Deep in the bowels of London’s National Theatre, rehearsals for a new play go apace: Benjamin Britten is having trouble with his latest opera and seeks out his collaborator, poet W. H. Auden, after a twenty-five year separation. Between visits by a rent boy and a biographer—briefly mistaken for the rent boy—these aging artists wrestle with their desires, their jealousies, the ephemeral connection between creativity and inspiration, and all the reasons their friendship fell apart.
Wistful and filthily funny, the latest play from the award-winning writer of The History Boys examines creativity, desire, and the tenacity of the artistic spirit.
Studio’s Subscription Series 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.
This production of The Habit of Art was underwritten by Jaylee Mead and Judy and Stephen Hopkins.
Alan Bennett was born in Leeds in Northern England in 1934. The son of a butcher and amateur musician, Bennett grew up surrounded by books (which he loved) and gossiping Yorkshire women (which he may have loved more). He won a scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied History and became a member of the comedy troupe, Oxford Revue. In 1961, he co-wrote and starred in Beyond the Fringe with Revue-mate Dudley Moore, and the comedians Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller. The play ran on Broadway and London’s West End, and while it ended Bennett’s academic aspirations, it marked the beginning of his fifty-year career as a playwright, screenwriter, and author.
Bennett has become one of Britain’s most prolific stage, television, radio, prose, and screen writers—he has twenty plays, more than thirty television and film writing credits, and almost a dozen published volumes of memoir, essays, and stories to his name. His plays include Kafka’s Dick, Talking Heads (originally written and filmed for television), The Madness of George III, which he adapted into the film The Madness of King George, and The History Boys, which he also adapted into a film. Like The History Boys before it, The Habit of Art broke box office records at the National Theatre in London and the production toured the country before reopening at the National.
Bennett’s work has earned many awards—he’s received multiple Evening Standard and Olivier Awards for his work on the London stage, along with Tony, Drama Desk, Drama Critics, Drama League, and New York Outer Critics’ Awards for his New York productions. He has also received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of The Madness of King George, and various honors for his television and radio work. Bennett has a healthy career as an actor, frequently in his own works, and is well-known in Britain as the narrator of the Winnie the Pooh series on BBC radio.
(As of September 2011)
David Muse is in his twelfth season as Artistic Director of Studio Theatre, where he has directed Cock (the in-person and digital productions), The Children, The Remains, The Effect, The Father, Constellations, Chimerica, Murder Ballad, Belleville, Tribes, The Real Thing, An Iliad, Dirt, Bachelorette, The Habit of Art, Venus in Fur, Circle Mirror Transformation, reasons to be pretty, Blackbird, Frozen, and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. As Studio’s Artistic Director, he has produced 105 productions; established Studio R&D, its new work incubator; significantly increased artist compensation; created The Cabinet, an artist advisory board; and overseen Open Studio, a $20M expansion and upgrade of Studio’s four-theatre complex. Previously, he was Associate Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he has directed nine productions, including Richard III, Henry V, Coriolanus, and King Charles III (a co-production with American Conservatory Theater and Seattle Rep). Other directing projects include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at Arena Stage, The Bluest Eye at Theatre Alliance, and Patrick Page's Swansong at the New York Summer Play Festival. He has helped to develop new work at numerous theatres, including New York Theatre Workshop, Geva Theatre Center, Arena Stage, New Dramatists, and The Kennedy Center. David has taught acting and directing at Georgetown, Yale, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy of Classical Acting. A nine-time Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Direction, he is a recipient of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist and the National Theatre Conference Emerging Artist Award. David is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.
(As of July 2021)
Ted van Griethuysen returns to Studio for The Father after appearing in Sorry, Regular Singing, That Hopey Changey Thing and Sweet and Sad (Helen Hayes Award), The Habit of Art, The Walworth Farce, Moonlight, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Invention of Love, A Number, The Steward of Christendom, and The Life of Galileo, a role he also played in London, both productions directed by David Salter. He was recently seen on the West End in three one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. A member of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s permanent acting company since 1987, he has appeared in more than 50 productions, including as Philip II in Don Carlos, John of Gaunt in Richard II, the title role in King Lear, Prospero in The Tempest, Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara, and Malvolio in Twelfth Night, also at the McCarter Theatre. He spent twenty-five years in New York, appearing on Broadway in Gore Vidal’s Romulus, The Moon Besieged, and Inadmissible Evidence (Drama Desk Award). In 1968, he and his wife Rebecca Thompson founded the Opposites Company, an acting company based on the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel. He has taught acting privately in New York and at Columbia University, the University of South Carolina, and Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the recipient of seven Helen Hayes Awards, the Will Award, and the Richard Bauer Award for Outstanding Contribution to Washington Theatre.
