Loving One Great Writer at a Time
For James Houghton and the Signature, serial monogamy has paid off—in artistic acclaim and a flashy new permanent home
An interview by Carol Rocamora
A model of the Signature Center's planned "Jewel Box" theatre, designed by Frank Gehry. (courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP)
It's a cold, blustery March morning, but James Houghton is not one to stay inside. "Let's go walk the construction site," he proposes, voice tinged with excitement. So we set out on a journey through the shell of what promises to be one of the most vibrant new theatre centers in New York City.
It's the eve of his theatre's 20th anniversary, and Houghton is breaking ground once again. The company he founded in 1991 with what has turned out to be a visionary mission—to dedicate each full season to the work of a single American playwright—is embarking on its next chapter with a stunning new building to match its newly expanded artistic programming.
Over the course of its remarkable history, the Signature Theatre Company has presented entire seasons of the work of playwrights Romulus Linney, Lee Blessing, Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard, Arthur Miller, John Guare, Maria Irene Fornes, Lanford Wilson, Bill Irwin, Paula Vogel and Charles L. Mee. From its modest beginnings in the 85-seat Kampo Cultural Center on Bond Street in Greenwich Village (seasons one through four), to the 110-seat Shiva at the Public Theater (seasons five and six), to the 160-seat Peter Norton Space on West 42nd Street (seasons seven to the present), the company's annual budget has grown from $35,000 in its first season to an estimated $4.5 million in its 20th. Even so, Signature has remained steadfast to its primary commitment—the playwright: reexamining his or her past writings as well as presenting New York and world premieres. And its mission has been sustained by an ever-growing roster of distinguished board members and funders.
Over the past two decades, there have been numerous innovations to complement the company's core mission. In its 10th season, Signature introduced the Legacy Program, inviting past playwrights-in-residence to return to its stage with well-known works or new ones. In its 15th, the company introduced the Signature Ticket Initiative, offering subsidized tickets for as little as $20 to make its playwrights' work more accessible to a broader audience. And in its 18th season, the Signature hosted the historic Negro Ensemble Company in a full year devoted to its ground-breaking work.
The company's accomplishments to date have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, 11 Lucille Lortel Awards, 15 Obie Awards, 5 Drama Desk Awards and 22 AUDELCO Awards, among other distinctions. The National Theatre Conference designated the company as the 2003 Outstanding National Theatre of the Year.
Perhaps even more important than those accolades are the high opinions of Houghton and company proffered by the playwrights Signature has celebrated. Thinking back to the company's inaugural lineup in 1991-92, Linney notes, "There were five productions, all done as I, the playwright, wished them to be done. It is the best thing that has happened to me in the theatre." Mee raves about his Signature experience as "my idea of heaven." Guare zeroes in on Houghton's skill as a producer: "He does the impossible with no sweat, no fear. He trusts his playwrights to do their job, and we trust him to do his. And with very little fanfare. He's Joe Papp without the ego." Kennedy echoes Guare, declaring, "A lot of people have ideas, but I can't think of anyone who executes them like Jim—he's a remarkable person." For his part, Albee points to the crucial importance of Houghton's understanding that "a playwright's value is determined by all of his work, and not just his most recent commercial success."
Now, in its 20th anniversary season, Signature will mark its abiding commitment to the playwright by focusing on the work of Tony Kushner—including the much-anticipated East Coast debut of Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures in co-production with the Public Theater, directed by Michael Greif. The anniversary will also coincide with a dramatic turning point in the company's journey: 2010-11 will be the final season in Signature's current location as it prepares for an expanded mission in a dazzling new space designed by superstar architect Frank Gehry, beginning in 2012.
