Three aging sisters in a small Irish village tell and retell the story of a dance hall of their youth, a certain handsome rock star, and the night that changed their lives. Their only visitor is a lonely fishmonger, who may ultimately give the sisters an escape from the stories they’ve let imprison them.
Studio’s Subscription Season is the core of our programming, offering an uncommonly rich repertoire of provocative contemporary writing from around the world and inventive stagings of contemporary classics.
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.
The New Ireland Festival was generously underwritten by Culture Ireland, David and Helen Kenney, Virginia A. McArthur, the National Endowment for the Arts, and an anonymous donor.
Additional support was provided by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; and Toni Ritzenberg.
Called “one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre” by The Guardian, Enda Walsh’s plays have been widely produced and translated into more than 20 languages.
Born in Dublin, Walsh moved to Cork in his early twenties, where he was one of the first playwrights involved with the Corcadorca Theatre Company. The Corcadorca premiered several of his plays including Walsh’s break-through play Disco Pigs (1996), which went on to numerous productions, winning the Best Fringe Production Award of 1996 and The Critics’ Award in 1997 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Walsh also received a Stewart Parker Award for New Playwrights and the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.
Walsh again swept the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001 with Bedbound. In 2006 he won the Abbey Theatre Writer in Association Award at Ireland’s National Theatre, and The Walworth Farce premiered at Druid Ireland – solidifying his reputation as a consistently intriguing and theatrical voice in Irish theatre. By this point, Walsh had left Cork and moved to London, where he lives with his wife and daughter. The Walworth Farce garnered a Fringe First Award in 2007 and was quickly followed by Walworth’s “sister play,” The New Electric Ballroom, which won a Fringe First Award, the Herald Archangel Award and the coveted Irish Times’ Best New Play Award in 2008. His other plays include Penelope (recently seen at The Studio Theatre), as well as The Ginger Ale Boy, Sucking Dublin, Misterman, The Small Things, Pondlife Angels, Chatroom, and Delirium.
Since his initial success as a playwright, Walsh has gone on to write screenplays as well, including adaptation of his plays Disco Pigs and Chatroom. His 2008 biopic, Hunger, told the story of the final days of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and won a host of awards, including the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Heartbeat Award at the Dinard International Film Festival. It was nominated for seven British Independent Film Awards (including Best Screenplay), six British Film and Television Awards (including Best Screenplay, and Best Independent Film) and BAFTA’s Outstanding British Film Award 2009.
(As of April 2011)
Matt Torney is entering his fifth season as Associate Artistic Director at Studio, where he has previously directed If I Forget, Translations, The Hard Problem, MotherStruck!, Hedda Gabler, Jumpers for Goalposts, The New Electric Ballroom, and The Walworth Farce. Prior to his work at Studio, Matt served as the Director of Programming for Origin Theatre in New York, an Off Broadway company that specializes in European new writing. His New York credits include Stop the Tempo and Tiny Dynamite at Origin Theatre (Drama Desk Award nominee), The Twelfth Labor at Loading Dock, The Dudleys at Theatre for the New City, The Angel of History at HERE Arts, and Three Sisters and A Bright Room Called Day at the Atlantic Theatre School. Regional credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs at Theatre J (nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards), Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, and Improbable Frequency at Solas Nua (Helen Hayes Award nominee for Best Choreography). International credits include Digging for Fire and Plaza Suite with Rough Magic (National Tour), Angola workshop at the Abbey Theatre, Paisley and Me at the Grand Opera House Belfast, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Making Strange (Irish Theatre Award nominee for Best Director), and Woyzeck at Rough Magic (Best Production nominee at the Dublin Fringe Festival). Originally from Belfast, Matt holds an MFA from Columbia University.
(As of August 2019)
Nancy Robinette has been affiliated with Studio since the late 1970s, first as a student and then performing in The Woolgatherer, Camino Real, Tribes, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Play About the Baby, Three Sisters (1995-96), Ivanov, The Seagull, Afterplay, Frozen, Souvenir, Slavs!, The New Electric Ballroom, and Laughing Wild. Her recent work at Studio includes Three Sisters (2016-17) and The Hard Problem. Ms. Robinette most recently performed on Broadway in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. She has also performed on most of the DC stages, and at the McCarter Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Globe Theatre, as well as in Key West and the former Yugoslavia. Film and television credits include Louie, Serial Mom, Soldier Jack, and the upcoming Three Christs. Ms. Robinette is a Woolly Mammoth Theatre Alumna and an Associated Artist with Shakespeare Theatre Company.
