Signature will No Longer Occupy Ground Zero Arts Center

Ground Zero will no longer be the site of the Signature Theater Company's new theatre.  Instead, the Joyce International Dance Center will be the only occupant of the new performing arts center that was to have included Signature, according to the New York Times.

It was previously announced that Signature Theatre Company, along with the Joyce, had been designated to create a new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site to be designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. At Signature Center, the theatre would have expanded its programming through the creation of three distinct residency programs that reflected the company's core mission to develop and explore the work of an individual playwright.

"Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said the Signature, an Off Broadway group, was dropped because of the cost and complicated logistics of having the two institutions share a confined space. Instead the city hopes to move the Signature to Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway, cater-corner to 7 World Trade Center. Fiterman, part of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, was heavily damaged by falling debris on 9/11," states the article.  This new plan will cut costs by reducing that of the new performing arts center and Signature's new theatre from $700 million to $350 million.  Construction on the Ground Zero-area center will begin in 2011 (a temporary exit from the PATH train will be placed there until then).

"I'm used to rolling with the punches.  I will try to rise to the occasion," said Gehry of the change of plans. 

The Times also reports that although the Joyce will be the sole occupant of the performing arts center, events such as the Tribeca Film Festival might also be welcomed.

Signature Theater Company, as part of its August Wilson celebration, is currently presenting the late great playwright's King Hedley II.

Signature was founded in 1991 by Artistic Director James Houghton and is the first theatre in the United States dedicated to season-long explorations of a single-living-playwright's body of work.  As a direct result of the company's work, Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel Awards, OBIE Awards and Drama Desk Awards, among many other distinctions. The National Theatre Conference recognized the company as the 2003 Outstanding National Theatre of the Year.

Visit www.signaturetheater.org for more information.