The Landmarks Preservation Commission Finally Explains Its Indifference to NYU's Raping of the Provincetown Playhouse

Some time ago I wrote to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, asking why it has expressed no interest, no concern and, I guess, no awareness of the impending rape and destruction of the Provincetown Playhouse by President John Sexton of New York University and his right-hand gal, the raging anti-preservationist Alicia Hurley. This is the response I received. The line about
"leaving no historic fabric extant associated with the building's use as the Provincetown Playhouse" is clearly a lie. So the question remains whether the members of the Commission have been bought off in some way by NYU.

It also makes wonder whether local preservationists, such as Andrew Berman at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, made the best case they could on this issue to other city agencies and elected officials.

Here's the letter in its entirety:

Mr. Jacobs,

In response to your inquiry concerning the Provincetown Playhouse & Apartments, please be advised that the property was not recommended to the full Commission for further consideration as an individual New York City Landmark due to its current condition and architectural integrity. Upon careful review by a senior staff committee of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the property was found to be too significantly altered leaving no historic fabric extant associated with the building's use as the Provincetown Playhouse.

Although we know this is not the response you wished to receive, we are sure you understand that in a city the size of New York, the committee must be extremely selective in the structures it proposes for landmark designation. We hope that your interest in the work of the Landmarks Preservation Commission continues.

Sincerely,

Emily Rich
Public Information Officer
Landmarks Preservation Commission
One Centre Street, 9th Floor North
New York, NY 10007
Ph: 212-669-7817
Fax: 212-669-3844

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The Death of the Provincetown Playhouse; or as John Sexton Says, "Gotcha, Suckers!"

UPDATE: If you want to do something immediately to help stop the destruction of the Provincetown Playhouse by New York University, please, please visit this link -- http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maillpc.html -- and fill out the form. Make it clear to the Landmarks Preservation Commission that if they refuse to act in any way at all, even to issue a statement, all members of the commission will be subject to ethical scrutiny by the preservation community and the citizenry of New York City as a whole.

Here's the link again: http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maillpc.html.

The New York Times today has coverage on the latest news and community action regarding the imminent death of the Provincetown Playhouse.

You can also read my comment, which is currently awaiting moderation, at the bottom of the article.

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Alicia Hurley, Complicit in NYU's Campaign of Lies and Deceit About the Provincetown Playhouse, Savaged Anew

I received the following, below, via email. Since it was written as a letter to New York magazine in response to the magazine's recent piece on the controversy surrounding the landmarking (or not landmarking) of NYU's I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers -- and the sense, however tenuous, that my alma mater might actually be realizing how much blood boiling and hatred they have generated in their surrounding community -- I felt it wouldn't be inappropriate to publish it, especially as I suspect top New York editor Adam Moss wouldn't let such a long piece see print.

Whatever else one might say or not say about the historian Gail Cohen, who wrote the letter, she does her research. Read the whole thing and you'll see why, among other things, NYU's Alicia Hurley is, in my view and in the view of most observers, a despicable and deceitful liar.

Of course, some of the blame this time around has to go to the members of Community Board 2, some of whom, I have heard it alleged, were bought off, literally or figuratively, by Alicia Hurley and her henchfolk at NYU. I do not know whether that is true or not, but they certainly seemed rather compliant at the community board meeting I attended.

Anyway, I left in the capitalized words for effect. The makers of Bayer aspirin can pay me later.

John Sexton, Alicia Hurley, Scott Stringer, the Villager, Community Board 2, and the Off-Broadway League are committing TREASON AGAINST GREENWICH VILLAGE, our THEATRE HERITAGE, and our AMERICAN HERITAGE by their Revised Plan to demolish most of the Provincetown Playhouse, and all of the historic buildings next to it that were the heart of bohemia in the teens and 1920's - in order to build new offices, and a Law Research Center on the site and property of the historic Provincetown Playhouse.

John Sexton has tried to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse for years. His first plan in the 1990's was to make it into classrooms. That plan was successfully fought, and assurances were given that it would not be destroyed. Then in April of 2008 NYU released their plan again to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse. There have since been two other plans. The Revised Plan by NYU just saves the current facade and some walls while destroying the rest of the building, and all of the other historic buildings next to it on MacDougal Street. They hired the architect 9 months before they released their plan in April to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse. They have not sought any alternatives of other properties to build their new Law Research Center on though their exists a multitude of choices to build or renovate on a different location.

Without telling anyone, NYU's School of Education that had control of the Provincetown Playhouse in 1997 destroyed the original historic stage and dome built by the Founder of the Provincetown Players that had been there all those years. People only recently found out about this, and Alicia Hurley only admitted it several weeks ago. She said they destroyed the original historic stage to put in air conditioning. So much for their Tribute to, and Honoring a Cultural Institution as stated in the NYU Revised Plan for the Provincetown Playhouse property.

NYU kept the Provincetown Playhouse dark for 6 years. The legendary African-American Director, Woodie King tried to have use of the Provincetown Playhouse after 1984 when the School of Law purchased it. He was denied putting on professional plays at the theatre. Then around 1994, James Houghton, Founder of Signature Theatre was about to sign a lease with John Sexton who was then Dean of the School of Law. At the last minute before the signing of the lease, John Sexton stopped all contact with Signature Theatre. They were told by others that NYU was going to sell the building or gut it back then. As far as I know the Tisch Graduate
Theatre Department has not had use of the Provincetown Playhouse. That has been NYU's response to those in Professional Theatre.

The Revised Plan is not per se about the Provincetown Playhouse. It is about one thing - building the NYU School of Law's Research Center. The politicians have all played along with this terrible deed. That little row of buildings that also house the Provincetown Playhouse is responsible for Greenwich Village BEING the Village. The reason why people initially flock to NYU with a sense of that important heritage. STOP NYU FROM DESTROYING THE HISTORIC PROVINCETOWN PLAYHOUSE which has been declared by the New York State Preservation Officer eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. This happen before Community Board 2 met, yet they stilled voted to go along with NYU's Revised Plan as did Scott Stringer. Everyone else spoke against the NYU Revised Plan.

