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About Signature

SigWorks: New Works

SigWorks is Signature Theatre’s program dedicated to developing the future of theater works and artists. Officially launched in 2015 with SigWorks: Monday Night New Play Readings, the program now includes SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab, SigWorks: The Heidi Thomas Writers Initiative and SigWorks In the Schools. The ever-growing umbrella of SigWorks programs demonstrates Signature’s ongoing commitment to initiatives which nurture writers, composers, performers, directors and productions.

New work at Signature Theatre is sponsored by the Revada Foundation.

Read about our programs below or click to jump to a section

SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab
SigWorks: The Heidi Thomas Writers' Initiative
New Works - Full Productions
Other Developmental Workshops
Commissioned Writers
Sigworks: Monday Night New Play Readings
American Musical Voices Project and Next Generation
SigWorks in the Schools

SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab

SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab is a new developmental workshop that furthers our mission to develop the most exciting new musicals and musicals an artists. Any writer of a musical can submit their work via an open submission process, and after a screening process one original musical is chosen to receive a workshop. The creators of a selected original musical spend two intensive weeks refining their work, and the program culminates with public readings for the musical.

Applications are currently closed. We will post on our Submissions page when we are accepting submissions.

Previous Musical Theater Lab Workshops:

  • Skin & Bones by Ben Clark & Andrew kramer
  • U.G.L.Y. by Darius Smith & Michael R. Jackson
  • Gun & Powder by Angelica Cheri & Ross Baum
  • Hag by Kate Douglas & Grace McLean

SigWorks: The Heidi Thomas Writers’ Initiative

Through a generous grant from the Jenna & Paul Segal Family Foundation, Broadway Producer Jenna Segal sponsors new works by women playwrights with women directors through SigWorks: The Heidi Thomas Writers' Initiative. This partnership helps support women playwrights and directors by promoting the show and future production of the work.

This program is named after acclaimed British playwright and screenwriter Heidi Thomas. Miss Thomas is the creator and executive producer behind the BBC’s Call the Midwife series and adapted the recent Broadway revival of Gigi directed by Eric Schaeffer and produced by Jenna Segal. Heidi’s award-winning theatrical work has been performed at the Liverpool Playhouse, the National Theatre Studio, The Almeida, Chichester Festival and Royal Court Theatres, the National Theatre of Norway, by the Women’s Playhouse Trust and by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her screenwriting has been acknowledged and awarded by BAFTA, the Emmys, The Writers Guild of Great Britain, Women in Film and Television UK, and the Royal Television Society.

Previous Productions

New Work - Full Productions

since 2006

Other Developmental Workshops

  • A Mountain for Elodie by Benjamin Scheuer
  • Agent 355 by Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska
  • Camille Claudel by Nan Knighton and Frank Wildhorn
  • Devotion by Mark Sonnenblick
  • I Capture The Castle by Peter Foley
  • Just In Time by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver
  • On Cedar Street (previously titled Big Country) by Emily Mann, Lucy Simon, Carmel Dean and Susan Birkenhead
  • May Day Part 1 (Signature Theatre/Yale Composer Partnership)
  • Ravello by Chris Miller
  • Saturdays (Signature Theatre/Yale Composer Partnership) 
  • Tamar of the River by Marisa Michaelson and Joshua H Cohen
  • The Break by Scott Davenport Richards and Michele Lowe
  • The Haunted Hotel by Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Sydney Lessner
  • We Shall Someday by Ted Shen and Harrison David Rivers
  • We Won’t Sleep by Ari Afsar and Lauren Gunderson

since 2006

Commissioned Writers

Signature is committed to developing new work at every stage, including the very beginning. We commission the most exciting writers and composers to create new musicals and plays in collaboration with us.

