Every Member of This Washington Square Park Performance Troupe The Child of a Messy Divorce

Cal, Blossom, Troy, and Angelina are four Tisch students with two things in common: they all like organizing impromptu nightly Shakespeare performances in the middle of the park, and they all have parents who have not been on speaking terms for a number of years.

“One night we were sitting around, bored out of our minds, and we just decided to go out and do what we came to this city to do — act,” said Blossom, a Tisch junior whose childhood in a broken home as led to her unquenchable thirst for attention from strangers.

Blossom has been performing in the park for almost two years now, but she’s been performing in general since her father threw a cake at the wall on her eighth birthday. All the student thespians are pros at this point — not only at putting on a good show, but also at filling the gaps in their souls with the confused stares of European tourists.

“It’s just fun,” said Troy, a Tisch junior who was forced by his mother to testify against his father in court.

Whether the students are leaping, singing, or over-enunciating every last word, they’re always performing with a smile — and the with the desperation of a small child futilely attempting to keep his parents from arguing.

“I’m in it for the art,” stated Cal, a Tisch senior who’s in it for the sidelong glances of passing businessmen who vaguely resemble his father.

These actors’ biggest fans, which include a homeless pigeon and a very lost Chinese family, enjoy nothing more than kicking back on a park bench and watching the overblown, melodramatic performances of psychologically off-balance young men and woman.

“There’s no pressure, it’s just a bunch of cool people who like to hang out and perform Shakespeare,” stated Angelina, a sophomore who was conceived as a last-ditch effort to save her parents’ failing marriage.