The dingy back alley of a sleepy Vermont coffeehouse is home to trash bins, weathered patio furniture, and two affable slackers. KJ and Jasper fill their languid days with Bukowski references, low-key jam sessions, and ‘shroom-spiked tea. When a new employee—the smart but awkward teen Evan—attempts to evict them from their makeshift perch, KJ and Jasper recruit him as their unlikely summer protégé. Praised by The Village Voice as “an eloquent meditation on creativity and time’s passage,” this drama is a subtle ode to the truth and compassion hidden in unexpected people and places. From the critically acclaimed writer of Circle Mirror Transformation.
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.
Studio Theatre dedicated the 2012-2013 Season to the memory of Jaylee M. Mead, whose generous contribution made its plays possible.
Annie Baker grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her full-length plays include Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, OBIE Award for Best New American Play), and Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright).
Ms. Baker’s plays have been produced regionally at The Studio Theatre, South Coast Repertory, The Guthrie, Victory Gardens, Artists Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hyde Park Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and San Francisco Playhouse. Internationally, her plays have been produced in London, Melbourne, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. She has developed work at Signature Theatre, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, the Orchard Project, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Utah and Ucross, Wyoming.
Ms. Baker is a member of New Dramatists, MCC’s Playwrights Coalition, and EST. She is an alumna of Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Recent honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, a Lilly Award, a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship, a MacDowell fellowship, and a Master Artist Residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts. A published anthology of her work, The Vermont Plays, was published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG) in November 2011, and her adaptation of Uncle Vanya had its world premiere at Soho Rep in June 2012.
(As of November 2012)
Lila Neugebauer previously directed Annie Baker’s The Aliens at Studio Theatre, as well as the play’s West Coast Premiere at SF Playhouse. Her upcoming work includes the world premiere of Zoe Kazan’s Trudy and Max In Love at South Coast Repertory Theatre. Ms. Neugebauer’s recent projects include Dan LeFranc’s Troublemaker at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Mallery Avidon’s O Guru Guru Guru at the 2013 Humana Festival; The Valley of Fear at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Eliza Clark's Edgewise at The Cherry Lane Studio and Snow Day with the Drama Leauge; Nick Jones’ Grizzly at Joe’s Pub; and The Wii Plays at Ars Nova. She was also Associate Director of Karen O’s Stop the Virgens (Dir. Adam Rapp) at St. Ann’s Warehouse and Sydney Opera House. As co-Artistic Director of The Mad Ones, Ms. Neugebauer conceives and directs ensemble-devised works, including Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War (Ars Nova, New Ohio Theatre), and the upcoming Biopic Project (New Ohio Theatre). Ms. Neugebauer has been a guest director and teaching artist at NYU, The Atlantic Acting School, The Juilliard School, and with Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Apprentice Company. She is an alumna of the Drama League, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab; an Ensemble Studio Theatre member; Time Warner Fellow at The Women’s Project; a New Georges Affiliated Artist; and a recipient of the Princess Grace Award.
(As of September 2013)
Scot McKenzie returns to The Studio Theatre having previously appeared as Mickey in Mojo, Alex in A Clockwork Orange, and Keith in Betty’s Summer Vacation. As Producing Artistic Director for Capital Fringe, Mr. McKenzie co-wrote and appeared in Hoodoo at The Shop and Run Through the Unquiet Mind at the National Museum of the American Indian. Other local credits include 1984 and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble) with Catalyst Theater; Cardenio Found with Taffety Punk; Caucasian Chalk Circle with Open Circle Theatre; Shakespeare’s R&J, Macbeth, She Stoops to Conquer, and Othello at the Folger Theatre; Rhinoceros with Rorschach Theatre; and Knoyugogh, Rough & Lively, and The Two-Character Play at the Little Globe Theater. His regional credits include Henry IV Part 1, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the American Shakespeare Center. He is a recipient of the Theater Lobby’s Mary C. Goldwater Award for Excellence in Acting. Mr. McKenzie’s film credits include The Snowflake Crusade, Five Lines, The Kumbio Takedown, and Irretrievable Loss of Heat. He has written and directed multiple short films and is currently in post-production on Plita & Chiclu.
(As of November 2012)
Peter O’Connor is thrilled to make his Studio Theatre debut. Mr. O’Connor appeared in the West Coast premiere of The Aliens at SF Playhouse. His Off Broadway credits include two productions of Jailbait (Cherry Lane, OBIE award); O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon at Centerstage; Sexual Healing at the Mint Theatre; Balaton at Urban Stages; Sexual Neuroses of our Parents at Wild Project; A Bitter Taste, Echo Echo, and Behind the Blind at Ensemble Studio Theatre; and Kidstuff and Letters to the End of the World at Theatre Row. Other New York stage appearances include The Shape of Things (New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination), Richard II, All’s Well that Ends Well, and Ionesco’s Killing Game. He played the lead in the feature film Viola (Golden Palm/Mexico International Film Festival). His other feature films include PS I Love You and Sweet Lorraine. Mr. O’Connor’s television work includes a three-year recurring role as Tony on As the World Turns and appearances on Mercy, Ed, Book of Daniel, Law & Order, and Guiding Light. He provided the voice of St. Michael in the game Grand Theft Auto IV. Between gigs, he drives for Al Pacino. Mr. O’Connor is a graduate of Notre Dame.