(As of April 2017)
Paxton Whitehead first worked with Alan Bennett in Beyond the Fringe on Broadway when he replaced Jonathan Miller, joining Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. As Artistic Director of The Shaw Festival (1967-1977), he directed and appeared in the North American premiere of Mr. Bennett’s first play Forty Years On. Subsequently, he appeared in Bennett’s Habeas Corpus on Broadway, first as Canon Throbbing, and later in the lead role of Dr. Wicksted. Other Broadway credits include the recent Broadway revival of The Importance of Being Earnest, Absurd Person Singular, My Fair Lady (also at The National Theatre DC), Artist Descending a Staircase, Lettice and Lovage, A Little Hovel on the Side, Run for Your Wife, Noises Off (also at The Eisenhower Theatre), Camelot, and The Crucifer of Blood as Sherlock Holmes. In Washington, he appeared in last year’s All’s Well That Ends Well at The Shakespeare Theatre Company; at The National Theatre in The Devil’s Disciple; and at The Kennedy Center, where he toured with two productions from the Shaw Festival: as an actor in The Philanderer, and as a director with Misalliance. His film work includes Kate & Leopold, Back to School, and The Adventures of Huck Finn, among many others; his television appearances include Mad About You, Frasier, Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Ellen. He has adapted three Feydeau farces into English: The Chemmy Circle, There’s One in Every Marriage, and A Flea in Her Ear.
(As of September 2011)
Margaret Daly is pleased to make her Studio Theatre and DC debut in The Habit of Art. She was last seen Off Broadway in the New York premiere of Michael Frayn’s Alphabetical Order with Keen Company. Her other Off Broadway credits include Theophilus North (Keen Company), Is Life Worth Living? (The Mint), All Day Suckers (New Feet Productions), and T.L.C. (New York International Fringe Festival Outstanding Performance Award). She toured with Sir Peter Hall’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest and has appeared at regional theatres across the country, including The Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, The Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and many others. Her television credits include One Life To Live, Mercy, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Nash Bridges.
(As of September 2011)
THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Mojo. THE STUDIO THEATRE: The Habit of Art. REGIONAL: You for Me for You (upcoming) Ma-Yi Theatre/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. LOCAL: Birds of a Feather, Hub Theatre; Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Keegan Theatre; Mulan, Peter and Wendy (upcoming), Imagination Stage. AWARDS: Two Helen Hayes Award nominations (Ensemble). EDUCATION: Auburn University; The Catholic University of America.
(As of June 2012)
Cameron Folmar has appeared on Broadway in The 39 Steps. He has been seen in Washington DC in An Ideal Husband, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Timon of Athens at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. His Off Broadway appearances include Five By Tenn (N.Y. Drama League Nominee for Outstanding Performance), The 39 Steps, The Merchant of Venice, The Jew of Malta, and Waiting For Godot. Regionally, Mr. Folmar has appeared in Scapin at The Denver Center, The Tempest at The McCarter Theatre, and Don Juan at Seattle Repertory Theatre. His television appearances include Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Convictions. He is the voice of Genn Greymane in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Mr. Folmar is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
(As of September 2011)
Randy Harrison previously appeared at Studio Theatre in The Habit of Art. He made his Broadway debut as Boq in Wicked and more recently starred as the Emcee in Roundabout Theatre Company’s national tour of Cabaret. Off Broadway credits include Harbor at Primary Stages; Craig Lucas’ The Singing Forest at The Public Theater, developed at New York Stage and Film; Antony and Cleopatra at Theatre for a New Audience; and Edward the Second at Red Bull Theater. Regional credits include Angels in America: Parts 1 and 2 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Sunday in the Park with George and The Glass Menagerie at the Guthrie Theater; POP! at Yale Repertory Theatre; Red at George Street Playhouse and Cleveland Play House; Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Theatre Company; and Amadeus, The Who’s Tommy, Waiting for Godot, and Ghosts at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Randy’s film credits include Bang Bang You’re Dead, Such Good People, and Gayby. His television credits include Harry in USA Network’s Mr. Robot and Justin Taylor on five seasons of Showtime’s Queer as Folk.