(As of March 2017)
Sybil Lines was last seen at The Studio Theatre in Moonlight. She has appeared on Broadway in Bedroom Farce, Waiting in the Wings, Aren’t We All, and Lettice and Lovage. She has also appeared in Claw at Manhattan Theatre Club; Philanderer at Roundabout Theatre Company; and Off Broadway in Footfalls. In Washington, she has appeared in numerous productions at the Folger Theatre, including Whose Life is it, Anyway?(American Premiere), Twelfth Night, and The Cherry Orchard (Helen Hayes Award nomination); Gertrude in Hamlet and Mrs. Alonby in A Woman of No Importance at The Shakespeare Theatre Company with Dixie Carter, directed by Michael Kahn. Regionally, she has performed as Ruth in Blithe Spirit at the McCarter Theatre with Christine Baranski; as David McCallum’s wife in the New England tour of Run For Your Wife; at The Berkshire Theatre Festival and Pasadena Playhouse in Stepping Out; and As You Like It at A Contemporary Theatre. Ms. Lines was a company member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for two years. Her television credits include Murder She Wrote, Hogan Family, and Edge of Night.
(As of April 2011)
Jennifer Mendenhall has been a DC-area actor for many years; Studio Theatre was one of her first artistic homes in the city. She has appeared in Studio's productions of The New Electric Ballroom, Circle Mirror Transformation, A Beautiful View, Crestfall, and many more. She met Ike Holter at The Kennedy Center Playwrights Initiatives, where she served as a reader for many years. She is a company member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where her performances include Cherokee, Clyborne Park, Measure for Pleasure, Grace, Lenny & Lou, Homebody/Kabul, Cooking With Elvis, The Day Room, and many more. Most recently, she appeared as Q in Handbagged at Round House Theatre; Hooded, Or Being Black For Dummies at Mosaic Theater Company; Cripple of Inishmaan at Scena Theatre; Pluto and Angels in America at Forum Theatre; After the Fall, Imagining Madoff, Apples from the Desert, The Accident, and Andy and the Shadows at Theater J; Ambition Facing West, The Monument, You Are Here, and Slaughter City at Theater Alliance; Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major at The Kennedy Center; dark play, or stories for boys at the Humana Festival; and Cradle of Man at Florida Stage. As audio book narrator Kate Reading, she has recorded hundreds of books of all genres. Her awards include a Helen Hayes for Outstanding Lead Actress, a Mary Goldwater Award from Theatre Lobby, Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association, the AudioFile Earphones Award, and Audio Book Reader of the Year from Publisher’s Weekly. katereadingaudiobooks.com
(As of November 2020)
Liam Craig was last seen at The Studio Theatre in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He has appeared on Broadway in Boeing Boeing and Off Broadway in The Internationalist at Vineyard Theatre; Aunt Dan and Lemon at The New Group; Two Noble Kinsmen at The Public Theater; Juno and the Paycock at Roundabout Theatre Company. Regional credits include The Servant of Two Masters at Yale Repertory Theatre; The Novelist at Dorset Theatre Festival; The Scene at Hartford Stage and Alley Theatre; and The Lady From the Sea at Intiman Theatre. Film and television credits include The Royal Tenenbaums, Mercy, Rescue Me, Boston Legal, and Law & Order. Mr. Craig will be seen next year at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in The Servant of Two Masters.
