Phylicia Rashad to Make Directorial Debut with OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET

Tony Award-winner Phylicia Rashad will direct the upcoming Signature Theatre (Paige Evans, Artistic Director; James Houghton, Founder) production of Our Lady of 121st Street by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Adly Guirgis. Rashad replaces the previously announced Anne Kauffman, who has departed the production due to scheduling conflicts.

Guirgis is Signature's current Residency One playwright. Our Lady of 121st Street will be the second show in his residency, following the critically acclaimed, three times-extended Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train. Signature will produce a new play by Guirgis in the 2018-19 Season.

Our Lady of 121st Street will begin performances on May 1, 2018 and will run through June 10, 2018 on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Opening night is May 20, 2018. $30 tickets go on sale March 29, 2018.

After the death of the beloved Sister Rose, a group of her former students return to their Harlem neighborhood to pay respects. But at the Funeral Home, there's a problem-her dead body has been stolen. An irreverently brash and insightful dark comedy, Stephen Adly Guirgis' Our Lady of 121st Street paints a vivid comic portrait of what happens when old friends meet old wounds and how old habits die hard.

The cast and creative team will be announced soon.

Tickets to the initial runs of all Signature Productions at The Pershing Square Signature Center are $30, part of the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, a program that guarantees affordable tickets to every Signature production through 2031. Serving as a model for theatres and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible by lead partner The Pershing Square Foundation. Additional support provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, Margot Adams, The SHS Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

www.SignatureTheatre.org

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski