Pershing Square Signature Center Opens

By: Jan. 31, 2012
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Signature Theatre today opened The Pershing Square Signature Center, its new, permanent home designed by Frank Gehry.  Spanning an entire city block at 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues, the Center features three intimate theatres, a Studio Theatre, rehearsal studio, and a public café, bar, and bookstore.

The Center serves as both a theatre community hub and a neighborhood destination, and has been designed to foster interaction among playwrights, collaborators, and the public.  The project is being funded through a public-private partnership and will be staffed by more than 400 people annually.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Speaker Christine Quinn, and others participated in the opening ceremony, which included distribution of the first ticket to a performance at the Center. 

Designed by Gehry, working hand-in-hand with Signature Theatre leadership and Architect of Record H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, the 70,000-square-foot Pershing Square Signature Center features three theatres of different character and configurations, providing playwrights a number of dynamic performance areas in which to set their work.  The theatres include:

  • The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, a 199-seat proscenium theatre modeled after a traditional opera house
  • The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, a 199-seat flexible theatre
  • The 299-seat End stage Theatre 

Tickets to all productions of Signature’s inaugural season at The Pershing Square Signature Center are $25, part of the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, a program that guarantees affordable and accessible tickets to every Signature production for the next 20 years.  Serving as a model for theatres and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible by a lead gift from The Pershing Square Foundation with supplemental support from the Ford Foundation, Margot Adams, Time Warner Inc., the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.


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