I can tell you that this deed that NYU plans to carry out in the near future is a mistake on their part. HISTORY WILL HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE. NYU is not a neighbor at all. For months, Alicia Hurley continually stated that the entire building was gutted in 1940 when the facade was altered. This was totally untrue, and only admitted by NYU in recent weeks. A good neighbor does not lie. A good neighbor does not intentionally destroy the neighborhood, and certainly does not destroy as they already have an historic building such as the Provincetown Playhouse that was responsible for the rise of the American Theatre as we know it today. The Provincetown Players (1915 - 1929 the last from the original group) had as its members the entire Intellectual World of the teens and 1920's.

There is an entire African-American Heritage at the Provincetown Playhouse - from the first African-American in a major dramatic role (Charles Gilpin), to Paul Robeson, and the entire cast of major African-American actors of the period that acted in IN ABRAHAM'S BOSOM by Paul Green which in 1927 was awarded the Pulitzer-Prize (Rose McClendon, Abbie Mitchell, Jules Bledsoe, Frank Wilson and Stanley Greene).

There is an extensive history at the building after the Provincetown Players, and the Experimental Theatre Inc. that followed them. Edward Albee's play ZOO STORY premiered there, as did plays by John Guare and David Mamet. Producer Harold Prince, and others have advocated that the Tisch Graduate Theatre Program or professional theatre group be given use of the Provincetown Playhouse, and not the School of Education as planned which destroyed on purpose the original stage that hosted the giant playwrights, actors, directors, stage designers of the times. Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Edmund Wilson, Max Eastman, Mike Gold, Ida Rauh (the Duse of MacDougal Street), Mary Blair, Robert Edmond Jones, Cleon Throckmorton, James Light, Susan Glaspell, Floyd Dell, Jasper Deeter, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Aline Bernstein and others. Their memory is being assaulted by John Sexton, Alicia Hurley and the Architect. I was privileged to know some of the Provincetown Players. What NYU is doing is wrong on all fronts, I can assure the readers of this magazine.

Please contact the NYU Board of Trustees, their donors, and politicians. John Sexton and NYU must be stopped from proceeding with their Revised Plan for the Provincetown Playhouse. John Sexton is not a neighbor, though the politicians might see him as such NYU being one of the largest employers in New York, ad buyers in media etc. John Sexton is running a Global expansion of NYU, and not just in Greenwich Village. This expansion should not include the historic PROVINCETOWN PLAYHOUSE, and other Historic Buildings on MacDougal Street. Just because they have already destroyed the Provincetown Playhouse significance by getting rid of the original stage and dome does not qualify NYU to continue building, and rebuilding. That little row of buildings means much to many. It is only seen as real estate to John Sexton. It is real estate that still inspires us today. As the plaque in front of the Provincetown Playhouse which co-founder and Pulitzer-Prize writer Susan Glaspell had melted down for the WWII effort stated as a tribute to George Cram Cook, her husband, "And we shall make this cold world all dance and music. The dance of flame obedient to dream."

John Reed etched on an old hitching post at the theatre that had been a stable - HERE PEGASUS WAS HITCHED. Let Pegasus remained hitched at that very building that symbolizes our aspirations, and what life can become when we bring our caring to bear upon our ways of doing. A Law Research Center is not appropriate for that historic property.

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New York University: Oasis for Money-Grubbing, Neighborhood-Destroying, Alicia Hurley-Enabling Subhumans

Those NYU bastards are sending me emails asking for money. You think I'd give them money? I'd give them money if they fired Alicia Hurley, or did something even more dreadfullly horrific to her on behalf of humanity.

The text of what they sent me is below:

Having trouble viewing the images below? Try the web version.

Leonard, NYU is one of the leading universities in the world.Our alumni have achieved leadership positions in every imaginable field.Now please, click here, and meet some people who can dream to be successful because of the opportunity that NYU provides.

Click here to forward this email to a friend. This message was intended for: clydefitch@aol.com. If you do not wish to receive messages of this type in the future, please visit here. New York University New York NY 10012

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The Hypersensitivity of Truth

So yesterday I decided to post some thoughts on the Provincetown Playhouse efforts and, as I predicted, some of the things I said garnered me some private email noise. I won't post the contents of the email, of course, but I'm amazed at the way publishing one's feelings, one's observations, one's truths, makes some people hypersensitive to the point of hysteria. I just sat down and re-read what I wrote, and I fail to notice an inch of invective. The character of one of the subjects of my post was not assassinated; indeed, I went out of my way to talk about how much I respect him. But no, I got an unpleasant email anyway, more or less attacking me for not expressing my views privately first. It's all about control and power and positioning and fretting over how we appear to others -- the hypersensivity of truth. And all this time I thought it was supposed to set you free.

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Provincetown Playhouse to Stay Up, All Else Will Come Down; NYU's Alicia Hurley Proposes Stirring Cauldron in Celebration

As many of you have no doubt read elsewhere, the end of the Provincetown Playhouse story is essentially that NYU pledges to leave the four walls of the theatre alone while demolishing everything else around it. And now the community board, composed largely of people exhausted from having to constantly battle NYU -- and who, some have said, have been bribed or strong-armed or otherwise persuaded to drop their opposition to NYU devourment of Greenwich Village-- has unfortunately endorsed the idea.

I could not be at the community board meeting at which this was discussed and voted upon due to the need for me to be at the American Theatre Critics Association conference in DC. However, I did receive a long update from Andrew Berman of the Greeenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which I am pasting in below for everyone's edification. (Update: Andrew has just emailed me and asked me not to post the contents of his email blast, so I have removed it.)

Knowing that Andrew reads this blog from time to time, I take something of a calculated risk in publishing what I am about to write, but I would also be remiss if I did not say it: I feel there were ways in which Andrew's approach to the matter might have been more effective. Andrew has made no secret of his desire to run for office soon, and obviously he must work with the many and varied members of the community on other projects, so his risk factor rises in proportion to the monumentality of his tactics. That said, it should be perfectly obvious to anyone with a brain and a pulse that the cause of preservation in the Village -- at least where NYU is concerned -- requires a frothing pitbull to get anything done. Really, what I've learned here is the community board doesn't have the cojones to fight beyond a certain point, and NYU's Alicia Hurley, otherwise known as the university's designated pitbull, knows it and operates under the assumption that she can wear people down and wear people out and simply outlast them and their opposition.

