I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart

2/1/17 – 2/19/17

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MORGAN GOULD
A WORLD PREMIERE

Samantha and Leo are a team—best friends and roommates, fat girl and gay guy against the world—until a new friend upends their cozy co-dependent diet of mutual self-loathing and Grey’s Anatomy marathons.  An ode to the complications of friendship in its many fucked-up forms, with a special nod to a kind of love that sometimes looks a lot like rage. Produced as a part of Studio R&D, Studio Theatre’s new works initiative.

Production photo from I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart: Nicole Spiezio and Tommy Heleringer

Show Information

Runtime: 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.
Environmental Warnings: There will be simulated marijuana smoking in this production.

The world premiere of I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart
is generously underwritten
by David and Jean Heilman Grier
through Studio R&D, a new work development program.

Multimedia

The Artists

Cast

Production Team

SET DESIGNER

Luciana Stecconi

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)

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Andrew Cissna

Andrew Cissna returns to Studio Theatre after designing Murder Ballad, Silence! The Musical, and I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart. Regional credits include Jitney at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Noises Off and Harvey at Milwaukee Rep, Seminar at PlayMakers Repertory Company, and Noises Off at Perseverance Theatre. Recent DC credits include Gem of the Ocean and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Round House Theatre, Heisenberg and John at Signature Theatre, Me Jane at Kennedy Center TYA, and Copenhagen at Theatre J. Andrew holds a BFA from UNC School of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Maryland.

(As of February 2019)

COSTUME DESIGNER

Ivania Stack

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)

SOUND DESIGNER

Justin Schmitz

Justin Schmitz previously designed I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart for Studio Theatre. DC credits include productions at The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Theater J, Round House Theatre, Forum Theatre, Imagination Stage, Rorschach, WSC Avant Bard, Constellation Theatre, Keegan, UMD, Gallaudet University, and Catholic University. Regional credits include The Dixon Place Theater in NYC, Chautauqua Theater Company, Triad Stage, Utah Shakespeare Festival, iCan House, North Carolina Black Theater, Woodbury Theatre, Actors Guild of Parkersburg WV, and The Pump House - WI. Upcoming projects include TRAYF at Theater J and the 2018 Chautauqua Institution Season. He is a 2018 Helen Hayes Award nominee for his work on The Wild Party at Constellation Theatre Company, and was previously nominated in 2017 for I Call My Brothers at Forum Theatre. He has received full design fellowships at The Kennedy Center with the Kenan Institute, The Orchard Project through The Kennedy Center, and Chautauqua Theatre Company. He holds an MFA from UNCSA and a BA from UW-La Crosse.

(As of April 2018)

DRAMATURG

Adrien-Alice Hansel

Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of  Queen of Basel, The Remains, No SistersI Wanna Fucking Tear You ApartAnimalLaughRed SpeedoDirtLungs, and The History of Kisses as well as productions of Cry It Out,Translations, Curve of Departure, The EffectWig Out!Straight White MenCloud 9Hedda GablerConstellationsJumpers for GoalpostsBad Jews (twice), The Apple Family PlaysInvisible ManSucker PunchThe 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 also served as production dramaturg on roughly 50 new, contemporary, and classic plays there, including premieres by Naomi Wallace, Gina Gionfriddo, Kirk Lynn and Rude Mechs, Rinne Groff, The Civilians, Anne Bogart and SITI Company, Jordan Harrison, and John Belluso. She is the co-editor of eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre and editor of eight editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

(As of April 2019)

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

Elisabeth Ribar

Elisabeth Ribar makes her Studio debut with I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart. Selected DC credits include A Christmas Carol, Dial M for Murder, The Tempest, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan at Olney Theatre Center; When She Had Wings at Imagination Stage; and Sense and Sensibility, District Merchants, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pericles, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Mary Stuart, and Julius Caesar as the resident assistant stage manager at Folger Theatre.  Elisabeth holds a BS in Theatre and Political Science from Murray State University.

(As of January 2017)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Laura Scialdone

Laura Scialdone returns to Studio for I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart after working under Matt Torney for Studio's production of MotherStruck. Other DC credits include assisting Amber McGinnis for her production of Girl in the Red Corner. She is a recent graduate of Birmingham-Southern College's Theatre Arts program. At Birmingham-Southern, Ms. Scialdone worked and collaborated with former SETC president, Alan Litsey, and CASE Alabama Professor of the Year, Michael Flowers. Her acting credits in Birmingham-Southern's Blackbox Theatre include ReEntry, Something Unspoken, Hello From Bertha, and Proof. Her directing credits include Children of a Lesser God and Probably (KCACTF Irene Ryan Nominee).

(As of January 2017)

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

Diane Schramke

Press

The comedy love child of Will and Grace and Friends
DC Metro Theater Arts
Smart and funny
The Washington Post
Acerbically funny and potent...Writer-director Morgan Gould cuts deep with this edgy, funny, foul-mouthed tale of friendship
Metro Weekly
I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart is a comic jewel
DC Theatre Scene
Utterly relatable and highly adaptable, yet hardly predictable
Broadway World

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