OUR History
Soho Playhouse pays respect to the Lenape land on which it is situated as well as to the Munsee Lenape people past, present and future. Housed in Lenapehoking, on the Lenape island of Mannahatta (now referred to as New York City), Soho Playhouse acknowledges with care and gratitude the original people of this land and is committed to working against systems of oppression and programming work in such a way as to break down colonial structures that will pave the way for a more balanced society free from injustice and oppression.
1767: Richmond Hill Mansion was built on a 400 foot hill overlooking the Hudson.
1776: George Washington used the mansion as his headquarters during the Revolutionary War.
1785-1790: New York City briefly became the US capital and Richmond Hill was used as the Vice Presidential mansion, housing John Adams.
1790: Aaron Burr bought the mansion as his private home and became well known for his lavish parties.
1804: Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and fled New York. He sold the estate to John Jacob Astor. Astor began plans to redevelop the estate into different buildings.
1826: The building at 15 Vandam, which would later become the playhouse, was built.
1880: 15 Vandam Street was bought by Tammany Hall Democrats as their social headquarters.
1900: The Huron Club was created as a Tammany Hall social club.
1921: Elisabeth Irwin, radical education activist and out lesbian, founded the Little Red Schoolhouse a few blocks away. The school is still active today and was one of the first progressive schools in New York City.
1942: 15 Vandam became a restaurant, and the exterior of the building looks like it does today, but with menus instead of theatre posters!
1961: The restaurant was converted into a theater.
1962: Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf opened on Broadway. Using the profits from that hit, he and producers Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder set out to create a space to develop new plays downtown.
1963: Albee, Barr, and Clinton opened The Playwrights Unit Workshop at 15 Vandam Street. Unlike other development workshops, Albee, Barr and Clinton believed in a trail-by-fire approach: testing new plays by full productions in the public view. The Playwrights Unit Workshop launched some of the most successful playwrights of the time: Terrance McNally, Sam Shepard, and Adrienne Kennedy among others.
1964: The Dutchman was first produced at the Playwrights Unit Workshop - the last play Amiri Baraka published under his birth name: LeRoi Jones. The play is an intense political allegory for race in America, involving a heightened encounter in the NYC subway. Baraka wrote this play as he embraced the Black Nationalist and Black Arts Movement, cemented for him by the 1965 murder of Malcom X.
1968: Mart Crowley’s The Boys In The Band premiered at Playwright’s Unit Workshop. This play about a group of Queer friends at a birthday party portrayed an unflinching and honest look at gay life when homosexuality was still illegal in most US States. During its original run, the 1969 Stonewall Riots broke out in New York, starting the Gay Liberation Movement.
1970: The Playwright’s Unit Workshop leaves 15 Vandam.
1975: The Film Forum, which began in an Upper West Side loft with 50 folding chairs and one projector, moved downtown to 15 Vandam Street. Director Karen Cooper lamented that “we were on Vandam Street in a tiny, ugly space for five years,” but the Film Forum found their footing in Soho. The Village was a safe haven for the small independent theater. The Forum’s mission was to expand the world of what audiences would pay to see, and show as diverse an array of work as possible.
1980: The Film Forum moves to Watts Street and in 1990 to its current home on Houston Street. Today, the Film Forum is the last autonomous non-profit cinema in NYC.
1984: The Thalia, one of New York’s most iconic independent cinemas which opened in 1931, moved downtown with producer Richard Schwartz. The main location of The Thalia closed in 1987, but the Soho location lasted until 1990.
1992: Jackie Raynal, former owner of Bleecker Street Cinema, converted the building into Le Cinematheque. The theater only specialized in obscure film noirs and closed in 1993.
1994: The Vandam Theater presented Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral, a Jewish comedy about death, family conflict, and remembrance.
1998: Killer Joe, a dark crime comedy play that interwines class and family dynamics, was revived off-Broadway at the Vandam Theater. It starred Scott Glenn, Amanda Plummer, and Michael Shannon. Future artistic director Darren Lee Cole started his career at SoHo Playhouse as the producer of Killer Joe.
2004: Darren Lee Cole came in as the artistic director of SoHo Playhouse. His first show in this role was Uncle Jacques Symphony, a one-man show about the transcendent power of the music found in everyday life.
2007: The International Fringe Encore Series began! The International Fringe Encore Series provides opportunities to emerging artists who show exceptional talent at each season’s Fringe Festivals. In recognition of their excellence, SoHo Playhouse offers these special shows an extended run Off–Broadway.
Present: Thousands of artists and shows that you know and love have graced our stages. We pride ourselves on supporting and showcasing work that changes minds, encourages discussion, and opens hearts. Our mission is to create and showcase groundbreaking new theater from diverse voices and artists from across the globe.Iconic Off-Broadway theatre for local and international artists to share their messages with the world. Working on a symbiosis between stage and digital to keep Off-Broadway alive.
Citations
“BACK PAGE.” Film Comment, vol. 12, no. 3, 1976, pp. 64–64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43757976. Accessed 16 June 2025.
Berman, Andrew. “From George Washington to Hudson Square: The History of the Charlton-King-VanDam Neighborhood.” 6sqft New York City, 16 Aug. 2018.
“Bleecker Street Cinema Closed.” Off the Grid, The Village Preservation Society , 6 Sept. 2013.
Crespy, David. “Albardwild’s Nexus of New Play Development: The Playwright’s Unit, 1963-1971.” The City University of New York, 1998.
“Film Forum · General Information.” Film Forum, filmforum.org/about/general-information. Accessed 16 June 2025
Landmarks Preservation Commission August 16; 1966, Number 1 LP-0224
Lefkowitz, David. “Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral Plays 1000th Perf July 16.” Playbill, 16 July, 1997.
McFadden, Robert. “The Thalia, Offbeat Home of Classic Movies, Is Closed.” The New York Times, 11 May 1987, p. 3.
McGrath, Sean. “Off-Broadway’s Killer Joe to Close June 13.” Playbill, 3 June, 1999.
Morrick, Clive. “The Lost Cinemas of the West Village: It’s A Wrap (Part Two).” West View News, 1 Aug. 2015.
Naron, Josie. “Village Preservation Oral History Project: Interview with Karen Cooper.” 7 Oct. 2024.
Pasolli, Robert. “The New Playwrights’ Scene of the Sixties: Jerome Max Is Alive and Well and Living in Rome.” The Drama Review, vol. 13, 1968.
Roberts, Terri. “ Uncle Jacques’ Symphony.” Variety, 18 Jan. 2000.
“Soho Playhouse.” Cinema Treasures, cinematreasures.org/theaters/8373. Accessed 16 June 2025
Stephens, Lannyl. “Edward Albee: Icon of American Theatre.” Off the Grid, The Village Preservation Society Blog, 22 Sept. 2016.
Stephens, Lannyl. “Greenwich Village: Birthplace of Modern American Drama Part 4 in a Series.” Off The Grid, Village Preservation Society Blog, 19 Aug. 2016
Thomas, Lorenzo. “Dutchman by Amiri Baraka: EBSCO.” EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.Ebsco.Com, 2023.