(As of November 2012)
Brian Miskell is making his Studio Theatre debut, and is excited to revisit The Aliens after its West Coast Premiere this spring at SF Playhouse. His New York credits include BARN and Keep Calm and Carry On at Jimmy’s No. 43, Ghetto Babylon at Soho Playhouse, Antrobus at the Brick, Ghost Life as a Playwrights Horizons Resident Workshop, The Un-Marrying Project with Purple Rep, The Stray Dog with Rising Phoenix Repertory, The Sunken Living Room at Theater 80, and The Mike and Morgan Show at the Access Theatre. Mr. Miskell’s other regional credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Daniel Talbott’s Afghanistan Zimbabwe America Kuwait with Encore Theatre Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. He has performed A Hatful of Rain in Warsaw and Requiem pour Ionesco in Paris. He received New York Innovative Theatre nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role and Outstanding Ensemble in J. Stephen Brantley’s Eightythree Down. Mr. Miskell is a Literary Associate at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and a company member of Rising Phoenix Repertory. He studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
(As of November 2012)
Daniel Conway has designed more than two dozen plays for Studio Theatre including Three Sisters and No Sisters, The Aliens, and his Helen Hayes Award-winning design for Hand to God. His recent work on Macbeth for Chicago Shakespeare Theater and The Scottsboro Boys for Signature Theatre was featured in the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of World Stage Design and Performance Art. He is currently designing Singin’ in the Rain for Olney Theatre Center. Other regional credits include work for Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Cleveland Play House, Shakespeare Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Milwaukee Rep, A.R.T., The Kennedy Center, and Boston Lyric Opera. Daniel is the designer for the performance artists/magicians Penn and Teller. Awards include 14 Helen Hayes nominations and four awards for Outstanding Set Design, nominations for the Los Angeles and Boston Critics Awards, and The Anderson-Hopkins Award for Sustained Contributions to Theatre in Washington DC.
(As of August 2019)
Matthew Richards previously designed The Aliens at Studio. His upcoming projects include The Killer at Theater for a New Audience. On Broadway, he designed Ann at Lincoln Center. His New York credits include projects with Atlantic Theater Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, and Second Stage. In the DC area, his work has been seen at Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, and The Shakespeare Theatre Company. Mr. Richards’s regional credits include work at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, The Old Globe, Westport Country Playhouse, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Mr. Richards is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(As of January 2014)
Meghan Raham last worked at Studio Theatre designing costumes for The Aliens. Her recent credits include The Chosen (sets/costumes) at Barrington Stage, Death of a Salesman (sets) and Little Shop of Horrors (sets/costumes) at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Conference of the Birds (sets) at the Folger Theatre, The Wings of Ikarus Jackson (sets/costumes) at The Kennedy Center; CLAY (sets) at Lincoln Center Theater; Venice (sets/costumes, both Ovation Award nominated) at Center Theatre Group; Fedra (sets) at Lookingglass Theatre Company; and Frankenstein (costumes) with The Hypocrites at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Ms. Raham is a company member at The Building Stage in Chicago, where she production designed The Ring Cycle, NOIR, and Moby-Dick. She co-created and designed S/he is Nancy Joe, which premiered at the Zero Point Festival of Physical Theatre and Dance in Prague. Ms. Raham received her MFA from Northwestern University, and is a Professor of Stage Design at American University.
(As of September 2013)
Stowe Nelson previously designed The Aliens at Studio Theatre. Recent designs include queens and The Wolves at Lincoln Center Theater, Miles for Mary at Playwrights Horizons, Animal Wisdom at the Bushwick Starr, Peter Pan at Bard Summerscape, and Small Mouth Sounds at Ars Nova (Lucille Lortel Nomination). Nelson also mixed and designed the third season of the Serial podcast and mixes often for This American Life. He is a company member of The Mad Ones and a proud member of USA 829.
(As of December 2018)
Lauren Halvorsen is in her ninth season as Studio’s Associate Literary Director. Her dramaturgy credits here include Doubt, P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, Admissions, Kings, If I Forget, Vietgone, The Wolves, Skeleton Crew, The Father, Three Sisters, The Hard Problem, Hand to God, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, The Wolfe Twins, Belleville, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, The Real Thing, The Motherfucker with the Hat, The Aliens, Bachelorette, The Big Meal, and Time Stands Still. Previously, Lauren spent three seasons as Literary Manager of The Alley Theatre. She was the Artistic Associate of the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory for six years and has worked in various artistic capacities for The Kennedy Center, City Theatre Company, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, First Person Arts Festival, and The Wilma Theater. Lauren is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.
(As of December 2019)
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)
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)
