The Playgoer: Culture Project lives!

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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Culture Project lives!

Isaac scooped us all yesterday. Even the Times, who runs their story today.

In short, they're moving to something cheaper and much smaller. One space, not two. Campbell Robertson does the math:

At its current site at 45 Bleecker Street in the East Village, the Culture Project had two leases: one on the fourth-floor offices and living quarters of Allan Buchman, the project’s founder and artistic director, and another on two performance spaces, a 199-seat theater on the first floor and a 99-seater in the basement.

The company pays $50,000 a month for both theaters and office space...

In its new building [Soho's Manhattan Ensemble Theatre] the Culture Project space will be cut to one 140-seat theater from its two existing theaters, but the savings, which Mr. Buchman estimated at $300,000 the first year alone, were worth it. Also, as part of the deal, the company is buying the Manhattan Ensemble Theater’s lighting and sound equipment, gear that it generally rents.

“I want our money to be going onstage rather than into real estate,” Mr. Buchman said.


And so the battle between art and real estate--perhaps the most distinguishing feature of theatre-making in New York in the 21st century so far--goes on.

1 comment:

Playgoer said...

Some interested conversations continued about Culture Project under the previous post.

playgoer.blogspot.com/2006/11/culture-project-in-trouble.html