Café Cino

Café Cino
Name	Café Cino
Established	1958
Closed	1968
Location	Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City
Type	Coffeehouse, theatre

Café Cino

Café Cino was an influential small coffeehouse and theatre venue in Greenwich Village that became a crucible for experimental theatre, playwrights, directors, and actors associated with the emergence of Off-Off-Broadway, the avant-garde, and early LGBTQ+ drama in the United States. Founded by Joe Cino during the late 1950s, it launched careers connected to institutions and movements tied to Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, Judson Poets' Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, New York University, and the broader New York arts scene. The Cino milieu intersected with canonical figures and venues such as Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Actors Studio, New Dramatists, The Public Theater, and contemporaneous writers, directors, and performers who later worked on stages like Broadway and in media including The New York Times coverage.

History

The history of the venue is woven into the cultural fabric of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, and the postwar American avant-garde, with links to movements and institutions such as Beat Generation, Abstract Expressionism, Harlem Renaissance-era venues, and the birth of alternative theatre alongside entities like Caffe Cino-adjacent spaces in East Village and collaborations reaching artists associated with The Living Theatre, Charles Ludlam, Joe Papp, and the evolving landscape shaped by Lincoln Center expansion debates. The venue’s chronology intersects with social developments documented by newspapers and museums including The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Museum of Modern Art, and archival projects at New York Public Library collections.

Founding and Early Years

Founded in 1958 by restaurateur and arts patron Joe Cino, the space began as a coffeehouse and reading room that quickly developed into a performance venue, paralleling experimental efforts at Cafe Babar, Caffe Cino-era peers such as La MaMa, and historical precedents like Cherry Lane Theatre and The Living Theatre. Early programming drew contributors who trained or taught at schools and institutions like Juilliard School, Columbia University School of the Arts, Pratt Institute, and Cooper Union, and who participated in festivals and residencies at places such as the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and Yaddo. The Cino’s basement staging and minimal technical resources fostered collaborations with scenographers and designers later linked to Tony Awards-winning productions and influential companies like Mabou Mines and Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater.

Productions and Notable Plays

The programming roster featured early works by playwrights whose careers intersected with institutions and awards including Obie Award, Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and festivals at Spoleto Festival USA. Notable plays and premieres associated with artists of the Cino circle include works by playwrights who later appeared in anthologies alongside Sam Shepard, Edward Albee, Lanford Wilson, Maria Irene Fornes, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, and Oscar Wilde revivals. Productions often featured experimental approaches comparable to productions at The Wooster Group, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Kitchen, and drew directors and actors who later worked with companies such as Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Royal Shakespeare Company tours in New York. The Cino repertoire included short plays, one-acts, and evenings of mixed bills that prefigured programming at Playwrights Horizons and the repertory seen in festivals curated by Arena Stage and Theatre de Lys.

Key Figures and Artists

Key figures and artists connected to the venue included founders, resident directors, actors, designers, and playwrights who later affiliated with institutions like Circle in the Square Theatre School, American Theatre Wing, Drama Desk Awards, and academic programs at Yale School of Drama. The roster encompassed names who collaborated with or influenced figures from The Living Theatre, Civic Light Opera, and major motion picture and television projects; alumni later worked with companies such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company, Signature Theatre Company, and appeared in productions covered by Variety and The New York Times Arts. The scene drew a cross-section of artists engaged with political and social movements documented alongside coverage of Stonewall riots and the broader trajectory of LGBTQ+ cultural history.

Influence on Off-Off-Broadway and LGBTQ+ Theatre

The venue’s influence extended into the Off-Off-Broadway movement and early LGBTQ+ theatre by providing a platform for plays addressing sexuality, identity, and nonconformity at a time when institutions such as Stonewall Inn, Gay Liberation Front, Mattachine Society, and Daughters of Bilitis were central to activism. Its aesthetic and programming influenced venues and companies like La MaMa, The Public Theater, and festivals that showcased queer work, contributing to later institutional recognition at places such as New York City Center, Lincoln Center Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, and university programs at Rutgers University and City College of New York. The Cino’s legacy informed dramaturgies later explored by playwrights and scholars tied to Lambda Literary, GLAAD, and archival initiatives within the New York Public Library LGBT Community Center collections.

Closure and Legacy

Following the death of Joe Cino in the late 1960s, the venue closed, but its legacy persisted through the careers of artists who carried its ethos to institutions such as Broadway, Off-Broadway, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and numerous regional theatres including Actors Theatre of Louisville and Steppenwolf. Retrospectives and scholarly work about the venue appear in catalogs, museum exhibitions, and academic studies associated with New York University, Columbia University, and theater history programs that examine the development of American experimental theatre alongside archives held by New York Public Library and oral histories collected by institutions like Smithsonian Institution. The influence on LGBTQ+ cultural history and experimental dramaturgy continues to be cited in monographs, anthologies, and curricula at conservatories and universities across the United States.

Category:Off-Off-Broadway Category:Greenwich Village Category:LGBT theatre