Broadway theatre
August Wilson Theatre
245 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019
The August Wilson Theatre opened in 1925 as the Guild Theatre, designed by Crane and Franzheim in a Tuscan villa-inspired style for the Theatre Guild. It went through a series of names — Guild, ANTA, Virginia — before being renamed in 2005 to honor playwright August Wilson, becoming the first Broadway house named for a Black playwright. The renaming arrived just two weeks before Wilson’s death.
The 1,228-seat interior reflects the venue’s Theatre Guild origins: a relatively shallow orchestra, a substantial single mezzanine, and a layout designed for the dialogue-driven plays the Guild championed in the 1920s. The mezzanine extends further forward than is typical, which means the rear orchestra under the overhang loses sight of anything high upstage — a real consideration for productions with significant aerial or upper-level staging. Center mezzanine in this house is unusually close.
The August Wilson is operated by Ambassador Theatre Group (formerly a Jujamcyn Theaters house) and sits on West 52nd Street, slightly farther uptown than the central cluster of Broadway venues.