The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts was the principal theatre of Pace University and is located at the University's New York City campus in Lower Manhattan. Facing City Hall near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and blocks from the World Trade Center, it provided performance and assembly facilities to the university and the general public.
- Venue
- Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts
- Town
- Manhattan, US
- Capacity
- 655
The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts was the principal theatre of Pace University and is located at the University's New York City campus in Lower Manhattan. Facing City Hall near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and blocks from the World Trade Center, it provided performance and assembly facilities to the university and the general public. Named after Michael Schimmel, a longtime benefactor of the university, the center featured a 655-seat theater, one of the largest theaters in Lower Manhattan. The center presented drama, dance, comedy, jazz, classical music and cabaret. Beginning in September 2005, the center has been home to the television show Inside the Actors Studio. In July 2023, the center closed as part of a major renovation to the One Pace Plaza building that will see the auditorium rebuilt into multiple smaller performing arts spaces. From 2002 through 2004, the National Actors Theatre (NAT), founded by actor Tony Randall - dedicated to presenting classic works of theater and theatrical education delivered at no cost to the students or their schools, was housed at the center; the center was the site of Tony Randall's final performance, as the raisonneur Laudisi in a production of the Luigi Pirandello play Right You Are (if you think so). The Schimmel Center was a founding venue for both the Tribeca Film Festival and the short-lived Tribeca Theater Festival. The center has hosted events of the River-to-River Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), and numerous other productions. In 2005 the center presented the New York premiere of the Beijing People's Art Theatre's signature work Tea House. Between 2009 and 2011, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (London) performed at the center. Beginning in 2002, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) has held regular public meetings at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts to discuss the future of Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center. Most notably on January 13-14, 2003, the