Signature's HURT VILLAGE Begins Performances Tonight

Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) has announced that performances begin tonight for the world premiere production of Katori Hall's HURT VILLAGE, directed by Patricia McGregor.

HURT VILLAGE runs February 7 – March 18, 2012 with a February 27th opening night and is the inaugural production in the The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Company's new home The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues).

HURT VILLAGE features Marsha Stephanie Blake (The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Charlie Hudson III (The Piano Lesson), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge Project), Joaquina Kalukango (Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; "All My Children"), Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair) and Lloyd Watts (Treme).

The design team includes David Gallo (Set and Projection Design), Clint Ramos (Costume Design), Sarah Sidman (Lighting Design), Rob Kaplowitz (Sound Design), Cookie Jordan (Hair and Make-Up Design), Kate Wilson (Dialect Coach), Rick Sordelet (Fight Direction), and Luqman Brown (Additional Music). Casting is by Telsey + Company. The Production Stage Manager is Jane Pole and Assistant Stage Manager is Megan J. Alvord.

It's the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee. A government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project's residents, including Cookie, a thirteen year-old aspiring rapper, along with her mother Crank and great-grandmother Big Mama. As the family prepares to move, Cookie's father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Ravaged by the war, Buggy struggles to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughter's wounded heart. A bold, gritty and devastating work, HURT VILLAGE earned Katori Hall the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright. HURT VILLAGE has received a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award from TCG.

Single tickets are now on sale for BLOOD KNOT by Athol Fugard, HURT VILLAGE by Katori Hall and Edward Albee'S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE. All regularly priced single tickets ($75) for the initial run of all three shows are available for $25 through The Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. Tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-244-7529 or online at www.signaturetheatre.org.

2011-2012 SEASON OVERVIEW

RESIDENCY ONE - Athol Fugard SERIES

BLOOD KNOT

Written and Directed by Athol Fugard

January 31 – March 11, 2012

Tickets on sale now 

Between patchwork walls in a one-room shack, two biracial South African brothers grapple with crippling poverty and lonely isolation. Fugard's revolutionary breakthrough play is a searing indictment of apartheid and one of his most celebrated works.

The production will feature Colman Domingo (The Scottsboro Boys) as Zachariah and Scott Shepherd (Gatz) as Morris.

MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!

By Athol Fugard

Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson

May 1 – June 10, 2012

Written in 1989 shortly before the end of apartheid, My Children! My Africa! presents an honest and unflinching portrait of a country on the brink of revolution, and is a testament to the power and potential of youth, hope, and ideas.

THE TRAIN DRIVER                                  *** NEW YORK PREMIERE ***

Written and Directed by Athol Fugard

August 14 – September 23, 2012

Based on a true story, The Train Driver is a soulful exploration of guilt, suffering and the powerful bonds that grow between strangers.

LEGACY PROGRAM

Edward Albee'S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE

Directed by David Esbjornson

February 14 – March 25, 2012

Tickets on sale now 

At a late night party, Sam and Jo entertain their friends with a round of Twenty Questions and another round of drinks. When an unexpected guest and her mysterious companion arrive, the question "Who are you?" gains a whole new and desperate meaning. The cast features Tony Award-winnerJane Alexander, Catherine Curtin (Love, Janis), Michael Hayden (Festen, Cabaret), Peter Francis James (The Merchant of Venice), Tricia Paoluccio (A Strange and Separate People), Laila Robins (Frozen), Thomas Jay Ryan(In the Next Room or the vibrator play) and C.J. Wilson(Festen, Henry IV).

RESIDENCY FIVE

HURT VILLAGE                                                      *** WORLD PREMIERE ***

By Katori Hall

Directed by Patricia McGregor

February 7 – March 18, 2012

Tickets on sale now

It's the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee, and a government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project's residents. A bold, gritty and devastating work, Hurt Village earned Katori Hall the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright.

HURT VILLAGE features Marsha Stephanie Blake (The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Charlie Hudson III (The Piano Lesson), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge Project),Joaquina Kalukango (Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; "All My Children"), Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair) and Lloyd Watts (Treme).

TITLE AND DEED                                                  *** U.S. PREMIERE ***

By Will Eno

Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett

In association with Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland

May 8 – June 3, 2012

A nameless traveler from a far off place searches for connection and solace in an unknown country in this funny and sad meditation on mortality, loneliness, innocence, home, family, love, funerals, words, and the world. A provocative new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Horton Foote Prize winner Will Eno, whom The New York Times called "a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation."

A NEW PLAY BY Kenneth Lonergan       *** WORLD PREMIERE ***

May 15 – June 24, 2012

Kenneth Lonergan, acclaimed playwright (This is Our Youth, Lobby Hero, The Starry Messenger) and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (You Can Count on Me), shares a new work with Signature audiences.

Tickets to all productions of Signature's inaugural season at The Pershing Square Signature Center are $25, part of the groundbreakingSignature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, a program that guarantees affordable and accessible tickets to every Signature production for the next 20 years.  Serving as a model for theatres and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible by a lead gift from The Pershing Square Foundation with supplemental support from the Ford Foundation, Margot Adams, Time Warner Inc., the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

About Signature Theatre

Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature Theatre exists to honor and celebrate the playwright.  Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright's body of work, and during this journey, the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process.  Signature is the first theatre company to devote an entire season to the work of a single playwright, including re-examinations of past writings as well as New York and world premieres. By championing in-depth explorations of a living playwright's body of work, the Company delivers an intimate and immersive journey into the playwright's singular vision. 

Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, the Negro Ensemble Company, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, August Wilson and Lanford Wilson.  Signature remains deeply committed to season-long residencies, and during the company's tenth and fifteenth anniversaries, Signature introduced theLegacy Program.  The Legacy Program invites past Playwrights-in-Residence back to Signature through two series: the Signature Series, which presents "signature," or more well-known works; and the Premiere Series, which presents New York and world premieres. 

Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, fourteen Lucille Lortel Awards, sixteen Obie Awards, six Drama Desk Awards and twenty-two AUDELCO Awards, among many other distinctions. The National Theatre Conference recognized the company as the 2003 Outstanding National Theatre of the Year. For more information on Signature please visit us on-line at signaturetheatre.org.

About THE PERSHING SQUARE SIGNATURE CENTER

The Pershing Square Signature Center is the new, permanent home of Signature Theatre.  Spanning an entire city block at 42^nd Street between 9th and 10^th Avenue, the Frank Gehry-designed Pershing Square Signature Center features three intimate theatres, a Studio Theatre, rehearsal studio, and a public café and bookstore and will serve as both a theatre community hub and neighborhood destination. Working hand-in-hand with Signature leadership and architect of record H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture LLC, Gehry's design has been carefully calibrated to foster interaction among playwrights, artistic collaborators and the public. The Pershing Square Signature Center will allow the 20-year old Company, critically acclaimed for its programs that celebrate the playwright's body of work, to expand and enhance its programming, introduce new initiatives, and build audiences. 

At The Pershing Square Signature Center, the Company's expanded programming will include: Residency One, the continuation of Signature's core program which provides audiences with an immersive exploration of the work of a singular playwright; Residency Five, which provides five-year residencies for multiple playwrights, guaranteeing three full productions of new work over the course of each playwright's residency; and the Legacy Program, which honors the lifetime achievement of playwrights who have previously been in residence at Signature through the production of a premiere or earlier play.   The Pershing Square Signature Center will serve as the artistic home for as many as 9 playwrights at any one time, fostering a dynamic creative community where playwrights will engage directly with audiences and one another.