Signature Theatre Company

src: andrewmcgibbonphotography.com

Signature Theatre Company was founded in 1991 by James Houghton.

Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, David Henry Hwang, Horton Foote, María Irene Fornés, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, A. R. Gurney, Naomi Wallace and a season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company.

In October 2008, Signature announced the creation of the Pershing Square Signature Center which opened in 2012 and was designed by Frank Gehry Architects.

In its new home, Signature continues its Residency One Program, celebrating a single playwright with multiple productions over the course of a year, and Legacy Program, which brings those playwrights back for additional productions. Signature also introduced Residency Five, a program that will feature early- and mid-career playwrights and guarantee them three full productions over the course of a five-year residency.

Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, a 2014 Regional Theatre Tony Award, eleven Lucille Lortel Awards, fifteen Obie Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, and thirty-two AUDELCO Awards. The National Theatre Conference recognized the company as the 2003 Outstanding National Theatre of the Year.

Video Signature Theatre Company

History

James Houghton founded the theatre in a Black box theater at 31 Bond Street in the NoHo neighborhood in 1991 at the Kampo Cultural Center (a venue that had focused on promoting Japanese calligraphy). The theatre focused on having a resident playwright of national stature with its first playwright Romulus Linney.

In 1997 the theatre moved to 555 West 42nd Street on Theatre Row.

In 1999 software developer Peter Norton donated $600,000 for renovations to the 42nd Street venue which was renamed Signature Theatre Company at the Peter Norton Space.

In 2004 it was announced that the Signature had signed on to be an anchor tenant of a new $700 million performing arts center on the site of the destroyed World Trade Center site. It was to be designed by Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta.

In 2007 as the proposed World Trade Center complex was falling through the city tried to get the theatre to commit to Fiterman Hall by the World Trade Center site. The Fiterman Hall plan also fell through.

In 2008 the theatre announced plans to move to the Pershing Square space a block further east on 42nd Street of the Peter Norton space in 2012. The Pearl Theatre (New York City) moved into the old Signature space but that company declared bankruptcy in 2017.

In 2016 Houghton died.

Maps Signature Theatre Company

Season history

Signature Center Chooses Riedel Digital Matrix for Intercom ...

src: stage-directions.com

Signature Ticket Initiative

November 2005 marked the institution of the Signature Ticket Initiative, during which tickets to all performances for the initial run of every production are heavily subsidized to broaden the accessibility of Off-Broadway theatre. At the program's onset, tickets cost fifteen dollars, rather than the usual sixty-five. The Signature Ticket Initiative allows seventy percent of the cost of a full-priced ticket to be subsidized.

The lead sponsor on the program is Time Warner, who has made it possible to underwrite over sixty thousand patrons' tickets as of the 2007-2008 season. Other sponsors include The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Margot Adams in Memory of Mason Adams, American Express, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Shubert Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, The Lucille Lortel Foundation, The Peter Norton Family Foundation, and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The initiative is also supported by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.