Abingdon Theatre Company was founded by five theatre artists with one common goal — to develop and produce new plays exclusively by American playwrights. In January 1993, a group of professional theatre artists eager for ongoing collaboration and greater control over their creative lives gathered in a brownstone near New York City's Abingdon Square Park for a series of bi-weekly readings of new plays. After a few months of informal meetings, enthusiasm swelled and the artists pooled their theatrical experience to establish an open-door home where they could collaborate, invite their colleagues to join the process, and develop new plays by American playwrights.