Skirball Center for the Performing Arts

Profile

Despite the Skirball Center’s location in the bowels of the NYU student center, this is no black-box space for undergrad one-acts. In fact, each season student performances are limited to a few shows, like that 2006 production of Hair with an entirely hairless cast. Most of the time, it’s international professionals�from the worlds of dance, music, and theater�taking the stage instead. Open since the fall of 2003, the center is still building its reputation, but the 865 red-velvet seats, light-wood-and-metallic paneling, and high ceilings lend seemingly random productions like Hamlet in Spanish or the New York Gypsy Festival a bit of airy elegance. The theater has also hosted major non-arts events, such as a live broadcast of The Apprentice’s third-season finale. — Kaitlin Jessing-Butz