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June 13, 2007
Signature Theatre Company
Announces
Four Exciting Seasons
Matched By An Unprecedented Ticket Initiative
Charles Mee, The Negro Ensemble Company, Suzan-Lori Parks,
Tony Kushner and Returning Legacy Playwrights, including Edward Albee
Will Highlight Bold and Original Programming
Through the 20th Anniversary Season
All Seats, For All Performances, For All Four Seasons
Will Be $20 As Part of Signature's Ticket Initiative
Made Possible by the Lead Sponsorship of Time Warner
Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) today announced the next four years of programming as well as the unprecedented Signature Ticket Initiative, made possible by the lead sponsorship of Time Warner, Inc. To make great theatre accessible to the broadest possible audience, Signature Theatre Company will offer a special $20 ticket (regularly $65) for all seats, for the next four years through their 20th Anniversary season. Generous support for The Signature Ticket Initiative is provided by Margot Adams, in memory of Mason Adams.
"The next four seasons at Signature promise a remarkable journey, and we are thrilled to be working with this extraordinary roster of playwrights," said James Houghton, Signature Theatre Company's Founding Artistic Director. "Chuck Mee, Edward Albee, and the artists of the Negro Ensemble Company are esteemed writers who represent the vanguard of theatrical innovation, while Suzan-Lori Parks and Tony Kushner have pioneered the next generation, who champion the theatre as they continue to bring exciting and vital advancements to it. And, to be able to offer their work at an affordable ticket price throughout the four seasons is a wonderful privilege for Signature."
"Time Warner is honored to continue our support of the Signature Theatre Company's ground-breaking ticket initiative," said Lisa M. Quiroz, Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility at Time Warner. "The program brings to life our philanthropic mission to help make the arts more accessible. We see this partnership with Signature as a conduit to introducing new and diverse audiences to quality theatre."
Erika Mallin, Signature Theatre Company's Executive Director, said, "We are thrilled to have the unwavering support of our partner Time Warner, our trustees, funders, patrons, subscribers and artists - all who make it possible for Signature to take risks to make great theatre and to make it accessible to all."
The upcoming 2007-2008 season will feature Playwright-in-Residence Charles Mee, one of the nation's most original and innovative playwrights. The season will launch in August with the New York premiere of Iphigenia 2.0, followed by the world premiere of Queens Boulevard (the musical), and the world premiere of Paradise Park. The season will conclude with a Legacy Production of Edward Albee's Occupant. A Legacy Production is part of the Signature Series where former Playwrights-in-Residence return to Signature to revisit their landmark works. Subscriptions for the 2007-2008 season are now on sale.
The 2008-2009 season will be an examination of a body of work from The Negro Ensemble Company's collective of writers, whose contributions have helped shape America's theatrical heritage. Ruben Santiago-Hudson will be the Associate Artist for the season.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks (Venus, Topdog/Underdog), who turns American history on its head with her bold and lyrical riffs on race, literature and politics, will be the Playwright-in-Residence for the 2009-2010 season.
Signature's 20th Anniversary season (2010-2011) will conclude with Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America; Caroline, or Change), one of the most celebrated and renowned contemporary writers of his generation.
The 2007-2008 Season is sponsored, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Edward Albee's Occupant is supported, in part, by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Negro Ensemble Company Series is supported, in part, by American Express.
SIGNATURE THEATRE COMPANY'S 2007-2008 PROGRAMMING
IPHIGENIA 2.0 by Charles Mee (New York Premiere)
August 7-September 30, 2007, Opens August 23, 2007
Directed by Tina Landau
A great imperial power decides to go to war, taking an action so wrong that it sets the empire on the road to complete self-destruction. Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, must prove to his uncertain troops that the dangerous battle they are about to undertake is righteous and worthy by making the ultimate sacrifice himself. A radical reinvention of the classic play by Euripides that examines the costs of war and loss of innocence.
QUEENS BOULEVARD (the musical) by Charles Mee (World Premiere)
November 6-December 30, 2007, Opens December 2, 2007
Directed by Davis McCallum
On his wedding day, a new husband is determined to find the perfect gift for his bride. While she waits at home, he searches for the mythical Flower of Heaven and is thrown into a series of colorful adventures on the streets of his neighborhood in Queens, New York. Inspired by a classical Indian dance drama, Queens Boulevard (the musical) celebrates love, community, and life.
