The Battle Ranch

Elite '08

67

188

Rey P.

Jackson Heights, NY

Formerly known as Studio 111, the Battle Ranch is now the home of The Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company. I've stopped in for their opening bash and a couple of shows.

The space is great and the rental prices can't be beat ($10/hr. for rehearsals and $15/hr. for classes). Vampire Cowboys holds fight workshops there for folks who need a little stage combat instruction.

What I love most are VC's comic/sci fi/geek culture-inspired shows, though. They currently have an ongoing Saloon which have five ongoing episodic plays showing on the last Saturday of every month (in the spirit of full disclosure, I wrote the first episode of BUILT FOR LOVE, a Robo RomCom -- that's Robot Romantic Comedy, natch), and I was just there for a Cabaret-ish fundraiser called Re-Vamped, which included several awesome short plays. The highlight for me was a piece by Rob Neill of the Neo-Futurists about Laika the Space Dog that included a kind of anti-capitalist/sprawl message, but there was also a creepy Rumpelstiltskin update, a woman devouring an entire 10 inch cheesecake as her new boyfriend rambles about true love trumping world domination, and this great "silent film"-inspired, mad scientist, dumb show. The price of admission often includes free beer (or, in the case of the Saloon, admission is free and you pay an all-you-can-drink price).

Definitely a home of theatre for the cool kids, but there's nothing wrong with that.

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