(As of January 2021)
Alfredo Pulupa appeared previously at The Studio Theatre in Gifts of the Magi (1988 and 1989) and Falsettoland, and contributed incidental music for The Bright and Bold Design. His local credits include Les Miserables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Saving Aimee with the Signature Theatre, and PIAF with the Potomac Theatre Project at the Olney Theatre Center.
(As of September 2011)
THE STUDIO THEATRE: The Habit of Art. THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (voiceover). LOCAL: Night and Day, Washington Shakespeare Company. EDUCATION: The Field School, The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of April 2012)
Lynn Sharp Spears appeared previously at The Studio Theatre in Adding Machine: A Musical and A New Brain, and at Studio 2ndStage in Wonderland Alice and Crack Between the Worlds. Her voice toured nationally in Will Roger’s Follies. Local credits include Man Of La Mancha and Cinderella at The Olney Theatre Center and All’s Well That Ends Well, The Cherry Orchard, and Richard III at Washington Shakespeare Company.
(As of September 2011)
Wynn Harmon makes his Studio Theatre debut. He played the Detective in Porgy and Bess on Broadway, which was also telecast on Live from Lincoln Center on PBS. In DC, he appeared in The Heidi Chronicles at Arena Stage, as well as The Alchemist and Love’s Labour’s Lost at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. His Off Broadway appearances include As You Like It, The New Yorkers, and Tibet Does Not Exist. Mr. Harmon’s regional credits include The Constant Wife plus ten Shakespeare plays at The Old Globe; A Moon for the Misbegotten at Long Wharf Theatre, The Alley Theatre and Hartford Stage; Hamlet at Pioneer Theatre Company; The Way of the World at Huntington Theatre Company; Silent Edward at La Jolla Playhouse; God of Carnage at Hartford TheaterWorks; Our Town at Two River Theatre; Pure Poe (a one-man show) and Dr. Faustus at Capital Repertory Theatre; and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at Westport Country Playhouse. His television credits include Trevor Babcock on All My Children, and his film credits include Mark in Paper Cranes.
(As of September 2011)
Will Cooke appeared previously in Studio 2ndStage in That Face, and understudied McKeever in The Studio Theatre’s production of The Solid Gold Cadillac. His local credits include All’s Well That Ends Well with The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Burn your Bookes with Taffety Punk, as well as productions with Vpstart Crow and the Virginia and Baltimore Shakespeare Festivals. He holds a AB from Georgetown University and an MFA from Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting.
(As of September 2011)
Leo Erickson most recently played Darwin in Darwin in Malibu with the Washington Stage Guild. Mr. Erickson previously appeared at The Studio Theatre in The Solid Gold Cadillac, Guantanamo, The Life of Galileo, A Class Act, and Prometheus. Performances at other area theatres include Passion Play, a cycle at Arena Stage, Dog in the Manger and Major Barbara at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Voysey Inheritance and Mary Stuart at Center Stage, Big Love at Woolly Mammoth, and leading roles at Rep Stage and The Olney Theatre Center. His regional work includes Cyrano in Cyrano De Bergerac; George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Honeyman in A Walk in the Woods. His international work includes Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms at the Sibu Theatre Festival (Romania) and the Merlin Theatre (Budapest).
(As of September 2011)
James Noone returns to Studio Theatre, where he previously designed sets for The Habit of Art and The Real Thing. Mr. Noone has been a scenic designer in New York since 1983 and a member of USA Local 829 since 1986. He has worked for some of New York’s most prestigious theatre companies, including Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theater, and Roundabout Theatre Company. Off Broadway, he designed the original productions of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Three Tall Women, and the long-running solo shows Full Gallop and Fully Committed. Other Off Broadway shows include Cowgirls and Breaking Legs, the original production and recent revival of A Bronx Tale, the first revival of The Boys in the Band, and the musical Ruthless. Broadway productions include Jekyll and Hyde, A Class Act (Tony nomination, Best Musical), and multiple productions for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre. He has been head of the Scenic Design Department at Boston University’s School of Theatre since 2001. Mr. Noone’s awards include the Drama Desk (multiple nominations), American Theatre Wing Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, and the LA Ovation Award.
