Signature Theatre Company to launch new permanent home, Signature Center, with Athol Fugard as Inaugural Residency One Playwright

Playwrights for Signature's expanded Legacy Program and newly established Residency Five to be announced at a later date.

Signature Center opens February, 2012

Signature Theatre Company (Founding Artistic Director James Houghton; Executive Director Erika Mallin), will launch the theatre’s new home, Signature Center, with Athol Fugard as its inaugural Residency One playwright.  Residency One is Signature’s core one year playwright-in-residence program that produces a series of plays from the body of work of one accomplished writer.  Throughout the season, Signature will explore the works of Fugard, the South African playwright, director and actor, who will also be honored with a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Tony Awards this Sunday, June 12.  

Signature Center is a new 74,000 square foot facility at 480 West 42nd Street near 10th Avenue, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry and featuring three theatres, two rehearsal spaces and administrative offices all on one level and connected by a shared lobby with a café and bookstore.  Signature Center will serve as Signature Theatre Company’s permanent home and will open in February, 2012.  

Signature Center will feature three unique programs: the continuation of Residency One, the program Signature Theatre Company is best known for, which is a one year residency for a playwright with a major body of work; the expansion of the Legacy Program, which is a homecoming for past Signature Playwrights-in-Residence with a production of a premiere or signature play; and the introduction of Residency Five, which will encourage the creation of a body of work by guaranteeing multiple playwrights three productions over the course of a five-year residency.  These three programs combined will allow Signature to produce up to nine shows a year and provide an artistic home for up to eleven playwrights each season.  The Legacy Program and Residency Five playwrights will be announced at a later date.  

“Signature is honored to host Athol Fugard as our inaugural Residency One Playwright and our first international Playwright-in-Residence,” commented Signature’s Founding Artistic Director James Houghton. “Athol is a writer of astounding courage, humanity, and depth, which is evident in his breathtaking body of work that spans over fifty years. We look forward to presenting a wide breadth of that work, from his early to his latest plays, and we look forward to experiencing his rich and deep history at our new Center alongside our Legacy and Residency Five offerings.”

“A season at Signature? What an extraordinary opportunity to reflect on 50 years of playwriting,” remarked Athol Fugard.  “I’m thrilled to be among the first resident playwrights at Signature’s very exciting new home.”

Titles, dates and directors for the Athol Fugard series will be announced at a later date.

The full inaugural season programming line-up at Signature Center will be announced later this summer. Current subscribers will receive renewal papers at that time, and those wishing to subscribe will be able to sign-up for a subscription.

Athol Fugard has been working in the theatre as a playwright, director and actor in South Africa, England and the United States for over fifty years. This Sunday, June 12, he will receive a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. In November, he was the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor of Drama at Oxford University. His latest play The Bird Watchers premiered this year at The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town. Last year The Train Driver, featuring Sean Taylor and Owen Sejake, transferred to The Hampstead Theatre in London for a critically acclaimed run.  His plays include: No-Good Friday, Nongogo, Blood Knot, Hello and Goodbye, People are Living, There, Boesman and Lena, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, Dimetos, The Island, A Lesson From Aloes, ‘Master Harold’ …and the Boys, The Road to Mecca, A Place With the Pigs, My Children! My Africa!, Playland, Valley Song, The Captain’s Tiger, Sorrows and Rejoicings, Exits and Entrances, Victory, Coming Home, The Train Driver, and The Bird Watchers.