OUR SPONSOR
Greater Sayville coverage is funded in part by The Shed, your scratch kitchen for brunch and dinner daily in West Sayville.
By Sam Desmond
A bit of Oakdale history is finding new life on stage.
Last week, community members and leaders helped move music and theater equipment from the long-shuttered Dowling College Performing Arts Center on Central Boulevard to its new home — the CM Performing Arts Center on Montauk Highway, just half a mile down the road.
The donation effort was led by Dave Chan, former president of the Oakdale Civic Association. For him, the transfer from a once-vibrant Oakdale institution to a thriving community theater in the same hamlet was more than just a physical move.
“It felt great to give back to the community in a meaningful way — breathing new life and purpose into items that might have otherwise gone unused,” Chan said.
The idea for the donation dates back more than five years, when Chan and neighbors in the Idle Hour community launched the Idle Hour Neighborhood Watch to help protect the abandoned Dowling campus and its assets. Over time, they witnessed vandalism and theft targeting the buildings and items left behind.
“At the beginning of this year, with the new property manager for the estate, George Lederer, I brought up the idea and he was fully on board,” Chan said. “A few months later, during my conversations with Marc Hollid-Ausset, CEO at [CM], I mentioned it again — and he loved the idea as well.”
The donated items included stage props, lighting equipment, specialty flooring, mirrors, and five pianos — one of them a baby grand. The team at the community theatre, which has earned nicknames like “Broadway in Oakdale” and “The Heart of Long Island Theater,” welcomed the donation with open arms.
Brendan Noble, the theatre’s director of marketing, helped with the transport. Noble studied theater education at Dowling College before it closed in 2016, and the donation brought back a flood of memories.
“It’s always nice when a community looks out for its own,” Noble said. “The fact that we are getting to preserve some of Oakdale’s history by giving a new home to the various pianos collecting dust is incredible. We are grateful that CM was considered to receive this donation.”
For Noble, visiting the old Dowling campus — and the Vanderbilt mansion he once explored as a student — was like walking through a Long Island version of Hogwarts.
“The vast majority of my campus time was spent at the Performing Arts Center, where we spent our time taking out the pianos, so of course I walked around remembering some of my favorite memories,” he said. “I even happened to notice some stage flats still painted from that show.”
With the new additions, the theatre now has enough pianos for each rehearsal space, ending the need to wheel a single one from room to room.
Marc Hollid-Ausset, the theatre’s CEO, called it a full-circle moment for Oakdale’s creative community.
“Oakdale has been a hub for creatives for many decades,” he said. “CM is proud to be a jewel in the creative crown of Oakdale for the past 28 years of our 38 years of existence. We are excited to use this equipment as we teach the next generation of performing artists in our year-round education programs for kids pre-K through 19. This has been a powerful example of how the arts truly can bring a community together.”
Current Oakdale Civic Association president Tom Alfano echoed that sentiment.
“The Civic Association can’t be happier that these items are going to good use and staying within the community,” he said. “We thank the community members who helped make this happen and the new property manager for donating these items and for his increased efforts in maintaining and securing the property.”
Top: CM Performing Arts Center (Credit: CM website). Inset: Volunteers helping move equipment Friday. (Credit: Sam Desmond)
