AROUNDTHECENTER
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RESIDENCY
Introducing New Residency Five Playwrights
QUIARA ALEGRÍA HUDES & LISA KRON
We are thrilled to announce the addition of two new Residency Five playwrights: Quiara Alegría Hudes and
Lisa Kron. They join playwrights Annie Baker, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins,
Kenneth Lonergan, and Regina Taylor in this singular program that guarantees each playwright three premiere
productions over the course of five years. Residency Five is the first program of its kind in the American
theatre; it enables a diverse community of playwrights to build bodies of work with continuous support.
Quiara Alegría Hudes is a Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning
playwright whose works include In the Heights, 26 Miles, Yemaya’s Belly,
and her trilogy that is known as The Elliot Plays: Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue,
Water by the Spoonful, and The Happiest Song Plays Last. The acclaimed
trilogy follows Elliot Ruiz, a Puerto Rican Iraq War veteran from North
Philadelphia, as he adapts to post-war life in his community. All of Quiara’s
plays examine the notion of home and the powerful effects of heredity and
Legacy Playwright Charles Mee and Residency One
Playwright Naomi Wallace Return to Signature
tradition. Daphne’s Dive, her first production with Signature, will be directed
by Thomas Kail during the 2015-16 25th Anniversary Season.
Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theatre since coming to
The weather outside may have been frightful, but Signature
audiences spent time at the Center this winter in Italy, thanks to
Legacy playwright Charles Mee’s Big Love. Love was in the air for
Mee’s modern remaking of The Danaids by Aeschylus, which
Tina Landau directed in a production featuring fearless actors,
blood, and lots and lots of wedding cake. Meanwhile, Naomi
Wallace’s The Liquid Plain, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah,
transported audiences to the slave-trading docks of 18th century
Rhode Island, giving voice to the men and women whose individual
struggles helped build America. Signature was delighted to have two
of America’s most imaginative writers be part of the 2014-15 Season.
bound musical Fun Home, The Ver**zon Play, In the Wake, and 2.5 Minute
Ride. She is a member of the OBIE and Bessie Award-winning collective
Five Lesbian Brothers, whose work has made an indelible mark on
downtown theatre. Her autobiographical play Well, which explored her
complicated relationship with her mother, earned Lisa a Tony nomination
for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a play.
Welcoming these two new writers to the Center, Signature Theatre’s
Founding Artistic Director James Houghton said, “In the three years
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since its inauguration, Residency Five has already been an exhilarating
1. Karl Miller, Ito Aghayere, Michael Izquierdo,
and Johnny Ramey in The Liquid Plain
experience of collaborating with an inspiring and diverse group of
2. The cast with Naomi Wallace at the
Opening Night of The Liquid Plain
writers as they nurture and premiere new plays at Signature.
I am thrilled to welcome these two unique,
powerful voices to our family of playwrights.”
3. The cast with Charles Mee and Tina Landau
at the first rehearsal of Big Love
4. Preston Sadleir, Rebecca Naomi Jones,
Stacey Sargeant, Ryan-James Hatanaka,
Bobby Steggert, Ellen Harvey,
Emmanuel Brown, Libby Winters
in Big Love
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Lisa
Kron
PATRON
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Quiara
Alegría
Hudes
New York from Michigan in 1984. Lisa’s plays include the 2015 Broadway-
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