Courtesy Emily Simoness and Michael Chernus. Photo collage by Johansen Peralta
A farm-to-table love story, with a dash of Hollywood
Emily Simoness and Michael Chernus join the podcast to discuss her artist retreat, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and his on-screen career
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Emily Simoness moved to Brooklyn in 2007 to pursue a career in acting. But New York had other plans for her.
In 2009 on a whim, she paid a visit to a place that had been in her family for eight generations called Ryder Farm in Brewster, New York, about an hour-and-a-half outside of the city. She had heard about the farm and decided to see what it was all about. Before she knew it, she would not only be living in Brewster but she had launched a nonprofit artist residency program called SPACE on Ryder Farm, committed to supporting and developing artists and their work.
“We were starting when a lot of this wave of particularly playwrights and writers were coming up,” says Simoness, who is this week’s guest on “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast.” “It has been totally wild and a lot of folks are who are creating the culture that we’re ingesting have been at the farm.”
Now, after a decade of having hosted some 1,500 writers and artists as co-founder and executive director, Simoness is stepping down. She’s not sure what next for her, but whatever it is, she’ll be doing it with the support of her husband, Michael Chernus, who is our other guest on the podcast.
Chernus is a film, television and stage actor perhaps best known for his role as Cal in “Orange is the New Black,” but who has also made an impression with roles in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Captain Phillips,” “Werewolves Within,” in “The Patriot” on Amazon, on “Nurse Jackie,” and so on. His next project will be a limited series for Amazon based on “Dead Ringers,” the ultra-creepy 1988 David Cronenberg film starring Jeremy Irons, who played twin gynecologists.
“In our version … the twins are placed by Rachel Weisz,” says Chernus. “It’s an incredible creative team: Alice Birch, who’s a British playwright is the showrunner and head writer. Shawn Durkin, who made the movie ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene,’ is directing the bulk of the episodes. It should be cool.”
On the podcast, the two of them discuss their respective careers—and whether they get competitive at all as a creative couple. Simoness says no. Chernus has a different answer: “I feel competitive with Emily’s work for Emily’s time. My life is so weird. I’ll be insanely busy for a short period of time and then I’ll be off for large swaths of time. Emily’s work has been all-consuming since the moment I met her,” he says, before adding a jab: “The most competitive I think we get is: You get annoyed if I get more likes on an Instagram post.”
Finally, the two also gained a little extra notoriety for their pandemic side-hustle, when they started a pro-Biden tie dye t-shirt fundraising effort, called, what else?, Tie-Dyen for Biden, which was perhaps more of a risky undertaking for Simoness than her husband.
“Non-profits are not supposed to be political at all, so we had to be very careful that there was no connection to SPACE on Ryder Farm at all,” says Chernus. “But for me It probably helps in some weird way. I’m not afraid to use my voice publicly at all.”
For all of that, plus a review of the recent Dead & Company show at Bethel Woods, listen to the podcast. Stick around and you’ll be rewarded with Chernus’ excellent impression of Michael McDonald.
