Sept. 19 Cultural Breakfast to Feature Signature’s Matthew Gardiner
By • August 15, 2024 0 373
Signature Theatre Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner will be the featured speaker at The Georgetowner’s Sept. 19 Cultural Leadership Breakfast. Admission to the event, at the President Woodrow Wilson House, 2340 S St. NW, is $40, payable in advance at georgetowner.com or via Eventbrite.
In 1991, two years after its founding by Eric Schaeffer and Donna Migliaccio, Signature Theatre presented its first musical: “Sweeney Todd.” Garnering four Helen Hayes Awards, the production put Signature on the map, establishing its bond with musical theater in general and the work of Stephen Sondheim in particular.
After a stint in a former automobile garage, in 2007 the company built a new two-theater facility that continues to serve as the cultural anchor of Arlington’s Village at Shirlington. Home to the American Musical Voices Project, one of the nation’s largest musical theater commissioning projects, Signature received the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
Having joined Signature in 2010 as associate artistic director, Matthew Gardiner became artistic director in 2021. He has directed over 40 Signature productions, including many Sondheim musicals, some of which he also choreographed. During the 2023-24 season, he directed major new productions of “Ragtime” and “Hair.” He will kick off Signature’s 2024-25 season directing Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
Gardiner, who holds a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University, has received three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical. At the Sept. 19 breakfast, he will talk about the evolution of his approach to programming and the challenges of leading a company in the current environment.
Doors open at the President Woodrow Wilson House at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 19 for a buffet breakfast; the program will follow from 9 to 10 a.m. To purchase tickets, click HERE.
Since 2014, The Georgetowner’s Cultural Leadership Breakfast Series has presented 58 insider talks by leaders of area museums, theater and dance companies, performing arts venues and other cultural organizations.
