ABSTRACT
T he first important theater within SoHo proper was thePerforming Garage at 33 Wooster Street. Thirty-six feet wide, perhaps 50 feet deep, and at least 20 feet high in its ground floor, with a large door fronting directly on the street, it was indeed a garage similar to other street-level garages in the neighborhood (some of which later became art galleries and restaurants) originally built to house large trucks. Shares in the co-op including the garage were purchased for $72,000 by a nonprofit entity called the Wooster Group, Inc., founded by Richard Schechner, an NYU professor who had recently come to New York University from Tulane in New Orleans, where he had edited the Tulane Drama Review (TDR) that, once in New York, became The Drama Review (likewise TDR to the cognoscenti). Having already covered alternative theater in his magazine, he recognized unique opportunities in building a performance venue within undefined space.
