Performing Garage

The Performing Garage

The Performing Garage in 2014
Address	33 Wooster Street (SoHo) New York City United States
Owner	The Performance Group (1968-1980), The Wooster Group (since 1980)
Type	off-Broadway
Capacity	60
Opened	1968

The Performing Garage is an off-off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City. Established in 1968, it is the permanent home of the experimental theater company originally named The Performance Group (under Richard Schechner) that morphed in 1980 into The Wooster Group (under Elizabeth LeCompte), and their primary performance venue.

Since 1978, it also hosts their annual "Visiting Artist Series" or "Emerging Artist Series". Located at 33 Wooster Street, it seats approximately 60. Actors such as Willem Dafoe debuted in earnest here and regularly come back.

The location was originally not a garage but a metal stamping/flatware factory, back when SoHo was an empty warehouse district being colonized by artists. It was acquired in 1968 by its first artistic and theater director, Richard Schechner.

The Performing Garage was established there in 1968 as a home for Schechner's company The Performance Group (1967-1980), starting with Dionysus in 69 (1968). Because of the group's name, the theater is sometimes erroneously called the Performance Garage.

In 1975, some members began to develop their own productions and perform them at the Performing Garage but not under the name of The Performance Group, starting with Sakonnet Point (1975).

In 1980, Richard Schechner resigned as director and the Performing Garage became home to the troupe renamed The Wooster Group under Elizabeth LeCompte, with their 1975-1980 independent works being retroactively considered productions of the new Group.