The Guignol (geen-yohl) was renovated in 2000 and the theatre was reopened to the public with a grand gala in February 2001.

The first Guignol Theatre, named after the immensely popular Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris, was built on the campus of the University of Kentucky in 1927. The impetus for creating the Guignol came from a student group call the "Strollers." After producing their first play in 1910, the Strollers continued in existence for close to three decades, moving eventually into music theatre. Shortly after World War I, the theatrical interest that the Strollers had sparked on campus was organized under the auspices of the English Department, which, according to an early catalog, emphasized “drama as an intimate, democratic medium for the self-expression of the community.”

By this time, the Little Theatre Movement, which had started in Europe at the end of the 19th century and had revitalized American theatre in the name of independent spirit and regional values, had taken hold across the country, causing theatres to sprout everywhere. The theatrical excitement that the Strollers had occasioned in the community developed in phases into the Guignol Theatre. The first phase was organized by the English Department, which began offering more and more courses in drama and oral interpretation. Carol Sax, who had been incited to Lexington by the Strollers, began teaching in the Art Department, where he organized a theatre which he called the Romany Theatre. It was located in an African American church close to campus. Sax left the university toward the end of the 1920’s. Around the same time, Frank Fowler came to the University to teach in the English Department. Under his watch, the Romany was renamed the Guignol. Fowler also hired Wallace Briggs, who succeeded Fowler as a champion of the theatre.

After serving the cultural needs of the campus and the community for twenty years, the first Guignol Theatre, which was located at the northwest corner of Euclid and Martin Luther King Blvd., burned to the ground in 1947. Three years later, the Guignol reopened in the Fine Arts Building with a production of Medea starring Mrs. Lucille Caudill Little.

For over fifty years, the second Guignol has filled a vital niche in the community as the venue where generation after generation of Lexingtonians have been exposed to the pleasures of drama. As we enter the 21st century, the Theatre Department wants to revitalize and celebrate the proud Guignol tradition of being part of Lexington’s cultural community since 1927.