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Thru 3/28

The Orphans' Home Cycle

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Proof that single-mindedness can be a good thing, the Off Broadway Signature Theatre Company has carved out a successful niche by dedicating each season to the works of one living playwright. Founding director James Houghton established the company in 1991 as a laboratory of sorts for playwrights-in-residence (Horton Foote and John Guare among them) as each writer is given a mini-retrospective capped by a premiere. Audiences benefit by getting to experience the full scope and depth of a contemporary dramatist’s work while sitting in an exceptionally intimate venue: The 160-seat Peter Norton Space places seats no farther than 30 feet from the stage. Although resident playwright August Wilson died unexpectedly from cancer in 2005, Signature’s 2007 showcase of seven Wilson works went on with corporate sponsors underwriting the $15 tickets. Now that’s devotion. — Caroline Kinneberg