Off-Off-Broadway

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Off-Off-Broadway refers to theatrical productions including plays, musicals or performance art pieces performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway productions or off-Broadway productions.

Off-Off-Broadway theaters are generally defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats. The shows can range from quite professional and successful productions by established artists like Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater in the East Village, or The Flea Theater in Tribeca, to extremely small amateur performances all over the City.

Off-Off-Broadway began in 1958 as a reaction to off-Broadway, which had, in the estimation of many in the New York theater community, grown conventional and safe. Among the first venues for what would soon be called "Off-Off-Broadway" (a term supposedly coined by critic Jerry Tallmer of the Village Voice) were coffeehouses in Greenwich Village, particularly the Caffe Cino, operated by the eccentric Joe Cino, who early on took a liking to actors and playwrights and agreed to let them stage plays there without bothering to read the plays first, or to even find out much about the content. Also integral to the rise of Off-Off-Broadway were Ellen Stewart at La MaMa, and Al Carmines at the Judson Poets' Theater, located at Judson Memorial Church.

The term "Indie Theater" was coined by Kirk Wood Bromley in his acceptance speech at the 2005 New York Innovative Theatre Awards. There is currently a movement to rebrand Off-Off-Broadway as "Indie Theatre". The New York Innovative Theatre Awards (the IT Awards) are given annually to honor artistic excellence in the Off-Off-Broadway theatre.

An Off-Off-Broadway production that features members of Actors Equity is called an Equity Showcase production. The Union maintains very strict rules about working in such productions, including restrictions on price, the length of the run and rehearsal times. Professional actors' participation in showcase productions is not infrequent, and in fact comprises the bulk of stage work for the majority of New York actors.

Some professional theatre companies, such as the Two River Theater Company in Red Bank, New Jersey, consider themselves to be "Off-Off-Broadway," despite the fact they are not housed within New York.

[edit] Notable Off-Off-Broadway theatre companies and venues

[edit] See also

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