JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 16, 2004)
"Artists' collective" has the same nostalgic ring as hippie commune. It's a phenomenon of long ago, with no place in today's consumer-driven market. But Blueberry Pond Arts Center wants to prove differently. An organization of playwrights, actors and directors that has been meeting and working together quietly in the back country of northern Westchester since 2001, the group now has 70 members and is about to reveal a very public face.

"We're a playwright-driven company," explains Jean-Paul DeVellard, president, founder and provider of the first home base for the company. "Our focus is on writers in Westchester. I wanted to do original work and this area out here is so rich with writers and actors. We've attracted extremely gifted people."

That organizing principle sets Blueberry Pond apart from most other theater companies in the region as it inaugurates its first main-stage season this week. While other groups plan a season around plays that they want to see on stage or that they think their audience wants to see, Blueberry's purpose is to create and then stage its own product, work never before seen by anyone. Of the other professional theaters, perhaps only the Penguin Rep in Stony Point or the fledgling Hudson Stage can boast that kind of emphasis.

"We'll be taking more risks," says DeVellard. "I encourage it. I want provocative work. Work that causes the audience to think, to question." He makes these comments while sitting in the living room of his renovated farmstead home deep in the woods of southern Yorktown. Outside the window is the pond from which the company takes its name. "I originally founded this company here on my front lawn."

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"And we're a food-driven company," adds Jocelyn Beard, a writer, director and board member who has joined the discussion. The food references are an inside joke as DeVellard, who once worked as a food critic, whips up impressive dishes for every occasion. "I've learned you have to feed actors," he says laughing. Also on hand: Cynthia Granville, the company's
artistic adviser, and Donna James, an actor who serves as assistant to DeVellard.

Turning serious, Beard says, "The thing that really gets me excited is that in most of our plays, nothing is ever the way it seems. They are very edgy and not predictable. It makes it fun to be involved with."

"Offspring," the company's first full production, opens tonight as a guest production at Fleetwood Stage in New Rochelle for a three-week run. The play centers on a wealthy white woman who volunteers in an African-American community with explosive results. The author, Jimmy Barden of Pleasantville, tackles racial conflict, love, jealousy and obsession.

"I'm sure we are going to be challenged," says Granville. "I'm sure there are going to be people who are going to be made very angry by the play."

Granville sees the fact that "Offspring" is being staged in southern Westchester, far from their base, as a bonus. "If it's theater that's going to really matter, it has to reach beyond our circle of friends. It's a wonderful opportunity for us to outreach — more so than if we had started right here."

"Offspring" was developed through the unique Blueberry Pond program. "To qualify for a main-stage production," says DeVellard, "you have to go through the process of workshop for the play from beginning to end. Then there's a staged reading that the public is invited to. And then a play-selection committee makes the determination if it's ready for a main-stage production."

Another component of Blueberry Pond is the forging of connections between writers and actors. "We are an ensemble," says DeVellard. "We want the writers to know the actors."

Speaking from an acting perspective, James says, "One of the best compliments I've had since joining is to have a writer in a workshop ask 'Could you read this? You inspired me to write this character.'" The experience has had another impact on her: "I've always had the passion and the desire to act and now I want to write."

DeVellard adds, half seriously, "However, we don't encourage our writers to act."

Granville notes that the payoff from the long evenings spent in intense workshops is realized when a play goes to production. Any play such as "Offspring" that involves brutal exchanges between characters can be difficult to capture on stage by actors who are unsure of each other. "At a rehearsal discussion today, we talked about how important it is to have an ensemble when you're dealing with a work like this. These actors have lived with this work for a long time. We're all very comfortable with each other. We've gotten past taking this personally. We can trust."

Blueberry Pond's second main-stage production will be DeVellard's play "Eden's End," in April, to be followed by Beard's play "Sub-Urban Legend." Having written to meet DeVellard's challenge of creating risky material, Beard makes a confession. "I had to discourage my mother from attending the reading of my play." Her play extracts the wild moments of her suburban
upbringing.

After "Offspring," all plays will be staged at the company's new permanent home, Shine House in Ossining's Cedar Lane Park, where renovation to convert the space into a 50-seat black box theater is nearing completion. "The site is very beautiful," says DeVellard. "The theater is going to be state of the art and intimate. The Town of Ossining has been very good to us." The company expects to stage up to six plays annually.

The Ossining community has and will be a focus of the company, particularly in a young people's theater program. Blueberry Pond is currently sponsoring what it hopes will be an annual young playwrights short play competition.

And the group is aiming higher.

"We're setting up a sister company that would take certain of our plays Off-Broadway, if they're successful," DeVellard says. "But it would start in Westchester. Westchester would be the proving ground. And we hope to have people come out of the city to see our work."

However, the member writers are not required to share future success with the company. DeVellard says it is important to him that no one feel that claims will be made to their intellectual property. "We didn't want to mortgage our writers' lives," he says.

Success is not guaranteed.

"When you do take this many risks, you're going to have as many failures as successes," says DeVellard, "but how can we find out if it will be a success without taking the risk?"

"At least you won't be bored," Granville chimes in.