*This story, first published October 22, has been updated to include a quote from former Connelly General Manager Josh Luxenberg.

The Archdiocese of New York has issued new content guidelines for Off-Broadway's Connelly Theater, whose building is owned by the church. The new guidelines prohibit works with themes that could be deemed as inappropriate by the Catholic Church, according to gender equity-focused Off-Broadway theatre festival SheNYC Arts. The company says they have been booted from the venue completely, and are now faced with finding a new home for their productions. 

According to SheNYC Arts, the barred themes include reproductive rights, trans characters, and gender issues. They are also reporting that the priest in charge of the jurisdiction is screening scripts to ensure they fit within Catholic doctrines. SheNYC Arts usually presents its summer theatre festival—focusing on plays by trans, non-binary, and female artists—at the Connelly. It will now have to find a new venue for next summer.

The New York Times is reporting that the new guidelines has forced the suspension of the theatre altogether, with Director and General Manager Josh Luxenberg resigning from his position last week. An emailed request for a statement—sent to the venue's management team, triggered an auto response indicating receipt by Luxenberg and Theatre Management Associate Mele Sabú Borges. A statement was not submitted by time of publication. Neither Luxenberg nor Borges are associated with the Archdiocese of New York beyond their work with the theatre.

The relationship between the Archdiocese and the Connelly Theater is complicated. The Archdiocese owns the building the Connelly is in, which is called the Connelly Center and which houses the theatre and a school for low-income girls grades four through eight. The revenue from the theatre was used to fund the school's programs.

Luxenberg told Playbill that he had been in charge of curating work at the Connelly for the past 10 years. Previously, Luxenberg would send work contracts for the shows coming in to the pastor of the nearby church, which was on Third Street (the Connelly is on Fourth Street). The pastor—there were actually several during Luxenberg's tenure—would approve the contracts. But then this past summer, when the latest pastor of the local church left, the Archdiocese didn’t replace him. The Archdiocese’s office then requested that the Connelly Center send them the script of every show that he wanted to go into the theatre.

Luxenberg said that though the Archdiocese never said what the new content guidelines specifically were, he noticed that the church was putting content featuring trans characters or gender issues under greater scrutiny. “I've been fighting as hard as I possibly can to get back to the place where we were, but it became clear that that was not going to be possible, that we could not get these plays put up, and that a whole range of other types of content and identities would not be welcome on the Connelly stage,” he says. “And so once that was clear to me, I knew that I needed to step down. I, obviously, was not going to be able to run a theatre that discriminates.”

The venue, located in Manhattan's East Village, has housed such productions as Job (currently playing a Broadway transfer at the Helen Hayes Theatre), Kate Berlant's Kate, Pulitzer finalist Circle Jerk, Bedlam's 2019 The Crucible, and The Bengsons' The Lucky Ones—many of which contained content that would almost assuredly not pass the venue's new standards. The space has also proved a popular choice for film and TV, housing shoots for Pose and a recent Newsies-themed voting PSA.

“The Archdiocese has specifically called out our past shows at the Connelly Theater, calling them ‘inappropriate’ for discussing issues like reproductive rights and gender and making it clear to us that shows like that will not be allowed in the future,” says SheNYC Arts Founder and Artistic Director Danielle DeMatteo in a statement. “Especially just a few weeks before our election that could determine the future of our rights, it is truly shocking that discussion of reproductive freedom is being censored in New York City.”

SheNYC Arts is not the only company affected by these new guidelines. The Tony Award-winning New York Theatre Workshop was also told it could no longer mount its production of Becoming Eve, about a rabbi who comes out as a transgender woman, at the Connelly. Becoming Eve was scheduled to run March 19–May 18, 2025 and NYTW is currently working on finding a new venue, according to the Times. 

The Broadway producers of Job, who gave the work an Off-Broadway run at the Connelly before its current Broadway bow, have released a statement in response to the news. It should be noted that the Connelly is not a producer of Job, Off-Broadway, Broadway, or otherwise.

Reads the statement: "We are shocked and disappointed that the Catholic Church has shuttered one of downtown’s most beloved theatres. Simply put, Job would not be on Broadway without the Connelly Theater.

"Great theatre is an exchange of ideas—an opportunity for audiences to develop empathy and understanding. The Church undermines that quest for shared humanity with its decision.

"We call on the Archdiocese to reopen the Connelly so artists and audiences can once again gather and experience the transcendence of live theatre. And in the meantime, we invite Cardinal Dolan to come to the Hayes Theater to see Job on Broadway. He can experience first-hand the powerful theatre he is now turning his back on."

As for Luxenberg, he admits he is saddened by what has happened, and what it means for the NYC theatre scene. In a city where small theatre spaces are slowly disappearing (so much so that New York State lawmakers have introduced a bill to address this issue), the loss of a Connelly is a major blow.

“They're disappearing. There are fewer and fewer [venues] that are in that small, Off-Broadway, professional house range,” says Luxenberg. “Part of what hurts so much is that it's totally unnecessary. Our revenue funded a charitable organization that provided full scholarship education to middle schoolers. And there was an economic driver in the neighborhood. I had a conversation with the owner of the wine bar across the street, who told me that she hired new staff for whenever we had a big show, because they got so much business. And so, I started letting the other establishments on the street know when we had a big show coming in, so they could be prepared. We were deeply embedded in the community, and there was a lot of good happening. And the Archdiocese has chosen to put a stop to all that."