Pearl Theater Company Finds New Home February 29, 2012, 9:45 am The Pearl Theater Company, an Off Broadway troupe that stages classical plays, has signed a 20-year lease on a new home: The 160-seat venue on West 42nd Street that Signature Theater Company occupied for years before moving into its new center this winter. Pearl executives announced on Tuesday that their 29th season would begin this fall at the company's new theater, which was known as the Peter Norton Space during the Signature era. Mr. Norton is the chairman of the board of Signature; a spokesman for the Pearl said the theater would be renamed. The Pearl will undertake a $3 million capital campaign to renovate the theater, its executives said in a statement. J.R. Sullivan, the Pearl's artistic director, said the new theater "offers audiences an intimate relationship to an especially fine stage space." He added, "It will prove a perfect fit for the classics to come from the Pearl," which most recently mounted the critically praised production "Wittenberg" - a comic mash-up featuring Hamlet, Doctor Faustus, and Martin Luther as characters. Founded in 1984, Pearl operated out of Theater 80 on St. Mark's Place for years, and since 2009 has produced at New York City Center Stage II. The former Signature space, meanwhile, is one of only a handful of pre-built theaters remaining in New York.