SIGNATURE IN THE SCHOOLS OPENING NIGHT
Signature in the Schools is made possible by the generosity of the community and patrons like you. 

Signature in the Schools world premiere production of Eve of Destruction is set in Basra, Iraq in March 2003 just before the U.S. coalition invasion.  Playwright and director Joe Calarco holds up the January 17, 2007 edition of The Washington Post.  The front page pictured an Iraqi woman comforting a university student in Baghdad after extremistbombs took the life of 60 students and seriously wounded 140 others. 

Donors to Signature in the Schools are invited to opening night of
Eve of Destruction
written and directed by Joe Calarco
Monday, February 12, 2006
7:00 p.m. 

Signature Theatre
2800 S. Stafford Street
Arlington, VA 22206

Patrons who make gifts of $100 or more to Signature in the Schools will receive two complimentary tickets to opening night of Eve of Destruction, which is followed by a discussion and reception with the playwright and all-student cast.

Space is limited. To make a donation and reserve tickets for opening night, please click here to download a donation form. For more information, contact Erin Harms at (571) 527-1827, or e-mail harmse@signature-theatre.org.

Signature in the Schools is our gift to the community, and we’re proud to be able to offer this award-winning education program to local teens free of charge – but can only do so with your support. Please consider making your gift to Signature in the Schools today. Your donation will help offset more than $100,000 in program costs, including special student study guides that provide helpful source material for students and educators.

We are grateful to the following individuals and corporations for their support of Signature in the Schools: Timothy J. Carlton, The Mardi Gras Fund, Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Walt Disney Company Foundation… AND YOU!

Signature is grateful to our corporate sponsors for their very generous support of Signature in the Schools.

   

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SPECIAL FROM PAGE TO STAGE EVENT
Meet the cast of Eve of Destruction

Saturday, February 17
2:00PM
NEW Shirlington Library located on the 1st Floor of Signature Theatre’s new  complex
2800 S. Stafford Street

Meet the talented actors who are responsible for bringing Joe Calarco’s original play, Eve of Destruction, to life. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to talk with the students about the unique experience of working on a new script with the playwright and the challenge of working in a professional setting.

The cast is comprised of Wakefield High School students Irene Casey, Jamil Garner, Kristin James, Cassandra Jones, Alan Schiffer, Chris Stanton, Ben Truong, and Maria Wilson.  For the first time, we have an apprentice actor from H.B. Woodlawn High School — Graham Hooper.  In addition, professional actor Ray Ficca joins the cast. 

This special conversation is not to be missed!

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PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR’S NOTES
As I eagerly await the opening of Eve of Destruction on February 12, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the script came to be.

Playwright and director Joe Calarco listens as Kristin James and Jamil Garner discuss ideas for the “dance” sequences in the play.  They are working with student choreographer Cassandra Jones.

Wakefield High School student Maria Wilson returns for her second Signature in the Schools production.  In last year’s production of Joe Calarco’s My Vacation in Paris she played a free black woman living in Paris during the French Revolution.  In Eve of Destruction, Maria plays Rasha, a young Iraqi girl who has e-mail correspondence with an American pen pal.

When Education Director Marcia Gardner first approached me about writing the piece for Signature in the Schools this year, she gave me two things: a title and the subject matter. She gave me an article about the librarian of Basra, a woman who, in order to protect the literature of Iraq from the inevitable chaos and destruction resulting from the invasion of coalition forces, took the books from the library, ultimately providing refuge for them in her own home. The subject seemed daunting and I avoided writing it for quite some time.

I came down to DC for the casting sessions, and I still hadn’t written an original word. It turned out to be a huge asset.

The minute I started to see the students of Wakefield High School audition, characters started to emerge in my mind. My original idea of writing a play about the librarian of Basra, who is helped in her quest by some students, went out the window. I knew that I wanted to focus on young people, both Iraqi and American, trying to find their way in a world consumed by war, a world filled with questions and complications and challenges, a world that their generation will be made to inherit and will be asked to tend.

— Joe Calarco

Please join Signature for the public performance of Eve of Destruction on Monday, February 19 at 7:00pm.

Signature in the Schools enhances the lives of hundreds of high school students annually.  The program is offered to select public schools free of charge, but costs Signature Theatre over $100,000 in operations expenses.   Please help Signature continue its positive work serving the community.

Click here to learn how you can support Signature in the Schools.

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