Roundabout Theatre Company

The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist, Michael Fried and Elizabeth Owens. Originally housed at a Chelsea, Manhattan, grocery store, on 26th Street, it moved to the nearby 23rd Street Theatre in 1972, performing there until their lease expired in 1984. The company now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre (for classic Broadway plays and musicals); Studio 54 (for Broadway musicals and special events); the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (a new theater that incorporates the original facade of the historical Henry Miller Theatre); the Laura Pels Theatre (for new off-Broadway works by established playwrights); and the Roundabout Underground Black Box Theatre (for new work of emerging writers and directors). The latter two theatres are located in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (the former American Place Theatre). The Center was developed, with financial support from the Steinbergs, "to support its artistic mission of fostering emerging talent in playwriting, performance, and stagecraft." Previously, Roundabout also occupied 44 Union Square. The Roudabout Theatre originally started in the basement of a supermarket around 18th Street and Sixth Avenue.