By: Brady Cheng

Nonprofit theater company Soho Rep is leaving its longtime home and will now share space with Playwrights Horizons in Midtown while they figure out a new plan.

Another nonprofit theater company, Second Stage Theater, is also leaving and moving with Signature Theater. This follows a 2022 decision by Long Wharf Theater, in New Haven, Conn. to become itinerant and move with different companies. Soho Rep is moving out of their current location because the rent is increasing a lot, the building needs repairs, and they can’t make enough money because the space is too small. Now it is paired with Playwrights Horizons.

“If you look at the field-wide vulnerability, partnerships are a result of that,” said Eric Ting, one of Soho Rep’s three directors. “We look to each other for support and for strength.”

Soho Rep was established in 1975, and it is small. Its current annual budget is $2.8 billion, and it has only had 5 full-time employees since 1991. Soho Prep was the first to stage “Fairview” which won the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 2019 and “Public Obscenities”.

Soho Prep also plans to stage one final show at its current home, “Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!”. It is directed by Ting, who shares leadership of Soho Rep with Cynthia Flowers and Caleb Hammons.

“It shouldn’t be news to anyone that nonprofit theaters are struggling acutely, and the costs of maintaining a theater company, even at a significantly reduced scale, are skyrocketing,” said Adam Greenfield, the artistic director of Playwrights Horizons. “New approaches to how theaters work have become a mandate.”

Soho Prep’s new location will be fascinating and many people can’t wait to see more theater work!

Image Credit by Monica Silvestre