North Country Public Radio Interview:
Where the arts feel right at home in Upper Jay
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/28222/20150501/where­the­arts­feel­right­at­home­in­upper­jay by ​
Todd Moe​
, in Upper Jay, NY The Upper Jay Arts Center, home to the Recovery Lounge, artist studio and furniture upholstery business celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Photo: Todd Moe May 01, 2015 — ​
It is part upholstery shop, art gallery, and performance space. For ten years, the Upper Jay Arts Center has been a community gathering place for the literary and visual arts in the Ausable Valley region of New York State. Music and theater have been a big part of its success. That is what brought founder and Artistic Director Scott Renderer to the Adirondacks nearly 20 years ago. Scott and his brother, Byron, bought an old three­story former factory to use for their furniture upholstery business. They still recover sofas and chairs, but as Todd Moe learned, the building today is a hub of artistic activity. Scott Renderer:​
I think a lot of people expect something different because it’s a square, kind of fading grey building that is nondescript until you really look at it and you see that it’s really kind of a beautiful big box. Todd Moe:​
That’s Scott Renderer, owner and artistic director of the Upper Jay Arts Center. As we chat in a second floor loft apartment in the building, actors with the Adirondack Shakespeare Company rehearse for an evening performance downstairs in the Recovery Lounge. SR:​
The idea, at the end of the week, we all need to recover, you know, from whatever it is and this is a great place for that. The building was built in 1920 or ’21, I believe, and Henry Ford had built it to assemble Model T’s, so it has quite a rich history in that respect, where they would ship chassis, engines and drive a car from Keysville up to here with just a frame, where they would assemble them here and you could come in and order a specialized Model T. And so, it must have been pretty interesting, you know, and exciting to have that going on. Apparently, Upper Jay was a thriving town way back then because this was the thruway from Montreal down to New York, so there was a lot going on at this corner and that energy still exists here. I mean, I believe that because the Springfield Road comes down, the river comes around, 9N comes around, and here we sit and from the first day that I bought this building and had the front doors open, people just walked in, start talking, and I think, throughout the decades, it’s always been a friendly meeting ground for people. It’s a very special place that way. Filled with a variety of antique, rustic and recycled furniture and fixtures, the Recovery Lounge hosts music and theater throughout the year. Photo: Todd Moe TM:​
The Upper Jay Arts Center was founded by Scott and his brother Byron, who are both musicians and furniture upholsterers. They started a band and gave informal music parties in the first floor space in the late ‘90s. That’s when Scott said he retired as an actor in New York City and moved north to the Adirondacks to recover furniture by day and direct plays by night. SR:​
We’re known mainly for doing plays that wouldn’t be considered like real friendly summer plays. We do Harold Pinter and we do David Mamet and we’ve done Sam Shepherd and plays that have more of an edge are a little bit darker. TM:​
You’re doing two Mamet’s this year, right, or this spring? SR:​
We’re producing our summer play. We traditionally have done a play in the summer and that will be a play called “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet. Later this month, we’ll do a reading of another Mamet play just to introduce people to that kind of language and I like to do things in groups, you know, like when we did the Harold Pinter play “The Birthday Party” a few years back, I taught a seminar—“Harold Pinter Plays”— to help the community, you know, get acquainted with that kind of theatre. It’s a little bit more challenging and the same thing with Mamet. The first play I did here was “American Buffalo” by David Mamet and that was a real test to see if the kind of stuff I wanted to do would fly here and if there was an audience for it, and it was very successful and well­received, nobody walked out at intermission because of the language and it was a real, you know, shot in the arm for doing those kinds of plays and I’ve been doing them ever since. They’re interesting, challenging plays; challenging for the audience as well as the actors. TM:​
So Scoot tells me he likes surprises and insists on giving me a tour of the upper floors. The building was listed on the state and national register of historic places in 2013 and as we climb creaky stairs to the third floor, he shares stories from its history and his vision for the future. The third floor is cluttered with more furniture and has been used as a performance arts space but, way in the back, supported by massive wooden beams is a huge piece of the buildings past. SR:​
What I wanted to show, what we’re most proud of here is this particular — this fly wheel that runs the elevator where they brought the cars from the basement all the way up to the third floor and down again, and each floor was an assembly floor where they would — one floor they’d put the doors on, another floor they would work on the rumble seats or whatever. This is, from what I’m told from different people that have visit, this is one of a kind in New England, you know, the Northeast and I’ve had some pretty serious offers from collectors to sell this and if I did, I could pay off the mortgage. It’s never going to go, this is such a big part of the building and I personally love this kind of machinery, it’s just, it’s an art piece in itself. But this floor, in the future, is going to become a gallery space, but also a dance space. We’re going to empty it out and also be able to exhibit sculpture and more art on the walls. Artistic Director Scott Renderer stands by the building's centerpiece ­ a vintage flywheel on the third floor that still powers a large freight elevator. In the 1920's and 1930's, it was used to hoist Ford cars from the basement to the top level during assembly. Photo: Todd Moe TM:​
