Going on its fourth year of inspiring and exciting the River Towns’ theater community, Anywhere Theater Company continues to reimagine stories we all know in fun and innovative ways. After the pandemic surge of 2020, Peter Royston, a longtime theater professional based in the Lower Hudson Valley, was inspired to bring theater back to the community in a new way by creating Anywhere Theater, a company that takes familiar and original stories alike to the stage in any location.
Royston, a director and playwright, also has experience in education, after working both in the New York City school system and with several schools in Westchester for over 20 years. When Covid shut schools and businesses down for months in 2020, Royston decided he wanted to go back to working with adults and professionals and created Anywhere Theater.
For the past four years, Royston and Anywhere Theater have travelled the River Towns, performing in the various locations with professional actors, young people and students. While they’ve brought classics to life such as Shakespeare’s Othello at the Pocantico Center and Twelfth Night at Makers Central, they have also performed originals, Cemetery Song at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a unique cabaret exploring the idea of memory at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and The Spectre Bridegroom at the Tarrytown Music Hall, based on one of Washington Irving’s ghost stories. Anywhere Theater has also worked with students at both Sleepy Hollow Middle and High School and frequently invites young actors to participate in its productions.
Outdoor Classroom. Photo by Mark Liflander
I spoke with Royston about his experience with Anywhere Theater, and the care he has for this company and the people involved. Royston expressed his gratitude to be working in theater for this long, and his enjoyment of working in the River Towns. “We really want to be a resource for the community, not only through education work but by providing entertainment and stories, teaching through entertainment to the River Towns and becoming storytellers for this area,” says Royston.
We discussed Anywhere Theater’s last production: Twelfth Night at Makers Central in Tarrytown. “It was very special.” Royston said, “We were able to put lighting in a bottle with that wonderful space, [Makers Central] had never done that before.”
Taking unique spaces across the River Towns, Anywhere Theater really does bring magic and drama to places that you may not imagine having them before. While the company performs in theaters like Tarrytown Music Hall, they also bring theater to spaces like Makers Central, The JCC in Tarrytown, Tarrytown’s Main Street or Peabody Nature Preserve Outdoor Classroom. “Along with more traditional venues, we literally go ‘anywhere’ to perform our shows. By performing in unusual spaces, we allow audiences to look at their communities in a new way. I’ve lived in Sleepy Hollow for over 30 years, and I love the idea of showing off my hometown in this way,” says Royston.
Coming up this month, Anywhere Theater Company has a new production taking place at Makers Central: Sherlock Holmes and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an original of Royston’s, a scary and funny story that takes two classics and blends them in aa unique way. Not only are these characters familiar in literature, but from the area, when it comes to Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Royston enlivens River Towns history and culture in much of his work, he says “a lot of the stuff that we do is in celebration of this area, I really want to have people see these spaces in a new way and celebrate this area and the storytelling ingrained in life around here.”
Sherlock Holmes and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow will be playing at Makers Central on Oct. 10, 11,12, 17, 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. Or Rumpelstilskin in Space! – a brand-new science fiction adventure musical for kids and families with music by The Altogether, which will be playing at the Pocantico Center, just in time for the holidays on Dec. 13 at 2 pm.
