Signature Theatre’s rise in audience and award accumulation in its first quarter century bring promise for the future.
Upon the realization that there was no professional theater in Virginia, Eric Schaeffer and Donna Migliaccio founded Signature Theatre—a non-profit professional theater company with a mission to produce contemporary musicals and plays, reinvent classic musicals, develop new work and reach its community through engaging educational and outreach opportunities—in 1990.
Although everyone told him it’d be impossible with a cast of 18 and an orchestra of 15, Signature Theater burst onto the theater scene with Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” in 1991, which received an outstanding review by The Washington Post, putting the theatre on the map.
“When we started it was like a snowball rolling down the hill,” Eric Schaeffer, Signature Theatre’s Artistic Director said. “It’s one of those amazing, lucky stories where everything lines up just right. It has taken a lot of hours and passion; it’s not 9-to-5 or five-days-a-week because that will never work. While the work is really hard, demanding and never ending, the rewards are incredibly exhilarating when people love coming to the theatre and being part of that experience. It’s totally worth it.”
Brad Hathaway, federal government retiree turned theatre critic—writing for publications such as Arlington Connection, the Alexandria Gazette Packet and The Hill Rag in D.C., as well as sitting on the executive committee of the American Theatre Critics Association — bought tickets on the basis of the Washington Post review and has remained a subscriber ever since.
When Signature Theatre first appeared on the scene, they were performing at Theater 2 of the Gunston Art Center, which was a black box built in what had been the library of an elementary school in Arlington. It’s used for encouraging new theater companies to come along. After a short stint, it was realized that the county couldn’t offer the space for as long as Schaeffer and Migliaccio wanted, which prompted them to move to their own space—a former chrome plating shop on Four Mile Run Drive—which soon became affectionately known as “The Garage.”
“Everything was so immediate and so close,” Hathaway explains. “They outgrew that small theater, and with the county’s assistance moved into another new building upstairs from a county library. There are two theatres at their new location–a small black box theater and a larger one. It’s quite a neat place.”
The first season had a budget of $28,000 and they had 128 subscribers, which Schaeffer explains is low. Now there are around 6,000 subscribers. Currently subscribers receive a seven-show to three-show package. The subscription base provides the foundation for ticket sales in meeting budgets. Since Signature Theatre has been into their newest building in 2009, they’ve gone from 54,000 to 84,000 patrons.
“It would have been easy to play it safe in the new building,” Schaeffer says, “but instead I wanted to push the envelope even more because it’s so important to keep growing artistically and present audiences with new challenges.”
James Gardiner, Signature Theatre’s publicist says that the theatre’s crowning achievement was after it moved into the new building in 2009 when it won the Tony Award for best regional theatre in the country. It was the second in the Metro-D.C. area to ever win. Arena Stage and The Shakespeare Theatre have won it as well. The win gave the theatre a lot of exposure, which has led it to bring in a lot of first-rate acts over the years.
Over the years it’s become known as an environment that is very supportive of new work. With shows such as John Kander’s “Kid Victory” and Barry Levinson and Sheryl Crow’s “Diner,” coming this year, it’s clear to see that people want to debut at Signature. “Diner” is Sheryl Crow’s first production and is a major addition to Signature Theatre this year.
Signature has become the largest theatre in the entire state of Virginia. It has brought new spectators to NoVA as well as artists that are at the top of their field in the American theatre by offering NoVa audiences Broadway quality shows in their own backyard.
“I feel like we’ve enriched the cultural scene tenfold,” Schaeffer says. “It’s not only about Northern Virginia; we actually have people from all over the country who want to come work here.”
The theatre has a lot of great projects on the horizon. They have the largest music theatre-commissioning program in the country, which gives money to artists to help develop their works. Whether or not they go on to receive full productions, it’s still a commitment to the future of the American musical and has lead to some acts next season—such as Barry Levinson and Sheryl Crow’s “Diner.”
“The theatre has evolved but it’s very much kept its sense of community,” Gardiner says. “We don’t want to become too caught up in trying to prove something to the industry at large, rather we’re committed to Northern Virginia.” –Rebecca Norris
(October 2014)
