In extreme theater-wonk news: They’re gonna tear down the Guthrie! The theater that basically invented the now-doomed regional theater movement is, well, doomed.

Some fun facts about the Guthrie Theater (and yes, they spell it -er, God bless ‘em):

1. It was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in Minneapolis in 1963 as a place where writers, actors, and directors could focus on Great Works of Literature (in new, if not always exciting, ways—like plain-dress Shakespeare!) outside Broadway, whose commericalism increasingly favored profit over artistic content.

2. Why Minneapolis? Because the city answered Sir Guthrie’s want ad. He published a small invitation on the theater page of the New York Times, looking for a community that was able and eager to help build a resident theater.

3. The Guthrie’s first production: Hamlet. Its final production: Hamlet. Its famous in-between productions included: Henry V, St. Joan, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Three Sisters, The House of Atreus, She Stoops to Conquer, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Seagull, and Tartuffe.

4. Sir Guthrie was decribed in by James Forsyth as: “Anti-Broadway, anti-West End, anti everything implied in the term ‘Legitimate Theatre,’ he ended up with a legitimate claim to the title of ‘most important, British-born theatre director of his time.’” (It is ironic that this renegade theatrical visionary kicked off the regional theater movement, now the hallowed home of Legitimate Theatre-with-an-re and widely considered the native nesting ground of the most stilted, snooze-inducing live entertainment this side of Swan Lake.)

The Guthrie organization has a fancy new building next to the Mississippi and the old theater: “probably faces the wrecking ball late this summer.”

But the Walker Art Center [which owns the Guthrie building] conducted a reuse study five years ago and found no groups to take over the Guthrie space. The study also found that renovating and operating the theater would be too expensive.

The Walker, which reopened last year after a $73 million expansion, plans to demolish the old Guthrie to make way for an expansion of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

“Who gives a shit?” you may ask. Preservationists and theater historians, for two. You know who gives a shit? The motherfucking Boss (kinda). Springsteen made his Twin Cities debut at the Guthrie in 1975, and, at a recent Minneapolis concert, suggested people join the cause: “It is important to save buildings that give cities their sense of self and identity. We lost two theaters in my hometown that I used to go to as a kid. My mother used to tell me to be quiet while we were in the lobby of those theaters before we actually got inside! Theaters and buildings give their cities a real sense of place.”

Should you, for whatever reason, want to help save the Guthrie, check out (where else?) www.savetheguthrie.org.