The Secret Theatre Permanently Closed Its Doors On May 5

The Secret Theatre's owner and Artistic Director, Richard Mazda, has released a statement on the immediate permanent closure of The Secret Theatre. Read his statement and see a separate video message from Richard below.

"In my lifetime I have written many press releases, perhaps thousands and certainly hundreds.

This is one of the most difficult to write but it is with extreme sadness and many regrets that I must announce the permanent closure of LIC's vaunted, award winning Secret Theatre.

We made it to ten years, we were never a drain on the public purse and we created many thousands of opportunities for actors, audiences and students to come together to practice, watch, learn and enjoy truly eclectic live theatre.

We were progressive and mainstream all at once being comfortable with both advent garde and more family friendly shows.

Basically from murderous Richard III to the joys of A Charlie Brown Christmas and Pirate Pete, the joyous tones of musicals like Rent or Hair to the dark foreboding themes of Dr. Faustus and Edward II we have tackled all with a passionate eye for entertaining, promoting occasionally challenging but always life affirming theatre.

We have been the home for other company's signature projects like the premiere of the storied Honeycomb Trilogy from Gideon Productions to the premiere of shows like Adam Szymkowicz's Heart Like Fists. We were the launchpad for the Face Off Unlimited's exponential rise as a new force on the Improv scene.

Broadway playwright's like Jim Rado, Neil LaBute, Jeremey Kareken and Greg Kotis have all graced our seats. We have had Broadway performers step on to our relatively tiny stage to give the audience an unparalleled opportunity to see a legend like Austin Pendleton performing King Lear. We also were the first stage for so many child actors taking their very first steps onto the boards.

The only positive news we have to offer at this point is that the Secret Theatre Academy Online will continue and we even slightly expanded our teaching roster and added some new students. Please go to the website for more information about continuing classes: www.Secrettheatre.com

We created a theatre where there was none and connected to a community in a way that will be hard to replace for a very long time to come. Long Island City's cultural scene is losing an important institution and the city is beginning to see the wildfire that will consume many theatres and small businesses alike.

We unfortunately are among the first of many.

The current and continuing devastation of the theatre community will leave people shocked once the wheels stop spinning. I believe that people have no idea of the level of closures they should expect but in our view it's an unmitigated disaster that has no precedent.

The Arts and Culture sector of this country contributes to this country's GDP:

Key national findings from this year's ACPSA are:

• Arts and culture play a significant role in the economic activity of the country. The value-added to GDP by arts and cultural production is nearly five times greater than that of the agricultural sector. Arts and culture adds nearly $60 billion more than construction and $227 billion more than transportation and warehousing to the U.S. economy.

• Arts and cultural goods create a trade surplus. In 2016, the U.S. exported nearly $25 billion more in arts and cultural goods and services than it imported, a 12-fold increase over 10 years.

Now all this information is irrelevant at least to us but as you read this release ask yourself why we are saving airlines that have already been bailed out before?

Who will be using those planes in the next two years?

The awful decisions of this administration have no consideration for the quality of people's lives and certainly the very real human cost seems to be that we are all poorer for those decisions.

I hate to say goodbye but this is a five-alarm fire and no one is answering our distress calls.

Richard Mazda

Executive Director/Owner. The Secret Theatre"