father Martin M. Goldman, the team opted for a location in Greenwich Village, which had a myriad of empty theaters. During the 1950s and 1960s, the theater became what Women's Wear Daily described as the "center of Off-Broadway", largely staging revivals at a time when traditional Broadway theaters presented experimental shows. Mel Gussow of The New York Times similarly described the original Circle as being within "the heartbeat of Off-Broadway" in Sheridan Square. Over the years, actors such as Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Jason Robards, Bradford Dillman, Dustin Hoffman, George Segal, George C. Scott, and James Earl Jones starred in the company's productions. In addition, the theater attracted such directors as Michael Cacoyannis, William Ball, and Alan Arkin. The Circle tended to stage productions by well-known playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Jean Giraudoux, Dylan Thomas, and Jules Feiffer. 5 Sheridan Square The first Circle in the Square Theatre was at 5 Sheridan Square (also known as the Greenwich Village Inn), a former nightclub in Greenwich Village. The Circle's founders signed a 10-year lease on the building. When the team signed the lease in 1951, they had $320 between them, including $300 that they had earned from operating a summer theater in Woodstock, New York. The Circle's founders raised $7,500, and Goldman formed Onyx Restaurants Inc. to lease the inn on behalf of the team, which was responsible for paying $1,000 a month in rent. The inn occupied a pair of brownstone residences. The first-floor living and dining rooms in one of the residences had been converted to a rectangular dance floor, while the three stories above the dance floor included 15 rooms. There was a bar in the rear of the dance floor, as well as a kitchen in the basement. Due to the inn's configuration, the theater's founders decided to operate the Circle as a theater in the round, wherein the audience surrounded the stage (a converted dance floor). The theater, and the eponymous company, derived their name from the facility's layout and its location at Sheridan Square. The theater was planned to open in November 1950, but the opening was delayed by two and a half months due to difficulties in securing a theatrical license. Ultimately, the Circle's founders were only allowed a cabaret license. The theater's first production was the play Dark of the Moon, which opened in February 1951. At the time, the off-Broadway