Jane Alexander to Star in Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque at Signature Theatre

Tony Award winner Jane Alexander will star in Signature Theatre Company's forthcoming revival of Edward Albee’s 1977 drama The Lady From Dubuque, the inaugural production in the theater’s new End Stage Theatre at the Signature Center. The play will replace a previously announced world premiere of Albee’s Laying an Egg, which will be produced in a future season. Previews of The Lady From Dubuque are set to begin on February 14, 2012, directed by David Esbjornson.

Calling The Lady From Dubuque “biting and deeply moving,” Signature artistic director James Houghton said of the delay in Laying an Egg, “All good things are well worth the wait, and most certainly a new play from one of our most treasured playwrights is no exception. Stay tuned.”

Set at late night party, The Lady From Dubuque opens as Sam and Jo entertain their friends with a round of Twenty Questions and another round of drinks. When an unexpected guest and her mysterious companion arrive, the question “Who are you?” gains a whole new and desperate meaning. The play had a 12-performance run on Broadway in 1980 in a production starring Irene Worth. Further casting for Signature's revival is yet to be announced.

Alexander won a Tony opposite James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope and received Tony nominations for The Sisters Rosensweig, Find Your Way Home and 6 Rms Riv Vu. She was most recently seen on stage in Chasing Manet, The Breath of Life and A Moon to Dance and was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. A four-time Oscar nominee for Testament, Kramer vs. Kramer, All the President’s Men and The Great White Hope, she is an Emmy winner for Playing for Time and Warm Springs. She recently played the Queen in the Hallmark film William and Catherine: A Royal Romance. Alexander served four years as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts under President Clinton.

Signature will launch the Signature Center with Athol Fugard's Blood Knot, the first production in a season devoted to his works.