Sigourney Weaver Breaks Ground Off-Off Broadway With The Flea Theater

Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray in The Guys, about 9/11, in 2002 at The Flea
Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray in The Guys, about 9/11, in 2002 at The Flea

Before she portrayed an action hero, an astronaut, an activist or an alien on the screen, actress Sigourney Weaver says, “I was always doing new plays Off-Off Broadway. The spaces were always terrible; they were unheated, there were no bathrooms, no dressing rooms; the walls were crumbling.”
NewhomeofTheFleaTheaterThat is why she and her husband, the director Jim Simpson, created The Flea Theater 17 years ago – and why on December 5, they attended a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new $18 million home of The Flea, which is in a  building constructed in 1791 on 20 Thomas Street, four blocks further downtown from their current rented building in Tribeca.

TheFleaexteriorWhen the building is completed, which is scheduled as early a the Fall of 2014, it will house three theaters: The Sam, named after agent Sam Cohn; The Peter, after playwright A.R. (Pete) Gurney, who has had eight world premiere productions of his plays at The Flea; and The Siggy…named after Sigourney Weaver.
In the video, Weaver talks about the importance of small venues, which “are like a little greenhouse where everything germinates, and feeds the bigger theaters….and the cultural landscape.”

But, befitting an action hero, she also dons a hardhat and knocks down a wall

Click on illustration to see it enlarged

TheFleaGroundbreaking1

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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