The American Place Theatre was founded in 1963 by Wynn Handman and Sidney Lanier at St. Clement's Church, far west on 46th Street in Manhattan, and was incorporated as a non-profit theatre in that year. The first full production was Robert Lowell's theat re trilogy masterpiece, The Old Glory, in November 1964. Tennessee Williams and Myrna Loy were two of the original board members.

The Theatre's continuing mission is to offer audiences new challenging plays by living American writers which respond to the needs of our times and cut deeply into the fabric of American life.

In 1971, as a result of New York City's Special Theater District Zoning Resolution, the Theatre was invited to move into a new facility at 46th Street near 6th Avenue specifically created and designed for its work. The seven-story building contains three performing spaces ranging from the 340 seat large theatre to the intimate 75 seat First Floor Theatre, and Sub-plot Theatre, gallery, lounge, costume and set design studios, kitchen, cabaret space and administrative offices.

Each season many new productions are developed and produced, each running for an average of forty performances and many extended for engagements as long as several months. The Theatre operates on a special Off-Broadway production contract for its main st age plays. Numerous workshops, developmental projects, readings, and other activities supplement the regular season offerings.

In recent years, we have implemented several Education Programs including Literature to Life, a program that offers performances and drama workshops based on outstanding novels of the twentieth century; Teacher's Place, a series of three workshops for tea chers providing them with strategies to use dramatic techniques in the classroom; and Urban Writes, a semester-long residency in a city high school encouraging playwriting as a means of student self-expression and a catalyst for literacy.

The American Place Theatre has received numerous awards including over thirty Village Voice Obie Awards, including a special Obie award with a citation for "uncompromising commitment to unconventional and daring plays" and a Sustained Achievement award fo r Wynn Handman. It has also won fifteen Audelco Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre as well as the Margo Jones Award. In 1993, Artistic Director Wynn Handman received a Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award presented to an outstanding member of th e theatre community by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres. In 1994, the Theatre and Wynn Handman received the Rosetta LeNoire Award in recognition of their artistic achievements and contribution to the "universality of the human experience in American th eatre" from Actor's Equity Association.

The Theatre is led by Director Wynn Handman and General Manager Carl H. Jaynes in conjunction with an active Board of Trustees and a staff of sixteen.

Major playwrights have had their talents recognized and early works produced at The American Place Theatre. Among them are Sam Shepard (7 plays produced), Steve Tesich (6), Ronald Ribman (6), Maria Irene Fornes (4), Jonathan Reynolds (4), William Hauptma n (3), Eduardo Muchado, Emily Mann, Richard Nelson, plus Frank Chin whose plays were the first Asian-American plays to be professionally produced in the U.S.A.

In addition to Robert Lowell, The American Place Theatre has produced the first plays of outstanding writers from other literary forms including William Alfred, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, Paul Goodman, Joyce Carol Oates, S. J. Perelman, Anne Sexton, May Swenson, and Robert Penn Warren.

The American Place Theatre has been an important place for emerging African-American theatre by producing existing first productions of Ed Bullins, Kia Corthron, James de Jongh, Joseph Edward, Phillip Hayes Dean, Elaine Jackson, Alonzo D. Lamont Jr., Ron Milner, Matt Robinson, Charlie L. Russell, and Vincent Smith.

Original productions brought major recognition to unusual contemporary actors/writers such as Eric Bogosian, Bill Irwin, John Leguizamo, Aasif Mandvi, and Dael Orlandermith.

Among the major American humorists who transferred their work from page to live performance on stage are Roy Blount Jr., A. Whitney Brown, Jules Feiffer, Cynthia Heimel, Roger Rosenblatt, Jean Shepherd, Jimmy Tingle and Calvin Trillin.

Actors for whom The American Place has been a launching pad include Mary Alice, Ellen Barkin, Roscoe Lee Browne, Michael Douglas, Faye Dunaway, Sandy Duncan, Morgan Freeman, Richard Gere, Joel Grey, Dustin Hoffman, Frank Langella, Mary MacDonnell, Zakes M okae, Howard Rollins, John Spencer, Ralph Waite, Sam Waterson, and Sigourney Weaver.

We started with a special purpose and we have not compromised that purpose. As Anne Sexton said of us, "You have given me a family for my art." In a climate of diminishing opportunities to humanize and connect, it seems commensensical to maintain that w hich has been so valuable for so long.

Click here for the complete list of American Place Theatre productions.