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Bastiano's Cellar Studio1 Waverly Pl, New York, NY 1001440.729610-73.9932600
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Bouwerie Lane Theater330 Bowery, New York, NY 1001240.725900-73.9923501
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Bridge Theatre4 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 1000340.729120-73.9896402
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Café La MaMa (original location)321 E 9th St, New York, NY 1000340.728900-73.9860503
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Café La MaMa (second location)82 2nd Ave, New York, NY 1000340.726470-73.9889004
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Café La MaMa (third location)122 2nd Ave, New York, NY 1000340.728070-73.9876005
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Caffe Cino31 Cornelia St, New York, NY 1001440.731410-74.0025606
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Carnegie Recital Hall881 7th Ave, New York, NY 1001940.764930-73.9798907
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Charles Theater193 Avenue B, New York, NY 1000940.728050-73.9789908
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Club 8282 E 4th St, New York, NY 1000340.726320-73.9897809
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Coda Gallery89 E 10th St, New York, NY 1000340.730940-73.98960010
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Continental Baths230 W 74th St, New York, NY 1002340.780310-73.98218011
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Electric Circus23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 1000340.729190-73.98853012
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Fillmore East105 2nd Ave, New York, NY 1000340.727690-73.98872013
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Jack Smith's loftCanal St & Greene St, New York, NY 1001340.720390-74.00326014
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Judson Gallery239 Thompson St, New York, NY 1001240.729970-73.99852015
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Judson Memorial Church55 Washington Square S, New York, NY 1001240.730220-73.99844016
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La MaMa (final location)74 E 4th St, New York, NY 1000340.726280-73.99021017
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La MaMa (temporary location)9 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 1000340.729420-73.98913018
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Max's Kansas City213 Park Ave S, New York, NY 1000340.736870-73.98831019
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Mercer Arts Center240 Mercer St, New York, NY 1001240.727900-73.99549020
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New York Poets Theatre84 E 10th St, New York, NY 1000340.730860-73.98993021
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New York Theater Ensemble62 E 4th St, New York, NY 1000340.726450-73.99073022
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OK Harris Gallery465 W Broadway, New York, NY 1001240.726360-74.00003023
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Play-House of the Ridiculous12 W 17th St, New York, NY 1001140.738120-73.99324024
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Project of Living Artists729 Broadway, New York, NY 1000340.729860-73.99338025
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The CheetahBroadway & West 53rd Street, New York, NY 1001940.763380-73.98288026
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The Living Theatre / John Cage and Merce Cunningham's studio530 6th Ave, New York, NY 1001140.737440-73.99644027
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Tompkins Square ParkE 10th St, New York, NY 1000940.726420-73.98178028
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Videofreex's loft94 Prince St, New York, NY 1001240.724550-73.99881029
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Yoko Ono's Chambers Street Loft112 Chambers St, New York, NY 1000740.714990-74.00833030
Bastiano's Cellar Studio
1 Waverly Pl, New York, NY 10014
The first production of the Jackie Curtis-penned Glamor, Glory and Gold, directed by Ron Link, was performed at Bastiano’s Cellar Studio in Greenwich Village.
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Bouwerie Lane Theater
330 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
This Off-Off-Broadway theater, where Cockette Pam Tent performed with others in The Palm Casino Revue, was located in a nineteenth century cast-iron building, a stone’s throw from CBGB.
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Bridge Theatre
4 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
The Bridge Theatre was above the Café Au Go Go on Bleecker Street, which benefited from the abundant Greenwich Village foot traffic—especially when the Fugs performed there during their residency.
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Café La MaMa (original location)
321 E 9th St, New York, NY 10003
Café La MaMa’s first location was in a basement on East Ninth Street, right next door to the Harris family’s longtime residence, and after it moved to Second Avenue, Ellen Stewart kept this space as a rehearsal studio.
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Café La MaMa (second location)
82 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
After the first Café La MaMa location was shut down by the city, Ellen Stewart moved it to a loft at 82 Second Avenue, which was quickly vacated after Ellen Stewart was tipped off that the police were going to raid it one night.
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Café La MaMa (third location)
122 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
Right after a performance of Paul Foster’s Balls at Café La MaMa’s second location, Ellen Stewart enlisted the audience to move the entire set, seats, and other items to a new location up the street, at 122 Second Avenue—just before the police raided the 82 Second Avenue location.
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Caffe Cino
31 Cornelia St, New York, NY 10014
Arguably the first Off-Off-Broadway theater venue, Caffe Cino was located on Cornelia—a quiet one-block-long street that terminates to the north at West Fourth Street that hosted many an experimental theater production and performance.
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Carnegie Recital Hall
881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
This classy midtown venue sometimes hosted more experimental fare by the likes of Yoko Ono, Harry Koutoukas, and John Cage.
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Charles Theater
193 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009
Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg first met in 1962 outside the Charles Theatre on Avenue B, where Jonas Mekas screened underground films and Kupferberg was selling copies of his magazine Birth to the audience.
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Club 82
82 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003
During the early 1950s and 1960s, when it was known as the 82 Club, this Lower East Side venue had been one of the premier venues for drag queens, though by the early 1970s it had rechristened itself Club 82 and operated as afterhours disco and underground rock club.
