OUR HISTORY
Since the 1920’s, when enthusiastic audiences welcomed productions at the Maverick Festival, the Byrdcliffe Theatre, and the Woodstock Playhouse, the small hamlet of Woodstock, New York has enjoyed a rich tradition of theatrical excitement. Hundreds of illustrious actors, including Helen Hayes, Edward G. Robinson, Lee Marvin, Viveca Lindfors and Joanne Woodward have trod the boards in this historic Colony of the Arts.
In 1990, following in the footsteps of many distinguished Woodstock based theatre companies from the Villetta Players (the Genesis of Circle In The Square Theatre in New York) to River Arts Repertory, Bird-On-A-Cliff Theatre Company was founded by Elli Michaels and David Aston-Reese. It began with another name – Byrdcliffe Theatre Festival – and in its premiere season produced the first all female staging of Waiting For Godot. Memorable productions followed at the venerable Byrdcliffe Theatre: Andre Gregory’s Alice In Wonderland, Christopher Martin’s versions of Frankenstein and Jekyll & Hyde, Orson Welles’s Moby Dick Rehearsed, Israel Horowitz’s Spared (staring William Hickey) and Moss Hart’s Light Up The Sky, among others. |