INTERVIEW: Jonathan Shoemaker on the Accabonac Theater Project, This Land Is Your Land, and Life in Springs

Film and Television Line Producer and Springs resident Jonathan Shoemaker brings his talents to the East End with his theater company, The Accabonac Theater Project. Its inaugural production, This Land Is Your Land, will run January 30 through January 31 at 7pm with a 5pm show on February 1 at Hoie Hall at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton. The production features a trio of short plays titled “General Store,” “Baker Sale,” and “Mystery Art.”

The Accabonac Theater Project is a non-profit theater company based in Springs and with community at its core. Committed to producing original local works inspired by local culture, it invites audiences to experience performances in various community spaces.

Jonathan Shoemaker sat down with Hamptons.com to discuss The Accabonac Theater Project, This Land Is Your Land, and life in Springs.

How did the Accabonac Theater Project come to fruition?

It was sort of developed organically. I worked in production for about 30 years. I was a freelance line producer, and then when I decided I was done with that, and I wanted to do something different, close to my new home in Springs, where I started living since COVID.

We’ve been so welcomed here in the Springs community, with open arms, and I feel so lucky to be here.

I was looking for a way to use my talents locally, and this is what evolved: a hyperlocal, itinerant theater company that exists to do original contemporary work.

The theater project had been germinating for about a year and a half, and then it finally kind of came to fruition. We did a couple of staged readings, which were by invitation, and now this is our first full production, This Land Is Your Land.

How does it feel to be entering the Hamptons Theatre Sphere alongside institutions like Guild Hall, Bay Street Theater, LTV, and the Southampton Cultural Center?

If Guild Hall is Broadway, this is off-off Broadway. That’s what I think of it. It’s different; it’s an alternative to Guild Hall, Bay Street, and LTV, some of the great institutions that are here. We don’t have our own home, so we get to move into a different space every time we perform, and it’s a really fun opportunity to bring audiences into non-traditional spaces and places they haven’t been before. It’s a kind of bonus of coming to our shows, you get to go to a new spot.

Why was St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton the best locale for your first production?

It’s beautiful, historic, and soulful, and it’s also nice and warm. A good place to be in the dead of January.

This Land Is Your Land features a trio of plays. Walk us through them?

It’s three short plays written by me, which are all set in Springs and they’re set at the three of the major institutions around the Springs crossroads: The General Store, Spring School and Athletic Hall.  The plays are sort of portraits of the community told through the eyes of some of its members and the conversations they have about what the legacy will be that they’ll leave to their children.  

Tracey Toomey McQuade and Nick Weber have been collaborating with me from the beginning of putting the theater company together, and they’re both acting in the plays and directing. Tracey is directing “General Store,” starring Nick. I’m directing “Bake Sale,” starring Tracey, and Nick is directing “Mystery Art,” which also stars Tracey.

How did community come to be the project’s core?

Community is both the method and the mission. We’re all as local as we could be, not having been born here. As one of the characters says in the play, “there’s local, and then there’s local,” and so I don’t pretend to have the understanding of someone who’s been here for generations. I’m not telling that story; I’m telling a story from the point of view of somebody like me, who has been here for a while but not forever, and who’s in love with the place and really grateful for it. That’s my perspective.

How can aspiring playwrights get involved?

Playwrights are welcome to reach out to me at [email protected]. We would love to have some other writers join us in this, and we’d love to bring other voices under the tent. Our Instagram is also updated regularly @accabonactheater.

Favorite Springs Spot?

We are all dearly missing the General Store, and we pray every day that it will reopen in our lifetime. So that’s, in part, the launching spot for the first play. That’s a great institution, and it was for years, the heart center of the community. We’re missing that right now, that’s what I’m hoping for in the future

If the Springs General Store were to be reopened? Would you go with a completely revamped version or keep it as it was? 

I’m hoping everybody will see the play because this is precisely the conversation of the first play of our evening. It’s never an easy answer. Everything changes, and my own inclination, I’m a Cancer, and Cancers like the same one place, and they like stuff to be the same. My answer is almost always: I want things to stay the same, but the world is dynamic and changing, and that’s just not what’s in the cards.

Sometimes, the best you can hope for is maybe a slow change that accommodates us and our ability to adjust. I love the general store that was. I love Springs as it is right now; I want to freeze it in time. I know that’s impossible. I love the Hamptons of 20, 30 years ago, when I first met it, but even then it was different from how it was 20 years before that, so this is a really essential question for this place because change is happening faster and faster.

We may be approaching a moment where it’s not as recognizable to us anymore, but those are big questions anyway. I think the plays will be very relevant to local audiences on all these questions.

For more info, visit Accabonactheater.org.