(As of September 2013)
Nancy Schertler's most recent Studio production was The Habit of Art. Broadway credits include productions of Bill Irwin’s Fool Moon and Largely New York (Tony Award nomination). Off Broadway productions include Hilda (dir. Carey Perloff), Texts for Nothing, and The Regard Evening (dir. Bill Irwin). Recent productions include Los Otros at Everyman Theatre, Fickle at Olney Theatre Center, and Watch on the Rhine at Arena Stage. World premiere opera productions include The Difficulty of Crossing a Field commissioned by American Conservatory Theatre and Shadowboxer, Clara, and Later the Same Evening, commissioned by the University of Maryland Opera Studio.
(As of September 2017)
Alex Jaeger has designed costumes for multiple Studio Theatre productions, including Cock; The Habit of Art; Circle Mirror Transformation; The Solid Gold Cadillac; Grey Gardens; The History Boys; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Caroline, or Change; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Black Milk; The Russian National Postal Service; A Class Act; and The Cripple of Inishmaan. He has also designed A Parallelogram and Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum; The Nether, Eclipsed, and The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; and Two Sisters and a Piano for the Public Theater. Other credits include Venus in Fur, Major Barbara, Arcadia, Speed-the-Plow, Maple and Vine, and Rock ‘n’ Roll (also for the Huntington Theatre Company) for the American Conservatory Theater and A Wrinkle in Time, A Streetcar Named Desire, August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Romeo and Juliet, Handler, and Fuddy Meers for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
(As of September 2014)
Alex Jaeger has designed costumes for multiple Studio Theatre productions, including Cock; The Habit of Art; Circle Mirror Transformation; The Solid Gold Cadillac; Grey Gardens; The History Boys; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Caroline, or Change; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Black Milk; The Russian National Postal Service; A Class Act; and The Cripple of Inishmaan. He has also designed A Parallelogram and Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum; The Nether, Eclipsed, and The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; and Two Sisters and a Piano for the Public Theater. Other credits include Venus in Fur, Major Barbara, Arcadia, Speed-the-Plow, Maple and Vine, and Rock ‘n’ Roll (also for the Huntington Theatre Company) for the American Conservatory Theater and A Wrinkle in Time, A Streetcar Named Desire, August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Romeo and Juliet, Handler, and Fuddy Meers for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
(As of September 2014)
Nancy Krebs's credits with Studio Theatre include Kings, The Children, Translations, Constellations (Helen Hays Award winning production), Animal (world premiere), The Habit of Art (American premiere), The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom for the theatre's Enda Walsh Festival, and Look Back in Anger. She is the Resident Vocal/Dialect Coach with the Annapolis Shakespeare Company – the Classic Theatre of Maryland; representative productions include Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Oliver!, Comedy of Errors, Kiss Me Kate, Blithe Spirit, A Christmas Carol, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Alice and the Book of Wonderland, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Poe…and All the Others, Romeo and Juliet, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Three Sisters, It's a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, Sense and Sensibility, A Tale of Two Cities, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pride and Prejudice, Our Town, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Macbeth. She has also worked with regional theatres including Theater J, Olney Theatre Center, Rep Stage, Everyman Theatre, Center Stage, and The Colonial Players. Nancy teaches privately and internationally, operating her own voice studio— The Voiceworks—and is an accomplished singer/songwriter/musician. She belongs to Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Actors’ Equity Association, and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.
(As of October 2020)
Stuart Howard and Paul Hardt have cast musicals and plays on and Off Broadway, around the United States, and in London, Canada, and France. Mr. Howard and Mr. Hardt previously cast the Studio Theatre productions of The Habit of Art and The Real Thing.
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)
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)
Jamila Reddy is the Artistic Apprentice at The Studio Theatre, and is thrilled to be working on Bachelorette. At The Studio Theatre, she served as assistant director on Sucker Punch, Time Stands Still, The Golden Dragon, and The Habit of Art. She is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received a BA in both Dramatic Art and Sociology. She directed several productions at the undergraduate level, including the premiere of Kind of Blue, an original play by Kuamel Winston Stewart, and Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. For her contributions to the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC, Jamila received the Richard and Christopher Edward Adler Award for Excellence in Dramatic Art (2010) and the Louise Lamont Award for Excellence (2011).
(As of May 2012)
