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The Rattlestick Theater building, located at 224 Waverly Place, will be renamed The Terrence McNally Theater after the late Tony Award-winning playwright.
“As the first transgender person to run a theater in New York, 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,” said Will Davis, Artistic Director of the Rattlestick Theater. “Terrence was with Rattlestick from the start, 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 renaming deepens the relationship between the Terrence McNally Foundation and Rattlestick, which has been the home of the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator since 2023. As a continuation of Terrence McNally’s singular legacy of mentorship, and his commitment to fostering bold new voices in the American theater, the New Works Incubator is a multi-pronged program designed to support ambitious early-career playwrights by giving them time and space to develop their work, 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 Tom 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.”
Renovations have already begun at Rattlestick’s beloved home in the heart of the West Village. First built in 1854 and occupied by Rattlestick since 1999, the two-floor building at 224 Waverly Place will undergo an overhaul that enhances accessibility with the installation of an elevator, new bathrooms, expanded dressing rooms, sound-proof flooring and windows, and an expanded lobby and ticket counter. The theater will also transform into a responsive, flexible performance space that can be reshaped for each show and capable of hosting more community events and celebrations. The year-long $5.3 million renovation is scheduled to be completed this fall and the official theater dedication will happen later this year.
“I am so inspired by and proud of the work Rattlestick has done to center access in our renovation,” said Will Davis. “In all aspects of the design, we have examined how our company can better host our community of audiences and artists. Rattlestick has an over 30-year track record of creating ambitious, singular new works guided by the principles of community, equity, empowerment, and artistic freedom. This renovation turns those values into a reality. It will strengthen our role as a civic space in the West Village by ensuring that live theater can thrive downtown. I cannot wait to welcome audiences to our new theater.”
This project is supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council/Borough President. It is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by the New York Times as “the bard of the American Theater.” One of the few playwrights of his generation to successfully pass from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim, Terrence redefined American playwriting for six decades and 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). He received the 2011 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (he was Vice President of the Guild from 1981 to 2001), the 2015 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, a 1996 induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and, in 2018, an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other accolades include an Emmy Award (Andre’s Mother), two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards. Terrence was an alumnus of Columbia University and received numerous honorary degrees, including from NYU and Juilliard, where he helped create the playwriting program in 1993. His legacy lives on in his plays, musicals, and operas that continue to be performed all over the world, as well as in his papers, which are kept and open to the public at the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Texas at Austin.
