Profile

As an off-off Broadway hub, Soho has neither the East Village’s cache of theaters nor Midtown’s proximity to the Main Stem. What it does have is a number of vanguard institutions like the Wooster Group, the Ohio Theater, and Soho Rep. Equally important if a little more raggedy is HERE, an incubator for experimental performance that’s been pushing the envelope with underwater puppetry (Symphonie Fantastique) and impromptu confessions (Psychotherapy LIVE!) since 1993. Most productions never cross over into the mainstream like Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues did but where else are you going to go to see a punk rock Kabuki musical based on Venus in Furs? Two performance spaces and a bohemian café provide room for the ideas generated by an in-house residency program and Artistic Director Kristin Marting’s personal vision. — Genevieve Leon