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Coda Gallery
89 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003
The Coda Gallery, a little gallery on 89 East Tenth Street, staged Ronald Tavel’s one-acts The Life of Juanita Castro and Shower after the playwright founded the Play-House of the Ridiculous with John Vaccaro.
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Continental Baths
230 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023
The Continental Baths, located on the Upper West Side, was a gay bathhouse where the New York Dolls once played and Bette Midler regularly performed with Barry Manilow (who sometimes blended in with the patrons by wearing nothing but a white towel).
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Electric Circus
23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
The Electric Circus—located in the space on St. Mark’s Place that was formerly known as the Dom, where the Velvet Underground had a residency—featured acrobats, go-go dancer, and even John Cage onstage playing an experimental-acoustic game of chess.
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Fillmore East
105 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
Two blocks south of St. Mark’s Place, on Second Avenue and Sixth Street, was the Fillmore East—which for a brief period between 1968 and 1971 hosted the downtown sounds of the Fugs and Silver Apples, along with touring acts like the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.
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Jack Smith's loft
Canal St & Greene St, New York, NY 10013
Jack Smith lived in what would later become known as SoHo, back when the rents were low and the city had not yet been ruined by what Smith called “landlordism.”
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Judson Gallery
239 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012
In 1959, the Judson Gallery was founded in the church’s basement at 239 Thompson Street, which displayed work by Pop and conceptual artists Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, Claes Oldenburg, and Red Grooms—and was home to several Happenings.
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Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square S, New York, NY 10012
Judson Memorial Church, on the south side of Washington Square, mixed radical art, politics, and performance by hosting experimental music composer and theorist John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham, painter Robert Rauschenberg, and so many others.
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La MaMa (final location)
74 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003
After being run out of a variety of downtown locations by city authorities, Ellen Stewart opened the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at 74A East Fourth—in a building that was the former site of a hotdog factory.
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La MaMa (temporary location)
9 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
As Ellen Stewart worked on setting up La MaMa’s permanent home at 74 East Fourth Street, her theater continued staging shows in a temporary space at 9 St. Mark’s Place from 1968 to early 1969.
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Max's Kansas City
213 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10003
Across Union Square Park from the second Factory location was a restaurant and bar named Max’s Kansas City, one of Andy Warhol’s regular haunts even before the move.
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Mercer Arts Center
240 Mercer St, New York, NY 10012
Before the Mercer Arts Center collapsed in 1973, it was where underground theater, glam rock, video art, and performance art briefly intersected in the early 1970s—planting the seeds of what would become known as “punk.”
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New York Poets Theatre
84 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003
New York Poets Theatre was founded by dancers James Waring and Freddie Herko, along with poets LeRoi Jones, Diane di Prima, and her then-husband, Alan Marlowe—based in the Bowery Theatre on East Tenth Street, near Third Avenue.
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New York Theater Ensemble
62 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003
Located at 62 East Fourth Street, the New York Theater Ensemble was the staging ground for many an outrageous production, including the Wayne County-penned play World: Birth of a Nation.
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OK Harris Gallery
465 W Broadway, New York, NY 10012
Early SoHo gallery OK Harris was owned by Ivan Karp, who had earlier played a key role in promoting Pop Art; in 1970, Karp agreed to let Suicide play one of their first show as a group, which was promoted as “Punk Music by Suicide.”
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Play-House of the Ridiculous
12 W 17th St, New York, NY 10011
Between the Play-House of the Ridiculous company’s debut at the Coda Gallery and landing a home at La MaMa, John Vaccaro’s troupe staged shows in this loft on West Seventeenth Street.
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Project of Living Artists
729 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
The Project of Living Artists, where Suicide’s Alan Vega worked in the late 1960s, was a collaborative space funded for a short time by the New York State Council on the Arts.
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The Cheetah
Broadway & West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
The Cheetah was a Midtown discothèque that also hosted a production of Hair before it opened on Broadway in the spring of 1968.
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The Living Theatre / John Cage and Merce Cunningham's studio
530 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011
The Living Theatre was housed in an old four-story department store building on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fourteenth Street; John Cage and Merce Cunningham rented a studio on the third floor of the Living Theatre, which accelerated the cross-fertilization of scenes.
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Tompkins Square Park
E 10th St, New York, NY 10009
Tompkins Square Park hosted its fair share of unrest, but it was also a place for neighborhood families. During the day, kids played on swings while adults read on benches, all while the sounds of an outdoor concert or protest rally reverberated in the background (it was at Tompkins Square where the New York chapter of the radical Young Lords Organization announced itself to the world on July 26, 1969).
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Videofreex's loft
94 Prince St, New York, NY 10012
After CBS hired the Videofreex to produce a pilot for an experimental television show, Subject to Change, they rented a SoHo loft above Fanelli’s and the Paula Cooper Gallery where they built a video production studio.
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Yoko Ono's Chambers Street Loft
112 Chambers St, New York, NY 10007
Downtown Manhattan’s first loft events were presented by Yoko Ono at her Chambers Street Loft Series, in what is now called TriBeCa (the triangle below Canal Street).
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