Soho Repertory Theatre

Soho Rep. was founded by Jerry Engelbach and Marlene Swartz in 1975. They were both former members of Classic Stage Company. In June 1975 they began remodeling a textiles factory in the SoHo district of Manhattan, and on September 25, 1975 they opened their doors with a production of Maxwell Anderson's Key Largo. Their first theater was located at 19 Mercer Street, between Grand Street and Canal Street, only two blocks away from the space Soho Rep. occupies now on Walker Street. The new repertory theater was designed to run multiple productions from one night to the next. They expected to produce both rarely seen classic plays, and works by Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Molière, Jean Anouilh, Michel de Ghelderode, Eugene O'Neill and Samuel Beckett.[11] Engelbach and Swartz said that they wanted the space to feel, “light and informal. We want the audience to feel the space itself is comfortable and interesting and to do productions in a way which prove to be the most theatrical and immediate for them.”[17] By 1979 the theater was consistently running two shows in repertory, even allowing audiences to see both plays in succession on Saturday nights.[3]

Sarah Benson is a British theater director based in New York City. She became Artistic Director of Soho Repertory Theater, Inc in 2007.[18] She is the fourth artistic director at Soho Rep.[19]

A graduate of King's College London, she first came to the U.S. on a Fulbright award for theater direction to study at Brooklyn College, where she earned her MFA.[19]

At Soho Rep. she directed the production of Sarah Kane’s Blasted[20] for which she received an OBIE award,[21] Gregory S. Moss' Orange Hat and Grace,[22] David Adjmi's Elective Affinities in a site-specific production,[23] Lucas Hnath’s A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney,[24] and An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins which one an Obie for Best New American Play and was transferred to Theatre for a New Audience for an extended run.[25] She has also directed new works by artists including Polly Stenham,[26] and the Brooklyn-based indie-rock band The Lisps.

She has commissioned and produced new works by Nature Theater of Oklahoma,[27] John Jesurun,[28] Young Jean Lee,[29] Annie Baker,[30] debbie tucker green,[31] Cynthia Hopkins,[32] and Daniel Alexander Jones.[33] This work has been honored with 10 OBIE awards.[21]

• Marlene Swartz (1975–1995) - Co-Artistic Director[3]
• Jerry Engelbach (1975–1989) - Co-Artistic Director[3]
• Julian Webber (1990–1998) - Co-Artistic Director[34]
• Daniel Aukin (1998–2006) - Artistic Director[35][36]
• Sarah Benson (2007–Present) - Artistic Director[12][37]

• Artistic Director – Sarah Benson
• Executive Director – Cynthia Flowers
• Producer – Meropi Peponides
• Marketing Manager– Sam Horvath

Soho Rep.'s first home was a converted textile warehouse in the SoHo district of New York City. The theater was 22’5” x 91’, and was designed to have audiences on three sides of the stage, with two doors on the upstage wall that led back to dressing rooms. Along the backstage wall there was a balcony which was often used as a playing area. The house held 100 audience members. The founders, Engelbach and Swartz, referred to the space as "a practical adaptation of the Shakespearean playhouse laid out in a modest modern space.” The company took over the ground floor space in June 1975, and began occupancy in July of the same year.[3]

In April 1984, after almost ten years of residency in their Mercer Street location, Soho Rep. was given 90 days[38] to clear out of their space. Bob Moss, founder of Playwrights Horizons, along with the Mayor's office and the office of the Manhattan Borough President,[39][40] assisted in finding them a new, temporary, home. The new theater was a 100-seat neo-Classical[41] auditorium located at Bellevue Hospital in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan on 29th Street and First Avenue. Though it was a part of the hospital, it did have a separate entrance.[42] Despite it technically being separate, playwright Mac Wellman remembers, "I wrote a play called Energumen, produced by Soho Rep in their one season at Bellevue. (Yes, the hospital.) To make a cross backstage, one had to take the main corridor of the psychiatric ward. Once, our actors (costumed as Santas and a Master of Many Perfections) took the elevator from their dressing room and found themselves accompanied by two policemen and a prisoner in chains. Never could figure out that damn play."[43]

After less than a year at Bellevue Hospital, due to "city bureaucracy"[39] Soho Rep. was forced to leave the hospital auditorium and once again look for a new home. In 1986 they landed at Greenwich House.[44] There they set up residency alongside other downtown theater companies.[45]

Located at 46 Walker Street, Walkerspace was officially moved into in 1991.[46] Feeling the need to no longer share a space, then Artistic Directors Swartz and Webber, moved the company to their present-day location, only two blocks away from where Swartz and Engelbach founded the company. The theatre has a 73-seat house.[47]

After 25 years, Soho Rep left the Walkerspace in September 2016, after discovering that it had been unknowingly violating zoning restrictions on the use of the building, and could not afford the alterations which would be needed to keep performing there. The company produced its shows other venues throughout Manhattan, until the city's Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Julie Menin, persuaded Rick Chandler, the Building Commissioner, to intervene. The result was that the company will have to do some alterations, such as improving the sprinkler system, but should be able to return to the space in Spring 2018. Soho Rep is attempting to raise $500,000 for the capital repairs, expenses already incurred, and to offset their revenue loss from the 2016-17 season. The artistic director, Sarah Benson, said that the company expects to remain in the Walkerspace until 2022, when its lease is expected to run out.[5]