About indietheater.org

Welcome to indietheater.org! We provide in-depth, independent coverage of New York City's independent theatre scene. The links on the sidebar at the right will direct you to a variety of resources that will help you learn about indie theater in NYC: how to find it, who makes it, and what's currently going on.

So what exactly is indie theater? Actually, it's just what the name implies: theater that's independent, economically and artistically, from the mainstream. It's theater that's not beholden to any specific business or interest group. The budgets are smaller than what you'll find in a Broadway or off-Broadway venue, but the breadth of accomplishment—the ability and desire to take risks, to try new things, to challenge and engage the audience—is significantly greater.

The indie theater movement got its name from playwright Kirk Wood Bromley. It was officially launched at the First Ever Indie Theater Convocation, which was called by The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. on April 9, 2006. At that meeting, more than 120 indie theater artists came together for the first time to talk about how to start spreading the word about this burgeoning and important but heretofore loosely understood sector of the NYC theatre community. This website is the direct result of that meeting.

How can you get more involved with indie theater? If you're an audience member, patronize the shows and companies listed here; support them by buying tickets and by becoming active participants in the theatre experiences and events they provide. Bookmark indietheater.org's home page and make indie theater a regular part of your arts and entertainment diet.

If you're an indie theater artist, make sure that your company and your shows are part of this site. And please help make indietheater.org the most trusted, comprehensive, and powerful resource for our community by linking to it from your website.

Kirk Wood Bromley on the notion of "indie theater"

[this is excerpted from a comment that Bromley wrote for the nytheatre i blog in late 2005]

What am I trying to describe with the term "Indie Theater"? I think the answer is easy—I'm describing "artist-driven" theater, as opposed to "producer-driven" theater. That which, at every point in its development, answers the question "What do we do here?" with the answer "Whatever the artists want," NOT with "Whatever the producer wants." Theater that has as its sole goal the creation of something satisfying to the involved artists' sensibilities, not the creation of something gratifying to the involved producers' financial portfolio and its various budgetary outlays and speculations. Theater that is done to please the audience as the artist imagines it, not as the producer imagines it (and these are two VERY different audiences, for "the audience" is simply something we imagine as existing, something we create in our minds in its various forms, tastes, characteristics, demands, and then we create in line with that imagination, we create to "meet" that image).

Indie Theater is the term that describes the kind of theater that is done the way the artist wants to do it. The producer helps facilitate the artist's vision (as opposed to the artist facilitating the producer's budget). The artist is "independent." The artist is "free."

....And my final comment: this notion is not new. Look at music. Just look at music. If you're someone with any musical taste, there's one thing you look for in music—a free artist making music as she or he wants to. You know the sound of crappy pop when you hear it, and you don't want to hear it. You want to hear a musician being free to compose and perform what she or he is hearing. And the freedom of the musician is by and large what turns you on. Watch the Bob Dylan special on PBS and you'll see that "indie" has nothing to do with popularity. Billions can become enthralled with someone simply because she or he is indie. It is an attractant!