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Theater Company Puts the Bar in Bard by Staging Shakespeare at UWS Pub

By Leslie Albrecht | February 24, 2012 2:37pm

UPPER WEST SIDE — Forget Shakespeare in the park — one theater company is serving up the Bard in a bar.

This Sunday actors from Hudson Warehouse will perform "King Lear" at the Underground Lounge, a basement bar at 955 West End Ave. near West 107th Street.

As patrons chug cold brews, actors seated in various spots around the bar will stand up and act out the epic tragedy about a monarch dividing his kingdom among three daughters.

The free production runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., but viewers are encouraged to come early so they can grab a drink and some food before the show starts, explained Nicholas Martin-Smith, the company's producing artistic director.

The reading is part of the winter program for Hudson Warehouse, which spends the summer months performing free Shakespeare at Riverside Park's Soldiers' and Sailor's Monument. Last summer's shows included "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "The Taming of the Shrew."

When the weather turns cold, the actors head indoors to the Underground Lounge, a favorite bar among Columbia University students that has live music and TVs for watching sports. But the watering hole also makes room for Shakespeare, including Hudson Warehouse's performance of "Richard III" last month, as well as a planned staging of Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II" in April.

Martin-Smith said he was inspired to stage readings in a bar by his college days at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he frequented a bar that combined poetry readings with Bloody Marys.

"I realized that William Shakespeare probably hung out with all of his friends in a bar as he was writing," he said, "so being in a bar is perfect."

The non-traditional setting can make for some interesting moments. The actors don't go off to one corner and perform on a stage — they instead sit and drink along with the rest of the bar crowd.

Sometimes an actor will be ordering another cocktail when it's time for his line, so he'll shout it out as he's standing at the bar. Once in a while an actor will be in the bathroom when his scene is up, so the production pauses until he comes back.

With both the actors and audience imbibing, performances have a loose, relaxed quality, Martin-Smith said. His goal is to get away from "stodgy" Shakespeare readings where actors sit on stools, he said.

"It's a fun environment and when mistakes are made, people laugh," Martin-Smith said. "It feels very liberating because there’s so much uncertainty that you have to let go of a lot of self-awareness. It's important for an actor to get out of the awareness of yourself so you can play the role."

For more information, check out Hudson Warehouse and The Underground Lounge.