It started in 2005, Anna Becker recalls, at a conference table at Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, which was in its final months.
Becker had been called in to advise Michael Unthank, who had just taken over at NWCA.
“He asked me what the place needed to be more complete as an arts center and I said, ‘You don’t have a professional performance component,’” she recalls in a conversation at her Pound Ridge home.
As she discussed the potential such an addition would bring to the center, a board member noticed how animated she was getting.
Becker went home, thought about it, asked Unthank if she could try to put such a program together and, one PowerPoint presentation later, the job was hers.
“Unfortunately, it really was too little too late,” she says. The NWCA folded in October 2005. But the spark of an idea had set off something — the “Insights & Revelations Series” — that outlived its parent group.
Within months, the series had a new home, at the Rosenthal JCC in Pleasantville.
And within months, James Braly presented a one-hour monologue he titled “Life in a Marital Institution (20 Years of Monogamy in One Terrifying Hour)” — a sometimes bizarre story of his life journey.
Now, more than two years later, Becker and Braly are still connected and “Life in a Marital Institution” lives on, now in previews Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse for a run through August.
Becker credits executive producer Little Johnny Koerber with financing the project on its journey to Off-Broadway.
“He’s known James for years and he said he wanted to back him,” Becker says. “ … we have some other investors, too, but Little Johnny has been the man.”
Becker says she has learned a lot watching Braly develop “Life,” with the aid of director Hal Brooks (“Thom Pain,” “No Child…”). It’s a story of a man who is simultaneously losing his sister, dealing with his family and in the throes of what can charitably be called a dysfunctional relationship.
“I say that if you’ve been married more than seven years, you’re going to love this and your going to feel so good about your marriage,” she says with a laugh. “Hal Brooks says it’s a feel-good date night for married people — and people have left saying ‘We feel better now about our relationship.’”
Becker, who has seen the show many, many times, says she can watch an audience and understand their point of view.
“I can tell by where people are laughing whether they were therapists or in therapy or whether they were more- or less-educated. It really works on many levels.”
As Braly and Brooks have shaped the show — from last year’s run at the Edinburgh Fringe to a sold-out monthlong run at 59E59 Theaters in Manhattan — Becker says she’s seen the artist grow.
“We exchange e-mails back and forth regularly. He’s in good shape and ready to do it again,” she says.
“What I find so interesting about James is, aside from a great wit and intellect, which is obvious in the script, he’s razor-sharp from an analytical point of view,” she says. “He examines his own psychology and motivations and he can read people.”
Braly’s audience will certainly grow: The SoHo Playhouse seats 177; the 59E59 black-box space held 60.
In a way, Braly’s play is an anomaly for Becker’s series. Typically, she presents works from established companies that are somewhere along the way in the creative process. Next year, she’s lining up works from a regular “Insights” presenter — Classic Stage Company — and two newcomers to Pleasantville: New York Theater Workshop (the people behind “RENT”) and Primary Stages. NYTW will bring in a play directed by James Lapine; Primary Stages, a new work from Lee Blessing.
The revelation behind “Insights and Revelations” — that spark — was Becker’s wanting to deliver a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative process in a setting that allowed the audience to be close to the action and to talk about the craft of acting and directing.
When the Manhattan native moved to Westchester, she says she was struck by the fact that Off-Broadway wasn’t really on the suburban radar.
“Everybody goes to the theater and is very cultured up here, but they knew about Broadway because Broadway has the marketing dollars to be on the train signs and in the paper. But they didn’t know about incredible companies like the Atlantic Theater, the New Group, the Vineyard, The Public — all of the ones that actually are responsible for a lot of what lands on Broadway.”
This series, she hoped, would expose them to something they hadn’t seen — that behind-the-curtain glimpse — and, “hopefully, encourage them to be a little more adventurous in the city and see groups that they might not have heard of.”
Becker lines up the theater companies and takes a leap of faith in presenting them in Pleasantville.
Many of the shows haven’t been cast when the deal is made to come north, and it’s not clear what Becker’s audience will see until the night of each one-night-only show.
“But so far, it hasn’t backfired,” Becker says.
Among the most recent revelations was the Atlantic Theater Co.’s production of Conor McPherson’s “Port Authority,” which Pleasantville audiences saw in rehearsal with stars Brian d’Arcy James and John Gallagher and director Henry Wishcamper.
The series is a creative revelation to actors, too, Becker says.
“The next day, I got an e-mail from Brian d’Arcy James thanking me and saying how it was helpful beyond belief to be able to connect with people and see where he was at in the process. He said he was mildly horrified at the prospect of the open rehearsal, but things really worked out.”
Rehearsals don’t often have audiences.
“Part of the reason it’s amazing is the audience, the Westchester audience,” Becker says.
“Aside from being totally game and eager and interested, they’re a smart, educated crowd. They’re very discerning and the questions they ask in the post-show are insightful and helpful to the actors. You can learn a lot from those questions.”
They might just spark some answers.

‘Insights & Revelations’
Anna Becker is already lining up next year’s offerings in the “Insights & Revelations Series” at the Rosenthal JCC in Pleasantville. The tentative schedule includes:
• In September, an inside look at a new play by Lee Blessing called “A Body of Water,” presented by Primary Stages, in their first visit to Pleasantville. Blessing (“A Walk in the Woods”) is slated to attend.
• In October (or May), “Marriage and Other Odd Occurrences,” short stories by Alethea Black;
• In November, Jenny Allen’s one-woman autobiographical show, “I Got Sick Then I Got Better,” directed by James Lapine, which is early in the development process, headed for New York Theater Workshop in 2009-2010.
• A still-to-be determined Shakespeare presentation from perennial Pleasantville guest Classic Stage Company and director Brian Kulick.

‘Life in a Marital Institution (20 years of Monogamy in One Terrifying Hour)’
Where: SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., Manhattan.
When: Through Aug. 31. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets: $40 to $55. (Mention code MATE for $15 off.)
Call: 212-691-1555.
Web: www.sohoplayhouse.com.

Photos:

Top: Anna Becker, photographed in her Pound Ridge home, by Joe Larese/The Journal News

Bottom: James Braly, photographed by Jaisen Crockett