Riverside Shakespeare Company

The Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City was founded in 1977 as a professional ( AEA) theatre company on the Upper West Side of New York City, by W. Stuart McDowell and Gloria Skurski. Focusing on Shakespeare plays and other classical repertoire, it operated through 1997.

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Establishment and heritage

Founded with a core of graduates from the University of California at Berkeley, the Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City opened its first production, '' Romeo and Juliet'', in August 1977 in Riverside Park. It then commenced a free parks tour through Manhattan, performing in Washington Square, John Jay Park, Fort Tryon Park, and Columbia University. The production was directed by McDowell.

An opening-night announcement in ''The New York Times'' read:

The Riverside Shakespeare Company is taking up where Joseph Papp left off this summer by presenting free Shakespeare in the park. ... The production will be done in traveling minstrel style, evocative of Shakespeare's time. Beforehand, to set the period mood, performers will be scattered around the park – jugglers, fencers, singers, poetry readers. Then a fanfare will call the players to the stage, and the tale of star-cross'd lovers will begin.

The inaugural production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' was a two-hour version, trimmed to incorporate extensive swordplay, an extended ballroom dance scene, and pantomime, such as the appearance to Juliet of Tybalt's ghost. Each performance was also timed to end with the setting of the sun in mid August. Performances were preceded by the entire company of actors and musicians entertaining the audience with a ''Greenshow'' – a preshow spoof of the production to follow, that served the dual purpose of building a comedic, physical bridge between actor and audience, and of establishing a physical, spontaneous style of acting that incorporated the performance environment into the show. This drew on the roots of the company – and of Shakespeare – in the rich heritage of Commedia dell'arte.

The following autumn, the company began a series of readings of the works of Shakespeare, reading through the entire canon the first year. Growing out of this, the company inaugurated a series of free radio broadcasts of Shakespeare's works on the New York public radio station, WBAI. A board of directors was soon formed under the guidance of founding chairperson, Elena Scotti of Lincoln Center. At its founding in 1977, the Riverside Shakespeare Company became New York City's only year-round professional Shakespeare company dedicated to the performance of the works of Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and Commedia dell'arte.

Early years

During its inaugural 1977–1978 season, after its parks tour of ''Romeo & Juliet'', the Riverside Shakespeare Company presented a free 'Equity library tour' of ''Twelfth Night'', directed by Gloria Skurski, with music by Michael Moore, which then had an extended run Off Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club Stage 73. Judy Thrall, in the ''Heights/Inwood Press of North Manhattan'' reviewed the production of ''Twelfth Night'':

Some theatre companies – those which start out with talented and intelligent actors – are born great. Some companies – those which start out with diffident, inexperienced people who soon mature with their art – achieve greatness. And some companies – those which start out untrained and unguided – can, with the advent of a brilliant force, have greatness thrust upon them. In the first hyperbolic category is one of the city's newest theater groups, the Riverside Shakespeare Company. ... Now the group is well on its way to becoming an important theatrical force in Upper Manhattan and elsewhere.

First Folio production of the complete ''Hamlet''

In the spring of 1978, the company mounted the complete ''Hamlet'' on the courtyard roof of Riverside Church in Manhattan in late afternoon. The success of this production enabled the company to remount its ''Hamlet'' – this time lit by torches in the late evening – on the main ''University Walk'' before the Low Library at Columbia University, using a large stage surrounded by sheets of steel, erected to create a reflective environment for both the voice and the torch illumination.Ari Panagako, "Dandy Hamlet Bows Uptown", ''Heights/Inwood Press of North Manhattan'', June 14, 1978. The production was designed and directed by W. Stuart McDowell and featured Peter Siiteri as Hamlet.

Riverside's ''Hamlet'' marked its first ''First Folio Production'', in which the entire text of Shakespeare's play was presented in a lively, action-filled production, enabling the company to mount the complete ''Hamlet'' in under three hours. A ''Greenshow'' also preceded each outdoor performance, entertaining the audience as they arrived in a spoof of the play to follow, which was staged by "the Players" en route to "Elsinore".

The torchlit performance of ''Hamlet'' at Columbia University was reviewed by ''Heights/Innwood Newspaper of North Manhattan'':

Siiteri's sly innuendoes and elegant gestures as Hamlet were put to good use. His reactions in his father's ghost and in Ophelia's death had traces of the vulnerability and humanity seen in the finest Hamlets. Others in the cast ranged from very good to superb. Kaeren Peregrin as Ophelia gave a chilling "mad scene". Robert Lanchester as Claudius was delightfully depraved, and Frank Fico as Polonius was wonderfully amusing without turning the endearing and gentleman into a buffoon. Bravo also to John Rowe as Laertes. ... All of the actors projected magnificently without the aid of microphones – and this in the open air!

Expanded tour of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''

In its second summer, 1978, the company presented a popular free tour of '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', with Eric Hoffmann as Puck, Karen Hurley as Titania, and Eric Conger as Oberon, directed by Gloria Skurski. An original score by Deborah Awner was performed by the touring group "Brass". The production continued the tradition of un-miked Shakespeare, making use of a sheet-steel touring set for natural amplification of both actors and musicians."Outdoor Performances in New York" by Erika Munk, ''The Village Voice'', August 23, 1978.

The parks tour of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' was expanded to play locations in two boroughs of New York City, including Wave Hill in the Bronx, which became a favorite annual summer performing site for the company. The tour included an extended residency at the International Affairs Plaza on the campus of Columbia University, which allowed the company to keep the stage standing overnight, rather than the usual strike after each performance.

In what was becoming a Riverside tradition, each performance was preceded a half hour before curtain by a "Greenshow" of Commedia entertainment, by the cast and musicians on the stage and throughout the audience.

Erika Munk of the ''Village Voice'' wrote:

Shakespeare at the Delacorte always disappoints me because it's overmiked and not in tune with park life; but I saw a charming ''Midsummer Night's Dream'' by the Riverside Shakespeare Company: no mikes, no lights, no seats; only clever placement at the bottom of Soldier and Sailors Monument to give the audience a view from the steps; broad acting and old-fashioned projection so that everyone could follow; an ability to capitalize on the audience's pre-disposition to enjoy itself; the flexibility to deal with dogs, kids, jets, and drunks; and splendid timing – the play ended as the sun went down.

''As You Like It'' at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage 73

The following fall the company staged '' As You Like It'' at the Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage 73, featuring Robert Boyle, Timothy Hall, Margo Gruber and Caryn West – all making their New York stage debut; with Kent Odell, Jim Maxson, Stuart Rudin, Ken Grantham, Timothy Hall, Peter Jensen, Kenneth Lane, Gannon McHale, Sheri Meyers, Uriel Menson, Brock Seawell, Daniel Tamm, and David Robert Westfall (stage manager), and directed by Eric Hoffmann, with set designed by David Lockner, costumes by Deborah Otte, lighting by Nat Cohen, and music by Deborah Awner.

Hoffmann set Shakespeare's most pastoral play with an autumnal setting in Colonial American, using leaves gathered from Central Park, which gradually filled the stage with knee-deep piles of leaves, and underscored with original guitar music played by Robert Mamary and Joseph Poshek. The production was acclaimed for its creative setting in this bucolic, pre-American revolutionary time, in which Amiens, played by Larry Kirchgaessner, became a Native American in the American forest of Arden.

The production was attended by Mildred Natwick, who became the company's first member of its Board of Advisors, soon to be followed by Helen Hayes. At this production, it was announced that the company's ultimate goal was "to build a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater on the banks of the Hudson River in New York City."

New York premiere of the "madrigal comedy" ''L'Amfiparnaso''

The production of '' As You Like It'' was joined at Stage 73 by the New York premiere of the Commedia dell'arte scenario, the 16th century "madrigal comedy" by Orazio Vecchi, ''L'Amfi Parnasso'', directed by Dan Southern featuring company members performing with Renaissance music arranged and played by the chamber group ''The Western Wind''. This production was the company's first purely Commedia dell'arte style production, and featured the use of hand-crafted leather masks, improvisation, stylized movement and comic lazzi.

