Theater for the New City
Encyclopedia
Theater for the New City, founded in 1971 and known familiarly as "TNC", is one of New York City's leading Off-Off-Broadway
theaters, known for radical political plays and community commitment. Productions at TNC have won 43 Obie Awards and the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama. TNC currently exists as a 4-theater complex in a 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) space located at 155 1st Avenue, in Manhattan's East Village
.
in the West Village. Bartenieff, Field, Barnes and Kornfeld named their new company "Theater for the New City" after a speech in which then-Mayor John V. Lindsay envisioned a "new city" for all.
The theater officially opened in March 1971. Its initial two seasons included plays by Richard Foreman
, Charles Ludlam
, Miguel Piñero
and Jean-Claude van Itallie. Theater for the New City also began its Annual Summer Street Theater, and founded the Village Halloween Parade with puppeteer Ralph Lee
. The Parade won an Obie Award
under TNC administration, but a desire to be much more commercially viable than TNC's anti-establishment spirit would allow caused Ralph Lee
to form his own Parade Committee and split from TNC in 1973 . TNC subsequently inaugurated its Village Halloween Costume Ball, which it still holds to this day.
TNC saw some major changes in its first year. Kornfeld and Barnes resigned, leaving Bartenieff as Executive Director and Field as Artistic Director. TNC also moved from Westbeth Artists Community
and found a new home in the Jane West, a former seaman’s hotel at 113 Jane Street, in a run-down area of the West Village by the Hudson River
. Theater for the New City played a large part in rehabilitating the neighborhood, and the theater it created would later be known as the Jane Street Theater
and house successes such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch
. During its time at the Jane West, Theater for the New City cemented its reputation for being the most avant of avant-garde
theater, offering radical political plays, experimental poetic works, dance theater, musical theater and even film. Mabou Mines
found a home at Theater for the New City as did playwrights such as Romulus Linney
, Harvey Fierstein
, H. M. Koutoukas and Marie-Irene Fornes. A musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince
in 1973 featured a young Tim Robbins
in the title role. The 1976 play Dinosaur Door by Barbara Garson
featured a young Vin Diesel
.
In 1977, the theater moved from the West Village to the East Village
, converting a former Tabernacle Baptist church at 156 2nd Avenue, near East 10th Street, into a cultural complex with a rehearsal room and three theaters named after Joe Cino
, Charles Stanley
and James Waring
. Notable productions in the late 1970s and 1980s include the American premiere of two of Heiner Muller
’s plays, Hamletmachine
in 1984 and Quartett in 1985; and Buried Child
by Sam Shepard
in 1978. The Theater for the New City production of Buried Child
moved Off-Broadway
to the Theatre de Lys and in 1979, and became the first Off-Off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize
.
, Ruth Messinger
and David Dinkins
, the theater was able to purchase an underutilized 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) former WPA
building one block east at 155 First Avenue in 1986. The first Halloween Ball to take place in the new location was held in tents pitched on 10th Street because a Certificate of Occupancy hadn't yet been obtained. Refusing to close doors during renovation, TNC threw up two interim theater spaces, which like its predecessors in the 2nd Avenue building, were named after Off-Off Broadway founders Joe Cino
and Charles Stanley
. The first completed theater was created with the help of sculptor John Seward Johnson II
of the Johnson & Johnson
family and his wife Joyce. In honor of its benefactors, it was christened the Joyce and Seward Johnson Theater. It is currently one of the largest theaters Off-Off-Broadway. Renovation of the building was finally completed in 2001.
