In North Philly, combat veteran Elliot works at Subway, cares for his dying mom, and leans on his cousin Yaz as he tries to acclimate to civilian life. Online, four addicts cling to their chat room support group, struggling for another day sober. These lives collide as events small and large threaten their fragile stabilities, in this eloquent and haunting play about resilience, redemption, and families of both blood and choice.
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.
Runtime: 2 hours, including one 15-minute intermission.
Water by the Spoonful is generously
underwritten by Steve and Linda Skalet.
During the 2013-14 season, Studio Theatre is partnering with national and local non-profits whose missions connect with the content of its productions. For Water by the Spoonful, Studio’s partners are Give An Hour and N Street Village.
Click on artist headshot to see bio
Quiara Alegría Hudes is most recently the author of The Elliot Cycle, three standalone plays written over an eight-year period. Each play uses a different kind of music—Bach, Coltrane, and Puerto Rican folk music—to trace the coming of age of a bright but haunted young Puerto Rican man. Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, the first play, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. Water by the Spoonful, the second, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The final play, The Happiest Song Plays Last, premiered at the Goodman Theatre in April 2013 and opened Off Broadway in February 2014 at New York’s Second Stage Theatre.
Ms. Hudes wrote the book for the Broadway musical In the Heights, which received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical, and was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist. For the original Off Broadway incarnation of In the Heights, Ms. Hudes won the Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical. The touring companies of In the Heights have performed at Puerto Rico’s Centro Bellas Artes, LA’s Pantages, and Tokyo’s International Forum.
Other works include Barrio Grrrl!, a children’s musical that premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2009 and toured nationally; 26 Miles, which premiered at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in 2009 and was published in American Theatre magazine; and Yemaya’s Belly, Ms. Hudes’ first play, which premiered at Portland Stage Company and received The Clauder Prize. Ms. Hudes’ honors include the United States Artists Fontanals Fellowship, the Joyce Fellowship at the Goodman Theatre, the Aetna New Voices Fellowship at Hartford Stage, the Roe Green Award at the Cleveland Playhouse, fellowships at Sundance Theater Institute and the O’Neill Theater Center, and a residency at New Dramatists. The City of Philadelphia honored Ms. Hudes with a resolution in 2011 and Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared April 27, 2013 “Quiara Hudes Day” in Chicago.
After graduating from public school in Philadelphia, Ms. Hudes went on to receive a BA in music from Yale University and an MFA in playwriting from Brown, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She was recently inducted into the Central High School Hall of Fame—in the first round of women to receive this honor since the school’s founding in 1836.
Ms. Hudes is on the board of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, which produced her first play in the tenth grade. She now lives in New York with her husband and children.
(As of March 2014)
KJ Sanchez is the founder and CEO of American Records, as well as an Artistic Associate at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. As a playwright, she has been produced locally at Round House Theatre, around the country at Asolo Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theater Company, Center Stage, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Cornerstone, and Off Broadway at Urban Stages. Ms. Sanchez has directed plays by Heather Raffo, Jose Rivera, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Kristoffer Diaz, David Ives, and Noel Coward. As an actress, she has been on stages at the Humana Festival of New American Plays (originating the role of Thyona in Big Love), The Goodman Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. She is the voice of many characters in the cartoons Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!. Ms. Sanchez is a former member of Anne Bogart’s SITI Company. She is a Fox Fellow, the 2012 Douglass Wallop Fellow, and an Albert Award nominee; she is a former participant in the Career Development Program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. As the producer, director, and co-author of ReEntry, Ms. Sanchez has contracted with the Department of Defense, utilizing ReEntry as post-deployment training for service members at more than 35 military bases and sites throughout the US and internationally.
(As of March 2014)
Arturo Soria makes his Studio Theatre debut. He recently played the role of Tano in the Off Broadway production Hit the Wall, a role he originated in the world premiere at the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre in Chicago. Other notable credits include Luis in the world premiere of Seven Spots on the Sun at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Creon in the Chicago premiere of Oedipus El Rey at Victory Gardens Theatre, Sharpe in Equivocation at Victory Gardens Theatre, A Few Good Men with Peninsula Players, Fucking Men with Bailiwick Chicago, and Scorched with Silk Road Rising. Mr. Soria’s solo show You Don't Know My Life, Ni Mi Madre has played at several theatre festivals around Chicago and in New York at the Barrow Street Theatre. In addition to acting and writing, Mr. Soria is a teaching artist with About Face Youth Theatre and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School. He received a BFA in acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University in 2009.
