Eric Schaeffer

My Signature Story Eric Schaeffer

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.