In the case of the Provincetown Playhouse, I was perfectly happy to be the pitbull in question. However, I don't live in the neighborhood and as I am far from an architectural historian, I could not advocate for much beyond the perpetuation of the theatre -- it was hard for me to make the case for preserving the surrounding buildings without enough of a background to do so. It seems to me, in addition, that Andrew could quite easily have been said pitbull for his position (to save the surrounding buildings as well as the theatre) if he wished to, but that he did not want to go beyond a certain point to do so -- the point at which his political ambitions would have been put into jeopardy.

It's Andrew's right, of course. But I believe the moment that personal and political ambition supercedes civic duty is the moment when one begins retreating from one's cause.

To be clear, I remain very fond and respectful of Andrew, and I'd run to his side in a New York minute if he needed me in the future. If I didn't feel sure he finds me too much of a pitbull -- I got that vibe -- I'd even skip writing this entirely and imagine how I might go about working with him or for him, perhaps, in the future. In fact, one of the things I learned about the Provincetown Playhouse episode is how much of a charge I get out of fighting for what I believe in politically -- and that we, as a civic society, lack enough people with cojones to really rabble-rouse. But I would probably never be considered for such an opportunity and so I wrote this.

And anyway, as a result of all this, the Playhouse will live -- but be underused and misused and fundamentally mismanaged, although I might add that one of the more amusing moments of the community board pre-meeting I attended was when one of the members of the faculty of the Educational Theatre department at NYU's Steinhardt School stood up in the middle of the aisle and started screaming at me about how their stewardship of the Provincetown Playhouse has been absolutely unassailable and impeccible. The gentleman doth protest too much. (It's pretty much common knowledge that the Playhouse, which is owned by the NYU Law School, is leased to the Ed. Theatre people and that the Ed. Theatre people, many of whom I studed with years and years ago at NYU, have been willing to make the venue available to the Tisch School of the Arts people, but at an outrageous premium -- that's why Tisch actors can't perform at this world-famous venue.)

And -- oh yeah -- Alicia Hurley will now be able to forge on with her madness, her lies and her cheating, her contempt and raging, blithering hatred for the community in which she works and lives.

(And just to be clear about that, I'm not done battling Hurley yet. She may think she's won the battle, but the forces of the good and just will win the war. We'll do it legally and memorably. So don't relax, Alicia. You'll be dealt with in due time. Due time.)

Sorry if this post was not as grammatically pure as some -- I'm writing quickly and will likely come back to this post and clean it up here and there.

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Coverage of the Provincetown Playhouse Meeting

I just came across this article in the Villager about the community board subcommittee meeting on the Provincetown Playhouse. I'm glad he noticed what I said and how I said it. I still do plan to blog about the event, and hope to do so shortly.

And I will give the reporter credit for not stating that Alicia Hurley, the NYU VP who headed up the university's flimsy, lie-riddled defense of its plans, is an unpleasant human being at best.

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New Podcast: The Inexplicable Dumb Show

While I was attending the Humana Festival in Louisville, I met a couple of guys, Tee Quillin and John Mauldin, who are major theatre folk (actors, teachers, writers, and entrepreneurs) who are podcasting with high velocity and great relish via their website, The Inexplicable Dumb Show, which has to be one of the single greatest names for anything I've ever seen in my life. Tee and John are also all hooked with up with my friend Mark Cabus' Nashville-based theatrical ventures, although when Mark says he has 36 years in this business, he lies: he's just 29.

Anyway, Tee and John had me on their podcast the other day to talk about the Provincetown Playhouse and NYU and whether being a fiery rabble-rouser screws up your digestion or your blood pressure. Here's the link to the podcast!

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Why We Should Be Suspicious of NYU's Plans for the Provincetown Playhouse

Please note the special appeal to Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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Provincetown Playhouse Productions

I was furnished with this extraordinary list of Provincetown Playhouse production by a colleague named Robert Blodgett who is working on the advocacy and anti-demolition project. Read this and tell me if you're not stunned.

Partial List of Plays and Their Opening Dates
Provincetown Playhouse, 133 MacDougal Street

*Denotes world premiere.

The Provincetown Playhouse at 133 MacDougal was inaugurated on November 22, 1918, with three one-act plays:

*Eugene O’Neill, Where the Cross Is Made
Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Princess Marries the Page
*Florence Kiper Frank, Gee-Rusalem

A sampling of other plays includes:

*Eugene O’Neill, The Moon of the Caribbees, December 20, 1918

*Edna Ferber, The Eldest, January 9, 1919

*Susan Glaspell, Bernice, March 21, 1919

*Eugene O’Neill, The Dreamy Kid, October 31, 1919

*Edna St. Vincent Millay, Aria da Capo, December 6, 1919

*Lewis Beach, Brothers, December 6, 1919

Wilbur Steele, Not Smart, December 6, 1919

*Eugene O’Neill, Exorcism, March 26, 1920

*Eugene O’Neill, The Emperor Jones, November 1, 1920 – Professional acting debut of Paul Robeson. “The play has been one of the sensations of the season,” according to The New York Times.

*Lawrence Langner, Matinata, November 1, 1920

*Eugene O’Neill, Diff’rent, December 27, 1920

*George Cram Cook, The Spring, 1920

*Susan Glaspell, Inheritors, March 29, 1921

*Susan Glaspell, The Verge, November 14, 1921

*Theodore Dreiser, The Hand of the Potter, December 5, 1921

*Edna St. Vincent Millay, Two Slatterns and a King, 1921

Susan Glaspell, Trifles, 1921

*Eugene O’Neill, The Hairy Ape, March 9, 1922

*Susan Glaspell, Chains of Dew, April 27, 1922.

*John Luther Long, Crowns, November 6, 1922

Sholom Ash, The God of Vengeance, December 20, 1922

August Strindberg, The Spook Sonata, January 5, 1924 – American premiere

*Eugene O’Neill, All God’s Chillun Got Wings, May 15, 1924 – Starred Paul Robeson. The play dealt with the marriage of a white woman and a black man and was incredibly controversial. When Mary Blair kissed Paul Robeson, she and the theater received death threats. The city barred the use of child actors, with the result that the prologue – in which the children were supposed to appear – had to be read rather than performed. The New York Times wrote, “From the moment the Provincetown Players announced the production of Eugene O’Neill’s play it was evident that we were in for a campaign of race hatred and bigotry.”

