I didn’ t know Irene personally when I called to ask her about doing a season at Signature, but I quickly learned that she is a true character – she is both eccentric and incredibly grounded.
small. It’ s not the right size. We said five-foot.” And he’ s eyeballing this. I said,“ Edward, it’ s five feet! We built it ourselves I guarantee.” He says,“ It is not five feet.” Somebody ran and got a tape measure and we measured the thing – and the external measurement was five feet, not the inside. I just looked at him and said,“ We’ ll build it again.” And we did!
When we began Adrienne’ s season in 1995, we didn’ t have a theatre. We had spent our first four years at the Kampo Cultural Center, and when they decided not to use the space as a theatre anymore, we went looking for a new home. Luckily, George C. Wolfe offered us a temporary home at the Public for the next two seasons while we looked for and eventually built what would become the Peter Norton Space. A lot stands out to me from that season in general. I directed Adrienne’ s play June and Jean in Concert, and that was a production that was a really incredible experience that I value deeply. My wife Joyce played Bette Davis in A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White, directed by our dear friend Joe Chaikin. And of course, Funnyhouse of a Negro. That play is larger than life, but it is also so intimate. Funnyhouse began Adrienne’ s season at Signature and it’ s such an incredible window into her world as a playwright – audiences were with us on the journey after that.
In presenting Irene’ s plays Mud and Drowning together, those great representations of her work, we were essentially saying that these pieces were connected. Then that became its own puzzle for us to crack: how do we join together these two worlds so that they feel both connected and distinct? Christine Jones, who has been a longtime friend of both Signature and my own family, did the scenic design. She created this interior space for Mud that literally broke apart and gave way to the world of Drowning. I’ ll never forget Christine’ s design of that production. In a lot of ways, I think it spoke to Irene’ s own body of work, and one piece of writing moving forward into another. In that production, I think there was something in the stars that aligned and created a really special night in the theatre.
( this page) Dallas Roberts in María Irene Fornés’ Enter the Night, 2000;( opposite page, top to bottom) Eisa Davis in Adrienne Kennedy’ s June and Jean in Concert, 1995; Adrienne Kennedy; Kathleen Butler, Tom Klunis, Edward Albee, and Jim Houghton, 1993.
S: Why did you want to bring these three plays back to Signature?
JH: Edward, Irene, and Adrienne are all such pioneers of the Off Broadway movement. Their work has been so influential to so many writers, and to the American dramatic canon. All three of those playwrights are taught in universities all over the world, and these three plays are really hallmarks of their writing. I felt that putting Edward, Irene, and Adrienne together in
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