Hilary Leitner presents

UNLIKELY LOOTERS: Musical Documentary & Live Performance

Saturday, August 24 2024

7:00 pm Showtime

This musical documentary by filmmaker and visual artist, Hilary Leitner, is an intimate portrait that reveals the essence and psychology of a man, 82-year-old artist Nick Della Penna, who devoted over 35 years to creating a magical stone monument by hand. This castle-like structure is interwoven with mosaics and sculptures which mirror the state of our world and Nick’s perspective on it. Leitner visually, musically and narratively arranges this film to magnify this exceptional creative blast. After fifty minutes you’ll walk away feeling that you, too, can do anything. Music by award-winning composer, musician and recent Drama Desk Winner, Erik Della Penna. Watch the trailer here!

The film showing will be followed by a special live music performance by our Erik Della Penna on guitar and Daisy Castro on violin. The two are members of the internationally renowned music ensemble, Hazmat Modine, as well as being artists in their own right.

There will also be a chance for people to meet Nick Della Penna informally after the event.

“Every creative spirit should see it. It’s empowering” – RP

“The planet needs this desperately” – EJ

​Length of Performance: Approximately 1 hours and 45 minutes

TICKET PRICING:
•$40 for Golden Tier Seating, Rows A - F
•$35 for Blue Tier Seating, Rows G - N
•$35 for Green Tier Seating, Rows P - Q

Each ticket price is inclusive of a $5 handling & convenience charge

All seating is Reserved Seating, and all sales are final; no refunds nor exchanges.

During the late 1950s and into the 60s, the Woodstock Playhouse directors instituted Saturday morning children's productions & concerts as well as midnight concerts featuring such artists as Tom Paxton, Peter Yarrow, Tim Hardin, Pete Seeger, Happy and Artie Traum, Billy Faire, and Jack Elliot. The Band, including Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Jaime Robbie Robertson, would record their album Stage Fright at the Woodstock Playhouse with Todd Rundgren serving as sound engineer. As the 1960s evolved and Woodstock found itself at the center of a cultural revolution, the Playhouse was host to the final concert in a series of performances known as the Sound-Outs in 1968. Produced by John “Jocko” Moffitt and generally perceived as a precursor concert to the Woodstock Festival held in Bethel a year later, the Playhouse concert featured Richie Havens, with additional performances by Jerry Moore, Don Preston, Major Wiley and Bunky and Jake.

Throughout the 60s and 70s, legendary musicians and bands played at the Woodstock Playhouse, including Arlo Guthrie, Van Morrison, Orleans, Full Moon, Sonia Malkine, John Hammond, Holy Moses, Dave Van Ronk, Levon and The Band, The Montgomeries, Geoff and Maria Muldaur, Jim Rooney and Bill Keith, and after the burning and rebuilding of the Woodstock Playhouse: Leon Russell, Cindy Cashdollar, Jacke DeJohnette, Sonny Rollins, Peter Yarrow, Bethany and Rufus Cappadocia, John Sebastian, Natalie Merchant, Larry Campbell, David Bromberg, Richie Havens, Noel Paul Stookey, The Indigo Girls, Leon Russell, Well Strung, all of the amazing Headliners at the annual String Sampler Concert, and so many more.

Additionally, the Woodstock Playhouse, established in 1938 by a member of one of Woodstock's Oldest Families, became a central hub for the launching of major careers on Broadway and in film and television, as it continues to do today.