When Martín applies for a position at the local Walmart-turned-Detention Center, he is dismayed to discover he'll be working as a security guard for a warehouse full of children, some as young as his own, separated from their families at the nearby Texan border. The steady paycheck, however, outweighs Martín's misgivings—until a strange epidemic grips the facility, and Martín faces a moral reckoning. Stark and propulsive, Tender Age joins Brant’s Grounded (Studio, 2014) as a play about living at the edge of your ethics.
Video Production by Studiio Box DC, studiioboxdc.com.
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.
George Brant’s plays include Grounded, Marie and Rosetta, Into the Breeches!, The Prince of Providence, Tender Age, Elephant's Graveyard, andThe Mourners’ Bench. His scripts have been translated into 15 languages and performed in 22 countries by such companies as The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Cleveland Play House, Trinity Rep, Studio Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, London’s Gate Theatre, Page 73, and Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, among others.
Brant has received a Lucille Lortel Award, an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, the Smith Prize, a Scotsman Fringe First Award, an Off West End Theatre Award, a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, and the Keene Prize for Literature.
Brant has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, Trinity Rep, Dobama Theatre, and Cleveland Play House, and awarded fellowships from the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the MacDowell, McCarter Theatre Center, The New Harmony Project, the Blue Mountain Center, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and the Michener Center for Writers.
Brant is published by Samuel French, Oberon Books, and Smith & Kraus. He is currently working on a stage adaptation of the novel Crooked River Burning, a musical version of The Land of Oz, and an adaptation of Grounded for the Metropolitan Opera with music by Jeanine Tesori.
(As of May 2021)
Henry Godinez is the Resident Artistic Associate at Goodman Theatre. His Goodman directing credits include Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak On It! by Cheryl West; Charise Castro Smith’s Feathers and Teeth; The Sins of Sor Juana and Mariela in the Desert by Karen Zacarías; José Rivera’s Boleros for the Disenchanted (and the world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre); Regina Taylor’s Millennium Mambo (also as Urban Zulu Mambo, Signature Theatre); Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad and Straight as a Line; The Cook by Eduardo Machado; Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez; the Goodman/Teatro Vista co-production of José Rivera’s Cloud Tectonics and the 1996–2001 productions of A Christmas Carol. He also served as director of the Goodman’s Latino Theatre Festival. His other directing work includes Indiana Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Portland Center Stage, The Children’s Theatre Company, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre, and Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Co-founder and former artistic director of Teatro Vista, Godinez is the recipient of the 1999 Theatre Communications Group Alan Schneider Director Award, the Distinguished Service Award from Lawyers for the Creative Arts, and was honored as the 2008 Latino Professional of the Year by the Chicago Latino Network. Born in Havana, Cuba, Godinez is a professor at Northwestern University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Arts Council.
(As of October 2020)
Bobby Moreno most recently starred in 72 Miles to Go at Roundabout Theatre Company. His other theatre credits include Mankind and Grand Concourse at Playwrights Horizons, Fulfillment Center at Manhattan Theatre Club, Lazarus at New York Theatre Workshop, Alligator at New Georges, Year of the Rooster (Drama Desk Award Nomination) and Hand to God at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Invasion! at Play Company. His film and television credits include Dish, How He Fell in Love, Netflix’s Living with Yourself, HBO’s High Maintenance, National Geographic’s The Hot Zone, CBS’s Bull and Elementary, and Showtime’s Homeland.
(As of May 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)
Alberto Segarra’s selected Washington, DC credits include The Snowy Day at Adventure Theatre MTC; BOY at Keegan Theatre; Earthrise at The Kennedy Center; Blood at the Root at Theater Alliance (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lighting Design); The Agitators, Vicuña & the American Epilogue, and Satchmo at the Waldorf at Mosaic Theater; and An Act of God at Signature Theatre. Other credits include 1776 and The Gift Horse at New Repertory Theatre and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at BlueBarn Theatre. Alberto received his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Maryland, College Park, and he is a USA 829 member. Upcoming projects include Quixote Nuevo at Round House Theatre, The Thanksgiving Play at Olney Theatre Center, and Acoustic Rooster at The Kennedy Center. albertosegarra.com.
(As of May 2021)
Victoria Deiorio is returning to Studio after designing Doubt: A Parable in 2019. Victoria has composed music and designed Off Broadway shows for The Sheen Center, Theatre at St. Clements, Pearl Theatre Company, Joe’s Pub, The Duke on 42nd Street, The Actors Center, Primary Stages, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regionally, she has worked at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Signature Theatre, Seattle Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, and many more. She has composed and designed the following films: Thump, The Interview, Use Me Up, and One Sunday Afternoon. Victoria is the first woman to have been nominated for 14 Joseph Jefferson Awards—winning seven—for both composition and design. She has also been nominated for two After Dark Awards and a Syracuse Area Live Theater Award. She helped form the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, serving as Co-Chair of the Executive Board. She is Chair of the Design and Technology Department and Head of Sound Design at DePaul University. victoria-sound-design.com.
(As of May 2021)
Jacqueline Guillen is a bilingual Mexican actress, born and raised in border towns Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas. As an actor, Jacqui’s Off Broadway credits include 72 Miles to Go at Roundabout Theatre Company and Then They Forgot About the Rest at INTAR Theatre. Her TV credits include Bull, Blue Bloods, Orange is the New Black, and Search Party. She was a finalist for the 2020 Nosotros Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam presented by NBC. She currently resides in New York with her fiancé and her dog, Ramona Flowers. On Instagram @Jacquie.guillen. jacqueline-guillen.com.
(As of May 2021)
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 Flow, 2.5 Minute Ride, Until the Flood, Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, 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 eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre and editor of 10 editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of May 2021)
Allie Roy returns after stage managing Studio’s first audio play, Kings, and streaming productions of Cock, 2.5 Minute Ride, and Flow 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 May 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, Until the Flood, 2.5 Minute Ride and Flow. 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 May 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 productions of Cock, and 2.5 Minute Ride. 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 May 2021)