Coach Rich Johns, founder of “Act With Respect Always” (AWRA) and a former Saratoga Springs tennis coach, recently spent a day at the Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville (OESJ) Elementary School, delivering two presentations and recognizing a number of students and teachers with the AWRA Starfish Award. Pictured here are the students in Mrs. McNulty’s class, with Coach Johns, prior to signing the school banner. “Act With Respect Always” presentations are designed to build respect and leadership, teach positive and constructive behavior, and stop bullying before it starts. Photo provided by Rich Johns.
Photo of Skidmore riding team junior captain Ani McIntyre via Eye Was Here Photography/Skidmore College Athletics.
GUILDERLAND — The Skidmore College equestrian team won their second show of the season, which was hosted by Siena University at Dutch Manor Stable on Nov. 1. Junior Captain Ani McIntyre rode away with the High Point Rider prize and was also awarded the Ride of the Day. The team added 5 blue ribbons to their tally for the Blue Ribbon Challenge.
The riders’ first blue ribbon of the day was won by Ian Guadio, in his Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) debut in the Intermediate Fences on Skidmore’s Stella. Penelope York also showed for the first time in the IHSA, winning her Limit Fences classes. McIntyre soon followed with another blue in the Limit Fences.
The Open riders were back to their winning ways for the second half of the day, with Isa Jensen winning her Open Flat on Skidmore’s Milan. McIntyre returned to win her Limit Flat class, earning her the High Point Rider honors. Sierra Wiser rode to second place in her first IHSA competition, and Catherine Epstein finished the day with a blue ribbon in the Introductory Equitation.
The team next competes in the Skidmore College Show doubleheader on Nov. 15 at the Van Lennep Riding Center.
Hannah Paynter, winner of the Women’s Open 1x at the 2025 Head of the Fish regatta. Photo via ARION Rowing.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Athletes from the Saratoga-based ARION (Advanced Rowing Initiative of the Northeast) program excelled at the 2025 Head of the Fish regatta at the end of October, with Hannah Paynter winning the Women’s Open 1x and the team of Sophia Ortega and James Schmidt winning the Mixed Open 2x.
“ARION athletes raced hard, worked all over the regatta, and even put together some great costumes,” ARION said in a social media post. “Grateful for the [Saratoga Rowing] community and to all the competitors who came out.”
The ARION program has sent some of its athletes to the Olympics, including Kristi Wagner and Lauren O’Connor, who both finished ninth overall in their respective events at the 2024 games in Paris, France.
Head of the Fish is one of the largest regattas in the country, bringing more than 160 teams and 1,600 crews from across the northeast to compete in Saratoga Springs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Opera Saratoga is celebrating its 65th anniversary with a “modern new minimalism that makes room for maximum drama,” the company announced last Friday.
“With a move towards the future, Opera Saratoga announces an upcoming season that is stripped down, up close, and unmistakably NOW,” said General and Artistic Director Mary Birnbaum in a news release. “The modern audience has made it clear that it wants to connect with art that has a level of realness and purity. So, we’re pushing imagination to take center stage with minimal scenery and maximum drama.”
After the company’s first-ever winter offering, a semi-staged “La bohème” at Universal Preservation Hall on Dec. 5, the company will produce a touring education opera, “Stone Soup,” by Mark Campbell and Joe Illick. This opera will tour over 30 schools and community venues throughout March.
In May, Opera Saratoga and the Glimmerglass Festival will partner to present Kurt Weill, Berthold Brecht, and Elizabeth Hauptmann’s “Happy End.” Censored after its second performance in Germany in 1929, “Happy End” is a satire of “big business and big religion.” The show will be music directed by Robert Ainsley, the artistic and general director of the Glimmerglass Festival, and it’ll feature Ana Karneža, who won the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya competition in 2024. The performance will be directed by Birnbaum in collaboration with the Glimmerglass Festival dramaturg Kelley Rourke. The piece will tour venues all over the state, including two performances at Universal Preservation Hall on May 28 and 30.
“This is an exciting new model of producing opera where regional companies partner with each other to bring opera to individual communities rather than expecting them to travel to us,” Birnbaum said.
The Opera Saratoga Summer Festival season, which features 20 rising opera stars selected from a pool of 850, will continue with the following performances:
Rodgers & Hammerstein concert at the Mansion of Saratoga on May 31;
Festival Artist Portrait Concerts focused on what made the singers want to become artists at Saratoga Arts on May 20 & 27 and June 3 & 10;
Fully staged productions from June 20-28 of Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady,” Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love,” and a workshop of “Drift” from Opera Saratoga’s first ever mainstage commission from an all-female team, composer Alyssa Weinberg and librettist, J. Mae Barizo.
In addition to these programming announcements, Opera Saratoga also announced the appointment of pianist, coach, and educator Adam Nielsen to the company as the head of music staff and director of the festival artist program.