CURRENT 

  • Keiko Green
  • Adam Gwon
  • Ana Nogueira
  • Marshall Pailet
  • Dani Stoller

PAST

  • Ben Clark and Andrew Kramer
  • Matt Conner and Joe Calarco
  • Matt Conner and Hunter Foster
  • Ricky Ian Gordon
  • Adam Guettel
  • Adam Gwon
  • Julia Jordan, Sheri Wilner and Adam Gwon
  • Gabriel Kahane
  • Michael John Lachiusa
  • Chelsea Marcantel
  • Chris Miller
  • Jeanine Tesori
  • Joseph Thalken 

SigWorks: Monday Night New Play Readings

SigWorks: Monday Night New Play Readings was an initiative that highlighted and supported the work of DC-area playwrights. This series was an opportunity for playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and patrons to explore new plays in a fun and informal environment. Each reading was followed by a dialogue with the audience and the artists.

Past Readings

  • The Gulf by Audrey Cefaly
  • 4,380 Nights by Annalisa Dias
  • Br’er Cotton by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm
  • Masterpieces of the Oral and the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Heather McDonald
  • Accepts with Pleasure by Dani Stoller  
  • To Defend Freedom by Annalisa Dias
  • Mermaid by Andrew Rosendorf
  • Torgus and Snow by Christine Evans
  • Soldiers of the Cross by Cayenne Sinnette Jennings
  • Wire in the Garden by Alina Bach
  • Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes by Dani Stoller
  • Alabaste by Audrey Cefaly
  • Dogwood Cross by Michael Trottier
  • The Homecoming by Dani Stoller
  • The Reapers on Woodrook Avenue by Mardee Bennett
  • Swimming with Whales by Bob Bartlett
  • Trouble (at the Vista View Estates) by Audrey Cefaly
  • Behave Yourself by Jennifer Barclay
  • Dharma by Nayna Agrawal
  • At The Full Yum by Rahima R Rice 
  • The Story of Walter by Audrey Cefaly
  • One-Shot by Andrew Rosendorf
  • Light by Jarrin Davis
  • Ada by Aeneas Sagar Hemphill
  • Dinner and Cake by Tuyet Thi Pham
  • Damn Things Will Kill Ya by Olivia Luzquinos
  • Strangers with Benefits by Shania Hafiz 

American Musical Voices Project and Next Generation

The American Musical Voices Project (AMVP, 2006-2014), in partnership with the Shen Family Foundation, commissioned, workshopped, and produced three new musicals by established musical theater writers, as well as the Musical Theatre Leadership Awards, which recognized individuals for their extraordinary influence on and contributions to the advancement of new musicals. At the time, the project was the largest musical theater commissioning and producing initiative in the U.S. 

Supported Musicals

  • Giant
  • Sycamore Trees
  • And The Curtain Rises
  • The Hollow
  • Boy Detective Fails
  • Midwestern Gothic

Composer Grants

  • Matt Conner
  • Peter Foley
  • Ricky Ian Gordon
  • Adam Guettel
  • Adam Gwon
  • Gabriel Kahane
  • Michael John LaChiusa
  • Marisa Michelson
  • Chris Miller
  • Scott Davenport Richards
  • Josh Rosenblum
  • Josh Schmidt
  • Jeanine Tesori
  • Joseph Thalken  

Leadership Awards

  • Bruce Coughlin (Orchestrator)
  • Adam Guettel (Composer)
  • Audra McDonald (Actor)
  • Ted Sperling (Director/Orchestrator)

"The Shen Family Foundation, which is committed to supporting and encouraging excellence, originality and high aspiration in musical theatre music-writing, believes Signature Theatre is the ideal home for this unique project," said Theodore P. Shen, chairman of the Foundation. "Only an organization like Signature, which has established itself as a leading force in the country in revitalizing musical theatre through its commitment to and artistic success in reinventing musical classics and developing new works, could undertake such a bold and exemplary initiative to commission and produce three new musicals from scratch. And Signature's new building, with its two flexible black box spaces designed with outstanding acoustics for musical theatre together with its three rehearsal rooms, provides the perfect venue for developing the commissioned works from start to finish." 

SigWorks in the Schools

Continuing Signature’s ongoing commitment to the rising generations of theater artists, SigWorks in the Schools focuses on burgeoning high school playwrights. Exclusively for Arlington Public Schools high school students, five young writers are chosen to go through a 5-session playwriting course led by a professional playwright, culminating in an evening of staged readings performed by professional actors.

Click here to learn more about the current session and application deadlines.

Signature Theatre's Education and Community Programs are sponsored by