Responding to the homeless problem of the late 1980s and government cutbacks in the arts, TNC created an after school Arts-in-Education program for shelter children in 1990. Budget cuts also forced the theater to reluctantly raise its admission prices from $4 to $5-$7 in 1993 ($7 was then the price of a movie ticket) and then to $10 in 1994. The current cap on ticket prices is $20. Other major changes in this period include the resignation of George Bartenieff in 1992. Crystal Field remains as Executive Artistic Director.
neighborhood. From 2006 to 2008, TNC presented the NY Uke Fest, a 4 night, 3 day celebration of ukulele music, under the direction of Uke Jackson and the New York Ukulele Ensemble. Many first generation Off-Off-Broadway playwright
s continue to present their work at TNC, among them Charles Busch
(who premiered his plays Shanghai Moon at TNC in 1999, and The Divine Sister in 2010), Jean-Claude van Itallie and Tom O'Horgan
. More recent TNC alumni include Tony Award
winning director Moises Kaufman
, who directed his first American plays at TNC after emigrating from his native Argentina
, and Nobel Prize
winner Gao Xinjian, whose first play in America was staged at TNC in 1997. Other notable playwrights to have their work presented at TNC include Bina Sharif, Barbara Kahn, Laurence Holder, Trav S.D.
and Matt Morillo. TNC continues to be a haven for Emerging playwrights, and in 2006, a play reading series, New City, New Blood, was created in order to further showcase new works.
In addition to their Community Festivals, several outside groups are presented at TNC. Annually, the Bread & Puppet Theater and the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are presented by TNC, and each December, noted Playwright and TNC Alum Charles Busch
holds a staged reading of his play Times Square Angel.
In 2004, TNC began holding an annual Valentine's Day
Benefit. The Love N' Courage Benefit is held on a Monday night, near Valentine's Day. Beginning in 2007, this benefit is held at The National Arts Club. The event, presented in a pageant style, is meant as a fundraiser for TNC, and has honored friends of TNC, patrons of the arts, and, in 2006, the City of New Orleans. TNC donated a portion of the proceeds raised from this Benefit to Southern Rep
, a theater company in New Orleans whose space was destroyed in the floods resulting from Hurricane Katrina
. This event often features a star-studded lineup of performers; it has been hosted by Charles Busch
and Julie Halston
, and performers have included Kitty Carlisle Hart
, Elaine Stritch
, Patricia Neal
, Tammy Grimes
, Eli Wallach
and Anne Jackson
. The 2008 benefit honored playwright Edward Albee
and included performances by Elaine Stritch
, Marian Seldes
, Basil Twist and Bill Irwin
. The 2009 benefit honored Elaine Stritch
and in 2010, Eli Wallach
and Anne Jackson
were honored.
TNC is featured in the 2007 Academy Award nominated film The Savages
.
The Annual Summer Street Theater Tour is a free operetta
-for-the-streets that tours 13 locations in all 5 boroughs of New York City. Begun in the early 1970s and embodying the grassroots
ideals of that decade, Street Theater aims to raise social awareness in the communities it performs in, creating civic dialogue that inspires a better understanding of the world beyond the communities' geographic boundaries. Written and Directed by Crystal Field, TNC's Street Theater features a company of 50 and performs on Weekends in Parks, Playgrounds, Closed-off streets and the like.
The Presenting Theater Program is TNC’s vehicle to providing a showcase for performing groups without a permanent base. Each winter, the Presenting Program hosts Bread & Puppet Theater, the oldest continuing experimental theater company in America and the Thunderbird American Indian
Dance Concert and pow-wow
, which offers ritual and social dances from 17 tribes throughout the United States.
TNC’s Arts in Education program was developed specifically to foster communication and self-esteem in at-risk and limited English proficient students. It has served P.S. 20, JHS 64, the Regents Family Shelter and the Catherine Street Shelter, and currently consists of a free After School Theater Workshop for low-income Lower East Side children.
The Community Festival Program consists of two free annual events, the Village Halloween Costume Ball and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts. The Halloween
Ball showcases over 450 artists and performers at a multi-level theatrical event, with performances that spill out onto the street. The Lower East Side Festival of the Arts is a free three-day weekend long extravaganza celebrating the cultural and artistic diversity of the Lower East Side
. This event has grown tenfold since its inception in 1996, and is currently attended by over 3,000 people annually.
