It was run by a Board of Directors which was composed of the company's founders along with Bob Holman, Susan Davis, Beth DeWoody, George Schneeman, and later Joanne Cassulon, Mark Charles, James Kraft, Rosie Levai, Michael O'Brian, and Paul Chupf.
The organization's first production, City Junket written by Kenward Elmslie and designed by Red Grooms, opened in 1980 accompanied by a smaller staging of Litany by John Ashbery with sets by Alex Katz.
In 1982 the company staged Ed Friedman's The White Snake using sets and costumes designed by Robert Kushner followed in 1983 by Paid on Both Sides by W.H.
In 1984 Eye and Ear produced the single-act drama Desire Caught by the Tail by Pablo Picasso with sets developed by Linda Benglis.
The next year the company produced a play it had commissioned from the poet Alice Notley, Anne's White Glove, on a set designed by Jane Dickson.