Signature's 2014-15 Season to Feature Works by A.R. Gurney, Naomi Wallace, U.S. Premiere of Sam Shepard's A PARTICLE OF DREAD & More

Signature Theatre has announced eight productions for the 2014-15 Season at the company's Frank Gehry-designed Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). All subscriber tickets for the 2014-15 Season are $25 each as part of the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. Subscription packages start at just $125.

For the first time ever, Signature's Residency One program, which produces a series of plays from the body of work of a writer, will feature two accomplished playwrights simultaneously: A.R. Gurney and Naomi Wallace. The season begins in August with the U.S. premiere of Naomi Wallace's And I And Silence, directed by Caitlin McLeod, and continues with a new production of A.R. Gurney's The Wayside Motor Inn, the New York premiere of Wallace's The Liquid Plain, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, and a new production of Gurney's What I Did Last Summer, directed by Jim Simpson. Both A.R. Gurney and Naomi Wallace's residencies will conclude with premiere productions during Signature's 2015-16 Season. These productions are currently available for purchase with a 2014-15 Signature subscription package.

Signature's Legacy Program, a homecoming for past Signature Playwrights-in-Residence, will feature the U.S. premiere of A Particle of Dread by Sam Shepard (1996-97 Season Playwright-in-Residence), produced with Field Day Theater Company, directed by Nancy Meckler, and featuring Academy Award-nominee Stephen Rea; Big Love by Charles Mee (2007-08 Season Playwright-in-Residence), directed by Tina Landau; and a new play written and directed by Athol Fugard (2012 Season Playwright-in-Residence).

As part of the Residency Five program, the 2014-15 Season will feature the world premiere of Katori Hall's new play Our Lady of Kibeho, directed by Michael Greif. Residency Five is a groundbreaking program that provides a group of playwrights with the full range of Signature's resources for a period of five years to create and produce new work, and guarantees each playwright a minimum of three premieres at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The program enables a diverse community of playwrights to build bodies of work, and provides them with a significant cash award, full health benefits and a stipend to attend theatre. Annie Baker, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan and Regina Taylor are the program's current playwrights.

Founding Artistic Director James Houghton says "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."

Signature's current 2013-14 Season continues with Kung Fu by David Henry Hwang, directed by Leigh Silverman, with choreography by Sonya Tayeh (extended through April 6); The Open House by Will Eno, directed by Oliver Butler (extended through March 30); and Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Liesl Tommy (extended through April 13).

Subscriptions to the 2014-15 Season are on sale now by calling Ticket Services at 212-244-7529 or visiting www.signaturetheatre.org.

Tickets to the initial runs of all Signature productions at The Pershing Square Signature Center are $25, part of the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, a program that guarantees affordable and accessible tickets to every Signature production through 2031. Serving as a model for theatres and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible by lead partner The Pershing Square Foundation. Additional support provided by the Ford Foundation, Margot Adams, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Photo by Peter James Zielinski