TNC’s Art Gallery grew out of the annual art exhibit for the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, and is now a year-round program of curated shows.
to take pushcart peddlers off the streets. TNC purchased the building in 1986, but to its later regret, was not able to purchase the air rights
above the one-story facility. After moving into the space in September 1986. it created two interim theaters to continue production while raising the $2 million needed for renovation funds. The building currently consists of four theaters:
The Seward and Joyce Johnson Theater was the first theater to finish renovation in 1991. Funding for the theater was provided by sculptor John Seward Johnson II
of the Johnson and Johnson family, and his wife Joyce. Johnson designed and created the silver archway into the theater. One of the largest theaters Off-Off-Broadway, and the only space that can be used as a 99-seat Off-Off-Broadway theater or be transformed into a 240-seat Off-Broadway theater, the Johnson Theater opened in 1991 with Grandchild of Kings by Hal Prince
. The theater is used for large-scale productions, including the annual Bread & Puppet nativity
during the holiday season and an annual pow-wow
coordinated by the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers.
The Cino Theater is named after Joe Cino
and is the third space in TNC's history to bear Cino’s name. A long and shallow theater with 74 seats, the Cino Theater is TNC's most modifiable space, and has been at times arranged as a thrust stage
and an arena stage
.
The Cabaret Theater was renovated along with TNC's basement in 1999 and at 65 seats is TNC's smallest theater. An ersatz-Black Box type space, one-person plays and late-night cabarets often use this space, which as The Womb Room during the Annual Halloween Ball, showcases work by new performance artists and musicians.
The Community Space Theater was the last theater to be renovated in 2001. It has 91 seats and a sprung wood dance floor. Initially, this space consisted of risers and a stage concealed from the lobby by a heavy black curtain. During the renovation of 2001, an outer wall was added, and a formal dressing room was created as well.
TNC's Lobby Space is used as an Art Gallery year-round, and also contains a small concession stand which is open during performances. TNC's Basement houses the Theater's vast collection of Costumes and Props.
above the theater (which the City had retained) to a developer
. TNC was at that time in default of a loan borrowed against a pledged grant from the Manhattan Borough President's Office, which never materialized. The City put a lien against TNC in 1997 and unable to find a major donor to pay off the $519,634 lien, TNC was forced to agree to the construction of a 12-story tower above their space in order to have the lien forgiven. The Faust
ian deal was somewhat sweetened by giving TNC an extension on their mortgage and allowing the theater to have one seat on the condo board. Being vastly taller than the 6-story tenement
buildings prevalent in the Lower East Side, the condo tower was seen as a threat to the character of the neighborhood and construction in 2000 occurred amidst great protest. The tower became even more of a controversy when the developer hired non-union workers to build the tower.
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
theaters, known for radical political plays and community commitment. Productions at TNC have won 43 Obie Awards and the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for Drama. TNC currently exists as a 4-theater complex in a 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) space located at 155 1st Avenue, in Manhattan's East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
.
1970s
Crystal Field and George Bartenieff founded Theater for the New City in 1971 with Theo Barnes and Lawrence Kornfeld, who was the Resident Director of Judson Poets Theatre, where the four had met. Feeling that Judson Poets Theatre had peaked , they decided to form a theater of their own for poetic work that would also encompass a community ideal. The impulse to form a company coincided with the availability of a space at the Westbeth Artists CommunityWestbeth Artists Community
Westbeth Artists Housing, located at 463 West Street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, is the largest such community in the world. This low- to middle-income rental housing project was developed with the assistance of the J.M...
in the West Village. Bartenieff, Field, Barnes and Kornfeld named their new company "Theater for the New City" after a speech in which then-Mayor John V. Lindsay envisioned a "new city" for all.
The theater officially opened in March 1971. Its initial two seasons included plays by Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
, Charles Ludlam
Charles Ludlam
Charles Braun Ludlam was an American actor, director, and playwright.-Early life:Ludlam was born in Floral Park, New York, the son of Marjorie and Joseph William Ludlam. He was raised in Greenlawn, New York, on Long Island, and attended Harborfields High School. The fact that he was gay was not a...
, Miguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero was a Puerto Rican playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement.-Early years:...
and Jean-Claude van Itallie. Theater for the New City also began its Annual Summer Street Theater, and founded the Village Halloween Parade with puppeteer Ralph Lee
Ralph Lee
Ralph Lee makes work centered on the mask, both its design and use in theatrical performance. Most of the theater events he creates take place outside traditional performance venues. These include parades, pageants, seasonal celebrations and outdoor theatrical performances. Masks and giant puppets...
