Signature Center Opening Gala To Honor Edward Norton 1/30

Signature Theatre has announced that the Signature Center Opening Gala Celebration will take place on Monday, January 30th and will be a first look at the Company's new home, the Frank
Gehry-designed Signature Center.

Guests will enjoy Dewar's cocktails, a chef's tasting menu, and entertainment as they explore the Company's new home Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues), which features three intimate theatres connected by a lobby with café, bar and bookstore, a Studio Theatre, a rehearsal studio and the Company's administrative offices. The first performance at
Signature Center takes place the following day, with Athol Fugard's BLOOD KNOT inaugurating The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre.

Signature Theatre will honor actor, trustee and long-time supporter Edward Norton with the Company's Playwrights' Award, created to recognize those individuals and organizations who, through their vision and leadership, have placed their own signatures upon American theatre. Norton, who made his professional debut at Signature Theatre in Edward Albee's Fragments and later returned in the Company's production of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, is being recognized for his unwavering championship of Signature and the building of Signature Center as Capital Campaign Chair. Previous recipients of the award include The Shubert Foundation, Time Warner Inc., Margot Adams, American Express and HAllie Foote.

In addition to Edward Norton, guests will include Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Athol Fugard, Frank Gehry, John Guare, Hugh Hardy, Tony Kushner, Leslie Lee, Charles Mee, Tonya Pinkins and Kevin Spacey. John and Amy Griffin, who named The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre in honor of theatre historian Alice Griffin, will also be in attendance. Additional guests will be announced at a later date.

DEWAR'S ® Signature is the sponsor of the evening.

2011-2012 SEASON OVERVIEW

RESIDENCY ONE - Athol Fugard SERIES

BLOOD KNOT

Written and Directed by Athol Fugard

January 31 – March 11, 2012

Tickets on sale now

Between patchwork walls in a one-room shack, two biracial South African brothers grapple with crippling poverty and lonely isolation. Fugard's revolutionary breakthrough play is a searing indictment of apartheid and one of his most celebrated works.

The production will feature Colman Domingo (The Scottsboro Boys) as Zachariah and Scott Shepherd (Gatz) as Morris.

MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!

By Athol Fugard

Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson

May 1 – June 10, 2012

Written in 1989 shortly before the end of apartheid, My Children! My Africa! presents an honest and unflinching portrait of a country on the brink of revolution, and is a testament to the power and potential of youth, hope, and ideas.

THE TRAIN DRIVER *** NEW YORK PREMIERE ***

Written and Directed by Athol Fugard

August 14 – September 23, 2012

Based on a true story, The Train Driver is a soulful exploration of guilt, suffering and the powerful bonds that grow between strangers.

LEGACY PROGRAM

Edward Albee'S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE

Directed by David Esbjornson

February 14 – March 25, 2012

At a late night party, Sam and Jo entertain their friends with a round of Twenty Questions and another round of drinks. When an unexpected guest and her mysterious companion arrive, the question "Who are you?" gains a whole new and desperate meaning. The cast features Tony
Award-winner Jane Alexander, Catherine Curtin (Love, Janis), Michael Hayden (Festen, Cabaret), Peter Francis James (The Merchant of Venice), Tricia Paoluccio (A Strange and Separate People), Laila Robins (Frozen), Thomas Jay Ryan (In the Next Room or the vibrator play) and C.J. Wilson (Festen, Henry IV).

RESIDENCY FIVE

HURT VILLAGE ***
WORLD PREMIERE ***

By Katori Hall

Directed by Patricia McGregor

February 7 – March 18, 2012

Tickets on sale now

It's the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee, and a government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project's residents. A bold, gritty and devastating work, Hurt Village earned Katori Hall the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright.

The HURT VILLAGE features Marsha Stephanie Blake (The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Charlie Hudson III (The Piano Lesson), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge
Project), Joaquina Kalukango (Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; "All My Children"), Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair) and Lloyd Watts (Treme).

