Baryshnikov Arts Center

The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is a foundation and arts complex opened by Mikhail Baryshnikov in 2005 at 450 West 37th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The top three floors of the complex are occupied by the Baryshnikov Arts Center, which provides space and production facilities for dance, music, theater, film, design and visual arts. The building also houses the Orchestra of St. Luke's DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

History

The building is a 50,000 square foot complex which includes three theatre spaces. Ground was broken on the complex, then known as 37 Arts Theatre, as a commercial venture in July 2001. Construction was halted for a while but resumed after September 2001. The first artist in residence with the BAC was Aszure Barton in May 2005, and the administrative offices opened in November 2005. The 37 Arts Theatre was launched in 2005 with the Off-Broadway revival of Hurlyburly starring Ethan Hawke and Parker Posey, followed by In The Heights and Fela!, prior to their successful Broadway runs. Since then, the complex has presented artists including Laurie Anderson, Tere O’Connor, Molly Davies, William Forsythe, Lucy Guerin, Foofwa d’Imobilité, Toni Morrison, Benjamin Millepied, Richard Move, Maria Pagès, Mal Pelo, Lou Reed, Pierre Rigal, Meg Stuart and Donna Uchizono. The Wooster Group is the BAC's resident theatre company.

Arts Theatre

The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.

History

It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's office. It was one of a small number of committed, independent theatre companies, including the Hampstead Everyman, the Gate Theatre Studio and the Q Theatre, which took risks by producing a diverse range of new and experimental plays, or plays that were thought to be commercially non-viable on the West End. The theatrical producer Norman Marshall referred to these as ‘The Other Theatre’ in his 1947 book of the same name.

The theatre opened with a revue by Herbert Farjeon entitled Picnic, produced by Harold Scott and with music by Beverley Nichols. Its first important production was Young Woodley by John Van Druten, staged in 1928, which later transferred to the Savoy Theatre when the Lord Chamberlain's ban was lifted. In 1938 a four-week revival of the Stokes brothers' Oscar Wilde, starring Francis L. Sullivan and produced by Ronald Adam, opened on 25 October. This coincided with a Broadway production of the play. In 1942 Alec Clunes and John Hanau took over the running of the theatre and for ten years produced a wide range of plays, winning a reputation as a 'pocket national theatre'. In 1946 Clunes teamed with author Peter Elstob to raise £20,000, which eventually put the theatre on a sound financial footing.