*Edmund Wilson, The Crime in the Whistler Room, October 12, 1924

Eugene O’Neill, S.S. Glencairn, November 3, 1924 – Combined four O’Neill one-act plays previously shown at Provincetown Playhouse

*Sherwood Anderson, The Triumph of the Egg, February 10, 1925 – Starred 19-year-old future movie writer and director John Huston. Time magazine wrote, “John Huston, a hitherto unknown performer, played up and down the tightly tuned wires of Mr. Anderson’s conception and made them vibrant with tragic tones.”

*Hatcher Hughes, Ruint, 7 April 1925

August Strindberg, The Dream Play, January 20, 1926 – American premiere

*Paul Green, In Abraham’s Bosom, December 30, 1926 – Won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

*e.e. cummings, him, April 18, 1928

*Upton Sinclair, Singing Jailbirds, December 6, 1928

*Virgil Geddes, The Earth Between, March 5, 1929 – The New York stage debut of 20-year-old Bette Davis. Time magazine wrote, “The play has a certain intensity of gloom, but much of its force is lost in clumsy ambiguity. However, it permits Miss Bette Davis to do an effective bit of acting as the daughter.”

*Eugene O’Neill, Before Breakfast, March 5, 1929

*Edward Peyton Harris, Homecoming, November 16, 1942

*Horton Foote, Only the Heart, December 5, 1942

*William Saroyan, The Hungerers, The Ping Pong Game, and Hello Out There, August 23, 1945.

Federico Garcia Lorca, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, June 14, 1949

August Strindberg, The Father, August 1949

Luigi Pirandello, Naked, September 1950

*Sara Reavin, The Ivory Branch, May 24, 1956

*Hans Holzer, Hotel Excelsior, August 7, 1956

*Of Mice and Men (musical version), December 4, 1958 – The musical version of the John Steinbeck novel was staged with his support. It was adapted by Ira J. Bilowit and Wilson Lehr, with music by Alfred Brooks and lyrics by Bilowit.

Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape, January 14, 1960 – American premiere

Edward Albee, The Zoo Story, January 14, 1960 – American premiere

*Lee Kalcheim, A Party for Divorce and Match Play, October 11, 1966

*Frederick Feirstein, Harold and Sondra, 1967

John Guare, Muzeeka, April 28, 1968 – New York premiere

Sam Shepard, Red Cross, April 28, 1968

*Charles Ludlam, Caprice, 15 April 1976

Sam Shepard, The Unseen Hand and Killer’s Head, January 21, 1982

David Mamet, Edmond, October 27, 1982 – New York premiere

Charles Busch, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, June 19, 1985 – Ran at the Provincetown until 1990

Dario Fo (Italian playwright and Nobel laureate), Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas, September 20, 2001 – The play had its American premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then moved to the Provincetown. The performance at the Provincetown was presented by the New York University Steinhardt School of Education’s Program in Educational Theater and the American Repertory Theater.

Here are a few quotes about the Provincetown:

In 1978, Helen Hayes called the Provincetown Playhouse “the cradle of modern drama in America.”

In her 2006 book The Provincetown Players and the Culture of Modernity (Cambridge University Press), Brenda Murphy, Professor of English at the University of Connecticut (and a past president of the American Theatre and Drama Society), writes: “The founding of the Provincetown Players is an event that has grown beyond legend to assume the status of myth in the annals of the American theatre. Its significance is paramount because, as theatre historians have recognized, the Provincetown, with its nurturance of self-consciously literary American playwrights like Susan Glaspell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Eugene O’Neill, has come to represent a new conception of the theatre in the United States. The Provincetown is now seen as the major progenitor of experimental non-commercial theatre in America, the pioneering group that taught theatre practitioners how to develop, nurture, and practice theatre as an art in a country where theatre had always been almost exclusively a business.”

Normand Berlin, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, writing in 2005 in Massachusetts Review, said, “The Zoo Story, first produced by the Schiller Theater in Berlin in 1959 on a double-bill with Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, made American theater history when the same double-bill came to the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City in 1960. A new, exciting voice was being heard off-Broadway at a time when Broadway – up to the ‘60s really a synonym for American theater – seemed to be stagnating, with the highest achievements of America’s three major dramatists (O'Neill, Williams, Miller) behind it. America needed a dramatic rebirth. Albee’s play, reviewed by the major New York newspapers, helped to give off-Broadway an importance that it would continue to maintain, with off-off-Broadway and alternate theaters throughout the land soon following.”

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Here's Andrew Berman on YouTube -- About the Provincetown Playhouse

There will be several YouTube videos of me going up today and tomorrow. But for now, here's Andrew Berman:

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Andrew Berman's Letter to the Editor on the Provincetown Playhouse

This is a must-read for anyone trying to put together an op-ed on the Provincetown Playhouse:

To The Editor:

Re "N.Y.U. would drop curtain on O'Neill's Playhouse" (news article, April 29):

The proposal New York University is contemplating to demolish the historic Provincetown Playhouse would be a tragic mistake for the university and for the neighborhood.

The Provincetown Playhouse is one of the most iconic historic sites in all the Village. It is known throughout the country and world for the critical role it has played in the history of the Off-Broadway and alternative theater movement. It is a landmark in every sense of the word except
official designation, although the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and many others have been seeking to remedy that through our proposed South Village Historic District, which includes the site. Last year N.Y.U. agreed to support the designation of the proposed South Village Historic District; demolition of one of its key historic sites would not only damage the proposed district's chances of full adoption, but damage the university's reputation for keeping its word.

When N.Y.U. recently signed the planning principles with members of the Borough President's N.Y.U. Community Task Force, including G.V.S.H.P., it agreed to "prioritize reuse before new development," a principle that could not more clearly apply here. This is actually the first new project N.Y.U. is proposing under the commitments it made in the planning principles; so,
how the university does or does not adhere to the commitments it made will have a huge impact upon how this process is viewed.

By N.Y.U.'s own admission, its proposed new building is somewhat but not much bigger than the current Provincetown Playhouse building. So why demolish at all? N.Y.U. claims this old building (the underlying historic structure is nearly 200 years old) cannot support the kinds of uses it wishes to put in there. They have not substantiated that claim, but let's assume for a moment that they are correct. The building currently houses a theater, offices and residences - uses which it can clearly continue to house, and all uses which N.Y.U. needs. Therefore, any decision to demolish the building because it is not suited to N.Y.U.'s "needs" is not really one of necessity, but actually one of choice.

