Well, I no longer produce my own work, which helps spare me a lot of hassle. Believe me, there's an entire cottage industry of arts spaces (among many other things like acting schools and photographers) who prey on the dreams of young actors, comedians, etc.
13th Street Rep are total fucking lunatics, though, by far the worst I've ever encountered. Back in 1997, when I was just starting out, I had a couple of crappy but basically serviceable one-acts that some director in residence there wanted to do. I lost touch with the guy because my life fell apart, and when I went back to see what had happened, I only got bits and pieces of the story, but evidently this entire group (I don't know if it was a class or workshop or just their resident company) had disbanded due in part to fighting over my plays. My friend Adam did a play with them 2 or 3 years ago and according to him everyone there is still 150 years old and insane.
There are some OK rental spaces around, still, though - Access Theater on lower Broadway is pretty good, The Abingon in midtown isn't bad, and there's the Ohio in Soho, and HERE on 6th Ave. Soho Rep, the theater I work with, occasionally rents out its space on Walker Street, though I think they're trying to phase that out. The Baruch Performing Arts Center where we did 1001 was great, though I think it was really expensive, and it's kind of out of the way, which I think hurt us a little. Theater Row Studios on 42nd are also OK, though again that's like Off-Broadway-level producing (plus I think from an artistic standpoint, those spaces are totally deadly). I'm sort of out on the loop when it comes to cheaper space rentals these days but I'd be happy to put you in touch with people who run their own companies.