. The Parade won an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
under TNC administration, but a desire to be much more commercially viable than TNC's anti-establishment spirit would allow caused Ralph Lee
Ralph Lee
Ralph Lee makes work centered on the mask, both its design and use in theatrical performance. Most of the theater events he creates take place outside traditional performance venues. These include parades, pageants, seasonal celebrations and outdoor theatrical performances. Masks and giant puppets...
to form his own Parade Committee and split from TNC in 1973 . TNC subsequently inaugurated its Village Halloween Costume Ball, which it still holds to this day.
TNC saw some major changes in its first year. Kornfeld and Barnes resigned, leaving Bartenieff as Executive Director and Field as Artistic Director. TNC also moved from Westbeth Artists Community
Westbeth Artists Community
Westbeth Artists Housing, located at 463 West Street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, is the largest such community in the world. This low- to middle-income rental housing project was developed with the assistance of the J.M...
and found a new home in the Jane West, a former seaman’s hotel at 113 Jane Street, in a run-down area of the West Village by the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
. Theater for the New City played a large part in rehabilitating the neighborhood, and the theater it created would later be known as the Jane Street Theater
Jane Street Theater
The Jane is a boutique hotel located at 505-507 West Street, with its main entrance at 113 Jane Street in the West Village section of the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City....
and house successes such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (musical)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical about a fictional rock and roll band fronted by an East German transgender singer. The text is by John Cameron Mitchell, and the music and lyrics are by Stephen Trask. The musical premiered in 1998 and has been performed throughout the world in hundreds...
. During its time at the Jane West, Theater for the New City cemented its reputation for being the most avant of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
theater, offering radical political plays, experimental poetic works, dance theater, musical theater and even film. Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines is an avant-garde theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City.-History:Mabou Mines is a collaborative, avant-garde theater company based in New York City...
found a home at Theater for the New City as did playwrights such as Romulus Linney
Romulus Linney (playwright)
Romulus Zachariah Linney IV was an American playwright and professor.-Life and career:Linney was born in Philadelphia, the son of Maitland Clabaugh and Romulus Zachariah Linney III. His great-grandfather was Republican Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney. Linney was raised in Boone, North...
, Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Forbes Fierstein is a U.S. actor and playwright, noted for the early distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy, about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, as well as writing the...
, H. M. Koutoukas and Marie-Irene Fornes. A musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince
The Little Prince
The Little Prince , first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ....
in 1973 featured a young Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
in the title role. The 1976 play Dinosaur Door by Barbara Garson
Barbara Garson
Barbara Garson is an American playwright, author and social activist.Garson is best known for the play MacBird, a notorious 1966 counterculture drama/political parody of Macbeth that sold over half a million copies as a book and had over 90 productions world wide...
featured a young Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He became known in the early 2000s, appearing in several successful Hollywood films, including The Fast and the Furious and xXx...
.
In 1977, the theater moved from the West Village to the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
, converting a former Tabernacle Baptist church at 156 2nd Avenue, near East 10th Street, into a cultural complex with a rehearsal room and three theaters named after Joe Cino
Joe Cino
Joseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino...
, Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley , is a US preacher, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.Charles Stanley may also refer to:*Charles H...
and James Waring
James Waring
James Waring was a dancer, choreographer, costume designer and theatrical director based in New York City in the 1940s through the 1970s. He was a prolific choreographer as well as a dedicated teacher who selflessly helped his students and proteges to advance their careers, while maintaining a...
. Notable productions in the late 1970s and 1980s include the American premiere of two of Heiner Muller
Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller was a German dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht...
’s plays, Hamletmachine
Hamletmachine
Hamletmachine is a postmodernist drama by German playwright and theatre director Heiner Müller. Written in 1977, the play is loosely based on Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The play originated in relation to a translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet that Müller undertook...
in 1984 and Quartett in 1985; and Buried Child
Buried Child
Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard first presented in 1978. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright...
by Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
in 1978. The Theater for the New City production of Buried Child
Buried Child
Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard first presented in 1978. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright...
moved Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
to the Theatre de Lys and in 1979, and became the first Off-Off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
.
1980s-1990s
Rent in New York City began to increase exponentially in the early 1980s and Theater for the New City was forced to find another home in 1984 after is rent increased 300% . With the help of Bess MyersonBess Myerson
Bess Myerson became the first Jewish woman to win the Miss America pageant in 1945. She appeared on various television shows in the 1950s and 1960s...
, Ruth Messinger
Ruth Messinger
Ruth Wyler Messinger is a former political leader in New York City and a member of the Democratic Party as well as the Democratic Socialists of America. She was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City in 1997, losing to incumbent mayor Rudy Giuliani. She is married to Andrew Lachman, her...
and David Dinkins
David Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins is a former politician from New York City. He was the Mayor of New York City from 1990 through 1993; he was the first and is, to date, the only African American to hold that office.-Early life:...
, the theater was able to purchase an underutilized 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) former WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
building one block east at 155 First Avenue in 1986. The first Halloween Ball to take place in the new location was held in tents pitched on 10th Street because a Certificate of Occupancy hadn't yet been obtained. Refusing to close doors during renovation, TNC threw up two interim theater spaces, which like its predecessors in the 2nd Avenue building, were named after Off-Off Broadway founders Joe Cino
Joe Cino
Joseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino...
and Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley , is a US preacher, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.Charles Stanley may also refer to:*Charles H...
. The first completed theater was created with the help of sculptor John Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an American artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I ....
of the Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
family and his wife Joyce. In honor of its benefactors, it was christened the Joyce and Seward Johnson Theater. It is currently one of the largest theaters Off-Off-Broadway. Renovation of the building was finally completed in 2001.
Responding to the homeless problem of the late 1980s and government cutbacks in the arts, TNC created an after school Arts-in-Education program for shelter children in 1990. Budget cuts also forced the theater to reluctantly raise its admission prices from $4 to $5-$7 in 1993 ($7 was then the price of a movie ticket) and then to $10 in 1994. The current cap on ticket prices is $20. Other major changes in this period include the resignation of George Bartenieff in 1992. Crystal Field remains as Executive Artistic Director.
Current status and events
TNC continues to produce 30-40 new plays per year, along with its Annual Summer Street Theater, the Annual Village Halloween Costume Ball and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, which was created in 1996 to celebrate the ethnic and artistic diversity of TNC’s Lower East SideLower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
neighborhood. From 2006 to 2008, TNC presented the NY Uke Fest, a 4 night, 3 day celebration of ukulele music, under the direction of Uke Jackson and the New York Ukulele Ensemble. Many first generation Off-Off-Broadway playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
s continue to present their work at TNC, among them Charles Busch
Charles Busch
Charles Louis Busch is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and female impersonator, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, which was a success on Broadway.-Early life:Busch was born in 1954 and...
(who premiered his plays Shanghai Moon at TNC in 1999, and The Divine Sister in 2010), Jean-Claude van Itallie and Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar...
. More recent TNC alumni include Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
winning director Moises Kaufman
Moisés Kaufman
Moisés Kaufman is a playwright, director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. He is the author of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, 33 Variations and is perhaps best known for writing The Laramie Project with other members of Tectonic Theater Project...
, who directed his first American plays at TNC after emigrating from his native Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner Gao Xinjian, whose first play in America was staged at TNC in 1997. Other notable playwrights to have their work presented at TNC include Bina Sharif, Barbara Kahn, Laurence Holder, Trav S.D.
Trav S.D.
Donald Travis Stewart is a leading figure in the new vaudeville movement, an author, journalist, playwright and stage performer.-Career:...
and Matt Morillo. TNC continues to be a haven for Emerging playwrights, and in 2006, a play reading series, New City, New Blood, was created in order to further showcase new works.
In addition to their Community Festivals, several outside groups are presented at TNC. Annually, the Bread & Puppet Theater and the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are presented by TNC, and each December, noted Playwright and TNC Alum Charles Busch
Charles Busch
Charles Louis Busch is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and female impersonator, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, which was a success on Broadway.-Early life:Busch was born in 1954 and...
holds a staged reading of his play Times Square Angel.
