Paige Evans to Step Down as Signature Theatre Artistic Director

Signature Theatre Artistic Director Paige Evans will step down in June, having led the company since 2016, through the transition from the institution’s Founder, James Houghton, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
At Signature, Evans has produced eight seasons of award-winning and critically-acclaimed shows and brought gifted writers to Signature for its distinctive residencies, including Melis Aker, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Samuel D. Hunter, Dave Malloy (Signature’s first musical theater writer), Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, Sarah Ruhl, Anna Deavere Smith, Lauren Yee, and The Mad Ones.
 
Signature playwright-in-residence Anna Deavere Smith says of Evans, "I loved working with Paige during the remounting of my plays Fires in the Mirror and Twilight. Her searing and perceptive intelligence were invaluable. We need allies in the trenches of art production. I am grateful that she is one of mine.”
 
“As a director, resident writer, and trustee at Signature, I’m filled with enduring gratitude for Paige’s tenacious stewardship these past eight years,” says Lila Neugebauer. “Her commitment to artists is uniquely steadfast, characterized by a genuine belief in the value of creative risk-taking. Her resilience and indefatigable spirit have been invaluable to Signature’s very survival in the face of the pandemic’s challenges. Paige is a leader of courage, mettle, and integrity, and I cannot wait to see what she does next.”
 
Under Evans’ leadership, breakthrough plays and musicals have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Obie, Drama Desk, Audelco, and Lortel Awards, as well as the NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, and the 50/50 Award for Gender Parity. Signature Productions during her tenure have also been recognized annually in The New York Times’ “Best of Theater” lists.
 
During the COVID-19 shutdown, Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, following Signature’s world premiere production. As the theater emerged from the pandemic, Signature’s productions of Dave Malloy’s Octet (its first musical), Anna Deavere Smith’s reimagined Twilight: Los Angeles, and Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band transferred to theaters around the country.
 
Throughout her time at Signature, Evans has built on core values of community, celebrating diversity in the American theater and supporting playwrights and their unique bodies of work. She launched several new artistic programs, including an Education Program for high school and college students, SigSpace lobby programming and, with generous support of former Trustee Pablo Salame and the estate of Judith Champion, the groundbreaking LaunchPad Residency for early career writers from historically underrepresented communities.
 
Signature Theatre Board Chair Edward Norton says, “My gratitude to Paige and admiration for her leadership of Signature will be everlasting. Nobody who signs up for the adventure and fun of running a dynamic theater company expects it to turn into an existential fight for survival due to a global pandemic. But you really learn what people are made of when things get tough, and Paige’s fortitude and creativity and tireless spirit never wavered.  How lucky we have been to work with her and how lucky all her partners in future adventures in theater will be.”
 
Evans has also played an instrumental role in fundraising and budgetary reductions, and she launched a successful fundraising campaign during Covid with a galvanizing major gift from Pablo Salame. Edward Norton and other Signature Trustees also made generous gifts to help Signature through the pandemic. Together with Executive Director Timothy J. McClimon, Evans has reinvigorated and rebuilt Signature’s Board of Trustees, adding eight new members in the past year alone.
 
Former Signature Trustee Pablo Salame says of Evans, “Paige is one of a kind. During her tenure she provided theatergoers thrilling access to a wide range of voices while supporting those voices to fully realize their visions. Her methods couple a quiet effectiveness with exquisite artistic taste and utmost personal integrity. Paige’s dedication to Signature during a period of intense personal tragedy epitomized her love for the institution. As a theater fan I look forward to witnessing her next chapter.”
 
Before Signature, Evans served as the first Artistic Director of LCT3, launching a new space that brought new artists and audiences to Lincoln Center Theater. As Artistic Director of LCT3, Evans produced more than 20 premieres, which won Lortel, Obie, Audelco and Drama Desk Awards, as well as the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2013, two LCT3 premieres were recognized by the Pulitzer committee and transferred to larger theaters: Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced won the Pulitzer, a first for Lincoln Center Theater, and moved to Broadway; and Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles, a Pulitzer finalist, transferred to LCT’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater for an extended run. Evans also brought many talented directors, including Lileana Blain-Cruz, Rachel Chavkin, Sam Gold, Lila Neugebauer, and Rebecca Taichman, to Lincoln Center Theater.
 
Before LCT3, Evans served as Associate Artistic Director at Manhattan Theatre Club, where she commissioned, developed and produced many world premieres, including Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy, and nurtured four Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, David Auburn’s Proof, and John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt. Both Doubt and Proof transferred to Broadway and won Tony Awards for Best Play.
 
Evans’ decades of developing and premiering new work with playwrights made her a strong fit for Signature’s distinct mission of producing bodies of work by its resident writers.
 
Evans comments, “I’ve been profoundly privileged to serve Signature’s extraordinary community of artists, Board, colleagues, audiences and donors over the past eight years. I’m deeply grateful to them all and proud of everything we’ve accomplished together. Now, having led Signature through challenging transitions and achieved what I set out to do artistically, it’s time for me to reflect, work on freelance projects for the first time in my career, and take on new opportunities.”
 
Signature will announce its 2024-25 season, including world premieres by Melis Aker, Dominique Morisseau, and Samuel D. Hunter, soon.