Signature Theatre Opens Submissions for The Judith Champion Musical Theater LaunchPad Residency

Signature Theatre has opened submissions for the Judith Champion Musical Theater LaunchPad Residency. In its second year, the residency takes the name of the late Judith Champion—a devoted supporter of New York theater, and of emerging playwrights and new work in particular. Signature created the LaunchPad Residency in 2022 to support early-career playwrights from historically underrepresented communities and expand on the organization’s singular mission of producing a body of work by each resident writer. This year, Signature turns the program’s focus to advancing the voice, body of work, and professional development of a writer of musical theater.
 
Mel Litoff, Judith Champion’s partner, says, “Judith always said, ‘Support what is important to you, and one thing that is important to me is the future of the American theater.’ This Judith Champion Musical LaunchPad Residency will help fulfill that dream.”
 
Signature Theatre Artistic Director Paige Evans says, “Year after year, we’re seeing bold works of musical theater that begin in Off-Broadway spaces and have a wide-reaching impact—that show just how stylistically and thematically vast, exhilarating, poetic, unpredictable, and rigorous musical theater can be, and how many people its insights can reach. But programs offering ongoing and holistic support for early-career musical theater writers are rare. We’re so grateful to the late Judith Chamption for this incredible legacy gift, and for her passion for supporting emerging artists. We’re so excited as we look ahead to the next three years of engaging a writer whose voice will continue to push the form to new heights.”
 
This year’s residency was in part inspired by Signature’s work with Dave Malloy—the organization’s first-ever musical theater writer in residence, scheduled to have his second world premiere production, Three Houses, in 2024. Motivated by their ongoing collaboration with Malloy, which has revealed how a playwright-centric company can support musical theater, Signature sought to work with another writer, this time an emerging voice, with a groundbreaking vision for musical storytelling. In order to sustain work with the same resident through the program’s three years, Signature seeks a talented generative artist who pens the book, lyrics, and music for their work.
 
As Signature opens submissions—in a process overseen by Signature Theatre Director of Artistic Programs Iyvon E.—the organization is looking for NYC-based musical theater writers who have not had a major off-Broadway production at the time of application. Ideal candidates will have written at least two full-length musicals or musical theater works, demonstrating a commitment to the craft of writing for the stage and a career as a musical theater writer. (Visit signaturetheatre.org for full submissions criteria.)
 
The LaunchPad Residency will provide one playwright with holistic artistic support over the course of three years, which includes: one $15,000 commission, one full production and one workshop production (both in the 99-seat Ford Studio), healthcare benefits, developmental readings (toward production), a theatergoing stipend, a writing retreat outside New York City, access to private workspace at Signature, and guided mentorship by a Spotlight Resident or Premiere Resident Signature playwright.
 
The second LaunchPad residency will begin while current resident Melis Aker continues her work with Signature—part of a plan to have overlapping LaunchPad Residents, enabling writers to turn to their peers within the program for creative support and inspiration. The LaunchPad Program is supported by Pablo Salame, and the Estate of Judith Champion.
 
LaunchPad is Signature’s newest residency program, building on its long-term commitment to playwrights’ bodies of work. Other programs include the Premiere Residency (formerly Residency 5), which supports the development and production of several new plays by each resident playwright, and the Spotlight Residency (formerly Residency 1), which offers a deep dive into an established writer’s body of work through productions of three or more plays, both new and reimagined. Playwrights in all residencies, including LaunchPad, become Legacy Playwrights, with the potential to have their work staged under the banner of Signature’s Legacy Productions—celebrating previous Signature Writers-in-Residence by continuing to produce their plays.
 

About Signature Theatre
 

Signature Theatre is an artistic home for storytellers. By producing several plays from each Resident Writer, Signature continues its deep dive into their bodies of work.

Signature serves its mission by hosting distinctive resident playwrights and cultural communities at its permanent home at The Pershing Square Signature Center, a three-theater facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects. At the Center, which opened in January 2012, Signature continues its original Playwright-in-Residence model with Spotlight Residency (formerly Residency 1), an intensive exploration of a single writer’s body of work. The Premiere Residency (formerly Residency 5), the only program of its kind, supports playwrights as they build a body of work by guaranteeing each writer three productions over a five-year period. The Legacy Program, launched during Signature’s 10th Anniversary, invites writers from both residencies to premiere or restage earlier plays. Inaugurated in 2022, the LaunchPad Residency seeks to advance an early-career playwright's voice, body of work, and professional development. In 2020, Signature launched SigSpace, to bring free artistic programming to the Center’s public spaces and more fully activate Signature’s lobby as a free public workspace and social hub for New York artists.

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a major contribution to New York City’s cultural landscape. The Center supports and encourages collaboration among artists, cultural organizations and local communities by providing free, public access throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theaters, the Center features a studio theater, a rehearsal studio and a public café, bar and bookstore.

Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature Theatre is now led by Artistic Director Paige Evans and Executive Director Timothy J. McClimon. Signature’s Resident Playwrights include: Edward Albee, Annie Baker, Lee Blessing, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Horton Foote, María Irene Fornés, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Stephen Adly Guirgis, A.R. Gurney, Katori Hall, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Bill Irwin, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Kenneth Lonergan, Dave Malloy, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl, Sam Shepard, Anna Deavere Smith, Regina Taylor, Paula Vogel, Naomi Wallace, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, Lauren Yee, The Mad Ones, and members of the historic Negro Ensemble Company: Charles Fuller, Leslie Lee, and Samm-Art Williams.

Signature and its artists have been recognized with Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants, and Lucille Lortel, Obie, Drama Desk, AUDELCO, and Artios Awards as well as the 50/50 Award for Gender Parity in Theatre, among many other distinctions. In 2014, Signature became the first New York City theater to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award for its body of work and accomplishments as an institution. For more information, please visit signaturetheatre.org.

The groundbreaking Signature Access (formerly the Signature Ticket Initiative), which in 2019 celebrated its one millionth ticket sold, guarantees affordable tickets to every Signature production through 2032. Serving as a model for theaters and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible, in part, by Lead Partner The Pershing Square Foundation.

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