Last week, I attended the New York Classical Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Battery Park. The production began at 7:00 in the structure known as Castle Clinton–a most fitting venue for this play that deals with shipwrecked visitors to a new island. Castle Clinton, originally called the West Battery and built between 1808-1811 as a fort to protect Manhattan (by the same architect who designed Gracie Mansion and our City Hall), would abandon its defensive role in 1821 to serve as a place of public entertainment.
Only the first and the final scene take place inside the open-air space of Castle Clinton. For the rest of the play, actors and audience are peripatetic. Instead of set changes, various places in Battery Park serve as the new set, and the audience moves along to create what Stephen Burdman, the artistic director, calls “panoramic theatre.” It’s a wonderful experience; the acting is first class; and its a perfect way to introduce children to adult theatre.
Although Stephen Burdman asks the audience not to make any recordings or photographs, I did take some stealth photos with my small, pocket camera. But I shot blind, from the hip, so as not to disturb anyone in the audience and yet managed to get several photographs well-enough focused to provide the following images of the performance.
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Castle Clinton, The Audience Gathers for New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Ariel and the Sleeping Alonso, New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Miranda and Ferdinand, New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Caliban, New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Ariel, New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Prospero, New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Sunset over New Jersey and the Hudson |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Castle Clinton, The Audience Gathers for Act V, for New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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| Manhattan, Battery Park, Castle Clinton, Alonso looks on as Prospero welcomes Gonzalo, New York Classical Theatre’s The Tempest |
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