Couples’ Romantic Getaway: February

Leenya Rideout and her wide range of disciplines as well as her unique and sometimes offbeat take on the human condition have enabled her to reach audiences in plays, musicals, films, and concert stages in New York City and around the world. She has worked with such directors as John Doyle, Marianne Elliott, Sam Mendes, and Rob Marshall as well as Master Puppeteers Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler in the Tony Award-winning Warhorse at Lincoln Center. She has premiered roles in new plays and musicals as well as collaborated in Tony award-winning revivals such as the 1998 Revival of Cabaret & the 2006 Actor Musician production of Company. In 2016, she was in of the first all-female cast in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. From Guenevere to Aldonza to the Witch in Into the Woods as well as musicals celebrating folk heroes such as Woody Guthrie, she loves creating characters and telling stories. Leenya’s songwriting blends folk, rock, and country with a Celtic edge, and her original solo play with music entitled Wild Abandon premiered off-Broadway in 2018. She stars in the new Romantic Comedy Film, Love, Repeat. She has taught voice at NYU and has worked as a teaching artist for students of all ages. Always a native of the Rocky Mountains, she now resides in Manhattan with her husband, actor Ted Koch.

Maria is a 4th generation Smiley Family member who has served as the president of the North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents (NAPAMA), began her career at Columbia Artists Management and received an Arts Management Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1992. Before joining the Purchase College faculty in fall 2009, she served as the general manager and artistic administrator of the Van Cliburn Foundation for 15 years. Maria oversaw career development for the winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, including the contracting and servicing of all U.S. engagements and coordination of international tours following each quadrennial competition. Sevan is the Owner and Operator of Wired Gallery which was founded in May 2012 with the mission to show works by Mid-Hudson Valley Artists. Located at 11 Mohonk Road in High Falls, New York, and open Saturdays and Sundays 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Wired Gallery was named “one of Ulster County’s most high-profile, prolific sources of quality art exhibitions” by Almanac Weekly

Brotherhood Winery, founded in 1839, it remains the oldest winery in America, continuously operating in Washingtonville, New York. Brotherhood is one of the largest producers of wine in the state of New York for brand and private label contracts. The winery produces ciders and a variety of internationally-recognized wines including Riesling, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Port, and Sparkling. Every year Brotherhood hosts thousands of guests who visit the winery to participate in daily tours and tastings, weddings, and special events.

Circle Creative Collective is a local community organization of artists and makers that aims to connect and inspire diverse groups by sharing and preserving traditional crafts and skills. With a specific focus on promoting crafts, skills, events, and transformative ideas to honor unique heritages and shared experiences, this collective pursues a more inclusive, creative, and joyous world. Their repertoire includes hands-on social multigenerational workshops drawing on traditional, multi-cultural, and sustainably-sourced crafts including papermaking, weaving, soap-making, felting, gardening, beekeeping, foraging, and many more! For more information, visit www.circlecreativecollective.org.