Ps21: Performance Spaces For The 21St Century

PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performing arts. We are committed to presenting innovative performances by leading and emerging artists in our state-of-the-art black-box and open-air pavilion theaters, fostering creativity through residencies and collaborations between performers working across disciplines and genres, serving the community via free and low-cost workshops, performances, and other programming, preserving our more than 100 acres of open spaces, meadows, woodlands, and orchards as an important resource for artists and the community, and extending opportunities for arts engagement to all, regardless of age, economic status, and cultural background. Our commitments are incorporated in the design of our new theater and the surrounding grounds: open, inviting, and optimized for the public’s enjoyment and to encourage citizen expression and participation. PS21’s facility, completed in 2018, is a 300-seat open-air proscenium stage protected by a pavilion roof, which converts in cooler months to a geothermally heated and air-conditioned black box theater seating 99. The new facility is built with technologically advanced systems that can accommodate all levels of artistic needs–from the analog use of our extensive system of sprung dance floors so critical for the safety of movement-based performance, to our state-of-the-art lighting and sound capacities. The theater features one of the only fully LED green theatrical lighting systems in the country. Our new facility sits above a nineteenth-century apple orchard at the apex of over 100 acres of beautiful Hudson Valley land, at the foothills of the Berkshires. Just five acres have been developed; the rest are meadows and woodlands. Nearby are the Dance Barn, a rehearsal and performance venue, and two artists’ residences accommodating sixteen visitors. The PS21 property is also host to the Chatham Farm Animal Rescue.