The New York Public Library Opens the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center recently unveiled its new theater incubator space, the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab, which is now complete and open and accessible to the public.

The Library for the Performing Arts, Harvey and Ron Fierstein, and the Theatre Lab’s designer, Rockwell Group and Founder and President David Rockwell, convened at the Library for an opening ceremony, performances, and demonstration of the space on Tuesday, December 17. Annaleigh Ashford, Kerry Butler, A.J. Freeman, Bruce Sabath, Gil Varod, Jonathon Lynch, Kristoffer Bjarke, and Will Van Dyke all performed at the event.  Check out photos from the opening below!

Thanks to a donation by Harvey Fierstein, the cultural icon, gay rights activist, Tony Award-winning actor, and playwright, the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab is inspired in part by the experimental theater scene Harvey experienced in downtown New York, in places like La MaMa, which allowed him the freedom to find his voice. Like those spaces, the Theatre Lab is a creative haven for new and current generations of performers, dancers, actors, producers, and performing arts makers of all kinds to find their voices while accessing the world-renowned archives of the Library for the Performing Arts.

The Lab also provides free access to the Library for the Performing Arts’ archive of Broadway, Off-Broadway material, including thousands filmed theater performances, making it a unique space unlike anywhere in the world. The Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab will also include access to Fierstein’s mother’s piano. 

Through workshops, fellowships, professional development programming, trainings, and more, the Library for the Performing Arts will make the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab free and accessible to all types of theater artists, including actors, designers, and directors, so they can have a safe space for risk and artistic exploration.

 Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas