August Wilson Theatre, West 52th Street NYC

The August Wilson Theatre, previously the Guild Theatre, ANTA Theatre and Virginia Theatre, opened in 1925 and is located at 245 West 52nd Street in New York City. The August Wilson has 1,225 seats across two levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. The façade was designated a New York City landmark in 1985.

The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918. The society announced plans for its own theater in 1923 and the cornerstone for the Guild Theater was laid on December 2, 1924. The theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim.

The façade is designed as a variation of a 15th-century Tuscan villa, with a stage house to the west and an auditorium to the east. The façade has a stucco surface and openings with quoins, as well as a loggia. The placement of window openings reflected the theater's original interior arrangement. The front of the theater had facilities for the Theatre Guild, including classrooms, studios, a club room, a library, and a book store. The rear of the theater contains the auditorium, which was placed one story above ground to make room for a lounge below. The auditorium originally had elaborate decorations, including loggias and a frieze with depictions of scenes from the Theatre Guild's plays.

The Guild Theatre opened on April 13, 1925, with a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Radio station WOR (AM) took over the auditorium as a broadcast studio in 1943, with the Theatre Guild moving out the next year. The American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) purchased the theater in 1950 and renamed it the ANTA Playhouse. The theater reopened as the ANTA Theatre in 1954 after a renovation that eliminated most of the interior detail. Jujamcyn purchased the ANTA Theatre in 1981 and renamed it for Virginia McKnight Binger, a co-owner. The Virginia was renovated again in the 1990s, and it was renamed for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson (1945–2005) in 2005. Under Jujamcyn's ownership, productions such as City of Angels, Smokey Joe's Cafe, and Jersey Boys have had hundreds of performances at the theater.