In 2004, TNC began holding an annual Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
Benefit. The Love N' Courage Benefit is held on a Monday night, near Valentine's Day. Beginning in 2007, this benefit is held at The National Arts Club. The event, presented in a pageant style, is meant as a fundraiser for TNC, and has honored friends of TNC, patrons of the arts, and, in 2006, the City of New Orleans. TNC donated a portion of the proceeds raised from this Benefit to Southern Rep
Southern Rep
Southern Rep is a major regional theatre located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the French Quarter. It is a member of National New Plays Network and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1986 by Dr. O'Neill, it is now led by Artistic Director Aimee Hayes and Managing Director Marieke Gaboury...
, a theater company in New Orleans whose space was destroyed in the floods resulting from Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. This event often features a star-studded lineup of performers; it has been hosted by Charles Busch
Charles Busch
Charles Louis Busch is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and female impersonator, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, which was a success on Broadway.-Early life:Busch was born in 1954 and...
and Julie Halston
Julie Halston
Julie Halston is an American actress and comedian.-Life and career:Halston was born Julie Abatelli in Suffolk County, New York, and raised in Commack, Long Island. She is the daughter of Julia Madeline "Dolly" , a teacher's assistant, and Rudolph "Rudy" Abatelli, who worked in tobacco sales...
, and performers have included Kitty Carlisle Hart
Kitty Carlisle Hart
Kitty Carlisle was an American singer, actress and spokeswoman for the arts. She is best remembered as a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. She served 20 years on the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1991, she received the National Medal of Arts from President...
, Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still , wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's , middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud , for which she won...
, Tammy Grimes
Tammy Grimes
-Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
, Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
and Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...
. The 2008 benefit honored playwright Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
and included performances by Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Marian Seldes
Marian Seldes
Marian Hall Seldes is an American stage, film, radio, and television actress whose career has spanned six decades and who was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Life and career:...
, Basil Twist and Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
. The 2009 benefit honored Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
and in 2010, Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
and Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...
were honored.
TNC is featured in the 2007 Academy Award nominated film The Savages
The Savages (film)
The Savages is a 2007 American comedy-drama film, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.-Plot:...
.
Programs
Through its Resident Theater Program, TNC produces 20-30 new American plays per year, providing a forum for both new and mid-career writers to experiment with their work and develop as artists. For newer writers, TNC offers an Emerging Theater Program that commissions and produces 10 plays by fledgling writers each year. The newest division of the Resident Theater Program, New City, New Blood, is a reading series for worthy plays in earlier stages of development. Scratch Night at TNC (works-in-progress) is a new program that invites artists to try out their ideas in front of an audience at any stage of development.The Annual Summer Street Theater Tour is a free operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
-for-the-streets that tours 13 locations in all 5 boroughs of New York City. Begun in the early 1970s and embodying the grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
ideals of that decade, Street Theater aims to raise social awareness in the communities it performs in, creating civic dialogue that inspires a better understanding of the world beyond the communities' geographic boundaries. Written and Directed by Crystal Field, TNC's Street Theater features a company of 50 and performs on Weekends in Parks, Playgrounds, Closed-off streets and the like.
The Presenting Theater Program is TNC’s vehicle to providing a showcase for performing groups without a permanent base. Each winter, the Presenting Program hosts Bread & Puppet Theater, the oldest continuing experimental theater company in America and the Thunderbird American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
Dance Concert and pow-wow
Pow-wow
A pow-wow is a gathering of North America's Native people. The word derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning "spiritual leader". A modern pow-wow is a specific type of event where both Native American and non-Native American people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American...
, which offers ritual and social dances from 17 tribes throughout the United States.
TNC’s Arts in Education program was developed specifically to foster communication and self-esteem in at-risk and limited English proficient students. It has served P.S. 20, JHS 64, the Regents Family Shelter and the Catherine Street Shelter, and currently consists of a free After School Theater Workshop for low-income Lower East Side children.