PARADISE PARK by Charles Mee (World Premiere)
February 12-April 6, 2008, Opens March 2, 2008
Directed by Daniel Fish
Welcome to Paradise Park, an amusement park that opens up into all of America and beyond. Meet the inhabitants of this bizarre carnival of life, including a ventriloquist, his dummy, and a teenage girl on the run. From Futureworld to Londonland, the Grand Canyon to Fred's Polynesian Dive Shop, step right up to this wild ride of fruit cake tosses, underwater ballets, square dances, and star gazing, too.
EDWARD ALBEE'S OCCUPANT
by 1993-94 Playwright-in-Residence Edward Albee
May 6-June 29, 2008, Opens May 29, 2008
Signature caps off its 2007-2008 season with a Legacy Production as part of its Signature Series, in which former Playwrights-in-Residence return to revisit their landmark works. Originally produced at Signature in 2002, in a limited engagement, Edward Albee's Occupant is a portrait of acclaimed sculptor Louise Nevelson-a quest to capture a charismatic and complex artist and persona. What is the relationship between creator and creation? Who was Louise Nevelson? Only she knew.
BIOS FOR SIGNATURE THEATRE COMPANY'S PLAYWRIGHTS-IN-RESIDENCE
CHARLES MEE (2007-2008 Playwright-in-Residence) has written Big Love, True Love, First Love, bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, Orestes 2.0, Trojan Women 2.0, Summertime and Wintertime among other plays -all of them available on the internet at www.charlesmee.org. His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theatre, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, and other places in the United States as well as in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul and elsewhere. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is made possible by the support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Richard B. Fisher.
EDWARD ALBEE (Legacy Playwright, 2007-2008 Season; 1993-1994 Playwright-in-Residence) was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958), The Death of Bessie Smith (1959), The Sandbox (1959), The American Dream (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award), Tiny Alice (1964), A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize; 1996, Tony Award), All Over (1971), Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize), Listening (1975), Counting the Ways (1975), The Lady From Dubuque (1977-78), The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981), Finding The Sun (1982), Marriage Play (1986-87), Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize), Fragments (1993), The Play About The Baby (1997), The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia? (2000, 2002 Tony Award), Occupant (2001), Peter and Jerry (Act 1, Homelife, Act 2, The Zoo Story) (2004), and Me, Myself and I (2007). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council, and President of The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980. In 1996 he received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005, he was awarded a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
THE NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY (2008-2009 Season) Prior to the 1960s, there were virtually no outlets for the wealth of black theatrical talent in America. Playwrights writing realistically about the black experience could not get their work produced, and even the most successful performers, such as Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen, were confined to playing roles as servants. It was disenfranchised artists such as these who set out to create a theater concentrating primarily on themes of black life. In 1965, Playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer/actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald Krone came together to make these dreams a reality. Among the many plays produced by the Negro Ensemble Company were Peter Weiss' Song of the Lucitanian Bogey, Lonnie Elder's Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Charles Fuller's Zooman and the Sign and The River Niger, the first NEC production to move to Broadway where it won the Tony Award for Best Play, and embarked on an extensive national tour. In 1981, the NEC had what was probably its most successful production with A Soldier's Play, by Charles Fuller (NY Drama Critics Circle Best American Play, Pulitzer Prize), which was later made into an Academy Award-nominated movie. These plays dealt with complex and often ignored aspects of the black experience. Creating emotionally resonant characters with depth and variety, the NEC paved the way for black Americans to present a voice that had been aggressively stifled for three hundred years. Since its founding in 1967, the NEC has produced more than two hundred new plays and provided a theatrical home for more than four thousand cast and crew members. Among its ranks have been some of the best known black actors in television and film, including Louis Gossett Jr., Sherman Hemsley, Phylicia Rashad and Denzel Washington. It has been a constant source and sustenance for black actors, directors, and writers as they have worked to break down walls of racial prejudice. Charles Weldon, a veteran actor known for the memorable roles he created for the stage, film and television, was appointed Artistic Director of the NEC in September 2004.
RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON (Associate Artist, Negro Ensemble Company Series) Made his directorial debut with August Wilson's Gem Of The Ocean at the McCarter Theatre and A.C.T. Ruben received the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Performer in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. He made his Broadway debut four years earlier as Buddy Bolden opposite Gregory Hines in Jelly's Last Jam. Also on Broadway he appeared in August Wilson's Gem Of The Ocean. He received rave reviews for his starring role in the off-Broadway production of Deep Down and as Walter Lee Younger in the Williamstown Theater Festival production of A Raisin In The Sun. He also starred as Roma in the McCarter Theatre production of Glengarry Glen Ross. He won the 2005 Humanitas Prize for his screenplay for Lackawanna Blues on HBO, which was written from his award-winning play of the same name. For Television, he starred opposite Halle Berry in ABC's Their Eyes Were Watching God for producers Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones. His other television appearances include "The Red Sneakers", "Little John", "American Tragedy", "Hunt For The Unicorn Killer"," Which Way Home", "Solomon and Sheba" and "Rear Window". His film credits include Domestic Disturbance, Bleeding Hearts, Blown Away, Coming To America, Devils Advocate, Shaft and appears in Mr. Brooks opposite Demi Moore and Kevin Costner.
SUZAN-LORI PARKS (2009-2010 Playwright-in-Residence) is a playwright, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist. In 2002 she became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama with her play Topdog/Underdog. Her other plays include: Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 Obie Award for Best New American Play), The American Play, Venus (1996 Obie Award), The Death Of The Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and In The Blood (Pulitzer Prize finalist), among others. She is the subject of the PBS Film "The Topdog/Underdog Diaries." Parks has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is also a recipient of the Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Award, the CalArts/Alpert Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Writing Award, a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award, and a Guggenheim Foundation Grant. Her work for film and television includes Girl 6 (directed by Spike Lee) and the adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," for Oprah Winfrey Presents. Her first novel, Getting Mother's Body, is published by Random House. She has taught writing in colleges and universities including the Yale School of Drama. Currently she is writing Ray Charles Live!, the book for the Ray Charles musical (for the film producers of Ray).
TONY KUSHNER (2010-2011 Playwright-in-Residence). His plays include A Bright Room Called Day; Angels in America, Parts One and Two; Slavs!; and Homebody/Kabul; Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori, was produced in the autumn of 2006 at the National Theatre, where it received the Evening Standard Award, the London Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Olivier Award for Best Musical. Kushner has adapted and translated Pierre Corneille's The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children; and the English-language libretto for the opera Brundibár by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols' film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg's Munich. His books include Brundibar, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak, 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling With Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Emmy Award and an Oscar nomination, among other honors.
SIGNATURE THEATRE COMPANY was founded in 1991 by Artistic Director James Houghton and remains dedicated to its mission of honoring and celebrating the playwright by presenting exciting, thought-provoking productions that engage the writer in every step of the creative process. The company's first nine seasons presented the works of Romulus Linney, Lee Blessing, Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard, Arthur Miller, John Guare and Maria Irene Fornes. The 10th Anniversary of Signature Theatre Company -- its 2000-02 All-Premiere Celebration -- featured new works from a selection of the theatre's distinguished past Playwrights-in-Residence. The 2002-03 Season was dedicated to Lanford Wilson, the 2003-04 Season to Bill Irwin, and the 2004-05 Season to Paula Vogel. The first half of the 15th Anniversary (2005-2006) featured The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote, Landscape of the Body by John Guare, as well as a workshop and public staged reading of Adrienne Kennedy's adaptation of Madame Bovary. The second half of the Anniversary Celebration featured three works by the late August Wilson, who was to be Signature's thirteenth Playwright-in-Residence. As a direct result of the company's work, Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel Awards, OBIE Awards and Drama Desk Awards, among many other distinctions.
SIGNATURE THEATRE COMPANY's Peter Norton Space is located at 555 W. 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues). For additional information, visit www.signaturetheatre.org. For subscription and ticket information, please call (212) 244-PLAY (7529). The box office opens for single ticket sales on July 16. All tickets are $20 for performances August 7 to September 30. All subscriptions are $80, plus a service fee. For subscription and ticket information, please call 212-244-PLAY (7529) or visit Signature Theatre Company's website at www.signaturetheatre.org.
Contact:
Candi Adams (212) 315-2120, cadams@publicityoffice.com
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