Signature Theatre Welcomes Joe Calarco as New Resident Director/Director of New Works

Virginia's Signature Theatre has appointed Joe Calarco to the new position of Resident Director/Director of New Works. In this position, Calarco will continue to strengthen Signature's commitment to new work by shepherding the development of new musicals and plays and actively seeking the work of original and diverse voices. Calarco will also direct 1-2 shows per season and will continue his work with Signature in The Schools, Signature's flagship education program.

Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer stated, "I'm thrilled to welcome Joe to the Signature Theatre family full-time. He's contributed so much to this organization both on-stage and off with his directing and working with students in our education program. It's wonderful to have Joe's talents added to the Signature team." Managing Director Maggie Boland added, "All of us at Signature are so looking forward to working with Joe in this new role. Bringing him on board full-time, year-round, is an important investment in Signature's commitment to developing and producing new plays and musicals. Joe will play an integral role in helping us discover and nurture new playwrights and composers, and we can't think of a better way to build on and celebrate our history during this 25th anniversary season than by increasing our artistic capacity with this new position."

Over the last 16 years, Joe Calarco has directed 14 productions at Signature Theatre including the world premiere production of Njinsky's Last Dance, the DC premieres of Side Show and Urinetown and a critically acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. As a playwright, Calarco has presented three works at Signature Theatre; In the Absence of Spring, Walter Cronkite is Dead, and Shakespeare's R & J. Last season, Calarco directed Signature Theatre's successful revival of Gypsy which was called "D.C.'s finest musical revival in years" by The Washington Post. Calarco is a winner of the Lucille Lortel Award and is a four time Helen Hayes Award recipient. In 2014, he received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play for his Off-Broadway production of A Christmas Carol.

Upon accepting this new position, Calarco stated, "For 15 years Signature Theater has given me the opportunity to do some of the most fulfilling work of my career, so I couldn't be more excited to be able to now really call it home. Signature is one of America's most important incubators of new work, and with this new position I'm thrilled to be able to continue and expand on that amazing mission."

Joe Calarco - Joe's Off Broadway credits include the world premieres of Boy and In Transit (Drama Desk nomination Best Director), at Primary Stages, The Burnt Part Boys and Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky at Playwrights Horizons, the world premieres of The Summer of the Swans and Sarah, Plain and Tall at the Lucille Lortel, the world premiere of The Mistress Cycle for The New York Musical Theatre Festival, the world premiere of Fugitive Songs (Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revue), and the first New York revival of Bury the Dead and The Memory Show for The Transport Group. He was just nominated for a Drama Desk Award for directing Patrick Barlow's adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Joe is the adaptor/director of Shakespeare's R&J, which ran for a year and earned him a Lucille Lortel Award. He also directed the play's premieres in Chicago (5 Jeff Award nominations including Best Play and Best Director), Washington, D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nominations for Best Play and Best Director), London (Evening Standard Award honorable mention Best Director) and Tokyo.

Regionally Joe has won Best Director Barrymore Awards for both Ordinary Days at 11th Hour Theatre Company and The Light in the Piazza at Philadelphia Theatre Company, which garnered a further 6 awards including Best Musical. Other shows at PTC include The Last Five Years (Barrymore Award Best Musical), Elegies (Barrymore nomination Best Director and Best Musical), and M. Butterfly. He is an Artistic Associate at Signature Theatre in Arlington Virginia, where he has directed Assassins (Helen Hayes Award Best Director), the world premiere of Nijinsky's Last Dance (Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director and Best Play), Side Show (Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director and Best Musical), Urinetown (a record breaking 8 Helen Hayes Awards including Best Director and Best Musical), Gypsy (Helen Hayes nominations for Best Director and Best Musical), Elegies: a song cycle (Helen Hayes nomination Best Musical), God of Carnage, the world premiere of Nest, the world premiere of The Boy Detective Fails, and the world premieres of his own plays Walter Cronkite is Dead and In The Absence of Spring which premiered in New York as the inaugural production of Second Stage's New Plays Uptown series under his own direction. Other regional work includes the world premiere of Lincolnesque and The Glass Menagerie at the Old Globe, the world premieres of the musical The Burnt Part Boys, The Memory Show, and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (also book writer), as well as Kiss Me Kate, Breaking the Code, and Romance in Hard Times at Barrington Stage Company, the world premiere of Short Order Stories for Charter Theatre in Virginia, the world premiere of The Religion Thing at Theater J in Washington DC, his adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C, and Of Mice and Men and My Fair Lady at the Hangar Theatre. At the O'Neill Musical Theatre Conference he has directed Broadcast, The Toymaker, Sarah Plain and Tall, In Transit, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and The Shadow Sparrow. He directed Sam I Was as part of the Yale Institute for Musical Theater. He directed Sweeney Todd for Carnegie Mellon University. He directed Twice Charmed: an original twist on the Cinderella story for Disney Creative Entertainment, and his reworking of Ring of Fire: the music of Johnny Cash toured the U.S for over a year.

As a playwright, Joe's published works include In The Absence Of Spring (world premiere Signature Theatre and inaugural production of Second Stage's New Plays Uptown series, included in The Best Stage Scenes of 2004), Shakespeare's R&J (Lucille Lortel Award), Walter Cronkite is Dead (world premiere Signature Theatre), and his short plays, Just A Little Sniffle and Parting Gifts. Other adaptations include A Midsummer Nights Dream, which was produced at The Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington D.C. and Antigone Renewed which had its first workshop at the National Theater in London. His commissioned play A Measure of Cruelty was produced by Mosaic Theater and received a Carbonell Award nomination as Best New Work. He is the book writer for the musicals Golden Gate with composer/lyricist Richard Pearson Thomas (developed at Second Stage and a reading at Lincoln Center) and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick with composer Chris Miller and lyricist Nathan Tysen, which had its West End premiere in conjunction with Mercury Musical Developments in London and its U.S. premier at Barrington Stage Company as part of William Finn's Musical Theatre Lab. He is the book writer for the musical The Last Days of Cleopatra, and he was a contributing book writer of The Audience (Drama Desk Nomination) for The Transport Group. His work for young audiences includes Aladdin (The Hangar Theatre) and My Vacation in Paris, Salat, Civil Wars, Aftershock, Shakespeare, Will, Image is Everything, Revolution, and Hero Worship all for Signature Theatre in Virginia. Upcoming: The musical SCKBSTD with songs by Bruce Hornsby, Home Front: a play with songs with composer/lyricist Adam Gwon, his latest full length play In The Attic, his latest work for young audiences, Empire (working title), to be produced at Signature Theater in the Spring of 2015, and the book for Wolf a theater/dance piece to be produced by Theater Raleigh in North Carolina in January of 2015. He was resident playwright at Expanded Arts for two years and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Joe is co-artistic director of Breaking Bread Theatre. He served as resident playwright at Expanded Arts, Inc. for two years and as Resident Director at Barrington Stage Company. He has been a Joseph Papp artist in residence at Second Stage, is one of New York Theatre Workshop's "usual suspects," and is a Drama League directing fellow. He sits on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). Graduate: Ithaca College. Upcoming projects: The Circus in Winter at Goodspeed and The Nutcracker at Round House.

Photo by Christopher Mueller