Soho Repertory Theater

Soho Repertory Theatre

The entrance to Soho Rep's space
Address	46 Walker Street New York City United States
Owner	Artistic Director: Sarah Benson Executive Director: Cynthia Flowers
Type	Off-Broadway
Capacity	73
Opened	1975
Website
sohorep.org

Artistic Director: Sarah Benson

The Soho Repertory Theatre, known as Soho Rep, is an Off-Broadway theater company with a 73-seat space located at 46 Walker Street in the TriBeCa district of Manhattan, New York City. The non-profit theater company was founded in 1975 by Jerry Engelbach and Marlene Swartz in an old hat warehouse on Mercer Street, in SoHo. With a founding mission to produce rarely seen classical works, the theater company has grown from an Off-Off Broadway house in Soho, through multiple locations, to its current home in a 73-seat theatre located at 46 Walker Street between Broadway and Church Street in Tribeca, where they now produce mainly new works on an Off Broadway contract. They are an award-winning theater company which has won multiple prizes, including Obie Awards, Drama Desk Awards, Drama Critics' Circle Awards, and awards from The New York Times.

As of 2017, Soho Rep has an annual budget of $1.6 million, and employs a full-time staff of five.

The Soho Repertory Theatre (known as Soho Rep.) was founded in July 1975 by Jerry Engelbach and Marlene Swartz. As co-artistic directors they produced over a hundred plays until Engelbach left in 1989. Swartz then partnered with English director Julian Webber, until she herself left in 1999. The company has since been helmed by Artistic Directors Daniel Aukin (1999 to 2006), followed by Sarah Benson (2006 to present). The company has moved locations many times, from Greenwich Street, to Bellevue Hospital, to their current location at 46 Walker Street. Soho Rep. is known for producing new and avante-garde works, though their founding mission was to produce rarely seen classics. In 2007 Soho Rep. transitioned away from an Off Off Broadway contract to an Off Broadway contract.

Soho Rep’s founding mission was to present rare classical plays. After four seasons, in 1979, they were able to claim the largest subscription audience of any Off Off Broadway Theater company operating at the time. After several years, in 1981, after producing works from Shakespeare to Shaw; the theater produced its first new play, Stephen Davis Parks' The Idol Makers. After 1981 Soho Rep. began to produce more and more new plays. Included in their New York premieres were the stage version of Rod Serling’s television play Requiem for a Heavyweight, J. P. Donleavy’s Fairy Tales of New York, and Preston Sturges’ A Cup of Coffee, the stage play on which he based his film Christmas in July. Among the many new works presented were plays by Americans Len Jenkin and Mac Wellman, and Britons Nicholas Wright, David Lan, and Barrie Keeffe. In 1998 Daniel Aukin became Artistic Director and produced new work by artists including Adam Bock, Young Jean Lee, Richard Maxwell, Melissa James Gibson, and María Irene Fornés.