Further, N.Y.U. claims that because the facade of the building was altered almost 70 years ago, it is no longer a historic building worthy of preservation. Yet, in the 1990s, when N.Y.U. began a renovation of the building (with the same historic facade), it proudly trumpeted the building's history and its pride to posses this great piece of local and national history. Now, the university is choosing the "Poe House" method of historic preservation - demolish a beloved piece of the neighborhood's history, and then try to make up for it by tacking a piece or a facsimile of
it onto the new building. As we've seen, this approach just does not work.

N.Y.U. clearly wants credit for considering a building on this site that is neither as big nor as insensitive in its design as it could be or as many recent N.Y.U. buildings have been. But the loss of a treasured piece of the neighborhood's history is the price we would have to pay, while the
alternative G.V.S.H.P. has been urging - a sensitive reuse or renovation of the building, as the planning principles N.Y.U. agreed to seem to call for - would still allow the university to make very productive use of its property.

Hopefully, N.Y.U. will see the light. I strongly urge anyone who is interested to come to the Community Board 2 Institutions Committee hearing on the issue on Wed., May 28, at 6:30 p.m. (location TBD), to help make the case.

Andrew Berman
Berman is executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

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Provincetown Playhouse History, III

More from Gail Cohen:

Jasper Deeter was an actor and director with the Provincetown Players. Ann Harding who gave Jasper the money to buy the Hedgerow Theatre was a Provincetown Player. Jasper directed IN ABRAHAM'S BOSOM by Paul Green in 1926 at the Provincetown Playhouse. In 1927, the play was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The cast consisted of the major African-American actors of the day - Rose McClendon who played over 30 roles on Broadway before she died in 1936 when about to premiere Countee Cullen's play ONE WAY TO HEAVEN at Hedgerow Theatre, Jules Bledsoe, Frank Wilson, Abbie Mitchell, and Stanley Greene who continued acting at Hedgerow. The original cast came back to Hedgerow with him, and saved the theatre from being sold by the sheriff - so that it could live to celebrate its 85th Birthday.

Theatres from all over are writing letters of protest. Hedgerow is the most important of these theatres to write to John Sexton, President of New York University with a copy to Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society. I don't even know if Janet and Susan Wefel got any of the emails I have sent to info@hedgerow.org . If any one there truly cares about Jasper Deeter, someone will write a letter to save the Provincetown Playhouse which has a far greater history than just the Provincetown Players.

There is more Hedgerow History with the Provincetown Players and Playhouse. Takashi Ohta, Pete Seeger's Father-In-Law was one of the first set designers at Hedgerow. He also worked at the Provincetown Playhouse. Being Japanese, he was beaten up by the Hudson Dusters in front of the Provincetown Playhouse. In the 1960's, Jasper said in an interview that was the thing he was most ashamed of in his life - that he could not do anything at the time.

Jasper Deeter premiered in many of Eugene O'Neill plays with the Provincetown Players. He directed, and originated the role of Smithers in THE EMPEROR -JONES! Jasper Deeter was responsible for finding Charles Gilpin to play the lead role. He also suggested that Dudley Diggs play his role of Smithers in the film of THE EMPEROR JONES. Jasper Deeter acted in O'Neill's play EXOCISM for which no copy of the play survives. Eugene O'Neill gave his plays royalty free to Hedgerow. That was extended by his second wife Carlotta Monteray after Jasper's death. Eugene O'Neill wrote to Jasper Deeter during WWII, "I admire your guts and integrity in this our chaos." Jasper Deeter also directed THE SPRING by George Cram Cook, and AUTUM FIRES by Gustav Weid at the Provincetown Playhouse.

He directed and acted in the premiere of Susan Glaspell's play INHERITORS. He credited INHERITORS with why he founded Hedgerow,"the story of what life might be if people bring their caring directly to bear upon their ways of doing can best be told by you." He also wrote to Glaspell on a trip to Provincetown, MA. where the Players started, "I looked at the harbor - thought of your beginnings and my own - and your part in mine - and how much I owe to a few people."

The Provincetown Playhouse had the first dome (from the German stage) built in this country by George Cram Cook, the Founder of the Provincetown Players. He built it to give the small stage more scope for the jungle scene in THE EMPEROR - JONES!. Jasper did the exact same at Hedgerow in building a dome on the Hedgerow stage. It was an art to light the dome. Hedgerow's dome was destroyed in the arson fire. The dome at the Provincetown Playhouse was destroyed after the Hedgerow fire when NYU did not protect the dome during their renovation and it collapsed. Some Hedgerow Alumni saved pieces of the Hedgerow dome as it was historic and meant something to people who had acted before it.

Miriam Phillips who acted with the Hedgerow Repertory for 32 years first appeared with the Hedgerow Repertory company at their special engagement of THE EMPEROR JONES with Paul Robeson at the Walnut Street Theatre in 1924. Jasper Deeter had asked the Provincetown Players not to move uptown with THE EMPEROR JONES. He said, Why don't you play it in Repertory, and play it forever." That is exactly what he did at Hedgerow Theatre. Eugene O'Neill's plays, and those of Susan Glaspell played throughout the 33 years of the Hedgerow Repertory, and later at Hedgerow. A different play was performed each night. The Repertory was a library of 210 plays that could be recalled at any time. The Hedgerow Repertory had 50 World Premieres, 14 American Premieres, and 2 plays for the first time in English. The actors lived together with the average stay 6 to 33 years.

Jasper Deeter also acted with the Provincetown Players in the following plays: BROTHERS by Lewis Beach directed by James Light; THE ELDEST by Edna Ferber directed by James Light; MONEY by Irwi Ganich directed by James Light, VOTE THE NEW MOON by Alfred Kreymborg directed by James Light, EXOCISM by Eugene O'Neill directed by Edward Goodman; THE EMPEROR JONES by Eugene O'Neill directed by George Cram Cook and Jasper Deeter, set designed by Cleon Throckmorton; WHAT D' YOU WANT by Lawrence Vail directed by Florence Enright with setting by Cleon Throckmorton; INHERITORS by Susan Glaspell; and PRINCESS TURANDOT by Carlo Gozzi directed by Leo Bulgakov.

