Signature Theatre's SigSpace to Present DEJA VU Featuring World Premiere by Samuel D. Hunter & More

Signature Theatre's SigSpace will reteam this June with Theatre For One to present six one-on-one, five-to-six minute theater experiences. Titled Déjà Vu (referencing a featured work by the same name), this iteration of Theatre For One revisits five selected works from the visionary and unconventional organization, many presented at Signature in 2016-from José Rivera, DeLanna Studi and former Signature resident playwrights David Henry Hwang, Regina Taylor, and Lynn Nottage. The series of intimate works for one actor and one audience member also includes the world premiere of a new microplay by Samuel D. Hunter, whose Signature Premiere Residency continues in the 2022-2023 season with A Bright New Boise.

Theatre For One's one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art mobile performance space-a new, ADA-accessible, COVID-safe booth built last summer-will be stationed in the Griffin Lobby at the Center on weekends from June 9-26 (June 9-12, 16-19, & 23-26; Thursdays and Fridays from 5:00-9:00 PM, Saturdays from 3:00-7:00 PM, Sundays from 2:00-6:00 PM). Tickets become available Tuesdays before each week's performances. Walk-ups and repeat viewings (to see a different play) are welcome, subject to availability. Those interested can request a specific play to the Theatre For One representative upon arrival; wait times for each play may vary.

Featured works include Samuel D. Hunter's Brick, directed by SRĐA; David Henry Hwang's My Anniversary, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene; Lynn Nottage's #Five, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene; José Rivera's Lizzy, directed by Rudy Ramirez; DeLanna Studi's Before America Was America, directed by Rudy Ramirez; and Regina Taylor's Déjà Vu, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene. (My Anniversary, #Five, and Déjà Vu were presented at Signature in 2016.) Each day will have a different combination of works running in rep; prior to entering the booths, audiences won't know which of these works will be presented to them.

Déjà Vu marks the first time Theatre For One has revisited previous works, offering a chance to evaluate our current moment through the lens of the very recent past's social and political climate. Progress and regress come into sharp relief across microplays that sting with topicality and reach towards the organization's fundamental aim for transcendent performance.

Theatre For One was conceived by Artistic Director Christine Jones, and produced by Octopus Theatricals, after she was inspired by a magician performing a trick for her at a wedding reception, leading her to the question:a??a?? "By distilling the relationship between performer and audience into a space private enough to feel extremely intimate, but safe enough to allow the audience member a full range of responses, could the likelihood of a transcendent experience be increased?" In Vulture, Jesse Green wrote of the company's work, "At the simplest level, it is an opportunity to watch fine acting close up...It's also a chance to experience storytelling at the fullest possible intensity...But more than that, T41 is a radical deconstruction of fourth-wall dramaturgy...'Immersive' doesn't begin to describe this."

About Theatre For One

Theatre For One is a mobile state-of-the-art and COVID safe and ADA accessible performance space for one actor and one audience member. Conceived by Artistic Director Christine Jones, produced by Octopus Theatricals, and designed by LOT-EK architects, Theatre For One commissions new work created specifically for this venue's one-to-one relationship. Embracing serendipity and spontaneity, Theatre For One is presented in public spaces in which audience members are invited to engage in an intimate theatrical exchange and enter the theatre space not knowing what to expect. Actor and audience member encounter each other as strangers in this suspended space and through the course of the performance allow the divisions and distinctions that separate us to dissolve.

About Octopus Theatricals

Founded by creative producer Mara Isaacs, Octopus Theatricals collaborates with artists and organizations to foster an expansive range of compelling theatrical works for local and global audiences. We eschew boundaries-aesthetic, geopolitical, institutional-and thrive on a nimble and rigorous practice. Current projects include: Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell (Broadway, 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical; Grammy Award, Best Musical Theater Album); Iphigenia, a new opera by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding; Speaking In The Same Key created by choreographer Dianne McIntyre with music by Diedre Murray; Social! The Social Distance Dance Club conceived by Steven Hoggett, Christine Jones & David Byrne; Dreaming Zenzile by Somi Kakoma; And So We Walked by DeLanna Studi; Theatre for One (in person and virtual) and many more. Octopus Theatricals is also home to the Producer Hub, an online resource supporting independent producers in the experimental and performing arts sectors. www.octopustheatricals.com

About Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre is an artistic home for storytellers. By producing several plays from each Signature Resident Playwright, Signature offers a 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-theatre 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 reproduce earlier plays. 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 theatres, the Center features a studio theatre, 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. 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 theatre 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 theatres 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.