Check out Ophelia Theatre Group’s new black box theater

The Ophelia Theatre Group just closed their first show in their new black box theater at the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, setting a high standard for what the theater company could bring to the neighborhood of Astoria.

The group has been using the Boys and Girls Club for the last year, but it was only this season that they found their own space, turning a dance studio space into their very own theater.

They began their first season with William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a tale of romance and gender-swapping that the small cast pulled off effortlessly.

Shakespeare can be a big bite to chew for any theater company, but most of the cast who make up the Ophelia Theatre Group have been performing together since middle school.

That familiarity was evident throughout the show, as the players bantered, loved and fought like family or old friends.

Orlando, the main interest in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” posts love poems all over the trees of the Forest of Arden.

The small venue lent itself well to this particular group, who used the space brilliantly and integrated the audience into the show itself, making every moment of the show exciting and intimate.

Eric Ruiter, artistic director of the Ophelia Theatre Group, said that the use of the space was very intentional.

“Especially with Shakespeare, it allows for the audience to be immersed in it,” Ruiter said. “When you don’t understand the language, it helps to understand what someone is thinking and feeling when they’re so close to you.”

Throughout the two-plus hour show, the audience was laughing out loud, and the actors seemed to be having as good a time as those watching.

If nothing else, the show can be taken as a good sign of what can be expected to come out of this group in the future.

Ruiter described the new space as “a dream” for the group.

“It’s so exciting,” Ruiter said. “People have been very complimentary of it. A lot of the people who have known us throughout the years are nothing but excited about what we can do with the space.”

Besides the wonderful theater that is sure to come from the company, the Ophelia Theatre Group is giving back to the Astoria community by providing after-school programming for the Boys and Girls Club that houses them.

For two hours a day, two days a week, members of the theater group teach the children of Variety Boys and Girls the basics of theater and play improvisational games.

But since the start of the after-school program, the group has found themselves giving the children more formal theater training. In February, the boys and girls will put on their own full-length show.

“What we’re trying to do is not dumb down or take it easy on younger kids to learn about theater, but really talk to them like artists who have the potential to learn,” Ruiter said. “And hopefully then get the rest of Boys and Girls Club to come and watch those plays.”