Theater for the New City

230 East 10th Street | also 155 1st Avenue, 240 East 10th Street | East Village | built 1999

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1938

    The city builds the First Avenue Retail Market to bring pushcart peddlers indoors

    The one-story market at 155 First Avenue was a signature project of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who wanted peddlers and carts off crowded streets and into sanitary indoor markets. It was one of the first and largest of dozens built across the city in a WPA-inspired Art Deco style. In the East Village's Little Italy it was crowded with vendors of cheese, meat, olives and other Italian food.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

  2. 1965

    The First Avenue Retail Market has closed and the Sanitation Department takes over its space

    After World War II, supermarkets rapidly replaced the indoor retail markets that had seemed cutting-edge when they opened. By 1965 the market had closed and the Sanitation Department had taken over the space. It was not until 1986 that a theater company moved in.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

  3. 1986

    September

    Theater for the New City buys the old market after a 300 percent rent hike drives it from Second Avenue

    Rent on its Second Avenue home jumped 300 percent in 1984, forcing the company to look elsewhere. With help from Bess Myerson, Ruth Messinger and David Dinkins, it bought the underused 30,000-square-foot former WPA market one block east in 1986 and moved in that September. To keep producing during renovation it built two interim theaters named for off-off-Broadway pioneers Joe Cino and Charles Stanley.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1986

    The first Halloween Ball at the new home is held in tents on East 10th Street

    Theater for the New City had run a Village Halloween Costume Ball since about 1973. At its new building, bought in 1986, the first ball was held in tents pitched on East 10th Street because the theater did not yet have a certificate of occupancy. Today the ball showcases more than 450 artists and performers, with performances that spill out onto the street.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1991

    The Joyce and Seward Johnson Theater, the first renovated stage, opens with Grandchild of Kings

    The first of the four theaters to finish renovation was paid for by the sculptor John Seward Johnson II and his wife Joyce, and Johnson designed and made its silver archway. It can serve as a 99-seat off-off-Broadway house or be changed into a 240-seat off-Broadway one, and it is among the largest off-off-Broadway theaters. It opened in 1991 with Grandchild of Kings.

    “The Johnson Theater opened in 1991 with Grandchild of Kings by Hal Prince.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1997

    Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian has his first play in America staged here

    In 1997 Theater for the New City staged the first American production of a play by Gao Xingjian, who later received the Nobel Prize. The company's alumni also include the Argentine-born director Moises Kaufman, who staged his first American plays here.

    “Nobel Prize winner Gao Xinjian, whose first play in America was staged at TNC in 1997…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2000

    The city sells the air rights above the theater and a condo tower rises amid protest

    In 2000 Mayor Giuliani sold a developer the air rights over the theater that the city still held. The city had placed a lien on the theater in 1997 over a defaulted loan borrowed against a promised grant that never materialized. Unable to find a donor to cover the $519,634 owed, the company agreed to let a tower rise above its space, which got the lien forgiven, extended its mortgage and gave it a seat on the condo board. Neighbors saw a tower far taller than the six-story tenements common on the Lower East Side as a threat, construction met protests, and the developer's use of non-union labor added to the anger.

    “…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…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2013

    January

    The theater announces it has paid off its mortgage five years early

    In January 2013 Theater for the New City announced that the mortgage on 155 First Avenue, which began in 1987 at $717,000, had been retired five years ahead of schedule. A two-year "Burn The Mortgage" campaign drawing on individual donors and independent foundations made the payoff possible. The theater said this ensures it will remain a permanent fixture of New York theater.

    “…the mortgage on their space at 155 1st Avenue, which had begun in 1987 at $717,000, had been retired, 5 years ahead of schedule…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 572 buildings with stories in East Village