MANHATTAN — After providing a stage for more than 1,000 productions over 10 years, the Manhattan Theatre Source will close in January due to financial problems, the Greenwich Village group announced Monday.
“Despite efforts to save it, we have finally reached a point where we can no longer sustain the running of our space at 177 MacDougal St.,” MTS board member Doug Silver said in a statement.
“Our deficits have grown too high, and the terrible economy has badly hurt small theater companies in New York," Silver said. "These harsh realities have left us no choice but [to] leave our space.”
Despite the announced closure, Manhattan Theatre Source will continue as a producing entity and seek "new opportunities in new venues," the group's statement said.
The Source's Writers' Forum and EstroGenius Festival will continue in 2012.
The nonprofit, off-off-Broadway theater was founded in 2000 to "provide a one-stop shop resource center or independent theatre artists and audiences across the nation," according to its website.
Kevin Cunningham, artistic executive director of the Downtown theater 3-Legged Dog, told Crain's New York Business that the closure fits into a larger pattern citywide.
“Over the last few years, we know of at least 45 theater spaces that have been closed or re-purposed for non-art purposes,” he said. “New York's reputation as an international leader in the arts is dwindling.”
