BIOS Eric Schaeffer is the co-Founder and Artistic Director of Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, winner of the 2009 Tony
My Signature Story
by Eric Schaeffer with Sarah Valente
My Signature Story
by Eric Schaeffer with Sarah Valente
Published Mar 29, 2011
149 Pages
Genre: DRAMA / American / General
Book Details
Building a Tony
It started as a what if and blossomed into a major Regional Theatre in America. MY SIGNATURE STORY traces the journey of the Tony-Award winning Signature Theatre in Shirlington, Virginia through the eyes of its Co-founder and Artistic Director, Eric Schaeffer. Schaeffer discusses the trials and tribulations of starting a theatre company from nothing and turning it into one of America's most beloved and artistically-renowned arts organizations. From staging musicals in a school library, to renovating an auto-bumper plating plant, raising money and forming a governing board, forging a working relationship with Stephen Sondheim, John Kander, and Fred Ebb, developing a robust and loyal audience, attracting billboard-worthy talent, building a new state-of-the-art, two-stage complex, to the culminating accepting the Tony on the stage of Radio City Music Hall, Schaeffer shares his success and horror -- stories. Personal tales and insights from Signature's 20-year history and its influence on American musical theatre make Eric Schaeffer's MY SIGNATURE STORY fascinating reading for theatre fans, and those ambitious souls who share the dream of building a theatre from scratch.