Please note: the League of Independent Theater is not directly affiliated with any of the organizations below.

If you know of something that isn’t on the list, contact us and let us know!

Political Calendars

• League of Independent Theater Activism and Engagement Calendar - This Google calendar contains League events, as well as opportunities for arts activism in the community and arts activist skills-building.

• TakeActionNYC - A calendar of #resist political events.

Political Resources

• BallotReady - Figure out what's going to be on your ballot, and then save your choices ahead of time.

• NYC Votes – Official New York City Campaign Finance Board’s website, which has lots of helpful resources on how to vote, how to register to vote, who is running in upcoming elections, and more. Definitely stop #1 for any election being held in the City.

• Gotham Gazette - After acquiring DecideNYC, organizes information and updates on local NYC elections.

• MyGovNYC.org - Super helpful website for looking up who represents you in New York City, State, and Federal government.

Space Resources

• IndieSpace - New not-for-profit chartered to help arts organizations move into permanent spaces.

• League of Independent Theater Subsidized Rehearsal Space Program

• The Artist Co-Op - shared rehearsal, office, and storage space for arts companies.

• SpaceFinder NYC - Look up spaces for rehearsal and performance, check availability, and find contact information and in some cases book online. (Working outside New York? SpaceFinder is in other cities across the US and Canada)

• Theater Block - a subsidized space project of FABnyc in partnership with local cultural organizations that aims to maximize the potential of available rehearsal space in the East Fourth Street Cultural District.

Affordable Living and Housing

• Affordable Actor Living (Facebook) – A website, blog, em.ail list, and FB group focused on tips and resources on how to live affordably as a theatermaker in New York. (Don’t worry, writers and directors, it can help you too!)

• Ghostlight Housing – A Facebook group connecting theatermakers to short-term housing. Open group which requires approval from an existing member.

• NYC Housing Connect – The official New York City landing page for information on Affordable Housing. Includes all the different types of low-cost housing: public, Section 8, Mitchell-Lama, and more.

• NYC Housing Development Corporation – Includes listing of housing partially financed by the HDC, with information how to apply.

• NYC Loft Tenants – Resources, information, and advocacy on behalf of tenants in NYC who are illegally living in commercial or factory buildings, and organizes housing clinics for those tenants. Find out what your rights are, and get help when you need it.

• Urban Homesteading Assistance Board – Resources and support for housing co-operatives that will remain affordable to people of modest means.

Insurance and Health Resources

• Actor's Fund - information and resources on health insurance for actors and stage managers.

• CIMA World Volunteer Accident Insurance - source for volunteer accident insurance.

• Fractured Atlas - general liability, volunteer accident, health insurance, craft insurance, and more.

• NYC Well - Free and confidential mental health support through phone, email, and chat.

Legal/Housing Resources

• Housing Court Answers - An extremely readable site with information for tenants and advocates to understand housing law and housing court.

• New York City Bar Association's Monday Night Law - A community service program providing free consultations with volunteer lawyers. The consultation is a chance for you to discuss questions you may have about a legal issue or process, and an opportunity to have a lawyer help you figure out what to do next.

• New York Peace Institute - Provides free mediation services in cases where there are disputes between two or more people, as an alternative in some cases to court or the criminal justice system.

• Tenants and Neighbors - Activism and resources on behalf of tenants' rights.

• Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts – A resource to connect artists to pro bono and low cost legal services. Also holds classes and events about non-profit law, and legal clinics.

Diversity in Hiring Resources

• The Women and TGNC Artists Database has a list of artists who identify as women or TGNC that you can collaborate with.

Anti-Sexual Harassment Resources

• Refer to the League of Independent Theater's Anti-Sexual Harassment Toolkit for a list of resources

Materials

• Art Cube – A collaborative list-serv for efficient problem-solving to help reduce cost and overhead.

• Donate.NYC - A materials sharing site from New York City's Department of Sanitation.

• Fourth Arts Block: Load OUT! Program – A regular event allowing artists and art students to take any materials donated at Fourth Arts Block.

• The Freecycle Network – A network of donating materials to prevent them from winding up in landfills.

• Lower East Side Ecology Center Prop Library - LES Ecology Center is an e-recycling center (so bring your old electronics here when you're done with them!), and also has a prop library where you can borrow old electronics (TVs, computers, etc.) as props for your productions.