(As of March 2014)
Gisela Chípe was last seen as Elvira in Blithe Spirit at Syracuse Stage where she also appeared in The Clean House. Ms. Chípe’s New York credits include Emancipation at Classical Theatre of Harlem and Laws of Motion at PS122. Regionally, she has been seen in O Guru Guru Guru and Dracula at Actors Theatre of Louisville; Hamlet: Prince of Cuba and Yentl at Asolo Repertory Theatre; pride@prejudice at Capital Repertory Theatre and Chester Theatre; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bat Boy! The Musical, The Seagull, and A Comedy of Errors at Great Lakes Theatre and Idaho Shakespeare Festival; A Christmas Carol with Really Inventive Stuff; Macbeth at Stonington Opera House; 1001 and 9 Parts of Desire at the Contemporary American Theater Festival; A Comedy of Errors and The Crucible with the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival; and The Merchant of Venice at Colorado Shakespeare Festival. On television she will appear in an upcoming episode of The Good Wife. She trained at Walden Theatre and holds a BA from the College of Charleston and an MFA from the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program.
(As of March 2014)
Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey returns to Studio, having appeared in last season’s production of The Motherfucker with the Hat. Ms. Fernandez-Coffey is a member of Woolly Mammoth’s Company of Artists and received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in After the Fall at Theater J. Other Washington area credits include Detroit, Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Stunning at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Divorciadas, evangelicas, y vegetarianas and Cita a ciegas at GALA Hispanic Theatre; The Lyons and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents at Round House Theatre; and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot with Rorschach Theatre (Helen Hayes Award nominee). She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
(As of March 2014)
Tim Getman returns to Studio having appeared in Kit Marlowe, The Real Thing, and Water by the Spoonful. He has worked onstage for over 15 years in the Washington/Baltimore area, recently seen in Father Comes Home from the Wars at Round House and Outside Mullingar at Everyman Theatre. He has also been seen at Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Rep Stage, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Theater J, and Center Stage, among others. Mr. Getman is a Woolly Mammoth company member, seen in The Unmentionables, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Detroit, Appropriate, Zombie: The American, and The Nether. Recent television credits include The Men Who Built America and Veep.
(As of July 2016)
Vincent J. Brown returns to Studio, where his previous credits include The Rimers of Eldritch, Shakuntala, Medea, A Taste of Honey, A Raisin in the Sun, Tambourines to Glory, West Memphis Mojo, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, and Hambone, as well as the 2ndStage productions of Drinking in America, Unquestioned Integrity: The Hill-Thomas Hearings, and Fucking A. Mr. Brown has also appeared in Vivisections from the Blown Mind at Arena Stage; Man, Woman, Dinosaur at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; and A View From the Bridge, The Talented Tenth, and Titus Andronicus at the Source Theatre. He has several Maryland Public Television credits, including the acclaimed C-Bus Transfer. Mr. Brown is a graduate of The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory and Syracuse University.
(As of March 2014)
Amy Kim Waschke makes her Studio Theatre debut. Her New York theatre credits include The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Alice in Slasherland, and Living Dead in Denmark with Vampire Cowboys; disOriented with Theatre C; and One Night Stand with InViolet Theater. Regionally she has appeared in The White Snake at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and McCarter Theatre Center; Fabuloso at Merrimack Repertory Theatre; Somebody/Nobody at Arizona Theatre Company; Tamburlaine and Edward II at The Shakespeare Theatre Company; Cecelia’s Last Tea Party at Passage Theatre Company; and Electra at Hangar Theatre. Her film and television credits include Boystown (NYTVF 2013 Official Selection), Eighteen Seconds (Black Milk Productions), Choice (Wandering Scholar Productions), and Law & Order: SVU. Ms. Waschke received her MFA from The University of Washington and is a proud company member of InViolet Theater.
