from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
April 30, 2008
www.gvshp.org
The historic Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, 133-139 MacDougal Street
Dear friend,
The effort to save the Provincetown Playhouse is gaining growing support, and is clearly having an impact. Please join us in the fight! Here is the latest:
Letter-writing Campaign: Literally hundreds and hundreds of people from across the city, country, and globe have written to NYU urging them to reconsider plans to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse (we got several letters from China and Japan today). GVSHP has sent a sign-on letter to NYU President Sexton urging him to drop plans to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, signed by dozens of prominent preservationists, community leaders, theater producers and academics, and artists and entertainers. New names are being added to the letter every day. If you haven't already written NYU urging them to drop their plans to demolish the Playhouse, please do; if you have, please forward this e-mail and the link to our sample letters and ask a friend, neighbor, or family member to write.
Media Attention: NYU's plan to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse and the campaign to save the building has received an increasing amount of media attention, including from the Associated Press (which has been picked up widely) and the New York Times today.
NYU Response: In response to the avalanche of letters and criticism it has received regarding its plans to demolish the Playhouse building, today NYU issued a document entitled "Rebuilding the Provincetown Playhouse and Honoring a Cultural Institution" -- their rationale for their plan to raze the building to the ground. The basic premise is that because the Provincetown Playhouse was altered 70 years ago, the building has little or no cultural significance, and a better way of "honoring" it would be to demolish the building and constructing a new one. See GVSHP's reponse.
Public Hearing on May 28th: GVSHP is enlisting help to publicize the public hearing on May 28th at which NYU will be presenting their plans for demolition of the Provincetown Playhouse, and the public will have an opportunity to respond. Please download the flyer we created and circulate it to your friends, family, and neighbors, and encourage them to attend the hearing on May 28th at 6:30 pm at the Caring Community, 20 Washington Square North.
GVSHP and a broad coalition of neighbors, preservationists, and theater and arts advocates are working hard to prevent demolition of the Provincetown Playhouse from taking place; for more information, see www.gvshp.org/PTown.htm, and to get more involved, contact us at gvshp@gvshp.org.
Andrew Berman, Executive Director
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
212/475-9585 x38
232 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003
To join GVSHP or support our preservation efforts, go to www.gvshp.org/membership.htm
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