Located on the north side of West 42nd Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, Signature's new 70,000-square-foot permanent home will enable the company to serve multiple writers each season. The trajectory of a playwright's career, from new and emerging to established and celebrated, will be tracked in three theatre spaces, all under one roof, on one floor, with an open lobby plan that allows for a dynamic interaction of artists and audience. Gehry's design incorporates three theatre spaces: the 299-seat End Stage, modeled after Signature's current intimate home; the flexible Courtyard (inspired by the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe), seating 199-235; and the 199-seat Jewel Box, a miniaturized space modeled after a traditional European opera house. (At press time, most of the center's $60-million price-tag has been raised. The company projects a $10-million annual budget in 2016-17, when it reaches full producing and operating capacity.)
So, on this March morning, sporting yellow hard hats and security badges, shivering in sheets of rain, Houghton and I pick our way along the concrete floor of the construction site, past the gaping shells that will soon house theatres, state-of-the-art rehearsal studios and administrative offices of a re-imagined, reinvigorated theatre company. After that, we repair to Signature's offices on Ninth Avenue for a conversation about the past, present and future of Houghton's creation and its unique place in the American theatre.
Carol Rocamora: You came to New York from San Francisco and were performing in Romulus Linney's play Heathen Valley in 1987 when the idea for the Signature Theatre came to you.
James Houghton: Yes. I had a deeply personal connection with Romulus as a young actor. Through him I learned about the challenges for American playwrights in the theatre—that they're pigeonholed, that they're not involved in the process of creating work. I saw how broad Romulus's way of working was, and how, with a whole season, a company could explore it and put him in a trusting environment. And that was the beginning of Signature. The idea was to take a look at a writer's body of work and create a context for it in a single season, engaging the writer in every aspect of the creative process throughout the planning and production phases. The intent was to create a sympathetic environment where the writer is truly embraced and completely invested—to develop a long-term relationship that begins two to three years before the season and extends beyond, and to shape the season according to the writer's needs.
So Romulus was your very first playwright. What was your selection process thereafter?
Writers have always been selected out of a given moment, a visceral connection and a need to investigate the work. Edward Albee, for example, was one of the most celebrated writers in the country, and yet in a way Edward represents the reason that Signature exists: He was living in New York, yet he couldn't get his work done here. He had significant collected work, but no one was touching it—so we did. We dug into his body of work in our 1993-94 season and got him back into the New York consciousness.
While Lee Blessing had had two productions in New York, he still didn't have a strong footing here, so we did four New York premieres of his work. In the case of Horton Foote, while his oeuvre is massive, he'd been produced only occasionally here. And yet he's one of the most significant writers of the 20th century, so we wanted to honor that. Adrienne Kennedy is a fierce poet of the American theatre, and yet her work had been forgotten here. I wanted to take her and put her in the proper company, next to Albee. Sam Shepard's work was being done all the time, but rarely was Sam involved. Engaging him in the process here at Signature gave audiences a deeper understanding of his work, and placing a play like Chicago alongside a new one he'd written gave exposure to his lesser-known plays. As for Bill Irwin, he's more often thought of as a vaudevillian or performance artist than as a writer. But I've always thought of Bill as a creator of theatre, and I wanted to challenge our audiences, and us, to think of Bill in that light. As time evolved, the seasons began to interrelate, and we found that we could contextualize a given writer in the company of others.
Hallie Foote, who was an actor in The Orphans' Home Cycle last year at Signature, told me that her father's whole world changed when you decided to devote the 1994-95 season to his work—that he felt he had a safe, productive artistic home for the first time in his long career. You produced another writer with an epic play cycle about 10 years later—how did the August Wilson season come about?
August and I had been preparing that season for several years prior to production. When we started, our plan was to look beyond the 10-play cycle. He had all kinds of new plays in his head and we were going to work on them, and then he got sick and it became clear that we couldn't do the season as originally planned. He died in 2005, a year before his season got underway. We then forged a special relationship with his widow, Constanza Romero, who worked with us so that we could mourn his loss and celebrate his gift with the entire theatre community during his season. With Chuck Mee, I wanted to do something different—to broaden our audience's view, and ours, as to what writing is. Similarly, Irene Fornes's unusual work has had such a profound influence on a whole generation of writers through her teaching and the process she's created, so we wanted to call attention to it. In the case of Lanford Wilson, a truly remarkable writer who came out of the Circle Repertory Company tradition, providing a home for him again was deeply moving and satisfying. As for John Guare—he is a shining light. His completely infectious personality, his zest for the work, his ability to take us to unexpected places—all made the work incredibly energizing and exciting.
