Lisa’s father is 74, nearly blind, a Holocaust survivor, and addicted to roller coasters. 2.5 Minute Ride follows two very different father-daughter trips: the annual Kron family pilgrimage to roller-coaster heaven in Sandusky, Ohio and Lisa’s once-in-a-lifetime trip to Auschwitz with her father. A travelogue through thrill and loss, Lisa Kron (book and lyrics, Fun Home) tracks her father’s enthusiasm, physical frailty, and ambivalence about the lives he might have lived with humor and unsentimental compassion.
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2.5 Minute Ride is intended for mature audiences. Click on the content note for a detailed explanation.
Video Production by Studiio Box DC, studiioboxdc.com.
Runtime: 1 hour and 15 minutes
In the interest of welcoming people with a wide range of needs and life experiences, Studio offers a bit of information on what you will encounter in the play. There are some spoilers in here, so be ready, and please use this information as it is helpful to you.
Studio Theatre's 2020-2021 season is made possible through the generosity of Season Sponsors Susan and Dixon Butler; Dr. Mark Epstein and Amoretta Hoeber; David and Jean Heilman Grier; Arlene and Robert Kogod; Judge Albert Lauber and Prof. Craig Hoffman; Joan and David Maxwell; Teresa and Dan Schwartz; Steven and Linda Skalet; Bobbi and Ralph Terkowitz; and Amy Weinberg and Norbert Hornstein.
Lisa Kron is a writer and performer whose work has been widely produced in New York, regionally, and internationally. She wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Fun Home, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Book, Score, and Musical. Lisa’s other plays include In the Wake, Well, and the Obie Award-winning 2.5 Minute Ride. As an actor, she received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Well and a Lortel Award for her turn in the Foundry Theatre’s acclaimed production of Good Person of Szechwan. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, Sundance, and MacDowell fellowships, a Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, a CalArts Alpert Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Kleban Prize for libretto writing, and grants from Creative Capital and the New York Film Academy. Lisa is also a founding member of the Obie and Bessie Award-winning collaborative theatre company The Five Lesbian Brothers. She serves on the boards of MacDowell and the Sundance Institute and on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America.
(As of April 2021)
Joanie Schultz is a member of the Studio Cabinet. She has directed Cry It Out and Hand to God at Studio. Other recent work includes Frankenstein: A Ghost Story, Frida…A Self Portrait, and Lot’s Wife at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; A Doll’s House, Part 2 at the Jungle Theater; A Doll’s House, Pride and Prejudice, Hand to God, and Hit the Wall at WaterTower Theatre; A Small Fire at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Queen, Cocked, Rest, and The Whale at Victory Gardens Theater; Venus in Fur and Ask Aunt Susan at the Goodman Theatre; Sex with Strangers at The Cleveland Play House; and fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Joanie has served as Artistic Director of WaterTower Theatre in Dallas, Texas and Associate Artistic Producer of Victory Gardens Theater as part of the Leadership U One-on-One Fellowship, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered through TCG. She was also a Drama League Fellow; the Goodman Theatre Michael Maggio Director Fellow; the SDSF Denham Fellow; and member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Her work has been nominated for and won Helen Hayes Awards, Joseph Jefferson Awards, and DFW Theater Critics Forum Awards. She is an ensemble member at Steep Theatre and an artistic associate at Victory Gardens Theater. Joanie received her BA in Theatre Directing from Columbia College Chicago and her MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University. joanieschultz.com
(As of February 2021)
Dina Thomas is an actor, creator, newly licensed real estate agent, and proud Mama. She was last at Studio Theatre in Molly Smith Metzler’s Cry It Out. Her Off Broadway credits include The Metromaniacs at Red Bull Theater; Clever Little Lies at Westside Theatre; and Tribes at Barrow Street Theatre. In addition to her work at Studio, Dina has appeared in DC productions of The Metromaniacs at Shakespeare Theatre Company and The Wanderers at Theater J. Regionally, Dina has been seen in The Metromaniacs at The Old Globe; Tribes at La Jolla Playhouse; Everything You Touch at the Contemporary American Theater Festival; the 10x10 New Play Festival and See How They Run at Barrington Stage Company; and Bad Jews, Distracted, Miss Witherspoon, and the world premiere of Hungry at Unicorn Theatre. She has also performed staged readings for Red Bull Theater, Project Y Theatre Company, Abingdon Theatre Company, and The Lark. She was featured in the web series Tales of Toverud. Dina received her MFA from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. On social media at @tinydthomas (Instagram) and @DinaThomas (Facebook).
