Virginia (Guild, August Wilson) Theatre
245 West 52nd Street / NYC
(from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
(from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Designed by architects C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and constructed by the Theatre Guild, it opened as the Guild Theatre in 1925 with a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra.
In 1943, the building was leased to WOR-Mutual Radio as a studio. The American National Theater and Academy purchased it in 1950 and renamed it the ANTA Theatre. In 1981, the theatre was purchased by Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation and named the Virginia Theatre for owner and Jujamcyn Board member Virginia McKnight Binger.
After her husband James H. Binger's death in 2004, producer and president of Jujamcyn Rocco Landesman announced that he planned to buy Jujamcyn. He told the New York Times he had a long-standing understanding with Binger that he would buy the corporation's five playhouses. The theatres had an estimated net asset value of $30 million.
On October 16, 2005, fourteen days after American playwright August Wilson's untimely death, the theatre was renamed in his honor.
