SHAKESPEARE IN
THE PARK(ING) LOT

2011 Season features "The Comedy of Errors" and "Hamlet"

"The Comedy of Errors" July 7 to July 23, 2011
"Hamlet" July 28 to August 13, 2011
About Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot

Municipal Parking Lot at the corner of Ludlow and Broome Streets, Manhattan.
(Subways: F to Delancey Street, walk one block south.)
Both shows play Thursdays - Saturdays at 8:00 PM
More info call 212-873-9050
Cost: FREE!

 

NOW PLAYING

"Hamlet"
July 28 to August 13, 2011
Adaptation is a portrait of the modern dysfunctional family unit.

Karla Hendrick as Queen Gertrude, Alessandro Colla as Hamlet. Photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation.	David Stiler as King Claudius, Alessandro Colla as Hamlet. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

"Hamlet" departs from The Drilling Company's normally political edge. It's a gaze into an impaired family from a contemporary perspective.

Director Hamilton Clancy writes, "We began rehearsing the play with an understanding that so much is falling apart around us economically and politically. We discussed how the disillusionment of the left with Obama is mirrored in Hamlet's disillusionment with his family situation. We saw Hamlet holding everything together. We discovered the Hamlet we were trying to reveal was a son trying to keep his family together in difficult times and failing at every turn because of the corruption within the the ties that bind."

Hamlet (foreground, L--Alessandro Colla) and Laertes (foreground R--McKey Carpenter) duel. Photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation.	Amanda Dillard as Ophelia, Alessandro Colla as Hamlet. Photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation.

The cast includes Alessandro Colla as Hamlet, Amanda Dillard as Ophelia , McKey Carpenter as Laertes, Paul Guskin as Polonius, Karla Hendrick as Gertrude, David Sitler as Claudius, Bill Green as The Ghost, Jennifer Fouche as The Player Queen, Jed Q. Peterson as Guildenstern, Miguel Govea as Marcellus, Graciany Miranda as Horatio, Andrew Markert as Rosencrantz, Kate Garfield as Bernadine and James Butler as Osric. Production design is by Rebecca Lord-Seuratt.

Four members of the cast--Alessandro Colla, Karla Hendrick, McKey Carpenter and Amanda Dillard--appeared together last November and January in The Drilling Company's much-acclaimed production of "Reservoir," a modern adaptation of "Woyzeck" by Eric Henry Sanders. (See NY Times review of "Reservoir")

Hamilton Clancy (Director) is founder and producing Artistic Director of The Drilling Company. He has helmed the company's productions of "Julius Caesar" (last season in the Parking Lot), "Reservoir" and its 2011 kids' show, "Bird Brain" by Vern Theissen, among others.

 

JUST CLOSED

"The Comedy of Errors"
July 7 to July 23, 2011
Shakespeare's comedy of mischance and mistaken identity
is adapted to a modern pizzeria in Little Italy.

Garrett Burreson, Jack Herholdt Photo by Lee Wexler	Grant Turnbull, Lisa Pettersson, Sergio Diaz Photo by Lee Wexler

This novel production, directed by Kathy Curtiss, adapts Shakespeare's comedy of mischance and mistaken identity to a modern pizzeria in Little Italy. The rivalry of the houses of Syracuse and Ephesus is updated to a struggle between two prominent Italian restaurant families, one of whom--that of Aegion--long ago endured the loss of its patriarch's wife and one of his twin sons. The clans are--unknown to each other at first--both gathering in the old neighborhood they grew out of. (You know Ephesus Street, right? Just below Kenmare.) Possibilities for confusion are increased by the presence of two identical restaurant workers, both named Dromio, who were originally servants in Shakespeare's 1591 version and are now employees of the rival restaurants. The mischievous and disarming farce exploits the families' ordeal of loss and recovery with a dizzying series of maneuvers involving a jealous wife, her moralizing sister, somebody's befuddled mistress and a schoolteacher/motivational speaker/life coach who offers a religious cure for the neighborhood's madness. Ultimately, both clans are reunited with their family bonds renewed, stronger than ever for the tests of adversity and long separation.Director Kathy Curtiss explains, "This comedy lends itself to the developed work of the early Italian Commedia dell'Arte tradition, which we will use in a modern setting, with lots of distinct modern character types and "lazzi" [comic running bits] to develop wit and physical action. Its story of mistaken identity will allow us to make a little social commentary on modern marriage, the madcap New York city night life and how well we know our loved ones from others. It should be a blast."

Ms. Curtiss staged "Love's Labor's Lost" last year for Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot. She was director of Michael Chekov Ensemble's production of Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind" and was assistant Director to Tony Walton on the Rodgers and Heart musical "Spring is Here." She has been commissioned to write a review with Charles Strouse on his life's work. She has received awards from the National Theatre Museum, The Shakespeare Festival, the Castle Theatre Festival in Utah and Center Stage.

 

 

ABOUT SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK(ING) LOT

Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot, presented by The Drilling Company (Hamilton Clancy, Artistic Director), is a summer New York institution that performs free Shakespeare productions in a municipal parking lot at the corner of Ludlow and Broome Streets in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Over its 20 years, there have been over 50 productions of Shakespeare's plays for over 40,000 patrons. This year, "The Comedy of Errors, directed by Kathy Curtiss, and "Hamlet," directed by Hamilton Clancy will be offered.

The plays are presented in a working parking lot, so you can drive there but you should expect to pay the Muni-meter.

Why a parking lot? "It is a tremendously accessible gathering place in the heart of the city. Like most companies that do Shakespeare we are following the spirit of Joseph Papp. But putting our own spin on it by placing it in a parking lot, making an urban wrinkle," says founding artistic director Hamilton Clancy. Shows are offered while the lot is in use. (Performances this season are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 PM for both shows.) The action sometimes happens around a parked car which drives away during a performance. At such times, the players stop and the audience moves its chairs, pausing the performance the same way a show would stop for rain uptown in Central Park. It's all part of the fun.

Seats are available on a first come first serve basis, with audience members often arriving as early as 7:00 PM to secure a place. You are encouraged and welcome to bring your own chair. Once seats are gone, blankets are spread out. "We've never turned anyone away and there's never a wait for tickets!" brags Clancy.

The productions are typically intrepid, bare-boned and often gloriously ingenious adaptations of the classics. For example, last summer, Hamilton Clancy staged "Julius Caesar" as a battle for control of an urban school system, with women playing Brutus and Cassius.

OUR 2010 SEASON'S TRAGEDY, "JULIUS CAESAR"

Ivory Aquino and Hamilton Clancy in "Julius Ceasar." Photo by Lee Wexler.

The company stresses that the Parking Lot has now become a versatile theater where it presents its work, not unlike the Globe was to Shakespeare. Hamilton Clancy writes, "We believe the Parking Lot can be a container for a range of directorial interpretations and perspectives. We're in the Parking Lot because it's a great place to present the play, not as a site specific interpretation."

This summer's offerings are supported by the Department for Cultural Affairs and the the New York State Council on the Arts, Con Edison, and the Department of Transportation.

 

 

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