In the mid-1980s, WOW Cafe Theater was central to the avant garde theatre and performance art scene in the East Village, New York City.

[1][2] Among the artists who have presented at the space are Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Patricia Ione LLoyd, Lisa Kron, Holly Hughes, Deb Margolin, Dancenoise, Carmelita Tropicana, Eileen Myles, Split Britches, Seren Divine, Johnny Science, and The Five Lesbian Brothers.

[7] At first, WOW primarily used the venue as an actual cafe rather than a performance space, selling sandwiches and coffee and serving more of a social purpose than an artistic one while they were getting settled.

Young's influence transformed the Cafe into a more formal space as well, allowing outside groups to organize and manage some of the events that took place there, rather than leaving all production responsibilities up to the Café for every performance.

They rejected the notion of changing their work to receive or maintain grants, insisting WOW was a place for complete freedom of expression for the outsiders of society.

[12] Because of this emphasis on the life experiences of lesbians, a lot of the subject matter of the performances had to do with gender roles and norms, often recreating them to highlight and challenge them as social constructs.

[12] Very often, the performers used comedy to facilitate the realization of these stereotypes and caricatures, exaggerating the gendered aspects of the characters they portrayed to highlight them.

WOW is a founding member of FAB, an organization created in 2001 by a coalition of cultural and community nonprofits on East 4th Street to save their homes.