Yale gets $18M to endow its New Theatre center

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre have received an $18 million gift to permanently endow the university's Center for New Theatre, for development and production of new plays and musicals.

Yale announced the gift from Minnesota-based Robina Foundation Wednesday evening. The Center for New Theatre is being renamed for the foundation's creator, James Binger, a businessman, theatre impresario and philanthropist who died in 2004.

The center was established in 2008 with a $2.85 million grant from Robina, and funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and individual donors. The new gift brings Robina's support to $21.8 million.

Binger was a 1938 Yale graduate and Honeywell, Inc., executive. He and his wife, Virginia, took over the theater enterprise of her family's McKnight Foundation in 1976 to create Jujamcyn Theatres, which grew to five Broadway houses.