Signature Theatre Announces 2014-2015 Season
Signature Theatre has announced eight plays for its upcoming 2014-2015 Season at the Pershing Square Signature Center, including two new Residency One playwrights: A.R. Gurney and Naomi Wallace.
The company's 2014-2015 season will feature:
The Wayside Motor Inn
By A.R. Gurney
Date: August - September 2014
Venue: The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
Synopsis: Outside Boston, ten people — some strangers, some not — struggle with the circumstances that have brought them to the Wayside Motor Inn. With old grudges and new feuds threatening the travelers' peace, this kicks off A. R. Gurney's Signature Residency by examining the tenuous space between loneliness and connection, and the fragile framework of the American Dream.
Playwright: A.R. Gurney is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and a Drama Desk Award winner. His Broadway credits include 'Love Letters' (1989), 'Sweet Sue' (1987) and 'The Golden Age' (1984). Amongst his other many plays, the most produced are 'The Dining Room', 'The Cocktail Hour' and 'Sylvia'. His most recent work was 'Family Furniture' at Off-Broadway's Flea Theatre last year.
And I And Silence (U.S. Premiere)
By Naomi Wallace
Director: Caitlin McLeod
Date: August - September 2014
Venue: The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
Synopsis: Two imprisoned teenagers, one black, one white, form a perilous bond. As the young women serve time, they forge a plan for survival. When the outside world proves even more dangerous than the jail itself, their private world becomes an untenable practice ground for their new lives. And I And Silence explores the fierce dreams of youth and the brutal reality of adulthood in 1950's America.
Playwright: Naomi Wallace received an Obie Award for her 1996 Off-Broadway play 'One Flea Spare'. Her 2003 adaptation of the William Wharton novel Birdy played Off-Broadway's Julia Miles Theater, before receiving a West End transfer to London. Other credits include 'The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek', 'Things of Dry Hours' and 'In the Heart of America'.
A Particle Of Dread (U.S. Premiere)
By Sam Shepard
Director: Nancy Meckler
Date: November - December 2014
Venue: The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
Synopsis: This dark, fragmented, modern-day take on Oedipus Rex premiered in Derry, Ireland and features Academy Award-nominee Stephen Rea in the canonical central role, alongside a cast of actors from both sides of the Atlantic.
Playwright: Sam Shepard is a Tony Award nominee and a Pulitzer Prize winner. His Broadway credits include 'True West' (2000), 'Buried Child' (1996) and Operation Sidewinder (1970). He has won eleven Obie Awards over the years for plays such as 'Fool for Love' (1984) and 'La Turista' (1967).
Our Lady Of Kibeho (World Premiere)
By Katori Hall
Director: Michael Greif
Date: November - December 2014
Venue: The Irene Diamond Stage
Synopsis: In 1981, a village girl in Rwanda claims to see the Virgin Mary. Ostracized by her schoolmates and labeled disturbed, everyone refuses to believe, until the impossible starts happening again and again. Skepticism gives way to fear, faith, and fate, causing upheaval in the school community and beyond. Based on real events, Our Lady of Kibeho is the second production of Olivier Award-winning playwright Katori Hall's Residency at Signature.
Playwright: Katori Hall is an Olivier Award-winning playwright, who made her Broadway debut in 2011 with 'The Mountaintop', starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. Her Off-Broadway credits include 'Hurt Village' and 'Hoodoo Love'. Her play 'Children of Killers' was also produced at the National Theatre in London, as well as the Castillo Theatre in New York.
Big Love
By Charles Mee
Director: Tina Landau
Date: Fabruary - March 2015
Venue: The Irene Diamond Stage
Synopsis: Fifty brides flee their fifty grooms and seek refuge in an Italian villa in this modern re-making of one of the world's oldest plays, The Danaids by Aeschylus. Mayhem ensues, complete with grooms in flight suits, women throwing themselves to the ground, occasional pop songs and romantic dances - even a bride falling in love. Big Love explores the hunger for independence, the burden of tradition, and the shape and size of love.
Playwright: Charles Mee has many Off-Broadway credits to his name, including 'True Love' (Zipper Theatre), 'The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador' (Perry Street Theatre), 'The Imperialist at the Club Cave Canem' (Joseph Papp Public Theater/Susan Stein Shiva Theater), 'Iphigenia 2.0' (Peter Norton Space) and 'Wintertime' (Second Stage Theatre).
The Liquid Plain (New York Premiere)
By Naomi Wallace
Director: Kwame Kwei-Armah
Date: February - March 2015
Venue: The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
Synopsis: On the docks of late 18th century Rhode Island, two runaway slaves, Adjua and Dembi, plan a desperate and daring run to freedom. When a chance encounter triggers an unexpected collision of worlds, painful truths are uncovered and the brutality of past crimes spills into the next generation. The Liquid Plain brings to life a group of people whose stories have been erased from history.
What I Did Last Summer
By A.R. Gurney
Director: Jim Simpson
Date: May - June 2015
Venue: The Irene Diamond Stage
Synopsis: With her husband overseas near the end of World War II, Grace fights to save the splintering bonds of her family by taking her teenage son and daughter to spend the summer on Lake Erie. When her son takes up with the town outcast, the entire family must confront the expectations of a society that holds conformity in the highest regard. Grace finds that her attempt to restore normalcy may have only fractured their relationships further.
A New Play (World Premiere)
Written and Directed by Athol Fugard
Date: April - May 2015
Venue: The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
Playwright: Athol Fugard is a Tony Award winning playwright whose many Broadway credits include 'The Road to Mecca' (2012), '"Master Harold"...and the Boys' (1982/2003), 'Blood Knot' (1985) in which he also starred as 'Morris', and 'A Lesson from Aloes' (1980). His many Off-Broadway credits include the Obie and Lucille Lortel Award-winning play 'Boesman and Lena'.
Signature's 2015-2016 Season will include A.R. Gurney's and Naomi Wallace's final premiere productions to complete their Signature residencies.
Founding Artistic Director James Houghton released the following statement: "For our fourth season in The Pershing Square Signature Center we have assembled a very exciting group of artists and productions. I'm thrilled to welcome Sam, Chuck, Athol and Katori back to the company, and to add the distinctive voices of A.R. Gurney and Naomi Wallace to the Signature landscape, as well as collaborate with Stephen Rea's Field Day Theatre Company on the US premiere of Sam's new play. The collision of this diverse group of artists will surely be powerful for Signature and our audiences."
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