Frog and Peach Theatre Finds New Pad

The Frog and Peach Theatre Company, a longtime presenter of free Shakespeare that had been contemplating disbanding after losing its home at the West-Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side, has now found new a lily pad to rest upon.

Lynnea Benson, Frog and Peach's artistic director, told Back Stage that Michael Griffiths, manager of the ArcLight Theatre on West 71st Street, had approached the company several weeks ago with an offer to house their next production—Shakespeare's "King John"—and the group responded by agreeing to mount the work there for four weeks in September.

Despite the fact that the ArcLight offers, as Benson puts it, "the perfect fit" for the company—"just romantic enough for the kinds of shows we do and, thankfully, a friendly theatre administration"—she acknowledged that the company's finances still remain "pretty dire." Benson attributes this fact to the continued fallout in not-for-profit arts funding resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

According to Benson, who also directs the production, it's the company's fiscal predicament that led to the choosing of the play. "King John," she says, is "the story of a ruler whose much-disputed right to the throne leads him to plunge his country into a bloody, pointless war, with horrible consequences that affects generation after generation." Not only is the play "very relevant at this time," but Benson also picked a significant date—Thurs., Sept 11—for the play's opening. The hope is the company's return to the theatre scene with this play will land it back on the radar of potential funders.

Co-founded by Benson and Ted Zurkowski, both Actors Studio members, Frog and Peach's first year was in residence at St. Clement's; an invitation to reside at West-Park Presbyterian Church soon followed. Built in 1889, the church has a jewel-box choir loft that was made into a workable theatre space by the Riverside Shakespeare Company over 20 years ago. After excavating what Benson characterized as "detritus, filth, and bedpans," Frog and Peach was offered periodic use of the space on a show-by-show rental basis, and over the years the troupe mounted everything from Earle Hyman in "Much Ado About Nothing" to Austin Pendleton as "Richard II."

In early March, Back Stage reported that a schism erupted between Frog and Peach and West-Park when the church refused to discuss a lease. The church's senior pastor, Rev. Robert L. Brashear, claimed that a sorely needed renovation—which could cost millions and has plunged the church into local politics—made finding higher income-generating events a priority.

In The New York Times edition of Feb. 16, Brashear was also quoted as saying that West-Park preferred renting to higher-paying groups because the church can "make more money selling tickets at a one-night concert than in a whole month of free Frog and Peach shows."

"King John" features longtime company member Karen Lynn Gorney and Rob Sedgwick, a familiar face from the Off-Off-Broadway scene.