NEW YORK CITY: Signature Theatre has announced its 2015–16 season, which will range from world premieres by Pulitzer winners Annie Baker and Quiara Alegría Hudes to revivals of works by the likes of Arthur Miller. It is the 25th and final season for founding artistic director James Houghton, who recently announced his departure for health reasons.
Residency One playwrights A.R. Gurney and Naomi Wallace will contribute the plays Love and Money and Night Is a Room, respectively. Gurney’s play, about a wealthy widow and an ingratiating young man who claims an inheritance, begins performances Aug. 15 and will be directed by Mark Lamos. Wallace’s play, about an unexpected reunion between a well-off couple and a working-class friend, begins performances on Nov. 3 and will be directed by Bill Rauch.
As part of its Legacy Program, the theatre will present Miller’s Incident at Vichy, directed by Michael Wilson, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the playwright’s birth; performances begin Oct. 27. The Signature will also host a return of the 2013 hit created and performed by Bill Irwin and David Shiner and directed by Tina Landau, Old Hats (starting Jan. 26, 2016), though this time with original music by Shaina Taub (its original run featured Nellie McKay on song duties; Taub stepped in during last year’s run of the show at American Conservatory Theater). Also on tap is a program of one-acts—Edward Albee’s The Sandbox, María Irene Fornés’ Drowning and Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro—to be directed by Lila Neugebauer, which begins performances May 3, 2016.
Three Residency Five creators will contribute new works: Starting July 22, Baker will debut make her Signature debut with John, set at a Pennsylvania bed and breakfast and slated to star Georgia Engle, Lois Smith and “thousands of inanimate objects, watching.” Then, starting Feb. 2, 2016, director/choreographer Martha Clarke will premiere Angel Reapers, a mix of traditional Shaker songs and modern dance, created with playwright Alfred Uhry. And Hudes’s Daphne’s Dive, to be directed by Thomas Kail, is set in North Philly bar of its title as its owner and her friends and family gather meet, talk, bond and drink; it begins performances Apr. 26, 2016.
In addition to Baker, Hudes and Clarke, the current Residency Five playwrights—who receive the full range of Signature’s resources for a period of five years to create and produce new work and are guaranteed a minimum of three premieres at the theatre—are Will Eno, Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lisa Kron, Kenneth Lonergan and Regina Taylor.
Events to celebrate the theatre’s 25th anniversary will be announced throughout the season.
