Blue Cowboy, David Cale’s Latest Solo Work

Three-time Obie Award winner and acclaimed monologist David Cale returns to Ancram Center for the Arts with a staged reading of his latest solo work, Blue Cowboy, an evocative tale about a NY screenwriter on assignment in Idaho and his encounters with an enigmatic rancher. Blue Cowboy was developed as part of Ancram Center’s Play Lab Series and will premiere in October at the Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn, under the direction of Les Waters. Performances are Sat. Aug. 16 at 7:30pm and Sun. Aug. 17 at 4:00pm. Tickets at www.ancramcenter.org

In Blue Cowboy, a screenwriter from New York travels to Ketchum, Idaho, to work on a film script set in Sun Valley. His plans and life take a wildly unanticipated turn after he has a chance encounter with an elusive ranch hand at the town’s annual “Trailing of the Sheep Festival.” The storyteller shares highly intimate details of their unlikely relationship as it unfolds. One is open about his life, while the other lives a life that remains a self-imposed mystery to everyone around him. Cale tells the story in his signature style, full of vulnerability and blunt confession.

Cale wrote the first draft of Blue Cowboy in Sun Valley, Idaho while spending a month-long writer’s residency at the former home of Ernest and Mary Hemingway. Blue Cowboy moves through cowboy poetry, western landscapes, and unexpected tenderness. Said Cale, “In the play the writer and the ranch hand drive around to cowboy events. I went into the cowboy world. I’ve spent time in Montana as well as Idaho. Some of cowboy life is surprising. For instance, cowboys are very big on poetry. They write it and learn it by heart.” Cale describes the show as being shaped by “vulnerability, sexual frankness, and personal doubt.”

This performance marks a return to the stage for Cale, perhaps best known as the playwright of Harry Clarke, about a duplicitous Englishman living in New York. Starring Billy Crudup, Harry Clarke premiered in NYC at the Vineyard Theatre, transfered to the Minetta Lane Theatre as Audible’s first theatre production (Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show) and subsequently enjoyed a record-breaking run at Berkeley Rep. In 2024 it became a sold-out sensation in London and earned Crudup an Olivier Award nomination as Best Actor.

This is the 6^th edition of Ancram Center’s Play Lab series, which provides theatre artists with time, space and resources to develop innovative theater projects. 

Note: This performance contains mature themes and adult content.

Celebrating its 10^th anniversary season, Ancram Center for the Arts is an award-winning theater located in New York’s Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, Ancram Center is dedicated to presenting risk-taking productions and new work by nationally recognized theater artists in an intimate performance space. The Ancram Center for the Arts 2025 season is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information visit www.ancramcenter.org.

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BLUE COWBOY

Written and performed by David Cale

Saturday, August 16 at 7:30pm 
Sunday, August 17 at 4pm
Ancram Center for the Arts

1330 County Route 7

Ancram NY 12502

Note: This performance contains mature themes and adult content.