Curtain falls on Connelly Theater: Archdiocese takes center stage in script scrutiny drama

EVG photo from January 

Under increased scrutiny of its productions by the building landlord, the Archdiocese of New York, the Connelly Theater has gone dark on Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. 

As The New York Times first reported: 

Josh Luxenberg, who has been the theater’s general manager for the past decade, submitted his resignation late Friday. And early Tuesday, the Catholic school that is the intermediary between the theater and the archdiocese said it was "suspending all operations of its theater." 

Producers who have rented from the Connelly say they were aware that it was owned by the archdiocese, and that there was always a clause in their contract allowing the Roman Catholic Church to bar anything it deemed obscene, pornographic or detrimental to the church's reputation.

But only recently, they said, did the archdiocese seek to rigorously scrutinize scripts before approving rentals. New York Theater Workshop said it was told by a bishop this month that it could not stage "Becoming Eve," which is adapted from a memoir about a rabbi who comes out as a transgender woman, at the Connelly early next year. It is now looking for another venue.

SheNYC Arts, which has been producing theater by women, trans, and nonbinary writers at the Connelly Theater for eight years, is now looking for a new home for its underrepresented work. 

In a statement, SheNYC said that new leadership at the Archdiocese of New York "has directed the theater to deny the space to any shows or companies that would be seen as inappropriate by the Catholic Church." 

This includes shows about reproductive rights, trans characters, and gender issues, SheNYC Arts has been told. The priest in charge of the jurisdiction is personally screening scripts to ensure they fit within strictly Catholic doctrines. 

"The Archdiocese has specifically called out our past shows at the Connelly Theater, calling them 'inappropriate' for discussing issues like reproductive rights and gender and making it clear to us that shows like that will not be allowed in the future," said Danielle DeMatteo, Artistic Director of SheNYC Arts. "Especially just a few weeks before our election that could determine the future of our rights, this is a truly shocking development." 

The vital Off-Broadway venue, which recently staged the future Broadway production "Job," is housed within the Cornelia Connelly Center, a Catholic school for girls from fourth to eighth grade.

The producers of "Job" released a statement on Instagram that read: 

We are shocked and disappointed that the Catholic Church has shuttered one of downtown’s most beloved theatres. Simply put, "Job" would not be on Broadway without the Connelly Theater. 

Great theatre is an exchange of ideas — an opportunity for audiences to develop empathy and understanding. The Church undermines that quest for shared humanity with its decision. 

We call on the Archdiocese to reopen the Connelly so artists and audiences can once again gather and experience the transcendence of live theatre. And in the meantime, we invite Cardinal Dolan to come to the Hayes Theater to see Job on Broadway. He can experience first-hand the powerful theatre he is now turning his back on.

New York Archdiocese spokesperson Joseph Zwilling told the National Catholic Register: "It is the standard practice of the archdiocese that nothing should take place on Church-owned property that is contrary to the teaching of the Church." 

When asked if the Archdiocese mandated the theater's closure, Zwilling said, "We did not order it to be closed." 

"We had seen a range of really provocative, amazing, inspiriting, artistically rigorous shows there, so I was surprised this would be rejected," Patricia McGregor, the artistic director of New York Theater Workshop on Fourth Street, told the Times. "And if in the East Village of New York City we are meeting this kind of resistance, where else might this be happening?" 

The signage was removed outside the Connelly Theater yesterday, and the doors were freshly painted.

Meanwhile, Google lists the theater as "permanently closed."