This just in from E.C. reader/commenter/prize-winner Robin Rothstein who sits on the Steering Committee for the Community Forum on the Ohio Theatre. The loss of the Ohio would be a loss of a piece of NYC theatre history, not to mention just one more casualty in a long and ever-expanding list of closings of small venues friendly to experimentation and risk-taking.
Here's a bit about the Community Forum scheduled for Monday night, April 26th at the Ohio. If you can make it, please do and report back to us here at E.C. about what transpired. We all have a vested interest here, folks.
The League of Independent Theater and the Innovative Theatre Foundation will co-sponsor The Community Forum on the Ohio Theatre. The event will begin at 6:30pm at the Ohio Theatre located at 66 Wooster Street in Soho, NY. After two years of negotiation, two lease extensions, and a 29-year history as an indispensable pillar of the downtown theatre scene, the Ohio Theatre must close the doors at its Wooster Street space forever on August 31, 2010.
The April 26th event will reunite local elected officials and members of the independent theatre community in an open forum to discuss solutions to the real estate crises affecting small theaters and the progress and momentum that has been made over the past year - specifically with regard to the tax abatement proposal currently before the Community Boards. In addition, there will be a discussion as to what steps can be taken to secure the remaining venues within the sector and help locate a new home for the Ohio Theatre.
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