Kitch and Moses seem stuck on their street corner, but it don’t matter. They joke, dream, and throw down about the promised land they’re heading to just as soon as they get up off the block—what they’ll eat, who they’ll see, whether today’s the day they’ll pass over. Allegorical and immediate, humorous and chilling, Nwandu’s collision of the Exodus saga and Waiting for Godot probes the forces that have marooned these young Black men, and the power and limitations of their personal resilience.
To bring Antoinette Nwandu’s stirring drama to more audiences in the DC-metro area, Studio created the five-site Pass Over Community Tour.
Note: Our March 2020 production of Pass Over closed prematurely due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.
Runtime: 1 hour and 10 minutes with no intermission
Environmental Warnings: This production will feature haze and gunshot sound effects.
Pass Over is generously underwritten
by Bruce Cohen.
Additional production support provided
by Trudy H. Clark.
Click on artist headshot to see bio
Antoinette Nwandu is a New York-based playwright, who was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her play Pass Over received its New York debut at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater. A filmed version of the Jeff Award-winning Steppenwolf Theatre production, directed by Spike Lee, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and at SXSW, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Victory Gardens produced the world premiere of her play Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate in February 2018. Antoinette is a MacDowell Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, and an Ars Nova Play Group alum. Honors include the 2018 Whiting Award, the 2017 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, the Negro Ensemble Company’s Douglas Turner Ward Prize, a Literary Fellowship at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and spots on the 2016 and 2017 Kilroys lists. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Theatre Lab, Space on Ryder Farm, Ignition Fest, the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, the Kennedy Center, Page73, PlayPenn, Southern Rep Theatre, The Flea Theater, Naked Angels, Fire This Time, and The Movement Theatre Company. Antoinette has a bachelor’s degree in English, magna cum laude, from Harvard College; an MS from The University of Edinburgh; and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Antoinette is a writer on the second season of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It for Netflix, and is under commission from Echo Theater Company, Colt Coeur, Ars Nova, and Audible.
(As of September 2019)
Psalmayene 24 is an award-winning director, playwright, and actor. Directing credits include Native Son by Nambi E. Kelley at Mosaic Theater Company, Words Become Flesh (recipient of five 2017 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Direction of a Play) by Marc Bamuthi Joseph at Theater Alliance, and The Shipment by Young Jean Lee at Forum Theatre. He has received commissions from the African Continuum Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Imagination Stage, The Kennedy Center, Theater Alliance, Solas Nua, and Mosaic Theater Company. His one man play, Free Jujube Brown!, is published in the anthology, Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation (TCG).
(As of June 2020)
Christopher Lovell is a multidisciplinary artist—an actor, writer and musician—from Brooklyn, NY, currently residing in Los Angeles, CA. Most recently his single, “Dear God,” was released on all digital streaming platforms. He holds a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University and a MFA in Acting from Harvard University.
(As of February 2020)
Jalen Gilbert is making his Studio Theatre debut in Pass Over. He was most recently seen in the world premiere of The First Deep Breath at Victory Gardens Theater. Other credits include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Writers Theatre; Too Heavy for Your Pocket at TimeLine Theatre Company; Mies Julie at Victory Gardens Theater; and Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies and Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea at First Floor Theater. Television credits include Shameless and Work in Progress on Showtime, Chicago Med on NBC, and The Exorcist on Fox. Films include Knives and Skin and Holiday Heist. Jalen is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University BFA Acting program.
(As of February 2020)
Cary Donaldson returns to Studio Theatre after appearing in Translations in 2018. He has appeared on Broadway in Straight White Men and Mrs. Warren’s Profession, and Off Broadway in The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice (The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park), Timon of Athens (The Public Theater), The Rivals and Major Barbara (The Pearl Theatre Company), The Old Boy (Keen Company), Hamlet (Waterwell), and Romeo and Juliet (Wheelhouse Theater Company). Regionally, Cary has performed at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Barrington Stage Company, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Pioneer Theatre Company, and Georgia Shakespeare. His television credits include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Blue Bloods, Elementary, and History’s The Men Who Built America. He received a BA from Wake Forest University and a MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
(As of February 2020)
Debra Booth has a long history with Studio, where she has designed White Pearl, Translations, The Wolves, The Father, The Hard Problem, Constellations, The Apple Family Cycle, Jumpers for Goalposts, Belleville, Cock, Edgar & Annabel, Bachelorette, Moonlight, Blackbird, My Children! My Africa!, The Pillowman, and many others. Her international work includes premiere opera Marco Polo (Tan Dun/Martha Clarke) in Munich, Hong Kong, and New York. Regionally, her credits include Sooner/Later and Vicuna at Mosaic Theater Company; Small Mouth Sounds at Round House Theatre; Richard III, The Collection, and The Lover at the Shakespeare Theatre Company; Marisol at Hartford Stage and The Public Theater; Trying, The Illusion, and Happy Days at Portland Stage; the New York premiere of Angels in America at The Juilliard School; Broken Glass at Philadelphia Theatre Company (Barrymore Award nomination); and A Moon for the Misbegotten at Yale Rep. Debra is the recipient of a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts design grant. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(As of February 2020)
Keith Parham returns to Studio Theatre, where he previously designed Translations, Hand to God, and The Father. He designed Thérèse Raquin on Broadway for Roundabout Theatre Company. His Off Broadway credits include Man From Nebraska at Second Stage; The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois and Between Riverside and Crazy at Atlantic Theater Company; The Model Apartment at Primary Stages; Tribes, Mistakes Were Made, and Red Light Winter at Barrow Street Theatre; Stop the Virgens with Karen O at St. Ann’s Warehouse and Sydney Opera House; Ivanov and Three Sisters at Classic Stage Company; A Minister’s Wife at Lincoln Center Theater; and Adding Machine: A Musical at Minetta Lane Theatre. Recent regional credits include Father Comes Home from the Wars, The Wolves, and Uncle Vanya at the Goodman Theatre; Wild Goose Dreams at La Jolla Playhouse; Carousel at Arena Stage; and The Edge of Our Bodies, Gentle, Music Hall, and The Anyway Cabaret at TUTA. International work includes Homebody/Kabul at National Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. He is the recipient of an Obie Award and a Lucille Lortel Award.
