Mission:
The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, the creator of OffBroadwayOnline.com, provides small theater companies and artists working in the Off Broadway community with low-cost office space, rehearsal studios, technical assistance, and professional development opportunities. It also provides financial assistance and acts as an advocate for the arts at the state and local levels.

Purpose of Site:
A.R.T./New York's OffBroadwayOnline.com is an Internet portal that serves as a central information source about Off Broadway companies and their current performances. The site was designed to help users sort through the dozens of productions playing in New York City on any given day to find one that suits a particular preference, location, and budget. Major support for OffBroadwayOnline.com was provided by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

Background:
Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York is the primary service organization for the nation's largest, most artistically influential, and most culturally diverse theater community — Off Broadway. It currently serves nearly 400 nonprofit theaters and related organizations, which, in turn, entertain more than six million theatergoers each year. The Off Broadway community is the single largest source of new work entering the American repertory and has produced fifteen winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Home Page:
After an eye-catching animated Flash presentation, users are welcomed to the OffBroadwayOnline.com home page with a brief introduction of the site, its purpose, and how it works. In addition to links that lead to various Off Broadway productions, the home page includes links to A.R.T./New York's report on how nonprofit theaters are faring in the wake of September 11th, the site's search tool, a subscription page for mailing lists, and a comment page. Links along the left side of the home page lead to sponsors and the recipients of the organization's local hero awards, which recognize those who make outstanding contributions to the local theater community.

Outstanding Feature:
The site for New York City theatergoers helps users find productions by generating lists sorted by category, title of the work, theater company, neighborhood, subject, and author. It also provides lists of theaters that are offering specials or accepting vouchers from the city's Theatre Development Fund. Any of the lists can be viewed simply by selecting the appropriate category from the set of links at the top of every page throughout OffBroadwayOnline.com. From those lists, users can click on a title, theater name, or other specific to view a page of details about the production that includes theater and ticket information, the subject of the play, its author, and more.

Honorable Mention:
OffBroadwayOnline.com's search page has the ability to help someone looking for something as specific as an experimental production of a classic play for under $15 on the last Thursday of the month. Instead of browsing broader lists, users can utilize search tool options such as a pull-down menu of neighborhoods, check boxes for the main categories of work, and a pull-down menu of theaters. Users can also enter the date; select price requirements; and type in author names, titles, or keywords to narrow their search.