Actors from Hedgerow who acted with the Provincetown Players include Jasper Deeter, Kirah Markham, Ann Harding who was a major Hollywood star in the 1930's, William Challee who later joined the Group Theatre, Jeannie Begg, Emily Taft, Frank Wilson, Paul Robeson, and Sidney Machet. Provincetown Player playwrights whose plays were in the Hedgerow Theatre Repertory include - Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Sherwood Anderson, George Cram Cook, and Theodore Dreiser. Set designers Mordecai Gorelik, and Aline Bernstein who worked at the Provincetown Playhouse also did set designs for plays at Hedgerow Theatre.

Jasper Deeter kept in touch with Susan Glaspell, Christine Ell, Charles Ellis, Norma Millay, Harold Macgee, Ann Harding, Ida Rauh, Mary Blair, Paul Robeson, Sherwood Anderson, Floyd Dell, and Theodore Dreiser of the Provincetown Players during his lifetime, and theirs. There is a letter in the Hedgerow Theatre Collection from Harold Macgee who is with Christine Ell and others at Christine's restaurant at the Provincetown Playhouse. He writes, "We are all here drinking to you Jasper." There are letters in the Hedgerow Theatre Collection from all the above names. Boston University's Twentieth Century Archives houses the Hedgerow Theatre Collection.

So if no one else there wants to write a letter for Hedgerow, perhaps you will. Lynne MacLaren from Hedgerow who acted with Janet,Moira Rankin, and Charles Walnut in INHERITORS in 1973 is on the Planning Committee with the Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society. Lynne's photo for numerous years was up on the wall at Hedgerow House. Maggie Flynn didn't know Lynne, but she remembers the photo! I'm sure Janet does want to write one, and perhaps even Penny. As far as I know it hasn't been done.

It is imperative that those who care about Jasper Deeter respond. This is a very difficult battle. NYU School of Law is very powerful, and owns a great deal of property. The stage, auditorium, and dressing rooms are the exact same as they were in the days of the Provincetown Players. NYU is falsely reporting that the theatre was gutted in 1940 after a fire. This is not true. The facade was changed, but that dome stood on that stage.

I have gone on for too long. I urge you to read INHERITORS if you want to know what Hedgerow was about. It was about America. I have used an old email address that I had for Penny, so I don't know if she received the Provincetown Playhouse materials. I hope you will talk about this issue, especially with Janet - and that a letter from whatever Hedgerow is will be sent. We owe that much to those who have gone before us, and Jasper Deeter. Thank you for your attention.

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Provincetown Playhouse History, II

Here's more information and history from Gail. The following was contained in an email that Gail cc'd me on that she sent to Gary Garrison, Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild.

That Pulitzer Prize of Paul Green's that is on your wall for IN ABRAHAM'S BOSOM premiered at the Provincetown Playhouse in 1926 directed by Jasper Deeter, an actor and director with the Provincetown Players. The all star African American cast of Rose McClendon, Frank Wilson, Jules Bledsoe, Abbie Mitchell, and Stanley Green returned with Jasper to Hedgerow Theatre which he founded in 1923, and saved the theatre financially. Hedgerow just celebrated its 85th Birthday.

Other playwrights at the Provincetown Playhouse that premiered their work under the Provincetown Players include Djuna Barnes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edmund Wilson, Sherwood Anderson, Theodore Dreiser, Lawrence Vail (married to Peggy Guggenheim), Susan Glaspell who also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931 for ALISON'S HOUSE, Neith Boyce, George Cram Cook, John Reed, Wilbur Daniel Steele, Louise Bryant, Floyd Dell, Alfred Kreymborg, Saxe Cummins, Michael Gold, Harry Kemp, Grace Potter, Rita Wellman, Lewis Beach, Edna Ferber, Lawrence Langer, Evelyn Scott, Stark York, E.E. Cummings to name a few. All were involved in the intellectual life of their times.

Eugene O'Neill premiered 17 of his plays at the Provincetown Playhouse, with O'Neill revivals also done during the days of the Provincetown Players, and Experimental Theatre Inc. at the Provincetown Playhouse until 1929. 11 of Susan Glaspell's plays were premiered at the Provincetown Playhouse with several revivals. Edna St. Vincent Millay's play ARIA DA CAPO premiered there. The entire Millay family was involved with the Provincetown Players. Norma Millay, Founder of Steepletop, the Millay Colony for the Arts played the most roles with the Provincetown Players. Charlie Chaplin, and Paul Robeson performed on the stage for the Provincetown Players. Helen Hayes first theatre experience was when her Mother took her to a rehearsal of O'Neill's THE HAIRY APE at the Provincetown Playhouse. Bette Davis acted there in 1925. In later years, Edward Albee premiered his plays there. A young group headed by Doyle Warren produced plays at the Provincetown Playhouse when the theatre was owned by Norman Buckbinder.

NYU did not protect the historic dome on stage at the Provincetown Playhouse. It collapsed during their renovation of the theatre. The dome from the German Theatre was built by George Cram Cook for O'Neill's play THE EMPEROR - JONES! (that is the real title as he wrote it) to give the small stage scope. With the arson fire in the 1980's at Hedgerow Theatre, the last dome in America was at the Provincetown Playhouse. The building had been a stable. On a hitching post that remained, John Reed etched HERE PEGASUS WAS HITCHED.

Charles Gilpin was the first African American dramatic actor cast by the Provincetown Players in THE EMPEROR - JONES! Mary Blair kissed Paul Robeson in ALL GOD CHILLUN GOT WINGS by O'Neill. The theatre, and Blair received death threats. Ludwig Lewinson wrote in 1921 about Susan Glaspell's play INHERITORS, "The major event of the theatre season is happening on MacDougal Street where Susan Glaspell has added to the wealth of her craft and her country."

The original Provincetown Plays began in the summer of 1915, and 1916 in Provincetown, MA. at Lewis Wharf owned by Mary Heaton Vorse. They moved to a brownstone in New York on MacDougal, then in 1918 to the present Provincetown Playhouse site.The official name was The Playwright's Theatre. After George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell left for Greece in 1922, the group was taken over by Eugene O'Neill, James Light, and Kenneth MacGowan. Cook and Glaspell made them take another name hence The Experimental Theatre Inc. at the Provincetown Playhouse.

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Provincetown Playhouse History, I

Things are moving along swimmingly in the fight to cure NYU's addiction to demolition -- to stop John Sexton, the President, and Alicia Hurley, one of the VPs, from hurling a wrecking ball at the Provincetown Playhouse. The email and phone call campaign has been continuing, and we know they have been overwhelmed by the response, which, in their case, probably only firms up their resolve. A meeting was held on Tuesday that plots around a good deal of the rest of our strategy, and there's one part of that strategy that's happening today, involving me, but I can't discuss it until tomorrow.

