David Cale creates an intoxicating mix of spicy stories, amorous encounters, and original sea shanties. James is a writer, and has sequestered himself in an oceanfront motel to finish his collection of tales of seaside romance—only to get drawn into the romantic goings-on around him. The cast of characters ranges from the Australian surfer who works the check-in desk to a dentist who mistakes the writer for his online date. All accompanied by the sea shanties from an English folk singer rehearsing in the room next door, The History of Kisses is a lyrical meditation on the nature of desire and fate.
Studio Special Events bring unique performances and one-of-a-kind events from around the world to DC.
The inaugural 2010-2011 season of new Artistic Director David Muse was generously underwritten by Jaylee Mead, and Robert and Arlene Kogod, with additional underwriting from The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Stanley and Rosemary Marcuss, and Vicki and Roger Sant.
This production of History of Kisses was generously underwritten by an Rick Kasten.
Born in Luton, England, Mr. Cale began his career as a singer with local rock bands, subsequently performing standards in pubs and singing Gershwin and Irving Berlin songs on the London Underground. At the age of twenty he immigrated to America. Living in New York City he began to write his own songs, which evolved into dramatic monologues that often incorporated live music.
Mr. Cale is the author and performer of the solo shows Palomino, for which he won the 2010 SF Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Solo Performance; A Likely Story; Lillian (Obie Award); and Deep in a Dream of You (Bessie Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement), as well as Somebody Else’s House, Smooch Music, and The Redthroats (Bessie Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement), which he performed at The Studio Theatre. His solo work has been presented throughout the U.S, including Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons; The Public Theater; Second Stage; NYTW; and The New Group, and venues including Performance Space 122; The Kitchen; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Kansas City Rep; The Goodman Theatre, Chicago; and at the Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre and Mark Taper Forum’s Taper, Too series, in Los Angeles. His monologues have been featured on Public Radio’s This American Life, NPR’s The Next Big Thing, for which he was a regular contributor, and the HBO Special, Bette Midler’s Mondo Beyondo.
He wrote the book, lyrics, co-composed the music for, and played Floyd in the musical Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky, which premiered at The Goodman Theatre, and went on to receive an Outer Circle Critics Nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical for its production at Playwrights Horizons. Other show credits include the duet Betwixt with The New Group; and The Blue Album, in collaboration with Dael Orlandersmith, at Long Wharf Theatre. He is the recipient of a Solo Performance Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two NYFA Fellowships. He was a participant in the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and was writer-in-residence at the 2009 Sundance Theatre Lab.
Mr. Cale has written lyrics for songs including Imitation of a Kiss, which has been sung by Elvis Costello, Deborah Harry, Jimmy Scott and The Jazz Passengers. He wrote and narrated the text for choreographer Charles Moulton’s dance Chickens, performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. As an actor, he has performed in plays on and off-Broadway including The Threepenny Opera at The Roundabout; and Curtains (Ensemble Obie Award), Mike Leigh’s 2000 Years, and Mouth to Mouth at The New Group. He made his film debut in Woody Allen’s Radio Days and has subsequently appeared in Pollock, The Slaughter Rule, Two Lovers, and the upcoming Coming Up Roses.
(As of May 2011)
Luciana Stecconi’s previous designs for Studio Theatre include The Effect, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Bad Jews, An Iliad, Lungs, The History of Kisses, In the Red and Brown Water, The Year of Magical Thinking, Amnesia Curiosa, Souvenir, Contractions, and Crestfall, among others. She has designed for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, Mosaic Theater, Theater J, Everyman Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Georgetown University, Catholic University, American University, Imagination Stage, and many more. She’s the Assistant Professor in Scenic Design at Emerson College. Stecconi holds an MFA in design from Brandeis University and is a member of USA Local 829.
(As of December 2018)
Beverly Emmons has designed for Broadway, Off Broadway, regional theatre, dance, and opera both in the United States and abroad. Her Broadway credits include Annie Get Your Gun, Jekyll & Hyde, The Heiress, Stephen Sondheim’s Passion, The Elephant Man, and Amadeus, for which she won a Tony Award. She has worked at The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, The Guthrie Theater, The Alley Theatre, and The Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis. Her Off Broadway design credits include The Vagina Monologues; multiple pieces with Robert Wilson, including Einstein on the Beach and the CIVIL WarS Pt V.; and many pieces with Joseph Chaikin and Meredith Monk. Her designs for dance include works by Martha Graham, Trisha Brown, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham. She has been awarded seven Tony Award nominations, the 1976 Lumen Award, 1984 and 1986 Bessies, a 1980 Obie for Distinguished Lighting, and several Maharam/American Theater Wing Design Awards.
(As of May 2011)
Andre Pluess has designed sound on Broadway for 33 Variations, The Clean House (Lincoln Center), I Am My Own Wife, and Metamorphoses. Recent projects include Arabian Nights and Legacy of Light at Arena Stage; Cymbeline at The Shakespeare Theatre Company; after the quake, Argonautika, The Blue Door, Honour, Metamorphoses, and The Secret in the Wings at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Merchant of Venice at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Equivocation at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ghostwritten at The Goodman Theatre; Marcus, Or The Secret of Sweet at ACT, Palomino at Center Theatre Group, and Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing at California Shakespeare Theatre (artistic associate), as well as the score for the film The Business of Being Born. He is based in Chicago, where his credits include numerous productions for About Face Theatre (artistic associate), Court Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company (artistic associate), Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens (resident designer), and Steppenwolf Theatre. He has received Joseph Jefferson Awards/Citations, an Ovation Award, Barrymore Award, Drama Critics Circle Award, and Drama Desk/Lortel nominations.
(As of May 2011)
Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of I Hate it Here, Queen of Basel, The Remains, No Sisters, I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, Animal, Red Speedo, Dirt, Lungs, and The History of Kisses as well as productions of Flow, 2.5 Minute Ride, Until the Flood, Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Jumpers for Goalposts, Bad Jews (twice), The Apple Family Plays, Invisible Man, Sucker Punch, The Golden Dragon, and The New Electric Ballroom, among others. Prior to joining Studio, she spent eight seasons at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she headed the literary department and coordinated project scouting, selection, and development for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She is the co-editor of eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre and editor of 10 editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of May 2021)