Theater: Go Play Outside

“Hell no, we won’t go!” is what the vibrant and exuberant audience at a recent performance of Hair bellowed a couple weeks ago when Mother Nature rained on their performance at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, and it looked as if the show might be cancelled. That’s just one case of how theater in an open space has the potential to evolve into a thrillingly wild affair.

True, more performers on Broadway are discovering that audiences think nothing of talking back to them during the show, as if they’re unable to discern between what’s on their televisions and what’s happening live before them. The most notorious and hilarious example in recent times was the all-star revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Not only were women regularly catcalling star Terrence Howard during his nearly naked opening scene, but they blurted out all kinds of affirmations and encouraging words to James Earl Jones’ Big Daddy during his big scene with Howard in the second act.

Plays that are put on in NYC parks, however, are really very different animals, and August is the month when there’s tons of theater to see amidst the greenery. Parks are one of the last truly great egalitarian equalizers in our society. That’s why no theater group, including the Public, is allowed to charge admission to their shows. Yet unless you’re in a well-controlled and secure environment like The Delacorte, actors not only have to act on hills, dales, crests, boulders or wherever there’s a good clearing for people to watch, but they also have to contend with the very scary possibility anyone can mosey along at any time and, to put it mildly, make the show all about them.

Christopher Carter Sanderson’s Gorilla Repertory Theater Company has been offering free Shakespeare in city parks—usually Washington Square Park or Fort Tryon Park—for almost 20 years.

“When we did Alice in Wonderland at Federal Plaza,” Sanderson said, “an actor named Mark Greenfield played the Mad Hatter. During one performance, the Mad Hatter got so scared of the Red King at the trial that he hopped in a cab to escape! As fate would have it, the light on the corner turned red just in time for the March Hare to drag him out of it and back into the scene. The audience went nuts.”

Speaking of nuts, Sanderson cautions that New York really is full of kooks and crazies. Once, he said, Gorilla Rep was performing The Taming of the Shrew, “and we had an apparently homeless older lady who seemed somewhat deranged walk onstage and say ‘Hi, honey!’ to Jy Murphy, who was playing Petruccio. As luck would have it, it was time for Jy’s exit, so he tossed off a jaunty ‘Hi, my dear!’ to her, took her in his arms, and literally waltzed her off a hill. Backstage, we had to gently explain the situation to her, and so she retired to a nearby bench to enjoy the rest of the show. Of course, the audience thought it was a part of the play.”

Here are some outdoor theater productions happening for the rest of this month. If you can, do leave your dopamine-deprived neighbors at home.

Misalliance: New York Classical Theatre offers a new viewpoint on this fine George Bernard Shaw play of a mismatched man and woman. Performances occur in Central Park on weekends, 7 p.m., through Aug. 24. Enter at W. 103rd St., walk due east. For information, visit [www.newyorkclassical.org](http://www.newyorkclassical.org).

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Is there any theatre company that doesn’t love one of the Bard’s most produced plays? The Roosevelt Island Shakespeare Company is presenting a two-night run of the piece at the Eastwood Amphitheater, 520 Main St., Aug. 23 and 24. For information, visit [newyork.going.com/riscmidsummer].

Pericles, Prince of Tyre: Hudson Warehouse is among the newer groups making city parks its playground for plays by offering this rarely produced Shakespeare. Performances are given on the north patio of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park, W. 89th St. and Riverside Dr., Thurs-Sun, 6:30 p.m., through Aug. 31. For information, visit [www.hudsonwarehouse.net](http://www.hudsonwarehouse.net).

Twelfth Night: Pulse Ensemble Theatre is taking this perennial audience favorite and gently reviving it in a renovated amphitheater in Riverbank State Park in Harlem, W. 145th Street and Riverside Dr. The show runs through Aug. 24 and plays Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m.  For information, visit [www.pulseensembletheatre.org](http://www.pulseensembletheatre.org).

Hamlet: Gorilla Repertory revives its environmental version of Shakespeare’s greatest play through Aug. 31 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. The play is performed without intermission, but audiences can come and go as they wish. For information, visit [www.gorillarep.org](http://www.gorillarep.org).