No Sisters

3/16/17 – 4/23/17

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY AARON POSNER
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH NEW NEIGHBORHOOD
A WORLD PREMIERE

Aaron Posner has crafted his latest re-imagined Chekhov to radically intersect with its Russian progenitor. While Three Sisters plays out in one theatre, half the cast is also performing upstairs in another: Same building, different theatre... No Sisters!  While Olga, Masha, and Irina yearn for Moscow, the rest of the household and its hangers-on grapple with their own heartache and longing, bit players in a world whose focus is elsewhere. No Sisters explores the screwed up, endlessly fascinating psyches of Chekhov’s lovelorn, world-weary misfits and broken dreamers in a wildly funny play about wildly unhappy people. Commissioned as a part of Studio R&D, Studio Theatre’s new works initiative.

Play Name

Show Information

Runtime: This production will run approximately 3 hours with one 15 minute intermission.
Environmental Warnings: This production will contain gunfire.

Multimedia

The Artists

Cast

Production Team

SET DESIGNER

Daniel Conway

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)

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Jesse Belsky

Jesse Belsky previously designed P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, The Remains, The Effect, Three Sisters, No Sisters, and Animal at Studio Theatre. Regional credits include The Magic Play at Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, and Actors Theatre of Louisville; Lydia and Rough Crossing at Yale Repertory Theatre; and The Year of Magical Thinking at PlayMakers Repertory Company. DC designs include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Ford’s Theatre; J.Q.A. and The Year of Magical Thinking at Arena Stage; Oslo, Handbagged and Book of Will at Round House Theatre; The Mystery of Love & Sex at Signature Theatre; Henry IV P1, Winter’s Tale, Sense & Sensibility, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Folger Theatre; Labour of Love, The Invisible Hand and The Magic Play at Olney Theatre Center. Jesse holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and he has taught lighting design at Connecticut College and UNC Greensboro.

(As of December 2019)

COSTUME DESIGNER

Jessica Ford

Jessica Ford makes her Studio debut with Three Sisters / No Sisters. Other DC projects include The Gaming Table and Orestes: A Tragic Romp at Folger Theatre, and The Fantasticks at Arena Stage. Ms. Ford has designed for numerous New York City and regional theatres and companies across the United States, including The Rattlestick Theatre Company, The Debate Society, The Long Wharf Theatre, Syracuse Stage and Baltimore CenterStage, to name a few. She received LA and CT Critics Circle awards and a Drama Desk nomination for These Paper Bullets! at Geffen Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Atlantic Theatre Company. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama.

(As of March 2017)

SOUND DESIGNER

Christopher Baine

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)

COMPOSER

James Barry

James Barry makes his Studio debut in Three Sisters / No Sisters as well as his debut as a theatrical composer. As a performer, Mr. Barry has played Carl Perkins in the first national tour and in several regional productions of Million Dollar Quartet. A New Neighborhood company member, Mr. Barry originated the role of Pedro in These Paper Bullets which ran at Yale Repertory Theatre, The Geffen Playhouse, and Atlantic Theater Company. He was in the original cast of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at The Public Theater and on Broadway. His album of original rock music, “Embrace Yourself Tonight”, is available on iTunes, Spotify, and on pink vinyl LP through Etsy.

(As of March 2017)

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

Becky Reed

Becky Reed has previously stage managed No Sisters and The Effect at Studio Theatre. Other DC-area credits include The Cerulean Time Capsule and Elephant and Piggie’s We Are In A Play! (National Tour) with the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences; Macbeth and King John with Folger Theater; Marjorie Prime and I And You at Olney Theatre Center; Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Signature Theatre, Happy Hour with Spooky Action Theater and machina eX; and Copenhagen, Everything Is Illuminated, and Becoming Dr. Ruth at Theater J. Becky has worked as an assistant stage manager at many DC-area theaters, including Opera Lafayette, Olney Theatre Center, Rep Stage, Signature Theater, Theater J, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.  Becky has a BFA in Theater Production and Management from Auburn University.

(As of March 2019)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Mira Taichman

Press

A clever, cerebral theater game that playwright-director Posner constructs ...reverential fun
The Washington Post
A genius comedy of the soul
DC Metro Theater Arts
Posner’s latest is a brilliant gem
DC Theatre Scene
As audacious as it is ambitious
The Weekly Standard

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