1. BRIARCLIFF. The private high school up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx where MISS MATCH's heroine Kathryn Lamb (Kitty) teaches drama. Briarcliff is a fictional school, but there are three private high schools up in Riverdale, which are all very competitive with each other. For the purpose of placing the fictional Briarcliff on a map, put it somewhere around 240th Street and Manhattan College Parkway in the Bronx.

If you have any plans to come to New York, there is an amazing place in Riverdale called Wave Hill, which is a series of private gardens and lovely buildings with landmark status, I believe, near 250th Street, as you head west toward the Hudson River. They hold all sorts of events there, from nature preserve-type walks to music concerts. The land itself is stunning: green rolling hills high above the Hudson. You really won't believe you're in a city at all, let alone within the five boroughs of New York. Many celebrated persons and dignitaries have stayed at Wave Hill, including Mark Twain and Queen Elizabeth II. Several years ago I performed a show there - Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not For Burning -- in a big Tudor Hall that was a banquet hall. It now may be Wave Hill's café.

I grew up not too far from here and did indeed attend one of the three private schools in Riverdale, so I delved into my memories of my experiences with teachers and classmates when I wrote the Briarcliff scenes.