A Fond Farewell to the Kraine Theatre

Just got the message in my in-box that this is the last week of shows at the Kraine Theatre, at least under the management it has known for the past however-many years. I’ve known the day was looming for months, but have deemed it premature to eulogize ’til now, seeing as how its managing director Erez Ziv has pulled off many a last-minute miracle over the years to put out one metaphorical fire after another, as all theatre directors must do. But now here it is: shows tonight through Sunday, and then Frigid New York (formerly known as Horse Trade) will retrench to its other wonderful space Under St. Marks. KGB Bar (2nd Floor) and The Red Room (top floor), under different management, remain where they are.

Now, I’ve eulogized many a shuttering downtown venue here over the years, and this one isn’t like that. Because, as I’ve said, Frigid still has a remaining space, and Erez is just the kind of guy who could conceivably expand again when the right opportunity comes along. He’s got it on the ball, that guy. But also (and I don’t know this to be the case), it’s conceivable that the Kraine space will continue to be a theatre under new management. Indeed the first times I was ever in that space were before Horse Trade had even moved in there. I hope so. We need small, affordable theatres. In this real estate market, though, don’t hold your breath.

I’m feeling sad and sentimental though as I sift through happy memories from across the decades. I’ll miss this sign over the theatre doors:

I’ll miss picking up postcards for shows that look interesting from that little shelf in front of the tiny box office. I’ll miss talking to friends through that box office window as though it were an interactive puppet show. I’ll miss spending time in the microscopic business office, which is almost a literal phone booth.

I didn’t work there tons compared with some of the other downtown spaces, but I did a lot of my most recent theatrical work there. My 2021 solo show about the Pilgrims and Native Americans was on that stage. My 2016 presentation Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was in that space. My 2013 Burlesque-a-pades collaboration with Angie Pontani was there.

And of course I saw a gazillion things there. In fact, I seem to recall that the last play I attended before the 2020 Covid lockdown (Nancy Drewinsky) was there, as was one of the first things I saw AFTER the lockdown, Michele Carlo’s 2021 What a Difference a Year Makes. As for whatever the first thing I ever saw there was, sometime way back in the ’90s, it is forever lost in the mists of time. Ah, the ephemerality of theatre. Keep a diary, kids! The stuff you don’t write down WILL pass away.