Theater For the New City

Theater for the New City occupies a building with a history as a neighborhood anchor. Before it became a hub for experimental theater, the structure at 155 First Avenue was built in 1938 as the First Avenue Retail Market. This was part of a major initiative by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to move street-side pushcart peddlers into clean, indoor facilities to organize the chaotic commerce of immigrant neighborhoods. When the market closed in 1965, the building served as a storage facility for the Department of Sanitation before the theater company acquired it in 1986. The transition from a space where residents once shopped for daily essentials to a place where they now encounter radical, avant-garde performances reflects the changing identity of the East Village itself. The theater group renovated the space while keeping its sturdy, utilitarian character, eventually creating a four-theater complex that remains committed to its original grassroots mission.