The professional Shakespeare company at Columbia University

From 1978 to 1980, the Riverside Shakespeare Company was the professional Equity theater company in residence at Columbia University under the sponsorship of Andrew B. Harris and internationally renowned Shakespeare scholar Bernard Beckerman, with audition, construction, storage and rehearsal spaces in Prentice Hall on West 125th Street west of Broadway, just a stone's throw from the Hudson River. A core company of twelve to fifteen professional actors were often complemented with Columbia University students both backstage and onstage as performers, working as student apprentices within the company, not unlike Shakespeare's company 400 years before.

Tom Hanks and Michael Wolff in Machiavelli's ''The Mandrake''

In 1979 the Riverside Shakespeare Company mounted Niccolo Machiavelli's Renaissance farce, ''The Mandrake'', in the large second floor auditorium of the ''Casa Italiana'' of Columbia University located at West 117th and Amsterdam Avenue.

The ''Casa Italiana'', which had recently been designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, proved an ideal setting for production: Riverside's Florentine set was surrounded by the Florentine architecture, wrought iron chandeliers, and Italian antiques, some donated by Premier Benito Mussolini when the building was erected in 1926.

Performing in the style of Commedia dell'arte, with masks and fanciful commedia costumes, the cast included Arland Russell, Mark Cavalieri, Jeff Cameron, Tom Hanks, Susan Kay Logan, Perla Armanasco and Michael Goldner. In this production Tom Hanks played the lead role of the scoundrel Callimaco – in his first and only stage production in New York City until making his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron's " Lucky Guy" in spring 2013.

The production of ''The Mandrake'' was cast and rehearsed in the company's fourth floor facility of Columbia University's Prentise Hall in southern Harlem, and was directed by company member Dan Southern (then Daniel O. Smith), The production was played with authentic leather masks and fanciful costumes conceived and constructed by Broadway designer Jane Stein, period sets – including a raked checkerboard stage – designed and built by Gerard Bourcier, lighting (which incorporated the wrought iron chandeliers of the Casa Italiana) by John B. Forbes, and produced by Gloria Skurski and W. Stuart McDowell. In the ''Heights/Inwood Press of North Manhattan'' review of March 14, 1979, Jan Rucquoi noted that:

A delightfully produced, fast-paced farce happened uptown on Columbia University's Campus, in the Casa Italiana. ... In ''The Mandrake'' the audience is often brought into the confidence of the actors who unmask themselves to do so.Review by Jann Racquoi, ''Heights/Inwood Press of North Manhattan'', March 14, 1979.

The leather masks designed by Stein were often used inventively to comic effect, with actors sometimes removing them for an inner monologue, as in Hanks' portrayal of Callimaco, in which he conversed to himself while holding his quarter mask to one side.

''The Mandrake'' was accompanied by an original jazz score composed (and with a running improvised narration) by pianist-composer-orchestra leader Michael Wolff. According to the ''Heights/Inwood Press of North Manhattan'':

The music composed for the play had a Brechtian feel to it, enriching the play and setting the mood of high jinks and fun. Also, the fanciful costumes, works of art in themselves, with their overblown appliqued ornamentation, were a delightful asset to the production.

The production of ''The Mandrake'' opened on March 2, 1979 at the Casa Italiana, and was stage managed by Nancy Consentino Minckler and produced by W. Stuart McDowell and Gloria Skurski, in association with Columbia University.

''Much Ado'' at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage 73

In late spring of 1979 the company produced ''Much Ado About Nothing'' directed by Gloria Skurski with original music by Deborah Awner, with Margo Gruber and Gannon McHale, and Timothy Oman, Jim Brewster, Robert Boyle, Ronald Lew Harris, David Florek, Arland Russell, Daniel Tam and Leigh Podgorski, at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage 73. The production was set in the roaring 20's, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had imagined the meeting of Beatrice and Benedict at a festive garden party on Cape Cod.

The production of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' was staged as the first part of a double bill, followed by a glass of wine and then, on the same stage with a quick change of scenery, by Niccolo Machiavelli's ''The Mandrake''.

''The Mandrake'' at Stage 73, and on tour through New York City

The success of Riverside's production of ''The Mandrake'' enabled the company to remount the show with the company's new production of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' as a late night double bill in repertory at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage 73. With the departure of Hanks to the west coast at the end of the run at the Casa Italiana, Dan Southern took over the role of Callimaco for the late night cabaret-like performances.