Anyway, because the alarm bells are ringing in every corner of our world about this, I've made the acquaintance of a theatre historian named Gail Cohen. Gail, who lives in Florida, is a real spitfire -- she has more energy than I do! And she's been providing me with lots of information on the history of the Provincetown Playhouse. I've decided to post a lot of it here. Sometimes when I post stuff, I'll go in and fix typographical errors, but because Gail's history is so wide-ranging (and because I bet you $50 she types fast, too), I'm just posting as it is. Amazing stuff.

...It is NYU School of Law that did not protect the historic dome on the stage of the Provincetown Playhouse when the theatre was renovated. It collapsed. The contractors should have protected it, but obviously the school did not care. The done was built by George Cram Cook who is being honored in Delphi where he is buried soon. The building had been a stable. On one of the existing hitching rings, John Reed etched HERE PEGASUS WAS HITCHED. It is true that the facade is different today than the original one that housed the Provincetown Players. The photo of the proposed one is difficult to see, but it doesn't look to me like the original one. The theatre auditorium though I believe is the same minus that important dome. When Doyle Warren's group was there, an actress told me that touching the dome before going on stage gave her strength. The plaque commemorating George Cram (Jig) Cook at the Provincetown Playhouse, Susan Glaspell had melted down for the war effort during WWII. "The Light may go out forever," she wrote to Jasper Deeter at Hedgerow.

As for the NYU history write up. The Provincetown Players revolutionized American Theatre. It started a complete change from the melodrama's of the 1800's. As Norma Millay said, "We were There, and that's what we were For," referring to O'Neill always being cited when the Provincetown Players are mentioned. What NYU and others constantly fail on is the reason for the end of the Provincetown Players. It was not a conflict between O'Neill and Cook - or strife even though Glaspell aludes to this. The reason was simply that they chose to move uptown with THE EMPEROR - JONES which detracted from, and scattered their energy and resources for the base theatre on MacDougal Street. Jasper would roller skate from MacDougal Street to the theatre uptown and back. He originated the role of Smithers, and was responsible for finding Charles Gilpin to act in the main role. Jasper also recommended Dudley Diggs for the film instead of playing the role himself.

The Provincetown Players also toured the play. In Chicago, the cast received 20 curtain calls. Bert Williams came up to Gilpin with tears rolling down his face saying that he waited all his life to see a Negro in a major dramatic role. There is an extensive history of African-Americans at the Provincetown Playhouse, including Paul Robeson, Rose McClendon, Jules Bledsoe, and the major African-American actors of the time. Rose McClendon played over 30 roles on Broadway before she died in 1936. Countee Cullen had just written a play for her to premiere in at Hedgerow before her death. Otto Kahn was the main source of funding for the Provincetown Players. Charlie Chaplin also contributed, and performed at the Provincetown Playhouse.

George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell left for Greece in 1922. "We give this theatre we love a good death. The Provincetown Players end their story here." They made the others who stayed take a new name, The Experimental Theatre Inc. at the Provincetown Playhouse. James (Jimmy) Light was the director, but the group running the theatre was Eugene O'Neill, Kenneth MacGowan, and Robert Edmond Jones. Eleanor Fitzgerald, and Edna Kenton help run the theatre as they always had. Their papers are in Special Collections at the NYU Library. Cleon Throckmorton, and others were on the Board. Another season was planned for the Garrick Theatre. I have that final fundraising program from 1929. It lists all of the plays, and people who had been associated with the Provincetown Players, and the Experimental Theatre Inc. It lists the Board Members, reviews, quotes about the Provincetown Players, and the proposed new season that never happened. This program belonged to Jasper Deeter. I sold the other one to the O'Neill Center. Maybe NYU would like to buy it from me...

The theatre was also owned by Al and Sarah Maissel, and Norman Buckbinder. Sarah taught art at Cheltenham High School in Elkins Park, PA. Norman Buckbinder knew Norma Millay, and had great feeling for the Provincetown Playhouse - which is interesting because I also yelled at him a lot during the years. At one point Signature Theatre was considering moving to the Provincetown Playhouse. Let me end this with the words of George Cram Cook that were on the plaque honoring him at the Provincetown Playhouse:

And we will make the cold world
Flame and music,
The dance of flame
Obedient to dream

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Curbed.com: Pay Attention

Curbed.com has been doing a lot of coverage of the Provincetown Playhouse crisis, and its most recent posting highlights the fight that NYU has on its hands. I've been posting comments on a daily basis on this site, but you can only do so much in a short period, so I have crafted the following statement, which will go on the website as soon as permitted:

NYU -- my alma mater -- is addicted to demolition. It is also addicted to prevarication. On the one hand, it publicly promises to exhaust all methods and means of considering structual reuse before hauling out its precious wrecking ball, but here's evidence, as if anyone needed it, that NYU's words yet again stand naked and exposed, meaningless and empty, its promises fatuous and dismissive and blithe and superficial, its ethics and morals gathering dust on a shelf.

Full disclosure: I am Leonard Jacobs, national theatre editor of Back Stage, the entertainment industry trade paper, and first-string critic for both Back Stage and the alt-weekly New York Press. I am serving as one a primary liaison to the working, active professional theatre community, both locally and nationally, and we have enlisted several hundred people, including many names everyday citizens will recognize and who are working in ways public and private, overt and covert, and subtle and unsubtle in this fight. You can view just some of those names on the list of signatures on the letter to President Sexton available on GVSHP's website,
http://gvshp.org/documents/PTownSextonLtr04-30-08.pdf.

In advance of the community board meeting on May 28, we promise to spend the next four weeks building our coalition. We further promise that our approach to a satisfactory resolution of this crisis will be wide-ranging, legal and memorable.

Final note: I understand there are those who believe NYU's plan is a good and great thing, a big mountain of justification disguised as beautification. We do respect those who disagree with us. But we assure you that our disagreement will be louder, longer, more passionate and, if need be, unrelenting.

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Alicia Hurley of NYU Amasses Her Troops

Well, Alicia Hurley of NYU -- she's Vice President for Government Relations and Community Engagement, otherwise known as the best friend of the wrecking ball -- is hurriedly sending out emails to those voicing their opposition to the demolition of the Provincetown Playhouse and attaching a slick (and likely misleading) PDF claiming that the demolition and reconstruction of the building will be the university's greatest gift to urban planning since Olmstead and Vaux proposed and built Central Park.

