First sung around a campfire 2,800 years ago, The Iliad remains a soaring ode about humanity’s seemingly timeless attraction to violence and destruction. In this theatrical telling, a storyteller grapples with the mythology, brutality, and humanity of Homer’s epic poem. An intimate and immediate look at rage, grief, and the heroism and horror of a seemingly endless war.
Studio Special Events bring unique performances and one-of-a-kind events from around the world to DC.
The 2012-2013 Special Events Season was generously underwritten by Susan L. and Dixon M. Butler.
This production of An Iliad was underwritten by A. Fenner Milton and the Onassis Foundation (USA).
Studio Theatre dedicated the 2012-2013 Season to the memory of Jaylee M. Mead, whose generous contribution made its plays possible.
Denis O'Hare is an actor and writer. Mr. O’Hare won the Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for his performance in the hit Broadway play Take Me Out. His other Broadway productions include Assassins, Sweet Charity, and Inherit the Wind. He has written two screenplays as well as short stories and poetry. While at Northwestern pursuing an acting degree, Mr. O’Hare participated in the poetry writing program for two years. He has appeared on Broadway and Off Broadway numerous times as well as in many regional theatres. Mr. O’Hare’s many film appearances include Milk, Michael Clayton, Charlie Wilson’s War, A Mighty Heart, Duplicity, An Englishman in New York, 21 Grams, Garden State, The Eagle, and J. Edgar. His TV work includes roles on Brothers and Sisters, CSI: Miami, The Good Wife, all of the Law and Order franchises, and his regular roles on HBO’s True Blood as the Vampire King Russell Edgington, as well as FX’s American Horror Story.
(As of December 2012)
Lisa Peterson is primarily a director. She has directed An Iliad at Seattle Repertory Theatre, The McCarter Theatre Center, New York Theatre Workshop, and La Jolla Playhouse. Her New York credits include Motherhood Out Loud, Shipwrecked!, and The Model Apartment at Primary Stages; Collected Stories at Manhattan Theatre Club; Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Obie Award), Bexley Oh!, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Slavs!, Traps, and her adaptation of The Waves at New York Theatre Workshop; and productions at the Public Theater, the Vineyard Theatre, MCC, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Classic Stage Company, the Women’s Project and Playwrights Horizons, and Intar Theatre Company. For ten years Ms. Peterson was Resident Director at the Mark Taper Forum, before which she served as Associate Director at La Jolla Playhouse. She has directed extensively around the country; her recent work includes Pullman Porter Blues at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Arena Stage; Henry IV, Part 2 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Escort at the Geffen Playhouse; and Palestine, NM at Center Theatre Group. She currently serves on the Executive Board of SDC.
(As of December 2012)
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)
Scott Parkinson returns to Studio in An Iliad. He was in The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center Theater and the national tour of The 39 Steps, as well as several Off Broadway productions, including an appearance as the Stage Manager in David Cromer’s Our Town. His regional theatre work includes appearances at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, The Old Globe, The Mark Taper Forum at Center Theatre Group, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight, TimeLine Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Hartford Stage, and 16 productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He has also appeared numerous times at the Writers Theatre, where his stage adaptation of E.M. Forster’s Maurice debuts later this season, directed by David Cromer. Scott has been nominated for five Jeff Awards and won for his performance in Rose Rage. On Instagram at @thelegitscottparkinson.
(As of January 2021)
Rebecca Landell has performed as a professional cellist and gambist for the past decade, and is making her theatrical debut. Initially focused on cello performance, Ms. Landell developed curiosity for early music in her first year at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Over the course of her undergraduate education, she studied viola da gamba with Catharina Meints and baroque cello with Kenneth Slowik. This past summer, she continued to develop her skills with Ms. Meints at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin and with Michael and Maria Brüssing in the Czech Republic. In March 2013, she will perform St. Matthew’s Passion in Dresden with the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle led by Daniel Deuter. Ms. Landell is currently finishing her masters in cello performance at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
(As of May 2014)
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)
Laree Lentz designed An Iliad for Studio Theatre and Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven for Studio 2ndStage. She has also designed locally for productions including The Gift of Nothing, Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences; Tender Napalm, Signature Theatre; Romeo and Juliet, Folger Theatre; Stupid Fucking Bird, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Never the Sinner, 1st Stage Theatre; Optimism! Or Voltaire’s Candide, Spooky Action Theater; Home of the Soldier, Synetic Theater. Other credits include designs for The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts Beijing, UNC Charlotte, and Central Piedmont Community College. Her upcoming work can be seen at Ford’s Theatre and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. She holds an MFA in costume design from University of Maryland, College Park.
(As of April 2015)
Eric Shimelonis' Studio Theatre productions include Between Riverside and Crazy, The Year of Magical Thinking, Stoop Stories, In the Red and Brown Water, An Iliad, Time Stands Still, The Motherfucker with the Hat, and Torch Song Trilogy. Other recent productions include The Night Alive at Round House Theatre, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Folger Theatre, and Marie Antoinette at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company for which he received a 2015 Helen Hayes Award nomination. Mr. Shimelonis is the recipient of a 2014 Helen Hayes Award for outstanding sound design for his work on Never the Sinner at 1st Stage.
(As of January 2016)
Adrien-Alice Hansel (Dramaturg) 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 Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Constellations, 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 January 2021)
Bekah Wachenfeld is thrilled to join the Studio Theatre team for the first time. Locally, she has worked at Theater J, Adventure Theatre, and Forum Theatre. Regionally, Ms. Wachenfeld has worked at Walnut Street Theatre, Weston Playhouse, Second Stage, New World Stages, Primary Stages, Lark Play Development Center, and others. Internationally, she worked at Finborough Theatre in London, UK. Ms. Wachenfeld has won national stage management awards through The Kennedy Center and United States Institute for Theatre Technology. She is a graduate of James Madison University.
(As of December 2012)
Christopher Mirto most recently served as Assistant Director on The Motherfucker with the Hat, An Iliad, The Aliens, and Invisible Man at The Studio Theatre. His recent directing credits include Semele and L’enfant et les sortileges at Manhattan School of Music and Some Girl(s) by Neil LaBute at Stella Adler Acting Studio, and he served as associate producer on Fucking Hipsters in the New York Musical Theatre Festival. While Co-Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret’s 42nd season, he directed several new musicals, including Three Sisters, or The Dormouse’s Tale, for which he also co-wrote the book; the play received a developmental workshop through Artists’ Bloc this Spring. In New York, he directed the revival of Dionysus in 69, directed in Peculiar Works’ East/West Village Fragments (Obie Award), and performed in two Richard Foreman productions. He holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama.
(As of May 2013)