• Materials for the Arts – A reuse center, accepting donations of materials and allowing their members to take those materials for free.

• Theatre Development Fund: Costume Collection – A rental house for costumes with a broad selection of unique and period costumes.

Immigration, Visas, Cultural Mobility

• Artist Visas – Website from an Immigration Lawyer (Eric Schaub) that also lays out the O-1 and Greencard processes.

• Artists from Abroad - Website from the League of American Orchestras and Association of Performing Arts Presenters, laying out information on how to bring overseas artists to the United States, and what tax implications there may be.

• Cultural Mobility Funding Guide - Guide to artist mobility funds across the world.

• On The Move - Blog and resources for helping international artists get around. Most important: check out their global funding guides to find funding support for moving artists around.

Event Listings

• No Proscenium - Newsletter and podcast for interactive, immersive, site-specific performance. Covers LA, SF, Chicago, NYC, and the West Coast.

• Nonsense NYC - Email newsletter informing its subscribers about "independent art, weird events, strange happenings, unique parties, and senseless culture." Does not typically include traditional theater, but immersive, site-specific, non-traditional performance is often included.

• Time Out New York - Event listing available freely.

• The Skint - Free and cheap events, daily, via email blast.

Sources for Material

• New Play Exchange - Mentioned above, the New Play Exchange is another portal for discovering and reading new works.

Knowledge Resources

• Coursera - free online courses, including core business practices (e.g. accounting, marketing).

• edX - free online courses, including core business practices (e.g. accounting, marketing).

• SuperSummary - resources on theatre history and practice, including resources for teaching artists.

Podcasts

• Art Work, by Fourth Arts Block - Round table discussions about the creation of theater and contemporary issues that effect it, based out of New York's Independent Theater community.

• Go See A Show! - Candid discussions with creators of theater productions that are currently running.

• HowlRound - Multiple podcasts run by the Howlround discussion community, including theater history, interviews with creators, and more.

Television, Online Video, and Streaming

• Facebook Live - Allows you to broadcast live video through Facebook.

• HowlRound TV - HowlRound provides livestreaming resources -- contact them to find out more.

• Periscope - Livestreaming social network.

• Public Access Television - allows anyone who is a resident to create television to be broadcast and distributed online - all you need is to take a certification class. Once you're certified, you get free access to recording equipment and TV studios. They also offer classes on a variety of audio and visual skills. There's one network per borough.

  • Brooklyn Free Speech

  • BronxNet

  • Manhattan Neighborhood Network

  • Queens Public Television

  • Staten Island Community Television

• YouTube Live - Allows you to broadcast live video through

• YouTube, although it requires you to find your own method of encoding the live video.

Unions and Professional Associations

• Actors’ Equity – Union for stage actors and stage managers. Producers should familiarize themselves with the Codes and Contracts (typically the Showcase Code) before working with Equity members.

• Dramatists’ Guild – Professional Association for playwrights, composers, and lyricists.

• Freelancer’s Guild – Union for freelancers, including both networking and advocacy.

• League of Professional Theatre Women – A membership organization for women working in the performing arts.

• Stage Directors’ and Choreographers’ Guild – Union for professional stage directors and choreographers.

Community Organizations

• Artspace – A nationwide advocacy organization for developing affordable space for artists and arts organizations. Check out PS 109, the affordable housing project they led in Harlem.

• BRIC - A Brooklyn-based arts organization with residencies and other resources for performing artists, as well as artists in other mediums.

• Bronx Council on the Arts – Advocacy, grants, and other services for Bronx arts organizations and artists.

• Brooklyn Arts Council - Advocacy, grants, and other services for Brooklyn arts organizations and artists.

• Brooklyn Arts Exchange – Services, residencies, and space for rental in Brooklyn.

• Brooklyn Commune – An organization of thinkers convening to research and advocate for a more equitable and sustainable arts economy.

• Candid – Provides resources for non-profits and philanthropy. Important resource: the Foundation Directory, which allows you to search funders and their grants for free.

• Fourth Arts Block – Manhattan’s sole cultural district, and a community organization for the theater spaces on East 4th Street, and the artists who work there.

