Hudson Warehouse


The Hudson Warehouse is a theatre company in New York City that presents classical plays that are accessible, affordable, and exciting to the public. They perform three outdoor plays in the summer months in Riverside Park and fall/winter productions at Goddard Riverside Bernie Wohl Center. Their mission is to bring arts for whom the arts aren't accessible and to this end, they perform in jails in collaboration with The New York Department of Corrections. So far, they have performed for inmates in Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and at Rikers. Known as "The Other Shakespeare in the Park," the company was founded in 2004 by Nicholas Martin-Smith, who serves as its artistic director.
Summer performances take place on the North Patio of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park, at West 89th Street and Riverside Drive in New York City, along the Hudson River. Hudson Warehouse is the resident theater company of Goddard Riverside Bernie Wohl Center and their fall/winter season consists of two productions.
The theater's full year season includes five productions of the classics, including Shakespeare, Euripides and Chekhov.
Along with Martin-Smith, the Executive Director Susane Lee, and Associate Artistic Director George K. Wells, the Artists in Residence include Bruce Barton, David Palmer Brown, Patrina Caruana, Emily Sarah Cohn, Karen Collazzo, Tommy Demenkoff, Nick DeVita, Jamie Flanagan, Ron Hatcher, Roxann Kraemer, Nathan Mattingly, Vince Phillip, Paul Singleton, Roger Dale Stude and resident costumer Emily Rose Parman.

History

Hudson Warehouse's first season in 2004 consisted of a single modest production of The Tempest, performed over two weeks that July. The season has since extended to the whole summer, with three productions that each have a month-long run. Past productions include Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, Merry Wives of Windsor, Cyrano and Trojan Women, adapted from the tragedy by Euripides. Hudson Warehouse productions in 2012 were The Comedy of Errors, The Rover, and Richard III. The company also holds readings and workshops throughout the year, including its 'Shakespeare in the Bar' series and the 'Writers-a-Go-Go' contemporary play reading series.
In addition to the summer season and other Shakespeare readings throughout the year, the company also teaches workshops on the classics to high school students, brings its productions into schools, run the 'Hudson Warehouse Shakespeare Workout' and teach play writing to 4th and 5th graders as part of the 'Afterschool Program' at Goddard Riverside.
In May of 2013 Hudson Warehouse was honored as the recipient of Goddard Riverside's 'Good Neighbor Award' "In Recognition of Your Extraordinary Deeds in Helping Build a Better Community." In the autumn of that year Hudson Warehouse became the Resident Theater Company at Goddard Riverside's Bernie Wohl Arts Center at 647 Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In November 2013 they continued their 11th season with a remounting of their June 2013 production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare , by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, at the Bernie Wohl Center Directed by Susane Lee. The cast included Ian Harkins, Rafe Terrizzi and Nicholas Martin-Smith. This was followed by a production of Julius Caesar in March 2014.
In May of 2018 the company was presented with a Proclamation from the city of New York, by City Council Member Helen Rosenthal in honor of their 15th Anniversary Season and their commitment to making art accessible to the community.

Productions

The company's 'Writers A Go-Go' was created by executive director Susane Lee in 2012 to promote the work of contemporary playwrights. It features readings of plays by new and emerging writers in an informal barroom setting. It also co-produces with Goddard Riverside's Community Arts Programs both the Valentines Day Monologue Festival:'The Many Faces of Love,' as well as the annual Veteran's Day commemoration. The series is run by Hudson Warehouse artist in residence Roger Dale Stude.
Since 2010 Hudson Warehouse has also brought its work into the barroom in its Shakespeare in the Bar series, where the acting troupe sit among the bar patrons as if customers themselves as they perform the readings. Regarding the series, John Marshall of the Huffington Post has written, "A natural outgrowth of the Warehouse's critically acclaimed summer productions at the Sailors and Soldiers' Monument, Shakespeare in the Bar seeks to create the same intimate, accessible atmosphere, not just for Shakespeare, but for other classics as well." The 2012/2013 'Shakespeare in the Bar' season included Richard II, Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Othello, The Winter's Tale and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. Earlier seasons included productions of The Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov to mark Chekhov's 151st birthday, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard II, Macbeth, and Tartuffe by Molière.