New Plays by Annie Baker, Quiara Alegría Hudes & More Set for Signature Theater's 25th Anniversary Season

Pulitzer-Prize winning playwrights Annie Baker and Quiara Alegría Hudes will premiere new works as part of Signature Theater’s 2015-16 25th anniversary season, the last with James Houghton as artistic director. A.R. Gurney‘s Love and Money and Naomi Wallace’s Night is a Room will also receive their world premieres at the off-Broadway venue.

Directed by Sam Gold, Baker's John will begin performances at The Irene Diamond Stage from July 22, featuring Georgia Engel and Lois Smith. It is described as such: The week after Thanksgiving. A Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching.

Almost a year later, Hudes’ Daphne’s Dive will bow at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre. Helmed by Thomas Kail, the production will kick off on April 26, 2016 . Daphne’s Dive is a cheap corner bar in North Philly where Daphne and her eclectic group of friends and family meet, talk, bond and drink. As Daphne’s adopted daughter, very different from her quiet and pragmatic mother, grows up, this unconventional family is forced to confront ugly secrets and take a hard look at their lives.

Gurney’s Love and Money will play at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre. Directed by Mark Lamos, the production will begin performances on August 15 of this year. Determined to donate almost everything she owns before her life of grace and privilege ends, wealthy widow Cornelia Cunningham’s plan hits a snag when an ambitious and ingratiating young man arrives to claim his alleged inheritance.

Wallace’s Night is a Room will begin performances on November 3 at the Alice Griffin. Helmed by Bill Rauch, the play follows Liana and Marcus, a well-off couple enjoying their perfectly pleasant lives. Doré has grown accustomed to an isolated existence in her working class neighborhood. After a surprise reunion on Marcus’ 40th birthday, their worlds are shattered by an unexpected turn of events.

Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy will begin performances on October 27 at the Irene Diamond. Directed by Michael Wilson, the revival celebrates the centennial of Miller’s birth. In Vichy, France at the height of World War II, nine men and a boy are rounded up under suspicious circumstances. As ominous reports of far-off camps and cattle cars packed with prisoners begin to circulate, the men battle over politics, philosophy and how to escape.

Tina Landau will direct Old Hats, also at the Irene Diamond, from January 26, 2016. Created and performed by Bill Irwin and David Shiner, with music and lyrics by and featuring Shaina Taub, the production uses music, technology and movement to create an outing that's fun for the whole family.

Next up will be Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry’s Angel Reapers, which will begin performances on February 2, 2016 at the Romulus Linney. Directed and choreographed by Martha Clarke, the show will feature traditional Shaker songs and a mix of modern dance and actual Shaker movements.

Finally, in honor of Signature’s 25th Anniversary a trio of short plays will be presented at the Alice Griffin from May 3, 2016, directed by Lila Neugebauer: Edward Albee’s The Sandbox, María Irene Fornés’ Drowning and Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro.