NY TIMES: PHOTO SLIDESHOW

Posted by Mike Trerotola, Marketing Intern, 6 March 2008

Hey all you fine Signature fans reading this blog! Check out this cool NY Times photo slideshow, entitled "Moving a Carnival," which features Paradise Park! Our choreographer, Peter Pucci, who also choreographed Queen's Boulevard (the musical), is featured in the slideshow. Hope you enjoy!

Paradise Park: Opening Night!

Posted by Sofiya Akilova, Executive Assistant, 5 March 2008

This past Sunday Paradise Park, the third show of Signature’s Charles Mee Series, enjoyed a brilliant and very special opening. The house was filled with the likes of Romulus Linney, Tina Landau, Dylan Baker and Peter Norton, to name a few. Jim Houghton kicked off the evening with a warm welcome to all our guests, and paid tribute to the courageous collagist we were all there to celebrate, Charles Mee!

This happens to be my favorite play of the Charles Mee Series, and it was my fifth time watching the show and I kind of expected to sit back and kick it rerun style, ya know? But to my glorious surprise, I never enjoyed the show more. Maybe it was the couple of glasses of champagne I had during the lobby reception before the show–I’m completely serious about that. When you watch a Charles Mee play I think your inhibition can really stand in the way of fully experiencing it. You kind of can’t come in expecting anything, even if you’ve seen other Charles Mee plays. The barrage of sensational distractions combined with sudden plunges into characters’ painfully personal journeys oscillates so feverishly in PARADISE PARK that I think the less inhibition the more you allow the beautiful chaos to just have its effect on you, without judgment. And then at the end you just sit back and feel the aftershock.

The beauty of the opening night show could’ve also been due to the theatre being filled with people who have worked on, admired, championed, understood, explored, and connected to Chuck’s work. There was just an amazing sense of communion in the audience – yes, we understand this depiction of reality and life, it makes sense to us! At the end there were two boisterous curtain calls. It was a wonderful moment of simple and genuine appreciation for Chuck and all who unfurled the wonders of Chuck’s mind on that stage.

The crowd then proceeded to the after-party over at 44 ½, replete with cosmos, bite-size spoonfuls of risotto and other delectable hour devours, servers in tight pink t-shirts labeled with things like “naughty,” “heaven,” “tasty;” in other words, Paradise.

Paradise Park: Video Montage

Posted by Mike Trerotola, Marketing Intern, 27 February 2008

Hey all! Check out this really awesome video montage of Paradise Park that our own Marketing Associate, Jen Taylor, put together!

Both Paradise Park and the video montage were mentioned in the "Pencil This In" section of Gothamist. John Del Signore writes "If this far out video montage is any indication, you'd do well to buy the ticket, take the ride."

Chuck Mee and Daniel Fish Discuss Paradise Park

Posted by Mike Trerotola, Maketing Intern, 11 February 2008

Check out this really cool video that we posted on our website! You get an up close and personal interview with Chuck Mee, our Playwright-in-Residence, and Daniel Fish, director of Paradise Park. Hear what they have to say about Signature Theatre Company's world premier production of Paradise Park.

Paradise Park: First Rehearsal!

Posted by Siobhan Lockhart, Artistic Intern, 7 February 2008

Tuesday, January 15, was the first rehearsal of Paradise Park, the final play in Signature Theatre Company's Charles Mee Series. It was a packed house (well, packed room) as the cast, creative team, and the entire Signature Theatre Company staff, including interns, gathered at the rehearsal studio at Manhattan Theatre Club to hear the first reading of the play. Also in attendance were members of True Love Productions, the producing partners of the show, and a class of extremely engaged ninth graders from Brooklyn Generations Charter School, accompanied by Signature alum, actor Chad L. Coleman (August Wilson’s Two Trains Running). So it was an excellent crowd, a mixture of old faces (to note just a couple, Satya Bhabha and William Jackson Harper, cast members from Queens Boulevard) and new faces to Signature, all unified by a great deal of anticipation. And before the actual read-through began everyone chatted and ate the very nice spread of bagels, pastries, and coffee. It also ended up being an interesting meet and greet for me personally because I ran into both someone I went to college with and someone who attended the same high school as me...it really is a small world. But I digress...

This being my second first rehearsal at Signature, I was definitely excited, remembering the Queens Boulevard read-through and how much of a difference it made hearing the play read out loud by actors rather than just reading it on my own. It’s strange how you can already start to hear/feel how the play will begin to shape just in an initial reading by actors. It’s definitely a great way to kick-off (excuse the football lingo so close to Super Bowl time but it can’t be helped…Go Giants!) and inspire not only the cast and creative team, but also the staff to get even more geared up for a production. I’ve already been feeling a special kinship to this play. Over the past few months I have been helping out with some of the initial research for Paradise Park and have been feeling somewhat immersed in the world of this play—reading up on many of the references and inspirations in the text. Having the opportunity to sit in on the reading was a chance for me to see the beginnings of the production take shape.

Until Tuesday I mostly had vague visions, characterizations, and factoids of Coney Island, Esther Williams, and Devonshire circling my head. Hearing actual voices put to the dialogue helped to really bring a lot of it together for me. And the design presentations helped bring these initial visions together even more. I can’t wait to see how this production will develop. I miss Queens Boulevard, but this first rehearsal really fueled everyone’s enthusiasm for the upcoming show.