T H U R S D AY | 0 7. 3 1 . 2 0 1 4 | E X P R E S S | E11
entertainment | Weekend Pass
The BFG MUST CLOSE AUGUST 10!
Creativity Today Innovation Tomorrow
Signature: The High Notes
ETS TICK T AT STAR
“Fun puppet adventure... a savory treat for all ages!”
$10!
SIGNATURE THEATRE
–The Washington Post
Signature staff members in 1993 were so excited to be moving into their new home, a retrofitted bumper-plating factory, and they just couldn’t hide it.
1989 Eric Schaeffer and Donna Migliaccio begin the first professional theater in Arlington County, performing out of the Gunston Arts Center. The first season’s budget is $28,000; the first play is Sally Nemeth’s “Mill Fire.”
1995-96 SEASON
1991-92 SEASON
2007-08 Signature launches The American Musical Voices Project, the largest musical theater commissioning program in the country. The program not only gives musical theater composers money, but underwrites the workshopping and presenting of their new musicals, some of which get their premieres at Signature. 2009 Signature receives the Tonys’ regional theater award, the second time a D.C.area theater takes the prize (Arena Stage won it in 1976).
Signature produces its first musical, Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” above. The company would eventually become nationally renowned for its productions of Sondheim’s works, producing at least one of his musicals per season. 1993-94 SEASON After a $300,000 renovation, a ratinfested, flooded, roofless old auto bumper-plate factory on Four Mile Run Drive in Arlington becomes the theater’s first home. Today, the building serves as Signature’s scene shop.
Signature’s “Cabaret,” top, and “Passion,” above, are reviewed in The New York Times, garnering the theater national attention. Sondheim himself comes to see the production of his “Passion.” 2006-07 SEASON The new complex in Shirlington, which includes two theaters as well as artistic facilities and office space, opens with Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”
2014 Signature will kick off its 25thanniversary season with Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George,” opening Tuesday. The season also includes the world premieres of the musical “Diner,” based on the movie, with book by Barry Levinson and music and lyrics by Sheryl Crow; “Kid Victory,” which has music by John Kander (who also wrote the music for “Cabaret); and “Soon,” a musical about a woman who takes to her couch in the months before all water on Earth is set to evaporate. K.P.K.
“
!
…hilarious, clever, and vivacious!” –DCMetroTheaterArts
www.imaginationstage.org l 301-280-1660