. >> reporter: john gould rubin is a theater director and producer who has been producing theater in new york for almost 15 years. he says that even working off- broadway the actual performance space often makes up the biggest cost in any production's budget. >> getting a theater is the most expensive expense. that'll be four, three-- four or $5,000 a week. >> reporter: a week? >> yeah. a week. for the theater that you're performing in. >> reporter: the cost of space isn't just driving up ticket prices. it's also driving artists and performers to some unlikely locations in the search to find cheaper or even free spaces to perform in. the e.p.a. added the gowanus canal to its list of superfund clean-up sites in 2010, and it says the canal is one of the nation's most seriously contaminated bodies of water. so it's not the first place you might think of for recreation, let alone putting on a play. but that's exactly what a group of local performance artists did in october. for three weeks this past fall the gowanus canal was transformed by night into the styx, the river that runs throug