The Community Festival Program consists of two free annual events, the Village Halloween Costume Ball and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts. The Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
Ball showcases over 450 artists and performers at a multi-level theatrical event, with performances that spill out onto the street. The Lower East Side Festival of the Arts is a free three-day weekend long extravaganza celebrating the cultural and artistic diversity of the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. This event has grown tenfold since its inception in 1996, and is currently attended by over 3,000 people annually.
TNC’s Art Gallery grew out of the annual art exhibit for the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, and is now a year-round program of curated shows.
Facility
TNC’s permanent home is the former First Avenue Retail Market created in 1938 by Robert MosesRobert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
to take pushcart peddlers off the streets. TNC purchased the building in 1986, but to its later regret, was not able to purchase the air rights
Air rights
Air rights are a type of development right in real estate, referring to the empty space above a property. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building gives one the right to use and develop the air rights....
above the one-story facility. After moving into the space in September 1986. it created two interim theaters to continue production while raising the $2 million needed for renovation funds. The building currently consists of four theaters:
The Seward and Joyce Johnson Theater was the first theater to finish renovation in 1991. Funding for the theater was provided by sculptor John Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an American artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I ....
of the Johnson and Johnson family, and his wife Joyce. Johnson designed and created the silver archway into the theater. One of the largest theaters Off-Off-Broadway, and the only space that can be used as a 99-seat Off-Off-Broadway theater or be transformed into a 240-seat Off-Broadway theater, the Johnson Theater opened in 1991 with Grandchild of Kings by Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
. The theater is used for large-scale productions, including the annual Bread & Puppet nativity
Nativity play
A Nativity play or Christmas pageant is a play which recounts the story of the Nativity of Jesus. It is usually performed at Christmas, the feast of the Nativity.-Liturgical:...
during the holiday season and an annual pow-wow
Pow-wow
A pow-wow is a gathering of North America's Native people. The word derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning "spiritual leader". A modern pow-wow is a specific type of event where both Native American and non-Native American people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American...
coordinated by the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers.
The Cino Theater is named after Joe Cino
Joe Cino
Joseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino...
and is the third space in TNC's history to bear Cino’s name. A long and shallow theater with 74 seats, the Cino Theater is TNC's most modifiable space, and has been at times arranged as a thrust stage
Thrust stage
In theatre, a thrust stage is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its up stage end. A thrust has the benefit of greater intimacy between performers and the audience than a proscenium, while retaining the utility of a backstage area...
and an arena stage
Arena Stage
Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...
.
The Cabaret Theater was renovated along with TNC's basement in 1999 and at 65 seats is TNC's smallest theater. An ersatz-Black Box type space, one-person plays and late-night cabarets often use this space, which as The Womb Room during the Annual Halloween Ball, showcases work by new performance artists and musicians.
The Community Space Theater was the last theater to be renovated in 2001. It has 91 seats and a sprung wood dance floor. Initially, this space consisted of risers and a stage concealed from the lobby by a heavy black curtain. During the renovation of 2001, an outer wall was added, and a formal dressing room was created as well.
TNC's Lobby Space is used as an Art Gallery year-round, and also contains a small concession stand which is open during performances. TNC's Basement houses the Theater's vast collection of Costumes and Props.
Controversy
The renovation of Theater for the New City came at a great cost to its relationship with the community in 2000 when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani sold the air rightsAir rights
Air rights are a type of development right in real estate, referring to the empty space above a property. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building gives one the right to use and develop the air rights....
above the theater (which the City had retained) to a developer
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
. TNC was at that time in default of a loan borrowed against a pledged grant from the Manhattan Borough President's Office, which never materialized. The City put a lien against TNC in 1997 and unable to find a major donor to pay off the $519,634 lien, TNC was forced to agree to the construction of a 12-story tower above their space in order to have the lien forgiven. The Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
ian deal was somewhat sweetened by giving TNC an extension on their mortgage and allowing the theater to have one seat on the condo board. Being vastly taller than the 6-story tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
buildings prevalent in the Lower East Side, the condo tower was seen as a threat to the character of the neighborhood and construction in 2000 occurred amidst great protest. The tower became even more of a controversy when the developer hired non-union workers to build the tower.