BRATTLEBORO — One floor below street level in a former shoe warehouse at 139 Main St., the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery will have a new director this month.
Hooker-Dunham's current manager, Barry Stockwell, is stepping down this month after having run the center for arts, culture, and public gatherings since 2007.
He hands the reins to Jon Mack, who affectionately calls the space “the theater in the cave.”
“With shakes of hands and the blessing of the building's owner, I will be taking over management of the Hooker-Dunham Theater as of May 15,” Mack posted on his website, “Reflections in a Cracked Glass,” which includes ruminations on the many things that concern him.
He writes, in part: “I think it's a sweet little theater. I want to see it not only keep going, but to get used a lot more. It doesn't fit for all things, but its 99 seats and art gallery reception area make for a cozy space for many activities: theater productions, music, art and video, film, meetings, improv, who knows!”
He says artistic direction is not part of the portfolio, and that he'll put in a good year and see how things look. He also says, “If a miracle happens, and the theater earns more than it costs to run, I solemnly promise to put that money back into the theater.”
Making a difference, and making it swing
Since Mack moved to South Newfane in 2007 he has become tightly woven into its political and cultural scene. He chairs the Newfane Selectboard and the In-Sight Photography Project, plays sax with the Buzzards Brass Band, plays jazz (sax and flute) in various ensembles, and has acted with numerous local theater companies.
As well, he's professor emeritus of clinical and community psychology at State University of New York at Old Westbury and was an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley in the late 1960s, where he says he “got into my share of mischief” at “the height of civil rights, anti-war, communal/hippie era.”
He took his doctorate in clinical psychology at New York University in late 1971 and took off immediately to Chile.
“I did volunteer work in support of the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende, as his coalition of parties of the left tried to transform Chile into a socialist society,” he says. “I was back in the U.S., when, on Sept. 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet brutally crushed those aspirations.”
For most of his adult life he's taught college-level psychology, “but always with a political edge.”
“Sometimes too sharp an edge for some students. I've taught prisoners and guards, septuagenarians and teenagers. I've had students with brilliant, lively, challenging minds and students I had to wake up by slapping a yardstick on the lectern.”
After 30 years working and teaching clinical psychology, and as the last of his and his wife's children had gone off to college, he was ready for a change. The couple bought what he calls a beautiful little place in South Newfane.
He kept his hand in academia for his first two years as a Vermonter as visiting professor of psychology and education at Marlboro College.
But Mack's interests have always been wider-ranging than his professional life could satisfy. He consulted in information technology, focused on programming and architecture for many years. And in taking the helm at Hooker-Dunham, it's noteworthy that Mack was for more than 20 years a member of a performing collective in New York City called “The Sullivan Institute” or “The Fourth Wall.”
“We performed theater in the East Village, supported demonstrations with street music, monitored radiation levels around nuclear power plants, made films, and lived an unconventional communal lifestyle,” he says. “We put on at least seven plays every week including four children's plays on the weekend. In one of those, I got the chance to perform my dream role: 'King of the Universe.' Of course, the lesson of the play was that part turns out not to be so terrific after all.”
'Our great task' - accessibility improvements
Hooker-Dunham is a beautiful, intimate space for many kinds of entertainment, but it lacks full handicapped-accessible features. Needed are “$10,000 to $200,000” for those improvements, Mack says, and describes that work as “our great task.”
“Perhaps, if the right lights shine on this cavern of a theater, it will one day be safely accessible to all. That is a goal. […] Until that happens, Hooker-Dunham must remain an alternative space for the Brattleboro community.”
Mack says he still believes that the theater itself is a marvelous asset to the town of Brattleboro - one that serves many people's needs.
“It's done that for a long time, by being open to be rented. And I will certainly continue this fundamental structure,” he says.
Step up and 'Act Out!' June 6
But he also has other exciting plans for using the space to benefit the Southern Vermont arts community, starting with a venture he calls Act Out!
“I want to try a night of a kind of actors' and directors' workshop,” he says. “I've always loved the jam sessions at the Vermont Jazz Center and would love to get something similar going for actors.”
Act Out! premieres at 7:30 p.m. on June 6 as part of the Gallery Walk preceding the next day's Strolling of the Heifers. In it, groups or individuals will have the opportunity to present works in progress to a live audience.
Mack says the event is open to all but will be of special interest to those in the performing arts. It's simple, he says: grab a slot for a two-minute monologue or a 20-minute scene or anything between (including set-ups and break-downs).
Then go for it.
“Though each group or individual will have an assigned slot, we'll all support each other by being audience when not on. The whole thing will be two hours, maximum,” he says.
Mack says he will not do any “selecting.” Whoever signs up will get a slot until the two hours are filled. Actors will be able to try a monologue they want to use for auditions or test scenes before a live audience.
Writers can see pieces they've written acted out for them.
“We may even try a short improvisational piece in which anyone can participate,” says Mack.
The venture will be financed on the spot: “Everyone, whether it be actors, directors, or audience, will be asked to chip five bucks into the kitty to help cover costs of running the theater,” he says.
Lights, camera, film night!
Another venture Mack plans to test: a weekly film night, where members of the community will get a chance to present films they want to share. Whether the movies are original work, independent films, classics, or foreign, Mack says he hopes to provide an alternative venue for cinema.
A man who wears many hats, Mack is glad when he sometimes can combine them. As chair of its board, he says he is especially pleased to present a benefit for the In-Sight Photography Project at Hooker-Dunham on June 21.
“It will be a gala evening with wine tastings and entertainment, and we will raffle some of the more than 400 photography prints Insight has collected over the years,” he says.