Signature Theatre Extends WALTER CRONKITE IS DEAD Through 12/26

Virginia's Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre today announced that, due to popular demand, the world premiere comedy, starring Helen Hayes Award winners Sherri L. Edelen (Signature's Sweeney Todd and Les Miserables) and Nancy Robinette, written and directed by Helen Hayes Awardee Joe Calarco (Signature's Side Show and Assassins), will now run from October 26 through December 26, 2010. Working with Calarco on the creative team are James Kronzer (sets), Chris Lee (lights), Kathleen Geldard (costumes), and Matt Rowe (sound).

Signature Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer stated, "It's always great to welcome Artistic Associate Joe Calarco back home to Signature. His newest comedy stars two of Washington's finest actresses - Sherri Edelen and Nancy Robinette - who bring to life a world of debate from a red and a blue state! Filled with laughs and honesty, this new comedy promises to be one lively evening in the theatre. We are thrilled audiences have responded so positively to this project that we need to extend before the run has even begun."

Playwright Calarco commented, "To have Nancy and Sherri in the production is truly a dream fulfilled. I wrote the play with the two of them in mind. Every word in the script was written to come out of their mouths."

Single tickets range in price from $50 to $76 and are available by calling Ticketmaster at (703) 573-SEAT (7328) or visiting www.signature-theatre.org. Group discounts are available for parties of ten or more by contacting Bethany Shannon at shannonb@signature-theatre.org or by calling (571) 527-1831. For more information please visit www.signature-theatre.org.

In a world that seems to be spinning beyond their control, two women find themselves sharing a table, stuck in an airport by a storm. Representing two sides of the culture wars - one red state, the other blue state - Margaret and Patty reluctantly strike up a conversation that encourages them to open up, challenge their world views and find common ground.

Calarco stated, "At a time when civil discourse seems to be dead in America, I wanted to write a play where people from very different backgrounds are forced by circumstance to sit and simply talk and listen to one another. Even if neither woman's world view necessarily changes, maybe in the future it will be harder for either of them to demonize someone who thinks differently than they do." "The New York Times called Calarco "a theater man of imagination and vision."

Performances of Walter Cronkite Is Dead. run from October 24 to December 26, 2010. Show times are Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:30 pm, Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm. There are no performances of Walter Cronkite Is Dead. on Saturday, October 30 at 2:00 pm, Tuesday, November 2, or Thursday, November 25. There is an added performance Friday, November 26 at 2pm.

Located in Arlington, Virginia and complete with free parking, Signature Theatre is just 5.2 miles from the D.C.'s landmark, the Washington Monument, an estimated 10 - 15 minute drive according to googlemaps.com. Using public transportation, Signature is a $12 taxi ride from the Pentagon City Metro stop (on both the Blue & Yellow lines) with a taxi stand located in front of the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Signature's 2010-11 season also includes the legendary rock musical Chess composed by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play Art, Side by Side by Sondheim, and the world premieres of Ken Ludwig's A Fox on the Fairway and Joseph Thalken's musical Wheatley's Folly. Subscriptions for three or more productions are available by calling Signature's box office at (703) 820-9771.

Starting one hour before and extending for one hour after performances, patrons can visit Ali's Bar for outstanding wine, beer, mixed drinks, and chef-prepared light fare. The theater's much praised source of refreshment overlooking a tree-lined boulevard has been masterminded by wine expert Suzanne McGrath, the proprietor of Shirlington's gourmet wine store, The Curious Grape. Ticket purchase is not required to eat or drink at Ali's Bar.

