For its current six-week residency, the Royal Shakespeare Company has moved into the Park Avenue Armory in an impressive strategic fashion. Befitting a crack regiment, in preparation for its artistic takeover of New York City the company sent an advance facsimile kit of its own Stratford-on-Avon stage to be assembled within the vast armory. A bold gesture, the wholesale recreation of the English theater within the New York armory nevertheless proved a practical measure, as the actors and stage crew did not have to bother with learning new blocking and tech cues on an unfamiliar stage. Smart move indeed. The Park Avenue Armory seems an appropriate place for the RSC to stage their advance on New York soil. After all, the theater and the military often share the same vocabulary. A geographical place for military operations is often called "the theater," as in the World War II references to the Pacific Theater and the European theater of operations. Much like a director,
A strolling guide to New York City by Teri Tynes