The Walworth Farce

4/6/11 - 4/24/11

WRITTEN BY ENDA WALSH
DIRECTED BY MATT TORNEY

A sinister twist on high farce, this chilling tale exposes a family’s Sisyphean games as a father forces his two sons to reenact their troubled past through cross-dressing, slapstick and denial. When a young woman unwittingly intrudes, things take an irrevocable turn.

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.

Play Name

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.

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The Artists

Cast

Production Team

SETTING

Debra Booth

Debra Booth has a long history with Studio, where she has designed White Pearl, TranslationsThe Wolves, The Father, The Hard Problem, ConstellationsThe Apple Family CycleJumpers for GoalpostsBelleville, 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 IIIThe Collection, and The Lover at the Shakespeare Theatre Company; Marisol at Hartford Stage and The Public Theater; TryingThe 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)

LIGHTING

Michael Giannitti

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)

COSTUME DESIGNER

Helen Huang

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)

SOUND

Martin Desjardins

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)

FIGHT DIRECTOR

Robb Hunter

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) 

DRAMATURG

Sarah Wallace

Sarah Wallace is The Studio Theatre’s Associate Literary Manager/Dramaturg and has served as dramaturg for Adding Machine, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Blackbird, among others. She has also worked with American Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre.  She has lectured on theatre at Harvard, Brandeis, and Boston Universities. Ms. Wallace holds an M.F.A. from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre Institute at Harvard University and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

(As of April 2011)

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

John Keith Hall

John Keith Hall's DC credits include many productions at Studio Theatre including Bad Jews, Choir Boy, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, Torch Song Trilogy, 4000 Miles, Sucker Punch, In The Red And Brown Water, The History Boys, Adding Machine: A Musical, and The Road To Mecca; Hir, The Nether, and An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Soon, SCKBSTD, and West Side Story at Signature Theatre; Sweeney Todd, Mary Poppins, and The Producers at Olney Theatre Center.  Regional credits include several seasons as a Resident Stage Manager at The Barter Theatre in Virginia where he supervised over 40 productions, Shadowland Stages in New York, and Virginia Musical Theatre in Virginia Beach. A graduate of Virginia’s Longwood University, Mr. Hall is a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association.  

(As of September 2017) 

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Augustus Heagerty

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)

DIALECT COACH

Nancy Krebs

Nancy Krebs returns to Studio Theatre, where she previously served as Dialect/Vocal Coach for Constellations (Helen Hayes Award-winning production), Animal (world premiere), The Habit of Art (American Premiere), and The Enda Walsh Festival: The New Electric Ballroom and The Walworth Farce.  She has been the Resident Dialect/Vocal Coach for the Annapolis Shakespeare Company for the past five years, coaching over 35 productions during her tenure at ASC.  Her most recent credits are The Glass Menagerie, Blithe Spirit, A Christmas Carol, Much Ado About Nothing, Alice and the Book of Wonderland, The Tempest, and Richard  III. Ms. Krebs has served in this capacity for hundreds of professional productions in the region since 1994, working with other notable companies as Theater J, Baltimore Center Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Everyman Theatre, and Rep Stage in Columbia.  Ms. Krebs teaches the Lessac Voice & Body Training at the Baltimore School for the Arts, operates her own voice studio The Voiceworks, is an accomplished musician/singer/songwriter, and belongs to AEA, AFTRA, SAG, and VASTA

(As of March 2018)