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Sherri L. Edelen SIGNATURE: Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables (Helen Hayes Award), Urinetown, Elegies (Helen Hayes nomination), Side Show (Helen Hayes Award). DC AREA: Kennedy Center/Sondheim Celebration: Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along; Shakespeare Theatre: Design for Living; Olney: She Loves Me (Helen Hayes nomination); Rep Stage: Kimberly Akimbo; Round House Theatre: The World Goes ‘Round, The Diary of Anne Frank; Arena: Cabaret (Helen Hayes nomination); Theater of the First Amendment: Sing Down the Moon, Perseus Bayou; Ford's Theatre: A Christmas Carol. REGIONAL: NY Fringe Festival: Citizen Ruth; Arden Theatre: Our Town; Caroline, or Change (Barrymore nomination); Philadelphia Theatre Co.: The Light in the Piazza, Elegies (Barrymore nomination); Stages St. Louis: The Music Man, Annie Get Your Gun.

Nancy Robinette SIGNATURE: Eagle River, Donna Q, Available Light, Taking My Life In Your Hands. Off Broadway: Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (New York Theatre Workshop); Give Me Your Answer Do! (Roundabout). Regional: Philadelphia Here I Come! (Williamstown); Diary of Anne Frank (Papermill); Twelfth Night (McCarter); Boeing Boeing and Savannah Disputation (The Old Globe); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Key West). DC Area: Well, Death of a Salesman (Arena); Frozen, Souvenir (Studio); Mother Courage (Scena); Escape From Happiness (Round House); The Rivals, Sweet Bird of Youth, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Silent Woman, The Little Foxes, Lady Windemere's Fan, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare); Wonder of the World, Aunt Dan and Lemon (Woolly Mammoth); State of the Union (Ford's). Film and TV: Serial Mom, The Day Lincoln Was Shot, Telegrams From the Dead, Homicide, Louie. Other: Helen Hayes Award; Fox Fellow 1998; Will Award (Shakespeare).

Joe Calarco SIGNATURE: Assassins (Helen Hayes Award), Urinetown (Helen Hayes Award), Sideshow (Helen Hayes Award), Nijinsky's Last Dance (Helen Hayes Award), Nest (world premiere), writer of the last five Signature in the School world premiere plays. OFF-BROADWAY: Playwrights Horizons: The Burnt Part Boys, Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky; Primary Stages: In Transit, Boy; Second Stage: in the absence of spring (writer/director); Lucille Lortel: Sarah, Plain and Tall; The Transport Group: Bury The Dead, The Audience (contributing book writer); Dream Light Theatre Company: Fugitive Songs. Shakespeare's R&J (adaptor/director, Lucille Lortel Award, also West End and Tokyo). NATIONAL TOUR: Ring of Fire. REGIONAL: The Old Globe: Lincolnesque, (world premiere), The Glass Menagerie; Barrington Stage Company: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (world premiere, book writer/director), The Burnt Part Boys (world premiere), The Memory Show; Philadelphia Theatre Co.: The Light in the Piazza, The Last Five Years (Barrymore Award Best Musical), Elegies, M. Butterfly; Disney Creative Entertainment: Twice Charmed. Drama League Directing Fellow, Executive Board SDC.

Recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award, Signature Theatre is a non-profit professional theater company in Arlington, Virginia dedicated to producing contemporary musicals and plays, reinventing classic musicals, and developing new work. Under the leadership of co-founder and Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Maggie Boland, Signature has presented 29 world premiere productions and is renowned for combining Broadway-quality productions with intimate playing spaces.

In addition to hosting the finest talent from the DC metropolitan area and New York, Signature has been home to such theatre luminaries as Chita Rivera, George Hearn, Hunter Foster, Emily Skinner, Marc Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cameron Mackintosh, Terrence McNally, and the company's signature composer, Stephen Sondheim. Since its founding in 1989, Signature has won 70 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington, DC region's professional theater and has been honored with 276 nominations.

Signature is partially supported by a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and by a gift from Arlington County through the Arlington Commission for the Arts and the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources.

The Signature Theatre complex is located at 4200 Campbell Avenue (22206) off I-395 at the Shirlington exit. After the exit, blue Signature signs mark the way to the theater. Free parking is available in two adjacent public garages. Please note that Campbell Avenue is a new street and some GPS online mapping systems do not yet recognize Signature Theatre's address. For directions visit http://signature-theatre.org/map.htm.

For more information, visit http://www.signature-theatre.org.