What's a dance theater without an audience? The Henry Street Playhouse, part of the Abrons Art Center in Manhattan, which has been used as a food pantry since the pandemic closed performances, Feb. 2, 2021. Todd Heisler/The New York Times. by Brian Seibert (NYT NEWS SERVICE) .- At the Henry Street Playhouse on the Lower East Side, the seats are empty but the stage is crowded. The audience is gone, banned by pandemic restrictions, yet since last summer the stage has been covered every Tuesday in hundreds of bags of groceries, lined up to be delivered by stagehands, theater staff members and artists to nearby housing projects and senior homes.