 The
Manny Fried Playhouse
The Long-Awaited Home of
the Subversive Theatre Collective
Click here to read the feature article in The
Buffalo News' Gusto Magazine about the opening of "The Manny
Fried Playhouse."
After six years of tumbleweed existence, the
Subversive Theatre Collective has at last secured a performance space of its
very own! In August of 2008 we began the process of converting a former
warehouse space on the third floor of North Buffalo's Great Arrow Building
into Western New York's newest performance venue!!!
This Turn-of-the-Century industrial building that was
once the manufacturing center of America's Pierce Arrow Corporation lends a
fittingly proletarian atmosphere to our radical new playhouse. They say
if you look close enough, as you ride to the third floor on the building's huge
cargo elevators that were designed to carry then-state-of-the-art Pierce Arrow
Automobiles, you can still see the blood of the workers staining the walls!
Click
here to read more about the history of the Great Arrow Building.
And so we began the arduous process of converting
this small warehouse room into a blackbox-style theatre. This involved a
lengthy re-painting job enlisting many hardworking volunteers, the
installation of multiple pipes in the ceiling to form a lighting grid, the construction
of an entirely new floor (the old one had had it!), and the addition of a door
-- originally the only entrance to the room was through a huge metal garage
door!!!
Click
here to view pictures of the conversion of the space.
With that work well in hand, this raw space is
quickly blossoming into an intimate blackbox-style theatre that adapts easily
between the different proscenium, thrust, and theater-in-the-round performance
formats. This venue seats roughly 50 patrons and is fully handicapped
accessible.
We are honored to name our new home "The
Manny Fried Playhouse" after Buffalo's renowned labor activist and
theatre artist Dr. Emanuel Fried. An outspoken Union organizer
throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, "Manny" Fried was the
quintessential "subversive" of his time. Blacklisted in
the 1950s, he never stopped writing and acting for the theatre. His body
of work is a lasting testament to subversives everywhere.
Click here for a more detailed biography of
Emanuel Fried.
And so we are proud to present to the world our
new performance venue. At last we have a home for our Peoples'
Theatre! But, as you can imagine, launching a brand new space is an
extremely challenging endeavor. Now more than ever we need to ask THE
PEOPLE to help bring this new venue kicking and screaming
into the world. On Friday, September 5th, 2008 we kicked off "The
Manny Fried Playhouse Fund Drive" calling on our supporters
everywhere to step forward with financial support for our new
performance space.
If you believe there is a need for theatre for
THE PEOPLE instead of for the CORPORATE FATCATS, then now's the time to
make your contribution to our ongoing fund-raising campaign.
Click
here to learn more about "The Manny Fried Playhouse Fund
Drive."
So now, at last, our new performance venue
is up and running. In a very short time it has already come
together very nicely. Come out to our current show and see for
yourself!
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