It's a common saying that theatre is a type of church—with audiences gathering together to commune with live art. But Tony Award-winning Off-Broadway theatre company The New Group is taking that literally. After decades of being itinerant, and moving from theatre to theatre, the New Group will finally have a permanent home, at the theatre located within St Clement's Episcopal Church at 423 West 46th St.

Since 1962, St. Clement's has held church service as well as theatre performances, hosting a wide array of small theatre companies under its wooden roof—it sometimes even hosted church service on a theatre set. And now that legacy will continue with its newest tenant: The New Group, who is in discussions for a long-term lease with the church. They also plan to renovate the space.

"It was almost like the sky opened up," marveled New Group founding Artistic Director Scott Elliott, standing in the church's entryway, as he was giving a tour of his company's new home. "It feels really lovely to be in a growth phase. The pandemic stopped all growth phases. It was all about survival. And now it feels like growth again."

Elliott founded New Group 30 years ago, and having their own theatre hadn't previously been a priority; for the past decade, they had primarily been producing out of Signature Theatre's Pershing Square Signature Center. "It was a choice of mine in the old days where I was like, 'There's plenty of spaces. We don't need to have more.'" But that mindset has changed in recent years, as he's thought about what would happen to his company when he retired. "I realized that the legacy of the New Group could go on after I'm dead. And the way that is going to happen is by the New Group having a home and its own destination ... Its ability to make art won't die if I die and that this place will live on."

Despite The New Group not having its own space, unlike companies of its caliber such as Playwrights Horizons or the Signature Theatre, it hasn't stopped the theatre from punching above its weight. Founded on a mission to develop and produce powerful, contemporary theatre, The New Group co-produced the world premiere of Avenue Q (which won the Tony Award for Best Musical when it transferred to Broadway). Its production history includes a reimagined Sweet Charity starring Sutton Foster, Calista Flockhart in Curse of the Starving Class, and a Cyrano musical starring Peter Dinklage that later became a feature film.

And the company is planning on hitting the ground running in its new home; it'll start producing shows there in the new year. "This is a fully functioning theatre so we can come in and we can do shows here right away. But we have some grand plans for renovations," says Executive Director Adam Bernstein.

The plans include adding an elevator to take patrons from the lobby up to the theatre (which currently requires a flight up a grand wooden staircase). It includes changing the 160-seat proscenium theatre into a flexible space, able to accommodate different types of seating configurations of up to 300 people. The entryway, which currently houses a ticket booth and office space, will be turned into a lobby and bar. Behind the scenes, the company plans to install air conditioning, turn a portion of the church basement into a rehearsal room and a blackbox theatre, improve the restrooms, and transform the upstairs storage rooms into office space. So for the first time in its history, the New Group will be able to manage, rehearse, and perform in the same space. 

But some things will stay the same. The church currently runs a food pantry, which will continue. And there's a chapel on the same floor of the theatre, which Elliott plans on keeping—though he hopes that audience members will feel comfortable congregating in that space in front of its massive stained glass windows before or after shows, even if they're not talking about religion. "The character of the space, the history of the space, all of it—it becomes part of everything that we do. It's almost like another character in a show, so we're leaning into that," notes Bernstein.

And Elliott hopes that St. Clements—with its 50-year-old stained-glass windows, creaky steps, and working organ—will bring back some of that scrappy, off-kilter energy that used to characterize Off-Broadway. To him, that part of New York theatre has become overly glossy (and expensive) over the years. "As everything changed and society changed, people's expectations changed, we all changed with it. But I don't think that it's sustainable in Off-Broadway," notes Elliott. "I think Off-Broadway needs to be Off-Broadway. It can't be aspired to be Broadway. And we're guilty of it. Pre-pandemic, we were on that train. But now, I think the way to do it, and the way to sustain Off-Broadway ... is to remember what Off-Broadway really was about. It isn't Broadway. Off-Broadway shows should not cost $2 million, it just shouldn't. It's not economically viable. So we're setting out to try to, in our own way (we're not saying anybody else should do it) but we're resetting it within our own selves."

Adds Bernstein: "We're going to return more to our roots, which is artist-driven ensemble plays. So the resources are going to be spent on the people doing the shows, and not fancy scenery." 

Though that doesn't mean the ambition of the work will lessen. There will still be musicals, along with experimental new plays. Plus, there's plenty of plays and musicals set in a church. Jokes Elliott, "Maybe we'll do Godspell!"