Off-Broadway’s 62-seat Playroom Theater, located at 151 West 46th Street, closed its doors permanently June 30 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The creation of theatre producer Eric Krebs, the venue opened in September 2011 and has since hosted hundreds of showcase productions, auditions, new musical readings, and for five years the resident theatre company The Tank. Most recently, the theatre presented the Off-Broadway premiere of William Mastrosimone's Rules of Desire, which played its final performance March 7.
"This truly was my playroom for nearly ten years," Krebs said in a statement. "Little theatres are important engines that are the heart of performance for emerging artists in New York City. The loss of the Playroom will be a loss to this important part of the theatre community. Unfortunately, with theatres closed for most of the year, and the impossibly high rents for space, the Playroom had come to its end."
The Playroom, whose tagline was "Caution, Artists at Work,” was also the home of the Science Theater Company, which presented over 500 performances of the Drama Desk-winning That Physics Show and over 300 performances of That Chemistry Show.