(As of February 2020)
Brandee Mathies has been Studio’s Costume Shop Manager since 1994. He has designed MotherStruck!, This is Our Youth, The Year of Magical Thinking, Stoop Stories, The Rimers of Eldritch, A Number, The Syringa Tree, and Comic Briefs for Studio Theatre, as well as Moth, Contractions, A Beautiful View, Crestfall, and Polaroid Stories for Studio 2ndStage. DC-area Costume Design credits include Satchmo at the Waldorf; Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies; Blood Knot; Eureka Day; Shame; Vicuña and the American Epilogue, and Inherit the Windbag at Mosaic Theater Company; Black Nativity and This Bitter Earth at Theater Alliance; Anything Goes; Spunk (Assistant Designer) at Howard University, and The Wiz at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Other credits include Blues for an Alabama Sky and Sunday in the Park with George at Arena Stage (First Hand) and Black Nativity at The Kennedy Center (Assistant Designer).
(As of February 2020)
Megumi Katayama is a sound designer, sound artist, and composer based in New York, NY and thrilled to be making her Studio Theatre debut with Pass Over. Her recent credits include For Colored Girls… at The Public Theater, Pride and Prejudice at Long Wharf Theatre, El Huracán at Yale Rep/The Sol Project (Connecticut Critics Circle Award Nomination), Soft at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Sense and Sensibility at Virginia Stage Company, and Field Guide for Rude Mechs/Yale Rep (Associate Sound Designer). Megumi holds a BFA from the University of Central Oklahoma and a MFA in Sound Design from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of February 2020)
Lauren Halvorsen is in her ninth season as Studio’s Associate Literary Director. Her dramaturgy credits here include Pipeline, 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 February 2020)
Deb Thomas is a props and set designer for theatre, television, and film. From 2009 to 2019, she was Studio Theatre’s Props Director. Her work at Studio includes Pass Over, Love-Valor-Compassion, Sylvia, Suburbia, Slavs!(properties design), and set design for Terminus. Freelance work includes properties design for Eureka Day and Milk Like Sugar at Mosaic Theater Company, and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and Freud’s Last Session at Theater J; sculptor and sculpture consultant for TLC’s DC Cupcakes (2011-2013); Washington Bureau set design for TV Tokyo; and Natty G pilot set design for National Geographic. In addition to working for all national networks, her work includes production design for PBS American Experience Dolley Madison, art direction for PBS American Experience Alexander Hamilton, and set and props design for Discovery Channel's Moments in Time Jamestown: Against All Odds.
(As of February 2020)
Tony Thomas is an independent artist working in a wide range of entertainment mediums. Local credits include Native Son at Mosaic Theater Company; P.Y.G. or the Misedumacation of Dorian Belle at Studio; The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Aida at Constellation Theatre Company; The Freshest Snow Whyte and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown at Imagination Stage; Word Becomes Flesh (2016 Helen Hayes Nominee—Choreography; Helen Hayes Award—Outstanding Production) at Theater Alliance; and The Shipment at Forum Theatre. Performance credits include Black Nativity (2011 and 2016) at Theater Alliance, Guys & Dolls and A Chorus Line (2014 Helen Hayes Award Outstanding Musical Production) at Olney Theatre Center, and the West Side Story National Tour. He is a part of the creative faculty at Adventure Theatre MTC and Ngoma Center for Dance. As an Interior Architect, Tony Thomas Designs was developed in 2004 as a bi-coastal design practice in residential/hospitality design.
(As of February 2020)
Robb Hunter has directed violence for more than 20 Studio productions including Vietgone, The Effect, Hand to God, Bad Jews, Belleville, The Motherfucker with the Hat, Reasons to be Pretty, Invisible Man, Superior Donuts, American Buffalo, Red Speedo (Helen Hayes nomination for Choreography) and The Walworth Farce (Helen Hayes nomination). He also directs movement/violence for the Shakespeare Theatre Company (Helen Hayes nomination for Richard III), Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth (Helen Hayes Award for HIR and nomination for An Octoroon), and Signature Theatre. He is a member of SDC, AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and is a Fight Master for the Society of American Fight Directors. He is on faculty at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting, is the Fight Choreographer in Residence at American University, and is a teaching artist for the Studio Acting Conservatory.
(As of February 2020)
Autumn J. Mitchell (she/her) is a native of the historic city of Savannah, GA. She is making her Studio Theatre debut with Pass Over. Notable management credits include The Wiz at the Oregon Shakespeare Theatre; Fences and The Man of Destiny at the American Players Theatre; Acis and Galatea and Face on the Barroom Floor at Central City Opera; Lucky Plush Productions' The Better Half and Rink Life at Steppenwolf Theatre; and Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show at Atlas Performing Arts Center. Autumn is an alumna of Alabama State University and holds a BA in Theatre with a concentration in Stage Management and Technical Theatre. Along with her work as a Stage Manager, she champions authentic and positive representation of Black and Brown theatre makers in predominantly white institutions.
(As of February 2020)
