Perry Street Theatricals

i founded Perry Street with Martin Platt at the end of 2003. Martin like’s to tell the story of how I was “Tom Sawyer’d” into meeting him. He was living in London at the time and had arrived in New York for the 2000 APAP Festival with four shows he was hoping to bring to the states.

I was in residence at New York Performance Works at the time (please see the Cold Productions section on the site). Andrew McTiernan, who would later open The Zipper Theatre, had invited Martin to use the theatre for his shows, telling Martin something akin to “he was not to worry. There is someone here who can make it all happen for you.”

Andrew led Martin into my office, introduced us, and in his wonderfully puckish way, promptly turned on his heel, “exeunting swiftly stage left,” leaving me with Martin who assumed I had been well-briefed and was ready to get his four shows on the stage. Martin then handed me a binder full of tech riders. As this was the first I had heard about any of this, I think I said something akin to “Nice to meet you… can I show you the theatre?” After a tech-period, we got Martin’s shows ready for an audience.

Martin and I stayed in touch, and a few years later, he moved to New York. We were meeting for breakfast, and since I lived on Perry Street at the time, we walked up Perry heading for a good diner on Greenwich Ave. and 12th St. As we walked past the dark Perry Street Theatre, Martin took notice of the sign still painted above the door, and asked me about it. I told him the theatre had sadly been shuttered for over 10 years. He called me a few days later and said, “we have a meeting with the building owners. I stuck a note in the mailbox.”

Thus began our time at the Perry Street Theatre and an over 20-year long friendship. Since 2003, it has been a partnership that saw us run a theatre then go on to Produce and General Manage nearly 40 productions, workshops and readings.

Some of the notable projects are listed below. For a look at the full scope of Perry Street Theatricals, please use this link to get to our website.