Cherry Lane Theater
(2015)
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| Address | 38 Commerce Street Manhattan, New York City United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°43′52″N 74°00′19″W / 40.731129°N 74.005215°W |
| Owner | Angelina Fiordellisi |
| Operator | Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation |
| Capacity | 179 main stage, 60 studio |
| Construction | |
| Opened | March 24, 1924 |
| Architect | Cleon Throckmorton (conversion) |
| Website | |
| www.cherrylanetheatre.com | |
The Cherry Lane Theatre, located at 38 Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, is the city's oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater. The Cherry Lane contains a 179-seat main stage and a 60-seat studio.
The building was constructed as a farm silo in 1817, and also served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory before Edna St. Vincent Millay and other members of the Provincetown Players converted the structure into a theater they christened the Cherry Lane Playhouse. It opened in 1924 with the theatrical presentation Saturday Night, by Richard Fresnell. This was followed by the plays The Man Who Ate Popmack, by W. J. Turner, directed by Reginald Travers, on March 24, 1924; and The Way of the World by William Congreve, produced by the Cherry Lane Players Inc., opening November 17, 1924. The theatre received a significant makeover in 1954 when it acquired much of the expensive furnishings sold off by Rockefeller Center's failing Center Theatre.
The Cherry Lane Theatre has long been a home for nontraditional and experimental works. Particularly during the 1950s and '60s, it hosted many avant garde performances that were identified with the counterculture. It regularly staged works by playwrights associated with the Theatre of the Absurd, including one of the first productions of Samuel Beckett's Endgame in 1957. The modernist stage company The Living Theatre was in residence in 1951 and 1952, performing rarities like Pablo Picasso's Desire Caught by the Tail. Occasionally the theatre even hosted musical performances, providing a venue for Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger long before their ascensions to fame.
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