“Adam’s work on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera, as a recitalist with major opera stars like Davòne Tines and Ryan Speedo Green, as well as his work as an educator at The Juilliard School, make him a perfect fit to lead the Festival Artist Program into the next era of Opera Saratoga,” Birnbaum said. “In addition, we are so lucky to have Laurie Rogers continuing to lead the company in a new role as director of artistic operations.”
For more information about Opera Saratoga, visit operasaratoga.org.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announced on Tuesday the second Dunkerley Dialogue of the 2025-26 season, scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. and featuring artist Sheila Pepe in conversation with Brigitte Keslinke and Skidmore’s Gregory Spinner.
The three participants will discuss the cult of Mithras, a Roman mystery religion in which ritual meals played a central role. The talk will be followed by a re-creation of a Mithraic feast, featuring dishes (grilled meats, grains, bread, dried fruit, spiced olive oil, and wine) that are based on the archaeological record.
Admission to the event is free. For more information, contact the Tang Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or visit tang.skidmore.edu.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Spring Street Gallery will be hosting “Harvest to Horizon,” a solo exhibition of paintings by local artist Kate Edwards, until Nov. 9. Edwards’ work reflects on landscapes and still lifes, with familiar scenes from the Adirondack region.
“Overall, Edwards’ style is painterly in the truest sense: expressive, textured, and guided by an emotional response to her subject rather than rigid precision,” said Belinda Colón, curator and director, in a news release.
A multidisciplinary artist, Edwards also specializes in fine art framing and co-owns Kettlewell & Edwards at 13 Phila Street in downtown Saratoga.
Spring Street Gallery’s hours are Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; or by appointment by emailing springstreetgallerylist@gmail.com at least 24 hours in advance. The gallery is located at 110 Spring Street.
BALLSTON SPA — The Ballston Spa High School Troupe will perform “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a play that explores how a nameless orphan becomes the boy who never grows up, on Nov. 20, 21, and 22 at 7 p.m. (with a special matinee on Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.) in the Ballston Spa High School Auditorium.
A prequel to J.M. Barrie’s beloved “Peter Pan,” this Tony Award–winning play by Rick Elice, based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, takes audiences on an adventure filled with pirates, mermaids, shipwrecks, and stardust. Combining storytelling, physical comedy, and live music, “Peter and the Starcatcher” celebrates the magic of theatre itself, transforming everyday objects into fantastical worlds through the creativity of the cast.
The show will feature Libby Stavers as Peter/Boy, Maeve deFrancqueville as Molly Aster, Roman Mangino as Black Stache, Lila Tomaso as Prentiss, Lillian Hammer as Ted, Matt Adams as Greggors/Smee, Charlie Davis as Lord Leonard Aster, Mia Iacolucci as Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Anna Wilson as Mrs. Bumbrake, Alex Rejiester as Grempkin/Alf, Gwendolyn Downing as Bill Slank/Hawking Clam, and Lily Mickel as Sanchez.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, available at the door or online at ballstonspa.ludus.com/index.php?show_id=200505074.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Lotus, an electronic rock group that has been a jam scene mainstay for decades, will perform at Putnam Place on April 15, 2026, in support of their new album, “Rise of the Anglerfish,” the venue announced this week. Tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 7 at 10 a.m.
Lotus describes themselves as “innovators in blending electronic dance music with the jam band model of improvisation.” The group draws inspiration from genres such as psychedelic rock, krautrock, post-rock, disco, and funk. Over the last two decades, the band has toured extensively throughout the country, including at legendary venues like Red Rocks and at popular music festivals like Bonnaroo and Electric Forest.
Photo of Nathan Richardson in the role of Frederick Douglass provided.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Torch Club invites the public to an evening of history and performance on Monday, Nov. 17 at the Saratoga Springs Holiday Inn. Dinner begins at 6 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by Nathan Richardson’s portrayal of Frederick Douglass.
“My goal isn’t to reenact history,” Richardson said in a news release. “It’s to embody it—to bridge past and present in a conversation that still demands to be heard.”
A 22-year U.S. Army veteran, Richardson said that when he started reading Douglass’ work, he could “literally hear his voice—his rhythm, his cadence. It was like music to a poet’s ear.”
Richardson performs more than a dozen of Douglass’s speeches, from “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July” to his addresses on the Constitution and civil rights. Richardson’s presentations mix history, performance, and audience engagement, inviting spectators to ask Douglass anything they wish. That interaction, he said, is what makes interpretation different from reenactment. “A reenactor sticks to the script. An interpreter can talk about anything—the person’s friends, the politics, the price of bread. You become the person.”
For more information about the event or to reserve a seat, go to www.smartacus.com/civic-conversations/interpreting-frederick-douglass.
The Saratoga Torch Club is part of a national network of forums where professionals and community members meet to share ideas, promote civil discourse, and explore issues of public interest. Monthly dinners are open to the public and feature guest speakers from diverse fields.
ROUND LAKE – Stephen F. Sabella passed away on October 25, 2025. A graveside service was held on Monday November 3, at 1 p.m. at Staten Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, NY. For online condolences, visit www.compassionatefuneralcare.com.