Subsequent to its two indoor stagings, ''The Mandrake'' was revived for several outdoor engagements, performed on a two-wheel cart with simple cloth backdrop, beginning with the dedication of the ''Shakespeare Garden'' in the Brooklyn, hosted by Joseph Papp, Estelle Parsons and W. Stuart McDowell. The role of Callimaco was assumed by the play's director, Dan Southern. A small cart stage with canvas backdrop was used. The openness of staging, in natural sunlight and without the trappings and concealments of an indoor theatre, was typical of the performance style of ''Commedia dell'arte'', in which the audience members are constantly made aware of the artifice of the production, and thereby become participants in the theatrical event

As in the Riverside tradition of the ''Greenshow'', the production of ''The Mandrake'' – whether indoors or outside in a park – relied on broad physicalization, improvisation, and comic lazzi, as well as interacting with the audience in the manner of Commedia dell'arte. ''The Mandrake'', under Southern's direction, proved one of Riverside's most successful ''Commedia'' productions to date, and helped the company to realize its goal of bringing the work of Shakespeare, his contemporaries and Commedia dell'arte to as broad an audience as possible. It also helped to further the reputation of the company as a versatile classical theatre company in New York City.

First Folio production of ''Henry IV, Part One''

The company then mounted its first History Play by Shakespeare. In the late spring of 1979, after two months rehearsal of the armies of King Henry and Hotspur on the rooftop of Columbia University's Prentice Hall in southern Harlem, the company opened its third annual outdoor production of free Shakespeare, a major Equity staging of the complete '' Henry IV, Part One''. This was Riverside's second ''First Folio Production'', mounted on a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater, constructed on the courtyard roof Prentise Hall at West 125th and Broadway, and transported and erected on the main campus Quad of Columbia University.

The cast featured Dan Southern as Hotspur and Jason Moehring as Hal, with Eric Hoffmann as Falstaff and William Hanauer as King Henry, and a cast of forty including Jim Brewster, Mary Skinner, Vit Horejs, David Murray Jaffe, Kathleen Monteleone, Jason Moehring, Julia Murray, Gay Reed, John Miller, Ken Threet, Nick Schatzki, and Lois Tibbetts, with music by Deborah Awner played by a live orchestra.

For this production, the company built a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater outdoors, surrounded by trees on the southeast corner of the Columbia University Quad; the production was directed by W. Stuart McDowell and performed at night without microphones in this perfect acoustic environment, on a set designed and built by Dorian Vernacchio, costumes by Kenneth M. Yount, fight choreography for broadsword, halberd, dagger and mace, by Joel Leffert.

The reviewer of ''Show Business'', Ted Bank, noted that:

Riverside Shakespeare Company has injected this chronicle history with all the pageantry and spectacle it calls for, and the result is exciting theatre. ... What makes ''Henry IV, Part One'' so delightful is that Riverside Shakespeare Company has taken pains to bring historical detail into the production. Going into its third season as New York's only year-round Shakespeare producer, Riverside has established a fine reputation for producing high-quality classic theatre."

The popularity of ''Henry IV, Part IV'' at Columbia University enabled the company to extend the run by remounting the entire production Off Broadway indoors at the American Theatre for Actors in midtown Manhattan in the fall of 1979.

''Twelfth Night'' at Riverside Church

In the spring of 1980, the theatre company mounted a new production of ''Twelfth Night'', set in an Art Nouveau style, directed by John Clingerman, with Andrew Achsen, Kristin Rudrud, Stuart Cohen, Alison Edwards, Beata Jachulski, Will Lecki, Scott Parson, Bruce Altman, Ken Threet, and Ted Polites, staged in the round (with audiences on four sides) in the lower chamber of Riverside Church in Manhattan, featuring music by Deborah Awner. This production was one of many that the theatre company opened on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23; this time, the production was inaugurated by a special celebration, culminating with the reading of a Shakespearean sonnet by the pastor of Riverside Church, fellow Bardophile, Rev. William Sloan Coffin.