(As of April 2011)
Debra Booth has a long history with Studio, where she has designed White Pearl, Translations, The Wolves, The Father, The Hard Problem, Constellations, The Apple Family Cycle, Jumpers for Goalposts, Belleville, Cock, Edgar & Annabel, Bachelorette, Moonlight, Blackbird, My Children! My Africa!, The Pillowman, and many others. Her international work includes premiere opera Marco Polo (Tan Dun/Martha Clarke) in Munich, Hong Kong, and New York. Regionally, her credits include Sooner/Later and Vicuna at Mosaic Theater Company; Small Mouth Sounds at Round House Theatre; Richard III, The Collection, and The Lover at the Shakespeare Theatre Company; Marisol at Hartford Stage and The Public Theater; Trying, The Illusion, and Happy Days at Portland Stage; the New York premiere of Angels in America at The Juilliard School; Broken Glass at Philadelphia Theatre Company (Barrymore Award nomination); and A Moon for the Misbegotten at Yale Rep. Debra is the recipient of a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts design grant. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(As of February 2020)
Michael Giannitti was Resident Lighting Designer at Studio Theatre from 2006-2010; since 1991 he has designed 45 productions at Studio, including The Hard Problem, Jumpers For Goalposts, Water by the Spoonful, The New Electric Ballroom, American Buffalo, Reasons to Be Pretty, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Pillowman, and Seven Guitars (Helen Hayes Award nomination). He designed lighting for the Broadway premiere of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. His Off Broadway credits include Cross That River and Sounding Beckett. He has designed extensively for Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Dorset Theatre Festival, Capital Rep, Trinity Rep, Shakespeare & Company, and the Weston Playhouse. Giannitti has also designed for Arkansas Rep, Barrington Stage, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Virginia Stage, Indiana Rep, Portland Stage, George Street, Yale Repertory Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, and the Spoleto Festival. He has been on the faculty at Bennington College in Vermont since 1992. As a Fulbright Specialist, he taught in Romania and New Zealand, and has been a guest lecturer at the Guangxi Arts Institute in China.
(As of August 2018)
Helen Huang designs her 29th production at Studio with White Pearl. Her regional credits include Alice in Wonderland at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Great Leap at Guthrie Theater; Matilda the Musical at The Children’s Theatre, Minneapolis; and Miss Bennet and Christmas at Pemberley at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. DC area credits include JQA at Arena Stage; A Doll’s House, Part 2 at Roundhouse; Fences at Ford’s Theatre; Me…Jane at The Kennedy Center; and Fickle: A Fancy French Farce at Olney Theatre Center. She has received a Helen Hayes Award and an Ivey Award. Helen is a professor of MFA Costume Design at University of Maryland, College Park.
(As of October 2019)
Martin Desjardins is in his 10th Season as the Resident Sound Designer and Audio Supervisor for The Shakespeare Theatre Company/Harman Center for the Arts. Mr. Desjardins is also a freelance composer and designer in the United States and abroad. Credits include productions with The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Centerstage, The Huntington Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Off Broadway credits include The Scene, columbinus, Below the Belt, and Gunshy, as well as North Atlantic and House/Lights with The Wooster Group. International credits include R.E.M. in Norway; Embracing the Riddle at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Death of a Salesman in Toronto; and Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Sound Design in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Mr. Desjardins has also received a Lucille Lortel Award for columbinus with New York Theatre Workshop. He trained at Yale School of Drama and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
(As of April 2011)
Robb Hunter has directed violence for more than 20 Studio productions including Vietgone, The Effect, Hand to God, Bad Jews, Belleville, The Motherfucker with the Hat, Reasons to be Pretty, Invisible Man, Superior Donuts, American Buffalo, Red Speedo (Helen Hayes nomination for choreography) and The Walworth Farce (Helen Hayes nomination). He also directs movement/violence for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth (where he received a Helen Hayes Award for HIR and nomination for An Octoroon), Signature Theatre, and many others. He is a member of SDC, AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and is a Certified Fight Director for the Society of American Fight Directors. He is on faculty at The Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting, is the Choreographer in Residence at American University and is a teaching artist for the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of February 2019)
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)
Che Wernsman previously stage managed for The Studio Theatre The Year of Magical Thinking and The History Boys. Most recently, she stage managed Henry VIII at The Folger Theatre. Regional credits also include work at Everyman Theatre, Round House Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Rep Stage, CenterStage, Olney Theatre Center, MetroStage, Maryland Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Shakespeare Festival, and The Wilma Theatre/Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Wernsman attended Virginia Tech and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Stage Mangers’ Association.
(As of April 2011)
Augustus Heagerty recently served as Assistant Director on The Comedy of Errors at The Folger Theatre; Hamlet at Seattle Shakespeare Company; Snow White, Rose Red and Fred! at The Kennedy Center; and The Good Book of Pedantry and Wonder at The Theatre @ Boston Court. Upcoming projects include assisting on The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwright’s Horizons and directing Who Killed Captain Kirk? at the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival. Mr. Heagerty is the 2010-2011 Kenan Directing Fellow at The Kennedy Center. He holds a B.F.A. in Directing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
(As of April 2011)