(As of March 2014)
Maboud Ebrahimzadeh returns to Studio, where he was most recently seen in the 2ndStage production of Edgar & Annabel. His DC-area credits include A Few Good Men at Keegan Theatre; Love's Labour's Lost with Taffety Punk Theatre Company; A Man, His Wife, and His Hat at Hub Theatre; Boged at Theater J; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at Round House Theatre; Side Man with 1st Stage; After the Quake with Rorschach Theatre; and Scorched and Bobrauschenbergamerica with Forum Theatre, where he is an Ensemble member and will perform in the upcoming production The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Regionally, he performed in The Container at Center Stage in Baltimore.
(As of March 2014)
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 Theatre Company, 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)
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)
Ivania Stack previously designed several productions at Studio Theatre including I Wanna F***ing Tear You Apart and Water By The Spoonful among others. Ivania designs for many regional and DC area theatres, including Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Company Member), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Round House Theatre (Resident Artist), Kennedy Center, Center Stage, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, The Second City, Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre Center and Studio Theatre. She has an MFA in design from the University of Maryland and is an Adjunct Lecturer for Georgetown University.
(As of February 2019)
Christopher Baine returns to Studio for Three Sisters / No Sisters after designing Cloud 9 and Water by the Spoonful. He recently composed the music for When She Had Wings (Helen Hayes Award) and The BFG with Imagination Stage (Helen Hayes Award nomination). Some recent designs include The Critic & The Real Inspector Hound and Heir Apparent with Shakespeare Theater Company and Guthrie Theater, Colossal with Olney Theatre Center (Helen Hayes Award), Wonderful World of Dissocia at Theatre Alliance (Helen Hayes Award), Fetch Clay, Make Man at Marin Theater Company, Detroit at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes Award nomination) and Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes Award nomination) at the Folger Theatre. He also designed The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Gruesome Playground Injuries and A Bright New Boise (Helen Hayes Award) with Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, and Gift of Nothing and Jason Invisible at The Kennedy Center Theatre For Young Audiences. Other regional credits include Everyman Theatre, Forum Theatre, dog & pony dc, Adventure Theatre MTC, Children’s Theater Charlotte, Synetic Theater, and Theater Alliance. He has been a guest artist with The University of Maryland, Catholic University, UMBC and American University. Mr. Baine has been the Resident Sound Designer for Imagination Stage since 2009, and was a Kenan Fellow at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2012.
(As of March 2017)
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)
Jack Doulin has been the Casting Director at New York Theatre Workshop since 2000. Productions there include Fetch Clay/Make Man, Peter and the Starcatcher, Tony Kushner’s Homebody /Kabul, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, A Number (Sam Shepard), and Love and Information. Ivo von Hove’s Hedda Gabler, The Misanthrope, and The Little Foxes. Other New York highlights include Blasted and two notable Uncle Vanyas, (Andre Gregory’s production with Julianne Moore and Wallace Shawn; Annie Baker’s adaptation with Reed Birney, Maria Dizzia, and Michael Shannon directed by Sam Gold). His regional credits include: Long Wharf, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, ART, Seattle Rep, Chautauqua Theater Company, Pig Iron Theatre, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Wilma Theater, and Arena Stage. For Studio Theatre he previously cast The Motherfucker with the Hat, Water by the Spoonful, and Cock. Film work includes New Orleans, Mon Amour directed by Michael Almereyda and Jonathan Demme’s film A Master Builder. Mr. Doulin cast the speaking roles in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Le Fille du Regiement. Mr. Doulin teaches at ESPA and in the drama division at Juilliard.
(As of October 2014)
Elizabeth Dinkova is the Artistic Apprentice at Studio Theatre, where she has assistant directed Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, The Apple Family Plays, and Torch Song Trilogy. She graduated from Reed College with a BA in theatre and psychology in 2013. While at Reed, she directed many productions, including King Lear, The Suede Jacket, and The Balance. She also directed Female Kingdom at the Bulgarian Theatre in Seattle and the new play Intertwined at Sfumato Theatre’s Small Season Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria. Other assistant directing credits include The Bacchae for Kim Wield and Hamlet for Javor Gardev at the Ivan Vazov Bulgarian National Theatre. Ms. Dinkova will begin pursuing her MFA in directing at the Yale School of Drama this fall.
(As of May 2014)