The Shakespeare Center

Early in the summer of 1980, the Riverside Shakespeare Company moved into residence in West Park Presbyterian Church, at the corner of West 86th and Amsterdam, where it established The Shakespeare Center, dedicated to the year round training for the performance of the works of Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and Commedia dell'arte. Professional actor Andrew Achsen played a key role in securing the site in the church, of which he was a member, together with the pastor of West Park, Rev. Robert Davidson. The Theatre of The Shakespeare Center was reconstructed from materials from the demolition of Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre and the set of Broadway's ''Nicholas Nickleby'' through funds raised by efforts of cast members from the Broadway production of ''Nicholas Nickleby'' from the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Shakespeare Center of the Riverside Shakespeare Company was officially dedicated in the fall of 1982 by Joseph Papp and Helen Hayes in a ceremony attended by Gloria Foster, Milo O'Shea, Barnard Hughes, Sam Waterston, Mildred Natwick, and Peter Brook.

The Shakespeare Center became the home for numerous Equity Riverside productions, beginning with '' Romeo and Juliet'' in 1980, directed by W. Stuart McDowell, assisted by Jay King, with Robert Walsh, Arleigh Richards, George House, Barbara Tirrell, Joe Meek, Gay Reed, Curtis Watkins, Dan Johnson, Obie Story, James McGuire, Jim Maxson, Christopher Cull, Timothy Oman, and, as the Nurse, Scottish folk singer and comedian Fredi Dundee.

''Romeo & Juliet'' was followed by '' Love's Labour's Lost'' with Freda Kavanagh, Deanna Deignan, Kay Colburn and Catherine Schmidt, and J. C. Hoyt, Timothy Doyle, Timothy Oman, Madeleine Potter, and Peter Siiteri, directed by Clingerman with music by Deborah Awner, which Mel Gussow of the ''New York Times'' called "a charming chamber piece."

This was followed by a Commedia dell'arte production of '' Two Gentlemen of Verona'' directed by Dan Southern produced Off Broadway in the American Theatre for Actors, with music by Bob Rosen, with Ronald Lew Harris, Jim Maxson, Joe Meek, Amy Aquino, Allison Edwards, Dennis Pfister, and J. C. Hoyt.

While the company produced a subscription season in 1980–1981 at The Shakespeare Center, it also mounted a series of free performances of Shakespeare plays and scenes across town at the Citicorp Center, entitled ''Riverside Shakespeare Salutes Shakespeare at Citicorp'', which included ''The Taming of the Shrew'' directed by Jere O'Donnell, ''Love's Labour's Lost'' directed by Timothy Minor, ''The Will to Power: Scenes of Ambition and Political Intrigue'', directed by Ken Grantham, and a popular compilation of romantic scenes from the Bard, ''This Bud of Love: Scenes of Awakening Love'', directed by John Clingerman. These were also broadcast on New York's public radio station, WBAI.

Meanwhile at ''The Shakespeare Center'', the company opened its next season with ''Henry V'' directed by Timothy Oman, assisted by Linda Mason, associate director, and Maureen Clarke, Riverside's resident text coach, with music by Sanchie Borrow, scenic and lighting design by Norbert U. Kolb, fight direction by Conal O'Brien, and costumes by David Pearson, featurin
Frank Muller
and Lee Croghan, with Dene Nardi, Dan Daily, Norma Fire, Ronald Lew Harris, Pat Kennerly, Gay Reed, Gene Santarelli, Sandi Shackelford, and Time Winters.

New York premiere of ''The Three Cuckolds''

In February 1981 the company mounted the New York Premiere of the Commedia dell'arte farce ''The Three Cuckolds'' with Perla Armanasco, Jim Brewster, Ronald Lew Harris, David Murray Jaffe, Joe Meek, Jim Maxson, and Jane Badgers, Lloyd Davis, Jr. (as an "outstanding" Arlecchino),"Delightful Cuckolds" by Marily Stasio, ''The New York Post'', February 11, 1981. Oded Carmi and Marla Buck, directed by Dan Southern with an original score by Michael Canick, sepia drops depicting contemporary New York street scenes by Dorian Vernacchio costumes by Barbara Weiss and masks by Paul Mantell, about which Marilyn Stasio

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