HERKIMER! To Have World Premiere At Bridge Street Theatre
Solo performance by Ned Averill-Snell will be presented as part of SoloFest.
Bridge Street Theatre will continue its 2026 SoloFest series with the world premiere of HERKIMER! HOW MY IGNORANT IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS SAVED AMERICA AND YOU CAN TOO, written and performed by Ned Averill-Snell and directed by Timothy Dunn.
The production will run March 13–15, 2026 at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, New York.
Blending family history, Revolutionary War storytelling, and contemporary reflection, HERKIMER! explores the 1777 Battle of Oriskany and the immigrant farmers, Iroquois warriors, Hessian soldiers, and military leaders caught in the conflict. Through humor and personal narrative, Averill-Snell connects the little-known battle to events that helped shape the outcome of the American Revolution.
The solo show also draws on the performer’s own family history to examine ideas about immigration and the evolving promises of the American experience.
“I was hearing all this blood-and-soil patriotism coming from Vice President JD Vance and other nationalists,” Averill-Snell said. “They think the longer your family has been here, the stronger your claim to America. I figured the counterargument should come from someone whose roots in this country go even deeper than JD’s.”
The performance also includes a few humorous references to the Broadway musical Hamilton.
Averill-Snell, a veteran of the Florida theatre community for more than 25 years, has appeared in productions of plays such as The Iceman Cometh, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Twelve Angry Men. His previous solo performances include Chesapeake, Every Brilliant Thing, The Apocrypha of Theodore Roosevelt, and his original piece Little Tunes, which he presented at the United Solo Festival in Manhattan.
Averill-Snell recently relocated from Florida to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and most recently appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol at Berkshire Theatre Group.
Bridge Street Theatre’s SoloFest 2026 series features three solo performances by theatre artists. The series will conclude later this spring with ARCHIE PARISH’S PARTING WORDS, written, directed, and performed by Ernest Thompson, the Academy Award-winning writer of On Golden Pond, adapted from his Broadway play of the same name.
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