Theater News

Signature Forced to Scrap August Wilson Season

August Wilson(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
August Wilson
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

New York’s Signature Theatre Company will not be going ahead with plans to present a season dedicated to the works of August Wilson. In a letter to the company, the Wilson estate expressed its appreciation of Signature’s efforts to celebrate the late playwright’s body of work but said that the rights to Wilson’s plays could not be granted to the company at this time.

On October 2, Wilson died from liver cancer at the age of 60. Months before his death, Signature had announced plans to produce a series of old and new Wilson works in its 2006-2007 season, including a solo show that was to have been written and performed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

“We are very disappointed not to have the opportunity to honor our friend and playwright-in-residence August Wilson,” said James Houghton, Signature’s founding artistic director. “But, of course, we respect the wishes of Mr. Wilson’s estate. This is a very difficult time for his family and for all of us who cared so much for August and revere his extraordinary body of work.”

New programming for 2006-2007 will be announced shortly. This season, Signature will present Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, starring Lois Smith and Hallie Foote, and John Guare’s Landscape of the Body, starring Sherie Rene Scott and Lili Taylor.