End of the Line Nearing for Hudson Stage Company

Denise Bessette is at peace with the realization that this spring’s production will be the last for Hudson Stage after 23 seasons.

Like so many other arts and entertainment outlets, the Westchester-based nonprofit theater company was forced to close for about a year-and-a-half following the outbreak of COVID-19.

But life circumstances for Bessette and her co-founder, Olivia Sklar, at least as much as the pandemic, helped make the decision to close after their upcoming production, “Off Peak,” which opens on Apr. 22, followed by one additional staged reading.

Sklar is expecting her first grandchild and Bessette’s children are now grown and both living in Los Angeles. Coupled with the decision of the company’s other co-founder, Dan Foster, to leave a few years ago makes this the appropriate time to end Hudson’s Stage’s run.

“I probably could have done a couple more before retiring, but I do believe that this feels like the right time. I do feel that now,” Bessette said last week. “Again, I did not want to collaborate, I did not want to have to find other partners to collaborate with after Olivia and I had this strong relationship.”

Financially, the theater company was stable, Bessette said, although more challenging. There were three board members who had retired during the past two years, and finding replacements was also difficult.

The pandemic-fueled closure made it difficult to return, although Hudson Stage had a successful return last October with “The October Storm.” But it was difficult to go from being dormant to trying to get back to normal.

“It just about killed us last fall to try and get that show open and running,” Bessette said. “The audience loved it, but (a) very small turnout. For both my partner and I, we were so fried trying to keep the theater alive, which we did with digital performances that we had. She was ready to say that’s it, and I thought that, well, we’ve got a season planned and I can do it myself. But I certainly can’t see carrying the theater further than that myself.”

Hudson Stage was conceived by Bessette, Sklar and Foster when they met in 1997. Its mission was to present new productions or productions that were new to Westchester, Bessette said.

By 1998, the first reading was done at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts in Mount Kisco. After that, the company presented staged readings at the Croton Free Library, which had just opened a new performance space.

After two years in Croton, Hudson Stage moved to the Julie Harris Theater at the Clearview School in Briarcliff Manor, before heading to their most permanent home, the Briarcliff campus at Pace University. However, when the school sold that campus about seven years, it moved to Whippoorwill Hall in Armonk, where it’s continued presenting a major spring and fall production since then.

“We were sustained by some very generous people,” Bessette said. “But I do have to say in Westchester it’s challenging holding an audience. There are still people who’ll say, ‘Oh, I’ve never heard of you,’ which is just shocking to me.”

It didn’t help when The New York Times curtailed its Westchester coverage, she said. The Times and The Journal News had previewed their productions previously, but that exposure just stopped.

Despite the melancholy finish, Bessette said she will use the opportunity to spend more time with family but also pursue her own acting roles.

“I want to see what life brings,” she said. “I’m still an actress; in fact, I have an audition coming up for a TV show. I’m hoping at this ripe old age that maybe I’ll get to work more as an actress, which I haven’t been as accessible.”

Martin Wilbur

Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/