Originally fom the Pacific Northwest, Renderer says he loves the Adirondacks, and with his wool hat, barn coat, flannel shirt and a passion for the arts, he fits in nicely. SR:​
I’ve travelled a lot. In my acting career, I travelled; I toured Europe and all over the world with a company called The Wooster Group out of New York and I’ve never, in all my travels, been to a place that I liked any more than I liked the Adirondacks, so every time I go away and I come back, I really, really feel blessed that I live here. So that keeps me here and that will probably always keep me here. Scott Renderer:​
I think a lot of people expect something different because it’s a square, kind of fading grey building that is nondescript until you really look at it and you see that it’s really kind of a beautiful big box. Todd Moe:​
That’s Scott Renderer, owner and artistic director of the Upper Jay Arts Center. As we chat in a second floor loft apartment in the building, actors with the Adirondack Shakespeare Company rehearse for an evening performance downstairs in the Recovery Lounge. SR:​
The idea, at the end of the week, we all need to recover, you know, from whatever it is and this is a great place for that. The building was built in 1920 or ’21, I believe, and Henry Ford had built it to assemble Model T’s, so it has quite a rich history in that respect, where they would ship chassis, engines and drive a car from Keysville up to here with just a frame, where they would assemble them here and you could come in and order a specialized Model T. And so, it must have been pretty interesting, you know, and exciting to have that going on. Apparently, Upper Jay was a thriving town way back then because this was the thruway from Montreal down to New York, so there was a lot going on at this corner and that energy still exists here. I mean, I believe that because the Springfield Road comes down, the river comes around, 9N comes around, and here we sit and from the first day that I bought this building and had the front doors open, people just walked in, start talking, and I think, throughout the decades, it’s always been a friendly meeting ground for people. It’s a very special place that way. TM:​
The Upper Jay Arts Center was founded by Scott and his brother Byron, who are both musicians and furniture upholsterers. They started a band and gave informal music parties in the first floor space in the late ‘90s. That’s when Scott said he retired as an actor in New York City and moved north to the Adirondacks to recover furniture by day and direct plays by night. SR:​
We’re known mainly for doing plays that wouldn’t be considered like real friendly summer plays. We do Harold Pinter and we do David Mamet and we’ve done Sam Shepherd and plays that have more of an edge are a little bit darker. TM:​
You’re doing two Mamet’s this year, right, or this spring? SR:​
We’re producing our summer play. We traditionally have done a play in the summer and that will be a play called “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet. Later this month, we’ll do a reading of another Mamet play just to introduce people to that kind of language and I like to do things in groups, you know, like when we did the Harold Pinter play “The Birthday Party” a few years back, I taught a seminar—“Harold Pinter Plays”— to help the community, you know, get acquainted with that kind of theatre. It’s a little bit more challenging and the same thing with Mamet. The first play I did here was “American Buffalo” by David Mamet and that was a real test to see if the kind of stuff I wanted to do would fly here and if there was an audience for it, and it was very successful and well­received, nobody walked out at intermission because of the language and it was a real, you know, shot in the arm for doing those kinds of plays and I’ve been doing them ever since. They’re interesting, challenging plays; challenging for the audience as well as the actors. TM:​
So Scoot tells me he likes surprises and insists on giving me a tour of the upper floors. The building was listed on the state and national register of historic places in 2013 and as we climb creaky stairs to the third floor, he shares stories from its history and his vision for the future. The third floor is cluttered with more furniture and has been used as a performance arts space but, way in the back, supported by massive wooden beams is a huge piece of the buildings past. SR:​
What I wanted to show, what we’re most proud of here is this particular — this fly wheel that runs the elevator where they brought the cars from the basement all the way up to the third floor and down again, and each floor was an assembly floor where they would — one floor they’d put the doors on, another floor they would work on the rumble seats or whatever. This is, from what I’m told from different people that have visit, this is one of a kind in New England, you know, the Northeast and I’ve had some pretty serious offers from collectors to sell this and if I did, I could pay off the mortgage. It’s never going to go, this is such a big part of the building and I personally love this kind of machinery, it’s just, it’s an art piece in itself. But this floor, in the future, is going to become a gallery space, but also a dance space. We’re going to empty it out and also be able to exhibit sculpture and more art on the walls. TM:​
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Renderer says he loves the Adirondacks, and with his wool hat, barn coat, flannel shirt and a passion for the arts, he fits in nicely. SR:​
I’ve travelled a lot. In my acting career, I travelled; I toured Europe and all over the world with a company called The Wooster Group out of New York and I’ve never, in all my travels, been to a place that I liked any more than I liked the Adirondacks, so every time I go away and I come back, I really, really feel blessed that I live here. So that keeps me here and that will probably always keep me here.