Off-Bway's Cherry Lane Theatre Undergoes Renovations

The Cherry Lane Theatre, New York's longest running Off-Broadway theatre, is undergoing extensive renovation. The history-laden 170-year-old building, situated on 38 Commerce Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, will be unveiling its new home in the Spring of 2006.  

Since September 2005, Cherry Lane Theatre has been renovating its theatres, lobby and administrative offices. Mitchell Kurtz Architects have been engaged to design the renovations, with John Pohlman Construction heading the construction effort.

"We will preserve all of the details that make us an intimate, neighborhood playhouse, while providing a more accessible and comfortable destination for our audiences, and a technically advanced workspace for our artists', said Artistic Director Angelina Fiordellisi.

Renovation of the landmarked building includes restoration of the original entrance to the Mainstage, lobby, box office, and Studio theatre. The lobby entrance will be transparent, connecting the street to the gathering space. New audience amenities in the Mainstage include a renovated and expanded lobby with concessions bar, expanded bathrooms, and new air conditioning. The stage opening to the house has been expanded, bringing a new intimacy to the theatre. The new seats are larger and provide greater legroom. Sightlines have been improved for better seeing and hearing. New stage lighting and sound systems will provide theatre artists with contemporary tools to supplement production designs. New flexible Studio theatre seating improves sightlines and permits the Studio to be used as a large rehearsal space when the seating is not deployed.

During the renovation process, Cherry Lane initiated its RENOVATE 38 Capital Campaign, which raises funds in support of the reconstruction and its Artistic and Sustainability Fund. RENOVATE 38 Capital Campaign encourages supporters to be a part of Cherry Lane's future by securing a permanent place in the very fabric of Cherry Lane's work and historic building. Participation in the RENOVATE 38 campaign includes a wide-range of opportunities, including naming the Mainstage and Studio Theatres, lobbies, theatre seats and pathways.

The entire RENOVATE 38 Capital Campaign is set to cost $2.145 million, and will be carried out over a three-year period, concluding in September 2008. The budget not only covers Cherry Lane's renovation, but also its Artistic and Sustainability Fund, which supports institutional sustainability through augmented development and marketing initiatives, and also guarantees artistic and production expansion celebrating both Cherry Lane's canon of work and discovery of new writers.

During the silent phase of the campaign, funding was awarded from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; The Office of the Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields; The New York City Council, Government Speaker Christine C. Quinn, 3rd District, Cherry Lane Theatre Board of Directors; and anonymous donors to support this renovation.

"A landmark in Greenwich Village's cultural landscape, Cherry Lane Theatre serves as a home for both noted and emerging artists and a laboratory for the development of new works. As New York's longest-running Off-Broadway theatre, Cherry Lane has helped define American drama, propelling hundreds of writers to prominence and challenging audience members too numerous a total to tally. The theatre fosters daring, quality theatre that is relevant to the diverse audience it cultivates," according to press notes.

Cherry Lane's history is a chronicle of the vanguard American theatre. In 1924, a coterie of intellectual adventurers converted a structure built as a silo in 1817 into the theatre they called the Cherry Lane Playhouse. Decade by decade, a parade of young, emerging writers worked at the Cherry Lane, including Eugene O'Neill, Clifford Odets, Gertrude Stein, Lorraine Hansberry, Samuel Beckett, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Edward Albee, on up to Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Margo Jefferson, and David Mamet. In 1955, Cherry Lane was the first Off-Broadway theatre to win a Tony Award for "general high quality".

"In 1996, theatre artist Angelina Fiordellisi founded the present not-for-profit as a home for artists and audiences to discover the joys and risks of theatrical invention in an atmosphere of artistic freedom and camaraderie. Producing innovative work in our current precarious economy is a risky endeavor. Cherry Lane, however, perseveres its pioneering tradition as a leader in cultivating the future of American drama."