New Arts Center, Theatre Rehearsal Space Opens in Midtown Manhattan

A new arts center is opening in midtown Manhattan to provide rehearsal and teaching space for performing arts organizations. Houghton Hall Arts Community offers 17,000 square feet of rehearsal rooms, acting studios, offices, and meeting space to performing arts organizations, teachers, actors, and other arts professionals for low hourly, daily, or weekly rates. Future plans include a coffee shop, art gallery, open mic nights, and special events. Houghton Hall is currently accepting applications for new users at HoughtonHallArts.org.

Scarlet Maressa Rivera, a longtime performer and theatre arts professional, has been hired as the managing director. "The most important word in our name is 'community'," notes Rivera. "Three years ago, the New York theatre world was devastated by the pandemic - 'first to close, last to open' - and a number of rehearsal facilities shut down as a result. We will help fill that gap, but we envision Houghton Hall not just as a space to rehearse but a home for creativity and collaboration." Rivera has a lot of experience with that concept herself, having worked for ten years at Irondale Center in Brooklyn and as co-founder of Letter of Marque, both ensemble-based theatrical groups.

Located at 22 East 30th Street, Houghton Hall is owned by the Church of the Transfiguration, an Episcopal Church with a long history of inclusion of those marginalized by society. It has been associated with the theatre community since the 1860s when it was one of the only churches in Manhattan willing to conduct funerals for actors. A famous actor, Joseph Jefferson, gave it the nickname "The Little Church Around the Corner."

Houghton Hall is named for the Rev. George H. Houghton, the Church's first rector, who committed Transfiguration to inclusion and dignity for all. Under his leadership, Transfiguration was a stop on the Underground Railroad and a sanctuary for hundreds of African-Americans during the Draft Riots of the Civil War. Since 1923, it has been the home of the Episcopal Actors Guild, which brought even more famous actors through its doors. The rehearsal rooms at Houghton Hall are named for actors who have been associated with the church and the Guild over the years, including Rex Harrison, Fred and Adele Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Edwin Booth.

"This is a momentous year," said the Rev. John David van Dooren, the church's eighth and current rector. "The Church of the Transfiguration is 175 years old this year, the Episcopal Actors Guild is celebrating its centennial, and now we are officially opening the doors of Houghton Hall Arts Community. It's an exciting time for our parish and our extended church family."

The co-founders of Houghton Hall are Christina Germaine, an actor who envisioned what the church-owned space could become, and Katherine Hutt, a communications consultant with years of experience working with nonprofits. Both serve on the vestry of Transfiguration and, when the previous tenant moved out, presented a plan to the vestry to turn the vacant rental space into a much-needed theatre facility.

Over the past year, more than a dozen groups have been "beta users" of Houghton Hall, including Fiasco Theater, Urban Angels, Developing Artists, Bedlam, Rattlestick Theater, National Black Theatre, Heidi Marshall Studio, Letter of Marque, Marquis Studios, The Drawing Board, New Light Theater Project, Pandemonium Studio, The Actors Center, and Red Bull Theater. The co-founders have been advised by Indie Space, the Episcopal Actors Guild, Partners for Sacred Places, The Artists Co-op, and the beta users.

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