programming
Soho Playhouse, Inc. is determined to keep Off-Broadway alive. Each year will see a faithful revival of one of Off-Broadway's seminal productions and will be paired with a new play, by a new playwright. These new works will follow in the mold of what made the Off-Broadway sensibility what it is – creative, vital, experimental, emotional – tapping into what makes living worthwhile.
To this end, one of our first projects was a "3 Plays in 3 Days" event. This was a series of readings where we sandwiched a classic Off-Broadway play written here under the auspices of the Playwrights Unit led by Edward Albee in the 60's between two new plays. The classic was War, by Jean-Claude Italie. Jean-Claude, a fascinating gentleman with an extraordinary memory of the times led a vibrant and sometimes emotional talkback afterwards.

The new plays were New York playwright Stephen Bittrich's marvelous Even directed by Patrick Kennedy and starring the actor/playwright Michael Laurence of Krapp39 and young Kansas City playwright Kyle Hatley's intelligent Head – a retelling of the story of Salome. Both playwrights participated in talkbacks after in the Huron Club. This event gave proof beyond a doubt how important the mission of Soho Playhouse, Inc. really is.

Education:

SoHo Playhouse, Inc. has been reaching out to students. Our first production – Baba Brinkman's Canterbury Tales saw groups from the Lycée Français of New York, Cheshire High School in Connecticut, and Pace University among others. Canterbury Tales proved to be extremely popular with the high school – college age set who were enthusiastic with their comments and questions to Baba after the performance.

Exploration:

On the lighter, more fun side of educational programming, Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole has shared his extensive knowledge of the Off Broadway theater scene, history and lore with "senior" tours of the playhouse that have included luncheons with Off-Broadway directors and producers and group tickets to some of the edgier shows that Off-Broadway has to offer including visits to other Off-Broadway theaters, The 29th Street Rep and The Barrow Street theater.

Extensions:

A very exciting aspect of our programming is to reach across borders and explore the relevance of Off-Broadway nationally and internationally. Our first production, Canterbury Tales began this effort with very successful guest performances at Teatro Jaco in Costa Rica. Efforts are underway to extend our hand to theaters in Frankfurt, Berlin and London and create a family of "Off-Broadway" theaters internationally facilitating the exchange of different artistic points of view and ideas.

Support:

Finally, SoHo Playhouse, Inc. has provided the venue for the Dramatic Question Theater for the year 2011 -2012. This group, dedicated to the fostering of playwrights from diverse backgrounds, has enjoyed the use of the SoHo Playhouse in exchange for box office and ushering help. So far, they have mounted two workshop productions in the Huron Club, Ghetto Babylon by Michael Mejias and Bill: a Rake's Tale by Fred Crecca, that have proven very successful artistically and were very well attended.