Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre

The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre began as an experiment in community-based art on the Lower East Side. Philanthropists Alice and Irene Lewisohn founded the original Neighborhood Playhouse in 1915 as part of the Henry Street Settlement, with the goal of bringing high-quality theater and dance to the immigrant families living nearby. The sisters personally financed the venture for over a decade, producing ambitious, avant-garde works that eventually helped define the Off-Broadway movement.