Playwrights Center Will Relocate to Larger Space Which Will Be Renovated in an $8 Million Project

The Playwrights' Center is leaving its Franklin Avenue home in Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood and moving to 710 Raymond Ave., a location with twice the square footage, Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports.

The 19,500-square foot building will be renovated in an $8 million project, from its current use as warehouse storage and office space.

Plans for the renovation include a 150-seat theater, community gathering space, indoor and outdoor public spaces, classrooms, rehearsal studios, a wellness center and at least two apartments for artists in crisis or transition.

"We love our Seward neighborhood where we are, but the limitations of the center make it challenging there as the center has grown, as our programming has grown," said Robert Chelimsky, Playwrights' Center managing director. "We'll be right off the Green Line, equidistant between the two downtowns. Being centrally located and really accessible to the entire metro is exciting."

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Founded in 1971 by five writers seeking artistic and professional support, the Playwrights' Center today serves more playwrights in more ways than any other organization in the country.

One of the nation's most generous and well-respected theater organizations, the Playwrights' Center focuses on both supporting playwrights and promoting new plays to production at theaters across the country. The Center has helped launch the careers of numerous nationally recognized artists, notably August Wilson, Lee Blessing, Jordan Harrison, Carlyle Brown, Craig Lucas, Jeffrey Hatcher, Melanie Marnich, and Kira Obolensky. Work developed through Center programs has been seen nationwide on such stages as the Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Goodman, and many others.