And the Arthur Miller season of 1997-98?
The experience with Arthur was remarkable. I said to him: "Unless you feel you have to go back to Death of a Salesman, All My Sons and The Crucible, I think we should take those off the table." I'll never forget his expression—his face opened, his shoulders relaxed and it became a completely different conversation. It wasn't about Arthur Miller the icon, but rather about Arthur Miller who wrote plays. He took complete delight in Signature, in that the scale is so human, and the season was based on exposing his lesser-known work. He had such humility—it was a thrill to work with him.
What brought about the Negro Ensemble Company season?
We took the idea of celebrating a writer's body of work one step further. During the August Wilson season, [the actor-director] Ruben Santiago-Hudson asked me: "Have you ever thought of celebrating a theatre company, such as the Negro Ensemble Company, for example?" The NEC is a company that is critical to the growth of the American theatre—they have produced over 200 new plays, they represent an unrepresented voice, they've influenced so many writers. So I immediately embraced the idea. Douglas Turner Ward, NEC's founder, was engaged throughout the process, shedding light on the great achievements of that company.
So have you accomplished your founding mission?
No. It's constantly evolving and growing and informing the company. By our 10th season, we found that the mission had deepened, revealing new dimensions. So in addition to our playwright residency, we created the Legacy Program, inviting all our writers back for their new work as well as better-known, established work. For our 15th anniversary season, we produced plays by Horton Foote, John Guare, Adrienne Kennedy and, later, Edward Albee. Our 19th season also became a Legacy Season, as you mentioned, with The Orphans' Home Cycle, a trilogy co-produced with Hartford Stage. Our mission has been a ballast—it's kept us honest, and it's shaping our present and future.
When did your ground-breaking Single Ticket Initiative get underway?
In our 15th season. It's one of our most critical accomplishments, achieved with multiple partners led by Time Warner and key board members. By underwriting every seat in our theatre (so that the cost of a single ticket is $20), we've taken the financial burden off the theatregoer and made our theatre accessible to nearly everyone. Now when someone comes to the theatre, they haven't saved up for two months, and therefore they don't bring the expectation of "serve it up." They come in anticipation of exploring something new. There's a tangible excitement in the room. It has transformed the experience of going to the theatre.
Will you continue to expand your core mission?
As time goes on, more and more artistic possibilities reveal themselves. We've developed a new three-tiered artistic vision for the future: the Master Playwrights Residency, which explores a single body of work; the Legacy Program, which celebrates and continues a body of work; and the Emerging Playwrights Residency, which builds a body of work. In the latter case, it became clear that we wanted to create a residency for emerging to mid-career writers with the objective of making work, not reading it—allowing writers to develop their work through production. Work evolves organically through the rehearsal room, through interaction with the audiences. The Emerging Playwrights Residency will guarantee these writers three full productions over the course of a four-year residency—in other words, an extended artistic home where they can build a body of work.
How are you implementing all this?
A midsize theatre in New York City has a specific challenge—a limited income stream, contributed and earned, driven by the scale of your budget. On one side, you're limited by what the foundations can provide; on the other side, you're restricted to a calendar year. Meanwhile your costs keep increasing, so a gap develops, and if you don't pay attention to it, you topple over. We've seen this coming for years.
Is that how the idea for the new spaces evolved?
We didn't want to increase our size merely for expansion's sake. As the idea of these three programs together evolved, we wanted to find a new home to accommodate them. At the same time, we wanted to maintain the deeply human dimension to our work—its accessibility, its intimacy. We wanted to hold on to these core values, at the center of which is our relationship with the playwright. So, together with a long-term sustainable business model to support the new programming, we conceived of the Signature Center with its three performing spaces. If you look back at our writers over the course of 20 years, it's a very interesting representation of diverse voices and styles. Now, with the Center, we can reach into an emerging and mid-career base of playwrights as well.
