Theater has taken a hard hit during the pandemic. As an art form that feeds off of in person interaction, it was easily deemed inessential and dangerous. According to a study conducted by Greg Guibert and Iain Hyde in 2021, tax-exempt performing arts companies across the country saw a sizable decline in revenue in quarter 3 of 2020; almost 54%. While local theaters struggled financially, the actors that comprise them struggled emotionally. Some of them continued working their day jobs without any rehearsals to look forward to. Others that rely on theater for their income had to simply sit and wait for other opportunities. The Hudson Valley theater scene had to undergo numerous changes. There were radio shows, Zoom play readings and drive-in performances. Now as the dust clears, Hudson Valley actors are coming into the light and sharing what they went through during the worst of COVID-19.

Chocolatier Håkan Mårtensson began his culinary career at the top. After enrolling in the pastry arts and design program at Österäng in Kristianstad at just 15, the Swedish native was mentored for Stefan Johnson-Peterson. He joined his country's national culinary team at 22. In 2008, he competed in the Culinary Olympics and helped Sweden bring home the gold.

“After that, I felt I was done with competing,” he says. “I wanted to move somewhere else in the world and try it out. I was intrigued by

Quinn Levine has always been a people person. She started working front of house at restaurants when she was 18 while attending theater school in New York City. From there she found a love of cooking, which led her to culinary school. Over the years, she worked at several different restaurants including the now-defunct East Village Haunt Northern Spy Food Co. and helped open Estela.


“I left Estela when I got pregnant in 2015 and my boss there at the time essentially bullied me out of my job,”

Writer and director Hamza Zaman’s new film The Institute tells the story of a Brooklyn couple, Marie (Victorya Brandart) and Danny (Ignacyo Matynia), who leave the city for the country. But this couple isn’t running from COVID-19; they’re headed to the Lands Institute for Reproductive Science. Marie and Danny have been struggling to conceive, and no treatment has worked. After using every herbal remedy and getting plenty of second opinions, Danny finds the Lands Institute.

Run by the eminent Dr

Hudson Valley residents know that they’re liable to run into celebrities. Films and TV shows have been shooting here more and more, bringing with them plenty of big name actors (Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Walken, and Michael Cera, to name a few). If there was ever a time to break into the business, this is it. According to the Hudson Valley Film Commission, 631 locals were hired to work on Hudson Valley sets in 2021, and spending reached around $58 million. As productions continue to flock here,

As a kid growing up in Manhattan, Rebecca Moore had a special connection to animals. She felt empathy for the rats and squirrels that everyone around her regarded with revulsion. That empathy reached its peak in the summer of 1978, when Moore went away to summer camp.

“I was playing with this sweet little baby chick, and then was led to the dining room and served chicken,” she says. “I marched right home and told my parents I wasn’t eating animals anymore.”

Luckily, Moore’s parents were unders

Emma Cariello explores the niche appeal the A24 film studio brings to young moviegoers and what makes their works so iconic. – Edited and packaged by Jared LaBrecque

What is A24, by definition? According to Variety, they’re a “distribution, financing and production company” named after an Italian highway. But ask film enthusiasts this same question and you get a completely different answer.

“They’re not trying to be for everyone,” says 25-year-old SUNY New Paltz graduate Dan Ducey. “I genuinel