[8] A recent highlight was winning the Drama Desk Award for Sustained Achievement for "nearly four decades of artistic distinction, innovative production, and provocative play selection.

"[9][10][11] Notable artists who have recently created work at the theater, often early in their careers, include: David Adjmi, César Alvarez, Annie Baker, Alice Birch, Christopher Chen, Jackie Sibblies Drury, debbie tucker green, Aleshea Harris, Lucas Hnath, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Daniel Alexander Jones, Young Jean Lee, Richard Maxwell, Nature Theater of Oklahoma and Anne Washburn.

[12] Critics note the “jaw dropping premieres” and “big plays in a small room”[13] as defining features of the theater’s programming.

New Yorker theatre critic Hilton Als wrote about current director Sarah Benson: Under her directorship I have never seen a boring production—a very rare thing, indeed.

Their initial focus was on rarely seen classical plays, such as works by Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Molière, Jean Anouilh, Michel de Ghelderode, Eugene O'Neill and Samuel Beckett.

[26][33] Benson's production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's An Octoroon won an Obie for Best New American Play and transferred to Theatre for a New Audience.

[34] Taibi Magar's production of Aleshea Harris' 'Is God Is' re-opened Walkerspace in 2018 following renovations and won multiple Obie awards.

[18][40][41][42] In 1985, Bob Moss of Playwrights Horizons, assisted by the mayor's office and a grant from the Manhattan Borough President, helped them relocate to a 100-seat neo-classical theater attached to Bellevue Hospital.

[43] While the theatre had a separate entrance from the psychiatric hospital, sometimes backstage their actors and writers rode the same elevator with patients, recalled playwright Mac Wellman.