Theater eyes psych center as headquarters

Airmid Theatre was looking for a place to perform a play two years ago when founder Tricia McDermott spoke to Assemb. Steven Englebright.

"He said, 'Hey, listen, I've got this park. Want to come and see?' " McDermott said last week.

She checked out Nissequogue River State Park -- the sprawling former grounds of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center -- and Airmid has produced annual outdoor summer shows there ever since. Its latest show opened there on Wednesday.

McDermott thinks Airmid, which formed in 2000 but has neither a permanent theater nor an office, finally has found a home. She dreams of some day renovating one of the park's deteriorating buildings as Airmid's headquarters.

But with Nissequogue's future still unclear, Airmid remains a community theater without a community.

"We've made a home in the park here," McDermott said. "It's whether or not we have a building to do year-round work."

Long-term plans for the park and the dozens of shuttered buildings on its grounds are on hold while state officials conduct an ongoing assessment to determine which of the structures will be demolished and which will be rehabilitated.

The building eyed by McDermott -- 80-year-old York Hall -- is an aging theater that had been part of the hospital's therapy program, said Englebright (D-Setauket), who supports Airmid's plan to take up residence there. York Hall would need new wiring and other repairs, but it is mostly in good condition, Englebright said.

"The building was really well built. It was all cast cement with brick veneer and Indiana limestone decorative touches," he said. "It's in a park that needs a theme and needs tourism revenues."

Estimates for renovating York Hall range from $1 million to $5.5 million, Englebright said. It is unclear when the state will decide the building's future, he said.

Until it finds a permanent home, Airmid -- named after a Celtic goddess -- plans to continue performing at the park, McDermott said.

Airmid's new show, the comedy "A Little Betrayal Among Friends," is a new English-language adaptation of a play by 16th-century Spanish playwright Maria de Zayas y Sotomayor.

The group specializes in obscure plays written by women. Such plays question female stereotypes, McDermott said.

"That's the job of theater: to challenge and say something new -- even if that something new is 400 years old," she said.

The park presents unique challenges: Airmid rents a generator to run lights and sound on the two-story stage it built, and there are no seats, bathrooms or concession booths. But like a trained thespian, McDermott laughs at her predicament.

Performing at a former mental hospital, McDermott said, "seems like an appropriate place for a theater company."