HOUSTON – The Alley Theatre’s building in Houston has a new name.
Butch Mach, the Alley Theatre board chair, announced the change for the Tony Award-winning organization last week.
The 615 Texas Avenue building is now the Meredith J. Long Theatre Center, a new sign was unveiled on the building on April 19.
The company’s name will stay the same, but the group decided to change the building’s name after receiving the largest donation in its history.
The Alley Theatre was given a $25 million matching grant from an anonymous donor for its $80 million Alley Vision for the Future Campaign.
This was the biggest donation the theater has received in 75 years.
The theater will now be named after the organization’s former chairman emeritus, who died in 2020.
Long spent 31 years on the Alley Board and co-chaired two of the theater’s largest fundraising campaigns. One of the campaigns helped raise $25 million for reconstruction after Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. The funds also paid for the Alley Center of Theatre Production.
Long spearheaded another campaign that fundraised $56 million to renovate the Alley Theatre building. He was also a board member of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Texas Heart Institute.
“The Alley Vision for the Future Campaign supports the Alley’s endowment, artistic initiatives, building repairs after Hurricane Harvey, and provides reserve funds for the theater. The campaign is chaired by Butch Mach and has raised nearly $61 million to date,” the Alley Theatre stated.