Theatre World

By Shay Gines

Since 1945, Theatre World has been documenting Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. It has been continually published for 68 years, offering the most comprehensive and definitive record of what is happening in American Theatre. It has become a leading archival resource that is referenced everywhere by scholars, students, casting directors, producers, and other industry professionals on a daily basis and is included in the Library of Congress.

John Willis (the original creator of Theatre World) and Benjamin Hodges the editors of Theatre World recognized the importance of our community and felt that it deserved a place in this archive. In 2008 they began to include Off-Off-Broadway. They asked me to write the narrative about the important events and trends of our sector for that season. I was honored.

The next year they asked if in addition to the narrative, I could also compile the listings for Off-Off-Broadway productions. That is an enormous task and one that I do not take lightly. I make it my goal to get as many listings as possbile. I scour websites like NYTheatre.com, OffOffOnline.com, TheatreMania.com, NYITAwards.com. I reach out to hundreds of OOB companies and artists and spend hour-upon-hour tracking down as many credits as I can for as many productions, readings, workshops and festivals as I can find.

Now that Mr. Willis has passed on, we are lucky that Ben and new editor Scott Denny continue to carry on the work and are even more committed to supporting Off-Off-Broadway.

It is so important that our community is represented in records like these that help to bring to light the importance of this sector and demonstrates, the number of productions, the variety, the innovation and the determination of the work being created in our community. And it is work that I am very proud of.

Over the next week, I will be posting the narravtives that I have written for the OOB section for the last few years. I hope you will find them insightful.