• Harlem Arts Alliance – A network of arts organizations practicing in Harlem.

• Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics – An academic institution for independent artists and activists throughout the Western Hemisphere. Maintains the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library, which preserves documentation of performance art.

• La MaMa Archive – A public archive for the performances and events at La MaMa for over 50 years.

• Lower Manhattan Cultural Council – Grants, professional development, and residencies for artists and organizations working in Lower Manhattan.

• Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts - A working group connecting individuals and organizations working to create and sustain arts communities throughout New York.

• The New Off Off Broadway Community Dish – A Facebook group for communication between independent theater artists.

• New York Public Library for the Performing Arts - A public library devoted to the performing arts. Includes the Billy Rose Collection, one of the largest archives of the performing arts, and the Theater on Film and Tape Archive, where live performances in New York going back to 1970 can be watched.

• North Manhattan Arts Alliance - Advocacy, grants, and other services for arts organizations and artists in Washington Heights and Inwood.

• The Point – A cultural and economic development organization for Hunts Point section of South Bronx.

• Queens Council on the Arts - Advocacy, grants, and other services for Queens arts organizations and artists.

• Staten Island Arts - Advocacy, grants, and other services for Staten Island arts organizations and artists.

• Village Alliance – A Business Improvement District for Greenwich business. Listed theaters are here.

Service and Support Organizations

• Actors’ Fund – Provides services for those in the performing arts and entertainment industry. Programs include: The Actors Fund Work Program (which helps actors find side work to sustain themselves), as well as social, healthcare, and financial services.

• Actors Federal Credit Union – A credit union for working performers. See if you’re eligible.

• Alliance of Repertory Theaters, New York (ART/NY) - An arts service organization for non-profit producing theatre organizations, offering grants, workshops, loans, space rentals, workshops, education services, networking and more.

• Broadway Green Alliance – Originally created to help Broadway Theaters, the Broadway Green Alliance has an Off-Broadway chapter for smaller theaters to get greening resources; their Green Captain program provides resources for any production to step up its green game.

• Eventcombo - A website to create and manage your free and ticketed events, with customization such as the ability to sell tickets and offer registration directly from your website, bundling ticketing with affiliate programs, and utilizing multiple locations per event . They also offer help promoting your event on Facebook, email and more.

• The Field - A fiscal sponsor organization, which also provides access to other services.

• Fractured Atlas – An arts service and advocacy organization, with a breadth of services, including NYC Performing Arts Spaces (a searchable listing for rehearsal and performance space of every kind), fiscal sponsorship, insurance (liability, health, etc.), and Artful.ly (an online ticketing and patron management system).

• IndieSpace - A not-for-profit chartered to help arts organizations move into permanent spaces.

• The Indie Theater Fund – A granting organization that collects a nickel from ticket sales in order to provide grants for projects that support the entire community. A separate organization from the League of Independent Theater.

• National New Play Network – A network for theater companies dedicated to new works, and playwrights who create them – with grants and residencies to help support companies that create new works, and the New Play Exchange to help connect new plays to producers and dramaturgs.

• New York Foundation for the Arts - An arts service organization providing fiscal sponsorship, resources, and other support for New York arts.

• Pentacle – A services organizations for dancers and dance organizations, including fiscal sponsorship, back office services, mentorship, and more.

• Theater Development Fund – A general service organization for the performing arts, including their Off-Off Program (which allows TDF members to see independent theater for $11, of which $10 goes to the producers of the show), accessibility and education programs, the costume collection, and more.

• Theater Resources Unlimited – An online listing of resources for theater producers, actors, writers, and directors, including networking resources, seminars, and other resources.

• Theatre Communications Group – A membership organization with publications (including American Theater), seminars, research resources, and advocacy information.

Government Agencies

• Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (“Made in NY”) - Theater production incentives, including tax breaks and discounts for eligible theater companies.

• Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA): Arts For Transit – The arts program within the MTA public transit organization.

• New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services – Among other things, a city agency which manages city-owned property not being directly administered by other agencies. Some information on how to reserve certain spaces is online, but other spaces may be available by speaking to the department.

• New York City Department of Cultural Affairs – A city agency for grants and support for arts organizations.

• New York State Council on the Arts – A state agency for grants and support for arts organizations.