Expect an announcement in a week or two regarding plays, dates and initial casting for the 1998-99 season for Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre season. The company announced in May that this season will be devoted to plays by John Guare, while `99-00 will honor Maria Irene Fornes.
Though Guare is considered a more commercial playwright, due mainly to the Broadway success of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation, both dramatists tend to veer from familiar topics and structures. Some of Guare's more offbeat works are under strongest consideration for the Signature season, such as Marco Polo Sings A Solo, Rich and Famous and Bosoms and Neglect. In a 1997 interview with Playbill On-Line, playwright Paula Vogel cited Bosoms as one of the more influential and devastating experiences in her years of going to the theatre.
Guare told the Times he also expects to world premiere a play that will complete his "Nantucket Trilogy," which he termed, "My 20th century novel plays." His libretto for Two Gentlemen of Verona won a Tony in 1972.
Fornes is the more experimental dramatist, having worked Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway for 30 years. Her latest play, The Summer in Gossenssass, looked at the influence of Hedda Gabler on the women of its generation. Other Fornes plays include Mud, Fefu And Her Friends, Abingdon Square, Terra Incognita and The Conduct of Life.
Signature artistic director James Houghton said of Fornes, "Here is a writer who has in a major way contributed to the theatrical richness of the Off-Broadway movement. Putting together a season for Irene gives us a chance to develop a context for her." As for the company's 10th anniversary season (2000-01), Houghton is bringing back the nine previous playwrights, each with a world-premiere play. The artistic director told the Times he had commitments for new plays from Guare, Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Lee Blessing and Romulus Linney. He also expected works from Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard and Arthur Miller. Spokesperson James Morrison told Playbill On-Line, "Clearly it'll be impossible to do 10 shows within a season as full productions. I figure Jim would want to pair up some of the plays, such as an evening of three one-acts."
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Signature devoted its 1997-98 season to Arthur Miller. In a press conference inaugurating the company's first year in its new home on West 42nd St., artistic director Jim Houghton told the assembled, "We searched for four years and over 250 spaces for a home. We'd really wanted the Pro Ýn Playhouse but that fell through. Then we talked to Eric Krebs, who started doing renovation on this space a year ago. He asked if we were ready to continue the renovations and take over, so we did [for a 14-year lease]. Also helping was a $1.5 million capital campaign, $1 million of which was raised very quickly, thanks especially to the Laura Pels Foundation." The space is 45' X 85' with an 22' grid height, equipped with air conditioning, wheelchair accessibility and concessions facility.
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Founded in 1991, Signature Theatre Company spent its first six seasons focusing on the works of Blessing, Linney, Albee, Foote, Kennedy and Shepard respectively. (One of the Foote plays premiered there, The Young Man From Atlanta, went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize and have a Broadway engagement.)
Four seasons ago, the company was housed at the (now vanished) 77-seat theatre at Kampo Cultural Center downtown. `95-97 saw them at the Public Theatre space. Producer and owner of the West 42nd St. space, Eric Krebs has stated, "Playwright John Ford Noonan said to me, `You know why I like Signature Theatre Company? -- They give working playwrights hope.'"
For memberships and information on the Signature Theatre season call (212) 244-PLAY.
-- By Robert Viagas and David Lefkowitz
