Signature Theatre News

The Pit Stop Players, a fourteen-member instrumental ensemble composed of veteran Broadway pit musicians, launch their fourth season with a concert of creepy classics and petrifying premieres at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music tonight, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Children's Theatre (CCT) will skip a few grades with its follow-up to its current smash hit, Harold and the Purple Crayon, with a new production of Bud, Not Buddy, January 12-February 24, 2013 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. Press opening is Friday, January 18 at 7 p.m.

Signature Theatre is pleased to announce the next wave of upcoming supplemental programs, which allow more intimate and direct access to a playwright's vision and process. Just as the layout of The Pershing Square Signature Center encourages a dialogue between different plays and audiences, these supplemental programs invite theatregoers to go deeper into the world of a play, and the world of the artists behind it.

Signature Theatre Company's (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) production of GOLDEN CHILD by David Henry Hwang and directed by Leigh Silverman runs through December 2, 2012, with a November 13 opening night in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Check out photos of the cast in action below!

Signature Theatre sparkles this holiday season with the arrival of the Tony Award®-winning musical Dreamgirls, playing in the MAX Theatre starting Tuesday, November 13. Brimming with superstar talent, and directed and choreographed by Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Xanadu, Really Really), this much-loved show captures the heart and hopes of a soulful female singing trio as they rise to international fame. Dreamgirls plays from November 13, 2012 - January 6, 2013.

Anne Frank's remarkable diary has become an essential tool for understanding one of the darkest periods of our history - and one of the most beautiful, haunting stories in our shared experience. The play is dramatized from the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Making her Rep directorial debut, KJ Sanchez will direct the play. The cast features Associate Artists Jonathan Gillard Daly, Laura Gordon, Lee E. Ernst, James Pickering and Deborah Staples and guest actors J. Alexander Coe, Kelley Faulkner, Larry Neumann, Jr., and rising Chicago actress Lauren Hirte in the title role. Rep Artistic Intern Ensemble Members Jonathan Altman, Emily Berman, Jess Prichard and J.R. Yancher are also in this production. The Diary of Anne Frank runs in The Rep's Quadracci Powerhouse from October 23 - December 2 and opens Today, October 26.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with American Repertory Theater, presents the world premiere of Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi, directed by Rebecca Taichman. Marie Antoinette will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) October 26 through November 17. Opening Night is Thursday, November 1. The cast includes Fred Arsenault, Hannah Cabell, David Greenspan, Marin Ireland, Vin Knight, Jo Lampert, Polly Lee, Steven Rattazzi, Jake Silbermann, Teale Sperling, Brian Wiles, and Ashton Woerz.

Tonight, October 25 through Saturday, October 27 at 7:30 PM, vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) will perform OUT COLD/ZIPPO SONGS- a double-bill of dramatic song cycles with music and lyrics by Phil Kline (Unsilent Night, John the Revelator) - presented as part of BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music)'s 30th Next Wave Festival, in a co-production with American Opera Projects (AOP).

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts, announced the lineup for Brand:NEW Fall Festival of New Works, scheduled today, October 25 - 28. The Festival will include readings of five new plays by Octavio Solis, Bess Wohl, Dan O'Brien, Matthew Lopez and Janine Nabers, as well as a playwrights' panel on October 28 at 4:30 p.m.

Stark Naked Theatre Company opens its 2nd season with the Houston premiere of Body Awareness, a relevant and thought-provoking comedy written by two-time Obie Award-winning author Annie Baker and directed by acclaimed Houston actor/director Philip Lehl. Nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play/Emerging Playwright), Body Awareness explores the question of who is the toughest critic of a woman's appearance: men, society, or women, themselves?

Signature Theatre has announced a one-week extension for THE PIANO LESSON by August Wilson and directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The production will now play through Sunday, December 16. The production will begin performances on October 30 and open on November 18 in The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Very limited availability remains for the production's initial run. Tickets during the extension week are $75 each.

Hartford Stage today announced the winners of the Annual Young Playwrights' Competition, Write On, for students in grades 9-12, and this year's winners are Abigail Kehoe, Alyssa Slotnick, Christopher Snow, Joe Buchek and Jonas Shivers.

Broadway's Jill Paice will join James Barbour on stage Saturday, November 10 at his Fifth Annual Pre-Holiday Season Concert at Sardi's (234 West 44th Street, New York, NY).

Signature Theatre's GOLDEN CHILD, by David Henry Hwang, begins performances tonight directed by Leigh Silverman. All tickets for the initial run of the production are $25 as part of the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. Tickets for the already announced, one week extension are $75. The production runs from October 23 through December 9 and opens November 13 in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts, announced today the cast for the readings at the Brand:NEW FallFestival of New Works, scheduled October 25 - 28. The Festival will include readings of five new plays by Octavio Solis, Bess Wohl, Dan O'Brien, Matthew Lopez andJanine Nabers, as well as a playwrights' panel on October 28 at 4:30 p.m.

Matt Conner shows promise as a composer and I look forward to seeing what will become of 'Crossing' in the future.