Three programs, three spaces—how will they come together?
We hope to be in the new Center by early 2012. Within four years, we'll have a total of nine plays running in a given season in the three performance spaces. The Master Playwrights Residency will offer three plays by a single playwright, one of which is new; the Legacy Program will offer up to three works from returning writers; the Emerging Playwrights Residency will consist of three-to-four writers in residence at a time, each offering a new play. So that's a total of nine productions in a season, seven of them new—with seven writers in residence at any given time. All this will be happening under one roof—plays in performance, plays in rehearsal, and a common central space with a café and bookstore where we can all gather. This is unique to New York City—all contiguous theatre space, all on one floor, all on a half-city block.
In the meantime, we're working on the 20th-anniversary Tony Kushner season. We're opening with the first major New York revival of Angels in America since the original production here in 1993, to be directed by Michael Greif. In addition, we're producing Tony's new play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide..., in co-production with the Public Theater in their Newman space, also directed by Greif. Tony is one of the essential writers of the American theatre. He writes with a scope that is invigorating and thrilling. He digs a well as deep as you can go. And besides being a wonderful writer, he's a mensch.
During your time as artistic director of the Signature, you've held other leadership positions as well. From 1999 to 2003 you were artistic director of the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. In 2006, you were appointed the Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division at the Juilliard School. You also serve as artistic advisor to the Guthrie Theater. What aspect of your work do you find most gratifying?
The individual relationships. For me, it's about creating an environment that is most sympathetic to creating work—whether it's for a young student at Juilliard, or an emerging writer at the O'Neill, or a distinguished writer at the Signature, or an artist collaborating with others at the Guthrie. It all boils down to being in a very lucky position of having the opportunity to collide with fascinating people. I get far more out of it than I have to give.
What is the most meaningful thing you've learned over the years?
One of the profound lessons I've learned is how fearless these writers are—confronting a blank page and the fear of failure every single time. I've been so inspired by their willingness to do this, and it has helped me to confront that in myself. The mission has kept me going over these 20 years.
I remember a moment with Arthur Miller on the opening night of Mr. Peter's Connections. We were sitting on a bench in the lobby outside our Peter Norton Space during a performance, and Arthur said: "Where do they come from? Why are they here? What do they hope to see?" He was pondering our hunger to experience these stories together—and, in the process, was exposing a deeply felt fear. It was a critical moment for me. I thought: Here is a man who lived his life to the fullest, from his experience with the House Un-American Activities Committee, to his marriage to Marilyn Monroe, to the success of Death of a Salesman. If Arthur Miller is sitting here wondering, "What are they going to think?"—revealing his own fear—how liberating that is, because we all have that feeling!
Can you share other moments?
I've learned to value even the minutest ones—such as showing Miller the new Peter Norton Space for the first time, watching him walk the stage and recite his own words, seeing his immense gratitude for that quiet moment, having that time and space, not taking things for granted, appreciating everything he had... Listening to Lanford Wilson read Burn This out loud to us at the first rehearsal and watching him weep and laugh and how deeply felt that play was inside him... Watching Romulus Linney light up when he walked in and saw the first set being readied and realized he was in a safe place in a safe room... Getting the phone call from Sam Shepard saying he'd like to rub shoulders with old and new plays in his season... Seeing Edward Albee embraced after a 10-year absence in this city... Watching Horton Foote watching his own plays, with his daughter performing in them... The riches are beyond compare. The bottom line is that these relationships are deeply honest, that this is a genuine experience. Every writer is different, and we shape the season to the needs of the artists. For example, Horton Foote attended every rehearsal and every performance; Adrienne Kennedy, less so; Sam Shepard, somewhere in between. Some writers need workshops, some don't. The important thing is that we work together to create an environment that is most sympathetic to working with the writer. We listen.
Educator, playwright, translator and critic Carol Rocamora is the translator of Chekhov's complete dramatic works, published by Smith and Kraus.
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