By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 5, 2007
In a major turning point for the presentation of classical plays and contemporary musicals in Washington, two of the area's premier companies are substantially increasing the number of productions they offer next season -- at a time when theater attendance in the region is dropping off.
Shakespeare Theatre Company is expanding its season lineup from six productions to nine for 2007-08, coinciding with the opening this fall of its new $85 million, 775-seat main stage on F Street NW.
At the same time, Signature Theatre, which recently moved into a new dual-theater complex in the Village at Shirlington, is increasing its traditional roster of five productions to eight. (In its current transitional season, Signature presented one work in its old garage space and is staging six others in its new spaces.)
The broadening of their programs indicates how successfully each company has built on its local identity -- and how hungrily each wants to develop its profile beyond the region.
To that end, the Shakespeare Theatre for the first time will run shows in repertory in its two theaters, meaning a visitor can see as many as three of the company's productions during selected weeks. And Signature is reaching out ever more aggressively to nationally known artists; among those scheduled to work there next season are Chita Rivera, performer/choreographers Christopher D'Amboise and Ann Reinking and the Broadway director Frank Galati.
"We feel we're institutionally and structurally ready to take on the responsibility of being a destination classical theater for the U.S.," said Michael Kahn, Shakespeare Theatre Company's longtime artistic director. "There's a big country out there."
"We're trying to make this a national center both for new work and for the American musical," said Eric Schaeffer, who has run Signature since its inception in 1989.
As an indicator of how seriously he means that, Schaeffer said he is negotiating to stage the world premiere of a new musical by a young, highly regarded Broadway composing team that he could not yet disclose. "And if we don't do this one," he said with a laugh, "I've got two others in the hopper."
With their distinct, well-defined missions, Shakespeare and Signature might be especially well-positioned to widen their influence in the theater world. Still, the aggressive expansions of these companies are coming at a particularly challenging time.
Attendance at the area's theaters, while robust, has declined each of the past two years -- an indication that theatergoing in Washington might be at a saturation point. In its annual survey, the Helen Hayes Awards released figures last week that show a 2 percent drop in attendance at area theaters last year. (A total of 1,904,826 seats were filled at 53 theaters last year, compared with 1,952,405 at 56 theaters in 2005.)
Although attendance at Shakespeare and Signature has held steady, officials at both companies said they're aware they can't rely solely on their traditionally loyal audiences to fill seats.
Nicholas T. Goldsborough, Shakespeare's managing director, said the company has been ramping up a national marketing strategy -- part of it tied to hotel packages -- to attract more patronage from outside the region. Twenty percent of the company's audience comes from beyond the metropolitan area, he said. The theater is also instituting a policy that will make $10 tickets available to 20,000 young adults during the season.
At Signature, meanwhile, the move to new, larger digs has stepped up the interest from writers and producers in trying out new works there. Schaeffer said that he's been fielding more and more outside proposals for plays and musicals in recent months, and that part of the reason is his bigger theater, called the Max. Its size can accommodate productions that could be replicated on the big stages of Broadway and elsewhere.
For breathtaking impact, though, no recent development for the city's theaters competes with the projected opening Oct. 1 of the Shakespeare's new Harman Center for the Arts. "This is certainly the most dramatic moment in the history of this theater," Goldsborough said.
The numbers alone are pretty staggering. The company's budget will rise from $15.2 million this season to between $18 million and $19 million for the next season, Goldsborough said. The company will add 49 new full-time employees, bringing the total to 153. The number of performances will increase from 324 to 408, and the addition of the Harman Center to the existing 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre will increase by 43 percent the number of tickets that must be sold.
To fill the two spaces, Kahn has put together a season of eight shows; the ninth, the annual Free for All, is an outdoor event at Carter Barron Amphitheater in Rock Creek Park.
The lineup, which will be formally unveiled at a news conference today at the Lansburgh, will contain three works by Shakespeare: "The Taming of the Shrew," directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman; a "Julius Caesar" directed by David Muse; and Kahn's production of "Antony and Cleopatra." Those last two plays will comprise a unit that will run as a "Roman Repertory" at the Harman in the spring of 2008. Patrick Page, who played Iago in Kahn's 2005 "Othello," will appear as the same character -- Marc Antony -- in both "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra."
Interestingly, the Harman will open in October not with Shakespeare but with two plays running in repertory that are by another Elizabethan dramatist, Christopher Marlowe: "Tamburlaine," starring Avery Brooks and directed by Kahn; and "Edward II," with Gale Edwards directing. Kahn said that when he revealed his plans. someone said to him, " 'Only you would open a new Shakespeare theater with Marlowe.' And I thought, why not? We're a classical company and why not start with the greatest contemporary of Shakespeare?"
George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara," directed by Ethan McSweeny, also will be staged in the Harman. Keith Baxter will direct Moliere's "Imaginary Invalid" in the Lansburgh, where Chicago director Mary Zimmerman -- who staged a popular "Pericles" for Kahn in 2004 -- will return with "Argonautika," her adaptation of the story of Jason and the Argonauts.
In its role as a broad-based performing arts venue, the Harman also will be home to performances by Washington Ballet, Washington Performing Arts Society and CityDance Ensemble.
Signature, meanwhile, launches its first full season in its new $16 million complex with a three-pronged examination of the work of "Chicago" composers John Kander and the late Fred Ebb. "The Visit," one of their last works, will be directed by Galati, choreographed by Reinking and star Rivera. "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "The Happy Time" will complete Signature's Kander and Ebb Celebration.
Schaeffer will direct "Merrily We Roll Along" -- Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's 1981 musical, with a story that unfolds in reverse chronologically -- and there will be that as-yet undisclosed world-premiere musical. D'Amboise will direct his dance-play "The Studio" and a poetry-theater piece, "The Word Begins," will come courtesy of performance artists Sekou "tha Misfit" and Steve Connell. A limited engagement of "The Tricky Part," written and performed by Martin Moran, rounds out Signature's offerings.
Initially, the 2007-08 season was to usher in the first full production of one of three original musicals commissioned under a $1 million grant to Signature by the Shen Family Foundation, but the timetable has been pushed back. Schaeffer said the first project, by Michael John LaChiusa, will receive a workshop production in Shirlington next spring and then a full production during the 2008-09 season.
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