World Premieres from Dominique Morisseau, Katori Hall, and More Lined Up for Signature's 2019/20 Season

The 2019-2020 Signature Theatre Season will feature six works by five resident playwrights, including two productions by Signature's new Residency 1 playwright Anna Deavere Smith, world premiere plays from Residency 5 playwrights Katori Hall and Dominique Morisseau, a New York premiere from new Residency 5 playwright Lauren Yee, and a new production of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play from Legacy playwright Horton Foote, the company announced today.

All performances will take place at the company's Frank Gehry-designed Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Signature is proud to continue the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, its one-of-a-kind commitment to providing subsidized, affordable tickets to every seat at every performance during a production's regular run. All tickets will be $35 for the 2019-2020 Season. Subscriptions are on sale now.

Obie, Lortel and MacArthur Award winner Anna Deavere Smith will join Signature as Residency 1 playwright in the 2019-2020 Season. Residency 1 is Signature's core Playwright-in-Residence program that produces multiple plays by one writer over the course of a year. Signature will produce two of Smith's plays - Fires in the Mirror, directed by Saheem Ali, and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, directed by Taibi Magar - in the 2019-20 Season, with a new play to be produced in an upcoming season.

Residency 5 will feature two world premieres, with The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, and Confederates by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Kamilah Forbes, as well as the New York premiere of Steinberg Award-winner Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band, directed by Chay Yew. The groundbreaking Residency 5 program supports playwrights with exceptional resources for five years, so they can create new work, and guarantees each playwright a minimum of three productions at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The program includes a diverse community of playwrights as they build bodies of work, and offers commission support, health benefits and a stipend to attend theatre. In addition to Hall, Morisseau and Yee, the program's current playwrights are Annie Baker, Martha Clarke, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, The Mad Ones and Dave Malloy.

Signature's Legacy Program, a homecoming for past Signature Playwrights-in-Residence, will feature a new production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Young Man from Atlanta by Horton Foote, directed by Foote's longtime collaborator Michael Wilson.

Artistic Director Paige Evans said, "I'm delighted to be bringing Anna Deavere Smith to Signature next season. Anna revolutionized the theatrical form with her groundbreaking documentary work, and it will be fascinating to see how these two seminal plays resonate today. I'm also thrilled to welcome Lauren Yee as a Residency 5 playwright, and to welcome back Katori Hall and Dominique Morisseau for world premieres. The season will also include the first NYC revival of Horton Foote's beautiful, moving play The Young Man from Atlanta. I can't wait to share all of this exciting work with our audiences."

Signature's current 2018-2019 Season continues with a new production of Curse of the Starving Class by Legacy playwright Sam Shepard, directed by Terry Kinney, beginning performances on April 23, 2019, and the world premiere of the chamber choir musical,Octet by Residency 5 writer Dave Malloy, directed by Annie Tippe, beginning performances on April 30, 2019.

Tickets to the initial runs of all Signature Productions at The Pershing Square Signature Center are $35, part of the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, a program that guarantees affordable tickets to every Signature production through 2031. This spring, Signature will offer its millionth subsidized ticket through the Signature Ticket Initiative. 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 with additional support provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, Margot Adams, The SHS Foundation, Unlikely Collaborators, the Lily AuchinclossFoundation, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

Subscriptions to the 2019-2020 Season are on sale now by calling Ticket Services at 212-244-7529 (Tues. - Sun., 11am - 6pm) or by visiting www.signaturetheatre.org.