Signature Theatre Announces Upcoming Supplemental Programs

Signature Theatre has announced the next wave of upcoming supplemental programs, which allow more intimate and direct access to a playwright's vision and process. Just as the layout of The Pershing Square Signature Center encourages a dialogue between different plays and audiences, these supplemental programs invite theatregoers to go deeper into the world of a play, and the world of the artists behind it. Unless noted, all supplemental programs are free and open to the general public.

SIGNATURE CINEMA showcases films written by Signature playwrights and films that explore the "world of the play" currently in production, screened in the comfort of a theatre designed by world class architect Frank Gehry. This series was launched earlier this month with a sold-out screening of Margaret, written and directed by Residency Five Playwright-in-Residence Kenneth Lonergan. Tickets are $5 for subscribers and $13 for general public.

Falls the Shadow - The Life & Times of Athol Fugard
A documentary by Tony Palmer
Monday, August 20, 2012 at 7pm
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre

Acclaimed film director Tony Palmer has created an in-depth and revealing profile of Athol Fugard whom Time Magazine has called "the greatest living playwright in the English-speaking world." A self-described "regional writer," for over fifty years Fugard has born witness to the devastations and triumphs of his native South Africa, giving "voice to the voiceless." Palmer takes us to Fugard's hometown of Port Elizabeth, the setting for many of his plays, and traces the history of South Africa under apartheid. The film also features extended footage of Fugard's plays and films, with performances by Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Matthew Broderick, Danny Glover, Zakes Mokae, and Fugard himself, as well as interviews with Nobel laureates F.W. de Klerk and Nadine Gordimer, and actors Pieter-Dirk Uys, Ben Kingsley, James Earl Jones, Antony Sher, and Janet Suzman.

There will be special talkback with Athol Fugard after the screening.

Paris, Texas
Screenplay by 2012-13 Season Legacy Playwright-in-Residence Sam Shepard; Directed by Wim Wenders
Tuesday, August 28 at 7pm.
The Irene Diamond Stage

A lonely figure wanders across the desert of the American Southwest with nothing but a ragged suit. With no memory of his past and no plan for his future, he presumably is wandering nowhere - until his brother finds him, and helps him remember the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years earlier. Based on Sam Shepard's autobiographical collection of short fiction, The Motel Chronicles, Paris, Texas embodies Shepard's love of the open road, cowboy philosophy, and the wild American frontier. "This character of Travis, this lost soul…sort of appeared out of these stories somehow," says Shepard. Directed by Wim Wenders, the critically acclaimed Paris, Texas stars Hunter Carson, Aurore Clément, Nastassja Kinski, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dean Stockwell. It won the Cannes Palme D'Or for Best Film in 1984 and was hailed as a "modern classic" by The Guardian.

Tsotsi
Based on the novel by 2012 Inaugural Season Residency One Playwright Athol Fugard; Written & Directed by Gavin Hood
Monday, September 24 at 7pm
The Irene Diamond Stage

Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto – where survival is the primary objective – Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a car-jacking. The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was hailed as "a stunning film" by Jeffrey Lyons from NBC-TV. Tsotsi stars Presley Chweneyagae, Mothusi Magano and Israel Makoe.

Tickets for all three screenings are on sale now. To purchase tickets for Signature Cinema, call the Signature Theatre Box Office (212-244-7529) or visit signaturetheatre.org.