I have written this modern-day Cruella De Vil the following email. And thank God the emails and phone calls voicing opposition are still pouring in, despite today's article in the New York Times.

Nice bit of propaganda you're selling there, Ms. Hurley. Unlike Mr. Beckman, who promised he would send me, an alum of NYU, the PDF you've been sending to people voicing opposition to your plan to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, I have obtained it through other means. Not that I was surprised to find Mr. Beckman untrue to his word.

What's disturbing is the choice of language in the email you're sending out: "So far you have been presented with only one side of the story. The attached material attempts to offer a fuller view." So much for your empathetic quote to the Times: "Our minds are open, our hearts are open." You're open to little more than your addiction to demolition.

NYU publicly agreed to exhaust all reuse possibilites before hauling out your precious wrecking ball. Just as Andrew Berman has rightly emphasized, you have not done so and the community -- more mobilized, more enraged than you may think -- will continue to battle your plans. You can foist as slick a PDF as you can devise upon the public, you can wear a bleeding-heart mask to the Times all you like. NYU has arrogantly abrogated its agreement to make reuse a priority and thus has spurned the trust of the community, the New York theatre, and the American theatre. How dare you demand such trust be given to you simply because you're NYU.

If it wasn't already terrible enough that you're addicted to a culture of demolition, now there's proof you're addicted to a culture of exceptionalism, too.

Leonard Jacobs

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Another Way to Consider How NYU Plunges a Knife into the Arts

When you have a moment, take a look at the names on the board of trustees of New York University. Here's a link to the list. Notice any artists on it? Notice anyone with any deep and abiding connection to any creative profession? There's not even a single alum of the Tisch School of the Arts on the list -- not a Martin Scorcese, not a Spike Lee. No wonder President John Sexton thinks he can demolish the Provincetown Playhouse with impunity.

On the basis of the emails I've seen going out, I can tell you that the campaign to block Sexton is heating up very dramatically. NYU will be stopped.

And the irony of all of this, of course, is that Sexton's son, Jed, is an actor.

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DEAR NYU: YOU WILL NOT DEMOLISH THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYHOUSE

There's already been an outpouring of fury and concern from the theatre community about NYU's proposal to demolish the historic and iconic Provincetown Playhouse.

First things first, though -- some of you have asked me where I got the information from. If you look at my first post on this, you'll see a link to the article that got this going.

However, here is the link one more time: http://www.thevillager.com/villager_260/nyuwoulddrop.html

Meantime, my friend Sean Cullen, who in addition to being in the cast of South Pacific is the founder and president of The American National Theatre, is one of a slew of people who have already contacted NYU Demolisher-in-Chief John Sexton. His letter is exquisitely written:

Dear President Sexton,

I just read online the article in The Villager's April 23rd edition that reports on NYU's plans to raise the building which houses the Provincetown Playhouse, so that another building -- with theatre included -- can be built in its place. I'm sure the rich and important history of the Playhouse is very well known to you, so I won't reiterate or belabor that here.

However, I will state my belief that your school, as one of the primary landholders in both the East and West Villages -- indeed, throughout Manhattan -- has a duty and burden of stewardship not only to your institution and students, but to those neighborhoods and communities where its properties exist. I'm sure you realize this, of course, and the forming of the "Community Task Force on N.Y.U. Development" would seem on first sight to be a recognition of it.

I wonder, though, what the recommendation for the existing MacDougal St. building might be of a hypothetical group called the "N.Y.U. Task Force on Community Development." The hypothetical shift in name is a small one, but substantial, and I think it puts N.Y.U.'s relationship to its home neighborhoods and home city exactly where it belongs at this point in time.

I urge you and the other key decision makers at N.Y.U. to reconsider uses for 133-139 MacDougal St. as it exists today, uses that will both serve the University and preserve an important theatrical and cultural American landmark. In fact, I strongly encourage you to make the Provincetown Playhouse available for shared usage by the school and the public once more, in order to restore the Playhouse as a fully working, living and vital theatre -- and so help to restore the artistic vibrancy of the West Village. (A partnership, for instance, with Manhattan Theatre Source at Washington Square Park might accomplish this very well.)

Finally, I believe that such a step would serve the community and public relations of N.Y.U. extremely well, while sending another clear signal to New York and its other land-owning institutions that your university recognizes the importance, literally, of and to its place in our city.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Sean Cullen
Founder & President
The American National Theatre, Inc.

In addition, here is an amazing letter that was just sent to Sexton's office via fax.

Now, today I have been spending part of my day emailing my entire list, for step one in this process must be to rally the theatre community in its entirety. I ask you, therefore, to please call and email NYU President John Sexton at 212-998-2345 and john.sexton@nyu.edu and convey your views.

If you agree that the demolition of the Provincetown Playhouse is no less than crime against the American theatre, let this man know what kind of fury he will be unleashing.

In addition, I am announcing that I am joining Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and his campaign to stop NYU from acting on this outrageous proposal. It was disheartening enough when NYU, following its renovation of the Playhouse, removed it from the market for commercial and nonprofit producers. To demolish it would be absolutely unspeakable.

I quote from the article cited above:

"Andrew Berman, of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said he opposed the project.

“There’s no reason to demolish a building that is so important to the history of the Village, New York City and the history of the theater,” Berman said.

In an April 18 letter to John Sexton, N.Y.U.’s president, Berman cited one of the N.Y.U. planning principles that calls for reuse of existing buildings before new development...."

If you like, when you email John Sexton (and please don't forget to call, too), please signal your support for this effort by cc'ing Mr. Berman at gvshp@gvshp.org.

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NEW YORK UNIVERSITY TO DEMOLISH THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYHOUSE

You read it here.

The university that is systematically destoying and defiling Greenwich Village plans to take a wrecking ball, with as much malice as NYU President John Sexton can summon, to the history of the 2oth century American theatre. That's right: malice.

How dare he. What an animal that man is.

Well, this will not stand.
Indeed, so help me God, this will be stopped.

First thing: tomorrow, please call and email NYU President John Sexton to register your outrage.

Tel: (212) 998-2345
john.sexton@nyu.edu

More action will be forthcoming. For now, please, please call!!

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