The Labor Theater was founded in 1973 by Bette Craig and Chuck Portz to provide theater to working class people and produce plays based on contemporary social and economic problems. Craig and Portz were given a grant from the endowment for the Arts in 1978, which allowed them to travel to England and explore the labor theater community there. The Theater was at its most active in the early 1980s, producing plays such as "Bandits," "Jack London," "The Bottom Line," "Ragged Trousered Philanthropist," and others, often written by Portz and Craig. In addition to working out of their permanent location in New York (336 W.20th Street), the theater also toured around the country from early in its inception. The Theater received funding by both endowment funds and labor unions, like the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. By 1987, the Labor Theater turned into Realization Productions.