TITLE AND DEED ***
U.S. PREMIERE ***

By Will Eno

Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett

In association with Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland

May 8 – June 3, 2012

A nameless traveler from a far off place searches for connection and solace in an unknown country in this funny and sad meditation on mortality, loneliness, innocence, home, family, love, funerals, words, and the world. A provocative new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist and
Horton Foote Prize winner Will Eno.

A NEW PLAY BY Kenneth Lonergan *** WORLD PREMIERE ***

May 15 – June 24, 2012

Kenneth Lonergan, acclaimed playwright (This is Our Youth, Lobby Hero, The Starry Messenger) and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (You Can Count on Me), shares a new work with Signature audiences.

Single tickets are now on sale for Athol Fugard's BLOOD KNOT & Katori Hall's HURT VILLAGE, which runs February 7 – March 18, 2012 and is the inaugural production in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre. All regularly priced single tickets ($75) for the initial run of both
shows will be made available for $25 through The Signature Ticket Initiative: A Decade of Access. Tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-244-7529 or online at www.signaturetheatre.org.

Signature Theatre recently announced its pledge to A Decade of Access, the next phase of the Signature Ticket Initiative, an unprecedented program which makes great theatre accessible to the broadest possible audience, which Signature initiated in 2005. For the next ten years, Signature is committed to making all regularly-priced subscription and single tickets ($75) during the initial announced run available for $25. Signature is committed to raising the $20 Million in funds needed
for A Decade of Access and is pursuing lead sponsorship. Seed funding has been provided by Margot Adams, Time Warner Inc., the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the New York City
Council. Signature is also pleased to welcome the Ford Foundation as a new supporter of the Signature Ticket Initiative.

About Signature Theatre

Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature Theatre exists to honor and celebrate the playwright. Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright's body of work, and during this journey, the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process. Signature is the
first theatre company to devote an entire season to the work of a single playwright, including re-examinations of past writings as well as New York and world premieres. By championing in-depth explorations of a living playwright's body of work, the Company delivers an intimate and immersive journey into the playwright's singular vision.

Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, the Negro Ensemble Company, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel,
August Wilson and Lanford Wilson. Signature remains deeply committed to season-long residencies, and during the company's tenth and fifteenth anniversaries, Signature introduced the Legacy Program. The Legacy Program invites past Playwrights-in-Residence back to Signature
through two series: the Signature Series, which presents "signature," or more well-known works; and the Premiere Series, which presents New York and world premieres.

Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, fourteen Lucille Lortel Awards, sixteen Obie Awards, six Drama Desk Awards and twenty-two AUDELCO Awards, among many other distinctions. The National Theatre Conference
recognized the company as the 2003 Outstanding National Theatre of the Year. For more information on Signature please visit us on-line at signaturetheatre.org.

About SIGNATURE CENTER

Opening in January 2012, Signature Center is the new, permanent home of Signature Theatre. Spanning an entire city block at 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenue, the Frank Gehry-designed Signature Center will feature three intimate theatres, a Studio Theatre,
rehearsal studio, and a public café and bookstore and will serve as both a theatre community hub and neighborhood destination. Working hand-in-hand with Signature leadership and architect of record H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture LLC, Gehry's design has been carefully calibrated to foster interaction among playwrights, artistic collaborators and the public. Signature Center will allow the 20-year old Company, critically acclaimed for its programs that celebrate the
playwright's body of work, to expand and enhance its programming, introduce new initiatives, and build audiences.

At Signature Center, the Company's programming will include: Residency One, the continuation of Signature's core program which provides audiences with an immersive exploration of the work of a singular playwright; Residency Five, a new artistic initiative which provides five-year residencies for multiple playwrights to support the creation and staging of new work; and the Legacy Program, which honors the lifetime achievement of artists who have previously been in residence
at Signature with stagings of new plays and signature works. Signature Center will serve as the artistic home for as many as 9 playwrights at any one time, fostering a dynamic creative community where playwrights will engage directly with audiences and one another.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy