FAB | 64 East 4th Street

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64 EAST 4th STREET

64 East 4th Street is featured on the ‘Red’ walking tour of New York because it was once the Labor Lyceum and the birthplace of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Currently it is home to Downtown Art and Choices Theater Project. The first floor theater and the fourth floor studio are renovated, but other space in the four story building is still in need of renovation. Downtown Art will be moving to 70 E. 4th Street; Teatro Círculo and the Instituto Arte Teatral Internacional will join Choices in 64 East 4th.

Since 1994, Teatro Círculo has produced and presented award-winning, Spanish-language theater to middle- and low-income Latino audiences in the tri-state area, touring nationally and abroad, serving 10,000 people per year. Teatro Circulo is a contributor to the worldwide revival of Golden Age 17th Century Spanish theater that was suppressed for centuries, and also produces contemporary works by Puerto Rican and other Latino artists. Teatro Circulo’s programs include school programs and master classes for emerging and professional artists. Teatro Circulo aims to preserve and promote Latino cultural heritage and promote cultural pluralism through the presentation of creative, inclusive and educational theater works. Teatro Círculo has a committed staff, and its board and advisory board includes community, business and political leaders, financial managers, academics and artists.

Upon completion of renovation, Teatro Circulo will quadruple its program capacity, and serve more than 30,000 people per year, thus serving a broader public and earning more income to more adequately pay current staff and add new staff. The cost of presenting our programs will be reduced dramatically as we will not have to pay for expensive rental venues. Teatro Círculo and its Latino partner, IATI, will symbolize the maturity of the Latino theater movement in that they will be the first Latino theaters to own their own facility in Manhattan.

Since 1968, IATI has produced and presented award-winning, Spanish-language theater to low-income, underserved Latino audiences in the tri-state area (including schools and libraries) and participating in international festivals. IATI’s repertoire contains work by a broad spectrum of Latin American artists with emphasis on works for children. Its programs include workshops in all art disciplines for all ages, and monthly readings of new works, with the intention or creating social impact by illuminating the human condition. IATI now serves 7,000 people per year and is managed by a committed, fulltime staff and volunteers.

IATI will also quadruple its program capacity, and serve more than 20,000 people per year, thus serving a broader public and earning more income to more adequately pay fulltime staff. The cost of presenting its programs will be reduced dramatically as IATI will not have to pay for expensive rental venues.

Since 1983, Choices Theater Project has produced and presented theater, dance, film, and music events in their East 4th Street location, as well as educational services for actors, writers, and directors—year-round classes in acting, writing, directing, yoga, martial arts, stage movement, dance, stage combat and short-term, and intensive workshops in a variety of stage and film arts. Choices’ programs provide interaction between film and theater arts for developing and producing new American plays and movies.

Choices is dedicated to the development and synergistic collaboration of emerging artists in both theater and film—culminating in the creation and presentation of important new theater and film productions. Choices strives to create a common artistic language and method of working that will give an identity to artists and their work, with the ultimate goal being a process that results in a deeply personal and meaningful creative experience for artists, and that their work will, in turn, draw upon the inherent power of theater and film to encourage audiences to look at themselves and the world from a new perspective.

With one fulltime and 7 part time staff, Choices attracts 2,500 theater- and movie-going audiences per year, especially those interested in independent movies and plays. In addition, Choices serves 400 students in various classes. Choices’ film and television productions have worldwide exposure and their plays are produced nationally and internationally, at times with their close production services cooperation. Choices’ board and advisory board includes theater professionals, educators, financial and legal advisors as well as several actors who are Academy Award recipients (Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, and Christopher Walken) and other renowned theater people.

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Fourth Arts Block
61 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003
Contact: Tamara Greenfield, Executive Director
(212) 228-4670