In a considerable expansion of its Off Broadway profile Signature Theater Company announced on Monday that five respected playwrights – Annie Baker, Will Eno, Katori Hall, Kenneth Lonergan, and Regina Taylor – would be charter members of a program to develop and stage their new works.
The program, called Residency Five, guarantees three full productions of new plays by each writer over the next five years. Each will also receive a $50,000 cash award, stipends to attend theater, and health insurance benefits. Additional playwrights will be added to the mix in the coming years as writers rotate out of the program.
James Houghton, artistic director of Signature, said in an interview that the goal of the residencies was to provide an “artistic home” to young and mid-career playwrights that would complement the 20-year-old theater company’s mission of producing several works over an entire season by one established writer (Athol Fugard in 2012).
“These are five writers that we really love and think are worth the investment, and we want to see them build bodies of work,” Mr. Houghton said. “Building bodies of work requires care and attention and flexibility, and we’ll follow the lead of working whatever way each writer wants to work. Some like readings and workshops; some work differently. Our approach is to provide a home to support them.”
Asked whether Signature was favoring five writers who already receive plenty of commissions and writing offers, Mr. Houghton replied that he had given thought to selecting playwrights who had yet to establish themselves. Doing so, he said, had led him to talk to Ms. Hall about the program a year and a half ago – before plans were completed to bring her play “The Mountaintop” to Broadway, where it begins performances on Thursday.
“I was first introduced to Katori’s work when she was a student, and we began talking about her joining this new Signature program well before the current success she’s rightfully having,” Mr. Houghton said.
Signature is also expanding its so-called legacy productions of plays by writers whose work was previously featured during a whole season. Such legacy productions occurred sporadically in the past; now one will be performed each season. The legacy playwright for 2012 has yet to be announced.
Taken together, Signature will mount up to nine productions a year starting in 2012 compared to the usual four or five annual productions in previous years. The theater company is undertaking the expansion to fill Signature Center, its new home on West 42nd Street, which opens in February. Designed by Frank Gehry, the center includes three theaters for full productions and a smaller studio theater; previously Signature had one mainstage theater on the far west end of 42nd Street.
Ms. Baker has drawn critical acclaim for her plays “Circle Mirror Transformation” and “The Aliens,” which both ran Off Broadway. Mr. Eno is the author of “Thom Pain (based on nothing)” and, most recently, “Middletown.” “The Mountaintop” is Ms. Hall’s Broadway debut. Mr. Lonergan is a playwright (“This is Our Youth,” “The Starry Messenger”) as well as a filmmaker (“You Can Count on Me”). And Ms. Taylor is an actress (“The Unit”) as well as a playwright (“Drowning Crow”).