Rattlestick Theater, one of Off Broadway‘s most prominent venues for new work since its founding in 1994, will be renamed The Terrence McNally Theater in honor of the late trailblazing and Tony Award-winning playwright.
“Terrence was with Rattlestick from the start,” said Rattlestick artistic director Will Davis in a statement, “and for 32 years this theater company has offered a downtown refuge for artists seeking a space that welcomes them on their own terms. Terrence’s community values and keen eye for talent are alive in the DNA of this company that has launched so many powerhouse careers over the last three decades.”
The theater, located in Manhattan’s West Village, is undergoing a year-long $5.3 million renovation scheduled to be completed this fall, with the official dedication happening later this year. The overhaul includes enhanced accessibility with the installation of an elevator, new bathrooms, expanded dressing rooms, sound-proof flooring and windows, and an expanded lobby and ticket counter. Renovations to the building, constructed in 1854, will provide for a performance space that can be reshaped for each show and capable of hosting more community events and celebrations.
The renaming was announced today by Rattlestick and the Terrence McNally Foundation.
“As the first transgender person to run a theater in New York,” Davis said, “it is the honor of a lifetime to name the Rattlestick building for Terrence McNally, a towering artist and a gay icon of the American Theater.”
The theater renaming, according to the announcement, “deepens the relationship between the Terrence McNally Foundation and Rattlestick, which has been the home of the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator since 2023.” The incubator is designed to support early-career playwrights by providing time and space to develop their work, and also includes professional mentorship with established playwrights and access to the community of artists and work being developed at Rattlestick and Tom Kirdahy Productions.
“Rattlestick Theater has always been a place where playwrights begin — where a writer with something to say finds the stage, the collaborators, and the courage to say it,” said producer Kirdahy, McNally’s husband. “That is precisely the work Terrence believed in most deeply. He knew that American theater would only be as vital as the new writers we invested in, and he gave that belief everything he had. Naming this theater after Terrence McNally is not just a tribute to what he accomplished — it is a commitment to what he stood for. This is where tomorrow’s playwrights begin.”
McNally, who died in 2020 at the age of 81, was the recipient of five Tony Awards (two for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class, two for the books to his musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement).