Battery's Castle Clinton to Be Backdrop for 3-Week Run of 'Romeo and Juliet'

Billie Andersson and Brando Boniver in the production of "Romeo and Juliet."

 

Castle Clinton, The Battery’s historic 18th-century monument, becomes an open-air setting for 16th-century Shakespeare this month with a free, three-week run of “Romeo and Juliet,” ending Saturday, June 25.

A covered cistern provides the stage and the castle itself is the scenic backdrop, with the 19-member cast performing in Elizabethan garb.

It will be the first production by Shakespeare Downtown, a theater company with roots at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, where students and graduates have performed 11 dramatic classics, including four by Shakespeare.

Billie Andersson, who plays Juliet to Brando Boniver’s Romeo, and who also produced the show, said in an interview that she is reprising the part she played five years ago in a Strasburg production—her first Shakespearean role.

“I was unhappy with my performance so I’ve been obsessed with doing it again,” said Andersson, who is married to the show’s director, Geoffrey Horne, a veteran actor and longtime Strasburg teacher.  “So ever since then I started training just for Shakespeare.”

On a walk by The Battery one night, Andersson passed the castle and declared it the perfect venue for the bard’s classic.

Then came the hard part: obtaining permissions and permits, creating a non-profit and fundraising, working within the protected national monument, setting up the company itself, and much more. The production features a cast and crew of about 50.

“As an actress, all of it was new to me,” said Andersson, who has lived Downtown with Horne for a decade. “That’s all I’ve done for two years is work on trying to make something beautiful for Lower Manhattan.”

Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays. Wristbands for free admission to the 200-seat theater are handed out beginning at 5 p.m. for the 6:30 performances, which end at 8:15 p.m. with no intermission.

For more information, go to shakespearedowntown.org.