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.”
That 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.

When 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