Theatre Genesis was an off-off-Broadway theater founded in 1964 by Ralph Cook. Located in the historic St.
- Venue
- Theatre Genesis
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- Manhattan, US
Theatre Genesis was an off-off-Broadway theater founded in 1964 by Ralph Cook. Located in the historic St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan, it produced the work of new American playwrights, including Lanford Wilson, Tony Barsha, Murray Mednick, Leonard Melfi, Walter Hadler, and Sam Shepard. Theatre Genesis is often credited as one of the original off-off-Broadway theaters, along with Joe Cino's Caffe Cino, Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and Judson Poets Theatre. The theatre was known for its anarchistic, heterosexual, machismo energy, and often produced political plays. Like the other off-off-Broadway theatres, Theatre Genesis used a non-commercial model of production. A young, progressive Episcopalian rector named Michael Allen came to St. Mark's in 1963 and opened the parish to everyone from the neighborhood. He did outreach to the many demographics and ethnicities in the East Village, which included artists, counterculturists, immigrants, and homeless people, among others. Allen aimed to fund arts and education initiatives in order to reflect the character of the neighborhood. Unlike Judson Church, in the West Village, the cultural programming at St. Mark's received minimal resistance from the church's older, wealthier, more conservative members. Plays, poetry readings, underground films, and political gatherings began happening regularly at the church. Allen then decided an additional staff member was necessary to coordinate this programming, and hired Ralph Cook. After temporarily employing the curator Tom Pike, Allen met Ralph Cook, an actor, who came to one of Allen's Sunday services. Cook began coming to the church regularly, and Allen and Cook became friends. Allen hired Cook for the role of curator, as Cook was well-connected in the downtown arts scene and had many friends who were looking for a space to showcase their creative work. His friends included Sam Shepard, Murray Mednick, Leonard Melfi, and Tom Sa