is still around – the Spenwood School of Dance and Gymnastics.
“You knew from the beginning Jim would do something with the theater, one way or another. He was a showman, he came in that door and you knew,” recalls Margie Pascale, who’s run Spenwood for 45 years and gave Charles his lessons in tap dancing.
When Charles came in the door again, this time as a producer and director, Pascale had no trouble recognizing him. In fact, the two did more than renew acquaintances. Dancers from Spenwood were prominently featured in the revue “Tonight!” and the school’s studios are frequently used for rehearsals of upcoming shows.
C-R Productions has received some of its most substantial funding for its education programs, including a $22,000 grant from the federal No Child Left Behind program to fund after-school enrichment activities for Cohoes middle schoolers. The largest grant to date has been $50,000 from New York state, secured by Ron Canestrari, the majority leader of the state Assembly and former Cohoes mayor. The funds are designated for capital improvements including lights, sound equipment and curtains.
The organizations’ current operating budget stands at around $300,000, with approximately two-thirds of that figure covered by earned income from ticket sales and subscriptions.
The city of Cohoes provides gratis use of the theater and covers the utilities. But the company does pay rent in downtown Cohoes – on a 2,500-square-foot scene shop and seven apartments that house actors. “That’s seven National Grid bills,” says Rivera, who hopes to one day have all operations outside the theater consolidated into one building.
To date, Rivera and Charles have not given themselves salaries, functioning in essence as full-time volunteers. To cover their own living expenses Rivera teaches gymnastics at Spenwood and Charles gives voice lessons to 20 or more students a week.
Except when one of them is performing in a production. Then, something has to be cut from the busy routine. But as they look toward a fifth season and beyond, Rivera and Charles have reached a certain comfort level so that even during the peak of a production period, they’ll take time to leave the theater and have dinner. Carving out personal time will become an even bigger priority, since the couple is taking steps toward adopting a child in the next year.
“We’ve grown into this. … It’s not as consuming at this stage,” says Charles. “We’re in this for the long haul, with our commitment to the city, the community and the building.”
Originally appeared in the Times Union, April 29, 2007.
Also available in Artists & Activists: Making Culture in New York’s Capital Region.
