In 1914, philanthropist sisters Alice Lewisohn (1883–1972) and Irene Lewisohn (1892–1944) bought a lot on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets on New York City’s Lower East Side and founded the Neighborhood Playhouse in 1915. The modest three-story red brick structure, designed by architects Harry C. Ingalls and F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., showed both motion pictures and theatrical performances. By 1920, the Playhouse became renowned for its avant-garde productions, often incorporating dance, music, and poetry, and for its popular revue, The Grand Street Follies. Many early 20th century modern dancers and artists found a professional home at the Neighborhood Playhouse, including Martha Graham and composers Ernest Bloch, Kurt Schindler, and Louis Horst. Other notables whose works were produced at the Neighborhood Playhouse include Agnes de Mille, Laura Elliott, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. This experimental theater and two other off-Broadway “little theaters” (Providence Playhouse and Washington Square Players) were to form the foundation for modern American performance. The Playhouse acting company officially disbanded in 1927 and the building was renamed the Henry Street Playhouse. The Lewisohn sisters and Rita Wallach Morganthau went on to establish the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in 1928. Irene Lewisohn would also found the Museum of Costume Art in 1937, which would later merge with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is now known famously as the Met Costume Institute.
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