The SoHo Playhouse is an

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

theatre at 15 Vandam Street in the

Hudson Square Hudson Square is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by Clarkson Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, Varick Street to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. To the north of the neig ...

area of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The theatre opened in 1962 as the Village South Theatre with the original production of

Jean Erdman Jean Erdman (February 20, 1916 – May 4, 2020) was an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director. Biography Early years and background Erdman was born in Honolulu. Erdman's father, John Piney ...

's musical play ''The Coach with the Six Insides'' which was based upon

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

's last novel ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...

''. The following year

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...

used profits from ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive ...

'' to establish the Playwrights' Unit at the Village South Theatre; an organization which provided a platform for untested new playwrights to premiere their works. The theatre closed in 1970, with its last production being

Michael Preston Barr Michael Barr (January 2, 1927 in Indiana – May 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California), was an American composer of traditional pop and showtunes, who in collaboration with lyricist Dion McGregor, wrote "Try Your Wings" for cabaret singer/pian ...

and Dion McGregor's musical ''Who's Happy Now?''. It did still house plays for various off-Broadway productions under the simple name of 15 Van Dam. The theatre was home to the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts from 1970 until 1974. It reopened in as the SoHo Playhouse in 1994 with a production of the play ''Grandma Sylvia's Funeral'', which ran for four years. It has since served as an Off-Broadway

receiving house A receiving house (sometimes called a roadhouse) is a theatre which does not produce its own repertoire but instead receives touring theatre companies, usually for a brief period such as three nights or a full week. The incoming company may receive ...

References

Off-Broadway theaters 1962 establishments in New York City Theatres completed in 1962 1970 disestablishments in New York (state) 1994 establishments in New York City Hudson Square {{US-theat-struct-stub