The world is getting hotter, there’s unrest overseas—the seas themselves aren’t very calm—and one couple is thinking about having a child. Lungs is a smart and funny drama that follows a couple through the surprising lifecycle of their relationship, as they grapple with questions of family and change, hope, betrayal, happenstance, and the terrible pain that you can only cause the people you love.
Studio Lab presents stripped-down productions of world premiere plays, giving playwrights in residence the ability to work in an environment of collaboration and discovery.
Studio Theatre's 2011-2012 Season was generously underwritten by Robert and Arlene Kogod.
The International Plays of the 2011-2012 Season were generously underwritten by an anonymous donor.
This production of Lungs was generously underwritten by David and Jean Heilman Grier with additional support from Jon and NoraLee Sedmak.
Duncan Macmillan is a playwright, director, screenwriter, and Studio Cabinet member. His play Lungs received its world premiere at Studio in 2011, and he directed the US premiere of Mike Bartlett’s play Contractions at the Theatre in 2013. Studio also presented Olney Theatre Center’s production of his play Every Brilliant Thing in 2019. His production of 1984, which he co-adapted and co-directed with Robert Icke, played at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway in 2017, after three runs on the West End and multiple national and international tours, including to the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. People, Places & Things premiered at the National Theatre in 2015, before touring the UK and transferring to the West End the following year. It was subsequently revived at St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York. Both that play and 1984 were nominated as Best New Play at the Laurence Olivier Awards, and Duncan’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, which played in the West End in 2019, was nominated for Best Revival. His work has been performed throughout the world, including at the Old Vic, Royal Court Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Barbican Centre, Barrow Street Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Berliner Ensemble, Deutsche Schauspielhaus (Hamburg, Germany), Schauspiel Köln (Cologne, Germany), Burgtheater (Vienna, Austria), Vesturport (Reykjavik, Iceland), Kansallisteatteri (Helsinki, Finland), Nationaltheatret (Oslo, Norway), and in the repertory of the Schaubühne (Berlin), as well as the Edinburgh Festival, Manchester International Festival, Salzburg Festival, Festival d’Avignon, and Theatertreffen. He has collaborated with orchestras and DJs and co-authored a book on climate science with Professor Chris Rapley. His screen work has appeared on BBC, HBO, Netflix, and at the London and Berlin Film Festivals.
(As of July 2021)
Aaron Posner is a playwright, director, and teacher. He returns to Studio for No Sisters after previously directing Lungs. Mr. Posner has written two other Chekhov reinventions, Stupid Fucking Bird and Life Sucks. Other plays include District Merchants, My Name Is Asher Lev, The Chosen, Who Am I This Time? & Other Conundrum, Sometimes a Great Notion, Cyrano and many more. He has directed at major regional theaters from coast to coast and won numerous awards as both director and playwright. Mr. Posner is currently an artistic associate at the Folger Theatre. He lives in this area with his wife, actress Erin Weaver, and his amazing daughter, Maisie.
(As of March 2017)
Brooke Bloom joins The Studio Theatre for the first time. Recent theatre credits include Completeness at South Coast Repertory Theatre and Becky Shaw at the Wilma, for which she won a Barrymore Award. Other theatre credits include Hamlet at South Coast Rep and A Feminine Ending at Portland Center Stage. Recent film credits are He’s Just Not That Into You, Gabi on the Roof in July, Ceremony, The Normals, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Ms. Bloom has also appeared in several television pilots for NBC and Fox, has had recent guest appearances on Law and Order, In Plain Sight, and The Good Wife, and had a recurring role on CSI: Miami. She is a member of The Antaeus Company in Los Angeles, CA.
(As of September 2011)
Ryan King is making his Studio Theatre debut. His Off Broadway appearances include The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and He’s Come to Take the Children Home at the Atlantic Theater Company, Mountains in the Bering at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Defiance at Manhattan Theatre Club, Deathbed at McGinn-Cazale Theatre, Rescue Me: A Postmodern Classic with Snacks at The Ohio Theater and Eurydice at Second Stage. His other New York credits include performances at HERE, BE Company, 59 East 59th, and the Lark Play Development Center. Regionally, he has appeared in Dying City at Hartford Stage, Master Class at the Paper Mill Playhouse, and 33 Variations at La Jolla Playhouse. Other work includes appearances at Yale Repertory Theater, New York Stage and Film, Voice and Vision, and six summers at the O’Neill Theater Conference. His television and film work includes Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Guiding Light, and Black Sea. Mr. King holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of September 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)
Colin K. Bills has designed the lighting for An Iliad, Lungs, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Year of Magical Thinking, Stoop Stories, and Radio Golf at Studio as well as Moth, Contractions, POP!, That Face, autobahn, The Death of Meyerhold, Tommy, Four, and Bat Boy for Studio 2ndStage. He is a Company Member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where his dozens of designs have included Stupid Fucking Bird, Clybourne Park, The Clean House, Detroit, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, and Patience. As a Conspirator with the devised theater company dog & pony dc he directed, conceived, and co-wrote A Killing Game; co-wrote and designed Beertown; and designed Courage. His work has also been seen locally at Everyman Theatre, Forum Theatre, Imagination Stage, The Kennedy Center, Metro Stage, Olney Theatre, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, Synetic Theatre, Theater J, and The Washington Revels where he is an Artistic Associate. Nationally, his work has been seen at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Center Stage, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage, Intiman Theatre, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He designs regularly with Opera Lafayette, presenting his work at The Kennedy Center, Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, and Opéra Royal Versailles. Mr. Bills is the 2009 recipient of a Princess Grace Award and a three-time Helen Hayes Award winner. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
(As of May 2014)
James Bigbee Garver's previous designs for Studio include the 2014 production of Cock, as well asThe Hard Problem, Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love, Moth, Skin Tight, 2-2 Tango, Contractions, Lungs, and assistant design for the Enda Walsh Festival (2011). In Washington, DC, his work has been heard at Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Round House Theatre, Theater J, Chamber Dance Project, and Georgetown University, among others. His Off Broadway credits include work at Theatre Row, Ballet Hispanico at The Apollo Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, PS-122, Harkness Dance Center at the 92nd Street Y, Joyce SoHo, Japan Society, and Robert Wilson's The Watermill Center. His installation and sound artwork have been on view at three Smithsonian museums (the Hirshhorn, National Museum of American History, and National Museum of Natural History), Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival, and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. www.bigbee.org.
(As of January 2021)
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)
Alvin Ford, Jr. has assistant directed Passing Strange for The Studio 2ndStage and The Chosen for Theatre J at Arena Stage. He directed the premiere of The XX Chromosome Genome Project by S. Ann Johnson at the Strand Theatre. Mr. Ford was Production Manager of African Continuum Theatre Company’s The Old Settler. He was the Production Management Intern at Theatre503 in London. He holds a BA in Theatre Management from The Pennsylvania State University and a MA in Arts Policy and Management from the University of London.
(As of September 2011)
Madeleine Burke-Pitt, a Helen Hayes Award nominee, is an actor, director, voice-over artist, and teacher. She has performed at The Studio Theatre, The Studio 2ndStage, The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, The Keegan Theatre, and Solas Nua. She directed numerous youth theatre productions at Imagination Stage. Ms. Burke-Pitt is on the faculty of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, where she also trained. She was in the MFA program at Catholic University and is a member of Actor’s Equity.
(As of September 2011)
