Owner to restore, enlarge building
Chris Meyer has more than doubled his footprint in Cornwall. Of course, that won’t mean anything to you unless you remember who Chris Meyer is.
He’s the experienced actor and director who expects to establish a theater in Cornwall that will feature plays by veterans or about veterans.
Last fall he established a headquarters at 16 Quaker Avenue and hosted an evening of veterans’ poetry.
He imported actors from New York City and, during the intermission, he offered drinks and an assortment of desserts. The evening was a success. The ambience was unique. The one drawback was the capacity was limited.
That won’t be a problem for too long. Mr. Meyer recently purchased the Chadeayne Homestead, the large building on the circle that was most recently a group home for teenage girls. He plans to restore the building and then enlarge it. He told me he has photographs of the homestead from different periods of its long history. He also said that he plans to host another event in the near future.
Back in 2001, Mr. Meyer had directed an Off-Broadway comedy in New York City. The reviews were encouraging. There were performances on Thursday through Sunday. The theater was shut on Monday. And the next morning, the planes hit the World Trade Center. Mr. Meyer saw the building collapse.
The show closed and its director joined the military.
It was a long-term commitment. As recently as a year ago, he was serving in Afghanistan.
When we met last fall, he offered a glimpse of what he was trying to accomplish. He wanted to showcase veterans’ work so it could be appreciated by a new audience. “What makes veterans special,” he told me, “is what they’ve seen, their wide stream of experience. It’s very rare that someone gets to experience what they have.”
But Mr. Meyer does not limit his definition of veterans to former members of the military. He also includes people in law enforcement, firefighting, medical service, Foreign Service or intelligence.
With the purchase of the homestead, the Veterans Repertory Theater is looking like a permanent addition to the area.
