The Riverside Theatre

I was in this venue for the first time this past Christmas. I was PLEASANTLY surprised! The seats are decent. The tech booth is well-​enclosed to not disturb your performance with their chatter. It’s a MUCH bigger stage than I thought it would be. The lighting capacity is decent. The staff are nice (even if the Box Office kid was a little aloof). And the church it’s housed in looks quite beautiful.
I actually looked into renting it for one of my company’s productions. It took the guy a little longer than I would’ve liked to get back to me. But he was very nice in his response. He was equally nice and welcoming when I told him we’d already booked a space. No malice; just niceties.
It’s a bit of a hike from the subway. But I recommend checking out productions being housed there.

Yesterday we attended a performance of «Tearing Down the Walls» — and if anyone in metro NYC reads this, the last performance is on Sunday (May 29) and it’s a SUPERB show!
There’s no assigned seating in the theater, but we felt every seat would be fine. The acoustics were very good, and it was a decent-​sized space without being overwhelming.

The hallways remind me of Princess Bride. Like Inigo Montoya will pop out of nowhere and try to fight me. Anyone else feel that way? Okay just me. I was here this weekend for the CU MFA acting project. Had we known the theater was in a church we probably wouldn’t have gotten lost. Pretty funny though considering the somewhat blasphemous material of Canterbury Tales (the show we saw).
Despite the high school gym feel (odd colored tiling and florescent lighting) in the «lobby», I thought this was a nice, intimate theater. I feel like every seat is a good seat. The acoustics were pretty great and very few members of the cast had to be mic’d. The lighting seemed somewhat limited, but that’s more of a concern for people putting on a show there than the audience. And I don’t know if the stage crew are students, but they did an awesome job. I didn’t see them trolling up and down the sides like I usually do in professional settings.
There are plenty of bathrooms for the ladies and note to the men. the gift shop is not the bathroom. Portable munchies can be purchased in the vending machine off to the side. otherwise sneaking in fruit and rice krispies treats is how I roll.
From the schedule, it looks like this space doubles as a movie theater and also holds dance shows. Definitely a great space. but the tickets are probably a couple more dollars than I’d hope to pay.