This small building is located at the base of a residential tower: during the construction of the metro, two theaters were demolished here, so the developer, who was rebuilding this site, was obliged to make up for the loss.
The building houses the Signature Theater, founded in 1991 and specializing exclusively in the plays of living playwrights. He belongs to many small non-Broadway theaters and only became famous in 2004 when he was chosen as one of the "tenants" of the arts center at the new World Trade Center. Frank Gehry was appointed as the architect of the center, but soon there were problems with funding, and the project was frozen, and the site for the new Signature Theater building was the vicinity of Times Square.
Gehry developed this project for Signature, which is emphatically modest: the theater is funded by donations from philanthropists, which, in particular, keeps ticket prices at around $ 25.
The Signature Center includes a spacious two-level foyer with a grand staircase and three halls of various configurations, the largest of which can accommodate 299 spectators. The foyer and halls are decorated with sheets of plywood - varnished, painted and unpainted, which also play an acoustic role.
In the foyer, on the walls of drywall, monochrome "murals" are applied: huge portraits of playwrights associated with the theater. In the near future, there will be more such writers: three halls instead of one in the old building will allow working simultaneously with several writers, as well as concluding 5-year contracts with them, during which they will write specifically for Signature.
The total area of the building is 6,500 m2, the budget is $ 66 million.
N. F.
