One Night, Two Countries, Six Hundred Years of Bawdiness (and a Great Deal of Cheese)
Join artist, poet, and lyricist Lou Craft and cheesemonger Andy Koechling of Talbott & Arding for a playful evening of literature, song, and carefully chosen cheese. Over two acts, we'll travel from medieval England to modern Copenhagen—reading, singing, tasting, and talking our way across six centuries.
Tickets: $40
Act I — Canterbury
Lou leads us through the bawdy, bodacious Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, read aloud in our very best English accents. Then we'll dig into why she still resonates: Do women still desire sovereignty over their husbands and lovers? What's truly changed in six hundred years? Throughout, Andy guides us through a gorgeous selection of English cheeses.
Act II — Copenhagen
Then we head north. With a glass of Cherry Heering in hand and some snappy Danish Blue on the board, we'll sing karaoke-style through the songbook of Hans Christian Andersen—by way of the incomparable, hilarious Danny Kaye. Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!
Your host: Lou Craft
Lou Craft began a spanking new chapter in Hudson after decades in NYC. As an artist, she's shown work on Warren Street at Intentionally Blank and Nikki Chasin, and at the Harvest Gallery at Greig Farm in Red Hook. As a poet, she's been published thirty times in The New York Times and once in Chronogram. She's led paint-and-sip and bagel-clay ornament workshops at Citiot in Catskill, and poetry and monologue-writing workshops at the Creative Legion. Her original musical, From New York You Don't Get a Divorce, was performed at the Laurie Beechman Theater this February—and staged right here at The Spark last spring. She's been taking improv and acting classes with us ever since.
Your cheesemonger: Andy Koechling, Talbott & Arding
Talbott & Arding is Hudson's beloved cheese and provisions shop, known for its thoughtfully sourced selection and deep bench of knowledge. Andy will walk us through every wedge on the board—where it comes from, why it tastes the way it does, and what to drink alongside it.
