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Paul Mullins and Vanessa Aspillaga
in Charles Mee's Paradise Park
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From the Founding Artistic Director
This past year has been a joyous and exhilarating journey for Signature Theatre Company thanks to Charles Mee. For over twenty years, and certainly this season at Signature, Chuck has stretched and redefined what we thought theatre could be. Furthermore, Chuck has been a fantastic collaborator, one who is joyful, smart, and empowers everyone around him. He is extremely generous in his support of the theatre-making process, offering a very distinct and unique perspective while creating opportunities for his collaborators to reach new heights in their own work.
These collaborators have come to Signature with a sense of abandon and drive to discover something bold and exciting. Tina Landau echoed all of the qualities I have listed above about Chuck, with a sense of adventure that in turn inspired the actors and creative team of Iphigenia 2.0. Davis McCallum set just the right tone of conviviality and creativity for Queens Boulevard (the musical) and the result was a genuine celebration of the spirit, life, and vibrancy of New York City, as well as a profound exploration of our ever-expanding world community. Finally, as I write this, Daniel Fish is in the rehearsal hall tackling Paradise Park with a wonderful cast and creative team. Daniel directed a fantastic production of Chuck's play True Love in 2001. That play also gave birth to True Love Productions, which was founded by Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Laurie Gilmore. Since then True Love has made an indelible mark on the theatre community as a steady advocate and producer of Charles Mee and other unique and innovative artists. We are thrilled to be working with them on Paradise Park, a project that they, Chuck, and Daniel have been developing for several years. Now is the perfect time in Chuck's season to see this play fully realized; Paradise Park is one of Chuck's collage plays, and it is fitting that we close the Charles Mee Series by introducing a new aspect of Chuck's repertoire.
Following the Charles Mee Series, we present an offering from our Legacy Program, Edward Albee's Occupant. The Legacy Program is a natural extension of the ever-evolving mission of Signature, to honor the individual artist with a season-long celebration and then maintain an ongoing relationship. The program provides an opportunity for our previous Playwrights-in-Residence to return to Signature in two ways: the Premiere Series and the Signature Series. The Premiere Series evolved out of our Tenth Anniversary Season in 2000-2002, when we invited the writers back to do new work with us. When we reached our fifteenth year, we initiated the second component of the Legacy Program: the Signature Series, in which we present past playwrights' "signature" works. We started with Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful and John Guare's Landscape of the Body, two great opportunities to re-examine plays that are directly associated with the legacy of these two artists.
We first presented Edward Albee's Occupant in an abbreviated run in the Premiere Series in 2002. We put together a wonderful production with Anne Bancroft returning to the stage after a twenty-five year absence in the role of iconic assemblage sculptor Louise Nevelson. Unfortunately Anne fell ill with walking pneumonia after the first week of previews and was confined to her apartment until the last week of performances. Although she was able to finish out the run of Occupant, we did not officially open it. I have always felt that the project was unfinished, and so I invited Edward to re-visit and complete that experience. So here we are, and I'm very excited that Mercedes Ruehl will carry the torch as Louise Nevelson with Larry Bryggman provoking her as the Man.
Thank you Chuck, for the warmth, creativity, and inspiration you have brought to us this season, and welcome back, Edward, as we begin another journey together.
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