HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALICE LEWISOHN
(April 17, 1883 - Jan. 6, 1972)

This rather theatrical pose of Ms. Lewisohn was taken in her early years as an actress.  In 1905 she and her sister Irene Lewisohn began classes and club work at the Henry Street Settlement House in NYC. They produced dance and theatre productions.

In 1915, they opened the Neighborhood Playhouse on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets.  The photo to the left is what the building looked like in 1916.

They offered training in both dance and drama to children and teenagers--Irene in charge of dance training; Alice in charge of the dramatic arts.  This was one of the city's early experimental theaters which staged innovative works and gave rise to the Off Broadway movement.  The three-story red brick neo-Georgian-style playhouse was built by Alice and her sister and was completely controlled by women.

One of its landmark productions was The Dybbuk in 1925.

When the Neighborhood Playhouse theatre company closed in 1927, the Henry Street Settlement took over the building and renamed it the Henry Street Playhouse. It later housed a modern dance school and was, in 1967, renamed for Harry de Jur, a former Henry Street Settlement director.