I’M BACK!

Sorry for the overly long hiatus from making any posts, but we’re back up and running with plenty of updates and exciting things happening at the theatre. I’m still coming down from directing MAME, which was such a wonderful experience at the Kennedy Center. But not to be outdone, we're currently working on four shows at once at Signature. Perhaps our biggest production is the new building itself. Each week I go over to the Village at Shirlington to check on the progress. I love taking people on tours through the building as it’s under construction — the responses have been amazing. People love the design and feel of the space. Everyone has the same reaction, which is to exclaim, "It's so Signature!" It’s getting very exciting now as we’ve got an official staff move-in date (October 14 – 16) and all of us can really see the new theatres finally becoming reality. Of course, we're still busy fundraising as we have a way to go and need everyone's help to finish the capital campaign. We have about $600,000 left to raise by the end of September to make our goal.

ASSASSINS is going strong with terrific responses from the audience – in fact the show’s completely sold out through the July 30 extension date. We're also working on MY FAIR LADY, which will be the final show in the garage. We just finished the casting and the design of the show is simply stunning. I'm really excited to direct such a classic musical with a “Signature twist” to it, of course. You'll hear much more about that once we start rehearsal on August 29.

Earlier this week I saw the final proof of our new season brochure which is spectacular. We worked really hard on the artwork for all the shows with a fantastic new graphic design firm, and I think the end result is terrific. Design Army did all the show images and brochure layout and everything they created captures our spirit perfectly.

At the beginning of this month, we welcomed Matthew Gardiner to our staff as the Assistant Director. I worked with Matt on probably a dozen shows before he graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a BFA in Directing in the spring. We’re so glad to have him working with us. And Michael Baron, who directed THE SEX HABITS OF AMERICAN WOMEN, joins us September 1 as Associate Director. So I’ll have a terrific artistic team to support all the exciting projects we’re working on. More on those later...

—ES