(As of February 2021)
Wes Culwell is an award-winning producer and director. He founded Studiio Box Creative in 2012 and has been committed to creating visibility around social justice issues as well as establishing Studiio Box as a premier creative agency in the greater Washington, DC area. Wes has spent more than 20 years in production, including nine years producing for networks such as NBC, Bravo, Oxygen, VH1, TLC, and National Geographic. During this challenging year for the arts, Wes has focused his energies on assisting theatrical companies to bring their visions to the digital screen. He received a BA in Drama from the University of California, Irvine and an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. studiioboxdc.com.
(As of January 2021)
Sherrice Mojgani recently designed for DC-area productions of The Heiress and Two Trains Running at Arena Stage and Spunk, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and The Scottsboro Boys at Signature Theatre. Regionally, she has designed for A Few Good Men and Sweat at Pittsburgh Public Theater; What You Are and Skeleton Crew at The Old Globe; Roz and Ray, Black Pearl Sings, and Outside Mullingar at San Diego Repertory Theatre; and Blue Door, Trouble in Mind, and Mud Blue Sky at MOXIE Theatre. Sherrice is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University. She holds a BA in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA in Lighting Design from UC San Diego. smojgani.com
(As of February 2021)
Matthew M. Nielson returns to Studio, where his design and composition credits include The Remains, Hand to God, MotherStruck, The Real Thing, and Venus in Fur. DMV-area credits include Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Theater Alliance, Contemporary American Theater Festival, and The Smithsonian. Off Broadway credits include The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, and 59E59 Theaters. Regional credits include Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Barrington Stage Company. Film and TV credits include Those Who Wait, The Hero Effect, Elbow Grease, From Hell to Here, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and Delivery.com. Matthew has won five Helen Hayes Awards and several regional theatre and film festival awards. matthewnielson.com
(As of April 2021)
Keri Safran is a performer and dialect coach. She is one of the accent coaches for NBC's Young Rock and Showtime's The First Lady, and coaches at theatres around the country. Her private clients include Oscar and Tony winners, and she runs a BIPOC Scholarship Program to sponsor actors of color to take her courses for free. As a performer, she has appeared in films at the Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals as well as television productions Ray Donovan, The Blacklist, Richard Linklater’s $5.15/hr., The Real O’Neals, and How I Met Your Mother, among others. She appeared on stage in multiple shows at Barrington Stage Company, including Forbidden Broadway directed by Gerard Alessandrini. On Instagram at @keri-safran. kerisafran.com.
Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of I Hate it Here, Queen of Basel, The Remains, No Sisters, I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, Animal, Red Speedo, Dirt, Lungs, and The History of Kisses as well as productions of Until the Flood, Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Constellations, Jumpers for Goalposts, Bad Jews (twice), The Apple Family Plays, Invisible Man, Sucker Punch, The 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 is the co-editor of 10 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 2021)
Allie Roy returns after stage managing Studio’s first audio play, Kings, and first streaming play, Cock, this season. Her other Studio credits include Admissions, If I Forget, Translations, Curve of Departure, Straight White Men, Murder Ballad, Silence! The Musical, and the world premiere of Animal for the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Regional credits include West Side Story in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra and Love, Factually at The Kennedy Center; the world premieres of Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing and Diner, as well as A Chorus Line, Grand Hotel, The Scottsboro Boys, West Side Story, and Elmer Gantry at Signature Theatre; the world premiere of After the War, as well as When January Feels Like Summer and Ulysses on Bottles at Mosaic Theater Company; and The Originalist at Arena Stage.
(As of April 2021)
Lücién Reubens is a queer actor, technician, activist, art maker, and creator. They served as the production assistant on Studio’s 2021 productions of Cock and Until the Flood. They have worked on lights for Doubt and Pipeline at Studio and The Bodyguard at Toby’s Dinner Theatre, and worked in sound for A Sign of Rain at Studio, Disney’s Newsies at Arena Stage, and Arbat’s Bremenskie Muzikanty at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre. They began working in professional theatre at Olney Theatre Center, assisting with lighting for the regional premieres of Elf the Musical, Once, Matilda, and Tiger Style!, as well as the North American premieres of Labour of Love, Oil, and Mary Stuart. Lücién graduated with a BFA in Theater from Colgate University. On Instagram and Twitter at @livinpoetry.
(As of April 2021)
Annabel Heacock is a director, writer, performer, deviser, and recent Northwestern University graduate with degrees in Theatre and Sociology. She assistant directed Studio’s 2021 production of Cock. Select Northwestern directing credits include an immersive production of The Visit, The Donkey Show, Carrie the Musical, and Crisis Resolution in the Middle East for the annual Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival. Assistant directing credits include The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls and Twelfth Night. While at Northwestern, Annabel served as the Artistic Director of WAVE Productions, a self-supporting, not-for-profit student theatre company. She also coordinated the annual Director's Festival, helping young artists develop their craft and direct a fully produced one-act play.
(As of April 2021)
