Ohio Theatre Finds New Home in the West Village

Soho Think Tank, the two-time OBIE Award-winning theatre company that ran the legendary Ohio Theatre in Soho for twenty years, has been offered a new home in The Archive Building at 154 Christopher Street, by the building's owner Rockrose Development Corp. The new space will open in September 2011 as OHIO WEST.

"To be back in our own space within a year of leaving Wooster Street - and to be in the West Village no less!" says Artistic Director Robert Lyons, "This is just unbelievable."

The theatre is located in the basement of The Archive Building, a spectacularly beautiful, red-brick, Romanesque Revival-style apartment building, which was one of the city's early conversions of a landmark building. The theatre space itself is specifically designated for not-for-profit use, at below market rates, as part of an agreement between Rockrose Development Corp. and the City of New York, made during the commercial development of the building in 1988. The subsidized lease is for ten years.

"We are delighted to offer the space to Ohio West," says Patricia Dunphy, of Rockrose Development Corp., "With their deep roots in the theatre community, and their impeccable history, they will be a great new addition to the neighborhood."

"This is a perfect example of how city policy, real estate developers, and artistic organizations can work together to keep lower Manhattan artistically vital," says Robert.

The space seats an intimate seventy-three, but is actually spacious and sprawling, with a wide, deep stage, large, generous dressing rooms, a significant lobby, and room for an office. "This is a sweet space with fantastic artistic and community potential," says Robert.

Soho Think Tank is currently in residence at 3 Legged-Dog (just below the World Trade Center) producing under the banner "Ohio Interrupted". In fact, it is that residency that made this move possible. "When Kevin Cunningham and Aaron Louis reached out to us in our darkest hour and offered us a temporary home in their amazing space, it allowed us to hold on to the most valuable of our lighting and sound equipment, which we will bring over to our new space. But more than that, it gave us a sense of continuity and hope, which has now led us to The Archive Building." STT's Ice Factory Festival will be produced at 3 Legged-Dog this summer in June and July.

The Ohio Theatre existed from 1981 until 2010 at 66 Wooster Street, and hosted an entire generation of groundbreaking downtown artists: from the early works of Tony Kushner, Anne Bogart, and Eve Ensler, to more recent companies such as Elevator Repair Service, Les Freres Corbusier, and The Foundry Theatre. It closed its loading-dock doors at the end of August 2010, two years after the building was sold.

Says Robert, "We are going with the name Ohio West. 'The Ohio Theatre' on Wooster Street was a unique physical space with a specific place in downtown theatre history that will not -- and cannot -- be replicated. We want to evoke the legacy of that space and our history there, while at the same time marking the beginning of something entirely new."

For more information visit http://www.SohoThinkTank.org.

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