The latest semiautobiographical work from Pulitzer Prize-winner and DMV native Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) traces 40 years and five evictions in a very funny play about a very unhappy family. Siblings Martha and Carl are barely teens for their first eviction in 1964, growing up gay in the out-sized orbit of their glamorous, exacting, alcoholic mother. The family’s odyssey through the DC suburbs takes them from one roach-infested apartment to another, and from the Sexual Revolution to the Disco Era to ’90s New Age. A recent Broadway hit, The Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions is wry, savage, and surprisingly tender, an exorcism as well as a ritual of forgiveness.
Runtime: 90 minutes with no intermission.
Read the program.
Please note late seating will be determined at the discretion of House Management.
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. Use this information as it is helpful to you.
Environmental Warnings: This production of The Mother Play contains the use of flashing lights, herbal non-tobacco cigarettes, and theatrical haze.
The Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions is generously underwritten by Bobbi and Ralph Terkowitz, Judge Albert Lauber and Prof. Craig Hoffman, and Paul Massey and Josh O'Harra with Rick Kasten.
Paula Vogel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose plays include Indecent (Tony Award nomination for Best Play), How I Learned to Drive (Pulitzer Prize for Drama), The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz (OBIE Award), Hot ’N' Throbbing, Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession, and A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration. Her plays have been translated into over 21 languages. She is the founder and Executive Producer of Bard at the Gate, a uniquely curated virtual reading series designed to become a widely accessible platform for powerful, overlooked plays by BIPOC, female, LGBTQIA+, and disabled artists. Lifetime achievement awards include the American Theatre Hall of Fame Award, the OBIE Award, and the NY Drama Critics Circle Award. Other awards include three Tony Award nominations, a Guggenheim, and a Pew Charitable Trust Award. She is honored to have awards dedicated to emerging playwrights in her name: The American College Theatre Festival’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, and the Paula Vogel Award given annually by the Vineyard Theatre. She was the inaugural UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Hearst Theater Lab Initiative Distinguished Playwright-in-Residence. She founded and ran the MFA playwriting program at Brown University and served as the O’Neill Chair of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama. Her plays are published in six volumes by TCG Press and her memoir will be published by Penguin Press. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and teaches playwriting workshops throughout the United States and abroad. paulavogelplaywright.com
Margot Bordelon is a New York-based director who specializes in new work. Her Off Broadway credits include: …what the end will be, Something Clean, and Too Heavy for Your Pocket at Roundabout Theatre Company; Let’s Call Her Patty and Plot Points in Our Sexual Development at LCT3; peerless at Primary Stages and Cherry Lane Theatre; Wives at Playwrights Horizons; Do You Feel Anger? at Vineyard Theatre; Eddie and Dave at Atlantic Theater Company; Blood of the Lamb at Occasional Drawl; The Pen at Premieres NYC; A Delicate Ship at The Playwrights Realm; Wilder Gone at Clubbed Thumb; and The Last Class: A Jazzercize Play with DODO. Margot has directed productions regionally at ACT Contemporary Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, AllianceTheatre, American Theater Company, Arena Stage, Denver Center, Geffen Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Miami New Drama, TheaterWorks Hartford, Huntington Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Wilma Theater, and Yale Rep. She has developed work at Ars Nova, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), New Dramatists, NYTW, Page 73 Productions, Portland Center Stage, The Public Theater, Playwrights’ Center, Rattlestick Theater, Seattle Rep, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Upcoming: English Only at Miami New Drama and Eureka Day at Huntington Theatre Company. She has an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. margotbordelon.com
Kate Eastwood Norris is an actor, director, writer, and educator last seen acting at Studio Theatre in Summer, 1976 and previously in The Father and Animal. Other DC credits include roles at Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, (where she is also a company member), Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Arena Stage. Regional credits include Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Syracuse Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), Gulfshore Playhouse, Florida Stage, the American Shakespeare Center, Two River Theater, Delaware Theatre Company, Arden Theatre Company, and Wilma Theatre. Kate received an Anderson-Hopkins Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, and Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award for her acting. She holds an M.A. in Creativity and The Humanities from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University.
Stanley Bahorek appeared on Broadway in Company (2020 revival), Amazing Grace, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Off Broadway in February House at The Public Theater, See Rock City and Queen of the Mist at Transport Group, and The Explorers Club at Manhattan Theatre Club. DC credits include Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville (Helen Hayes nomination) at Arena Stage and Deaf West’s Big River at Ford’s Theatre. Additional regional theater includes Nerds:// A Musical Software Satire (Barrymore nomination) at Philadelphia Theatre Company, Amadeus at Alley Theatre, and Candide at The 5th Avenue Theatre. He played Barry on Master of None (Netflix). A co-founder of MindsEyeProducing.com, he lives in Washington D.C. where he works in Community Engagement and Development at Georgetown University. He holds a BFA from University of Michigan and an M.A. from Baruch College. On social media @stanleybahorek (Instagram). Stanleybahorek.com
Zoe Mann (she/her) is an actor based in NYC. Some of her theatre credits include Other People’s Dead Dads at Dixon Place directed by Rory Pelsue; A Doll’s House, Part 3 at Ars Nova directed by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley; Girls directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz and An Enemy of the People directed by James Bundy at Yale Repertory Theatre; and The Figaro Plays at McCarter Theatre Center directed by Stephen Wadsworth. More recently she can be seen in episodes of Elsbeth (CBS), New Amsterdam and Chicago Med (NBC), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu), The Good Fight (Paramount+), and The Chair (Netflix). She holds an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama. On social media: @zoe__mann (Instagram).
Lise Bruneau is an actor and director who returns to Studio after appearing in People, Places & Things. She appeared on Broadway in The Cherry Orchard; and in Hamlet and The Oresteia at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. DC credits include Honey Trap (Helen Hayes Award) for Solas Nua; Age of Innocence, Junk, and Legacy of Light at Arena Stage; Othello, Hamlet, and The Winter’s Tale at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Eureka Day and Paper Dolls for Mosaic Theater, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Helen Hayes Nomination) at Theater J, and the roles of Iago and Macbeth for Taffety Punk’s Riot Grrrls. Regional credits include Heartbreak House (Henry Award) at Denver Center, Silent Sky at Asolo Repertory Theatre, and The Revolutionists at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She has directed productions across the DMV, including Kimberly Gilbert’s recent Cyrano. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is proud to be a Taffety Punk.
Taylor Stevens (he/him) is an actor and arts administrator based in Washington, DC who is excited to be making his Studio debut. His recent regional credits include Inherit the Wind at Shakespeare Theatre Company, New Kid at Imagination Stage, hang at 1st Stage, Sleeping Giant and Night of the Living Dead Live at Rorschach Theatre, and The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare in the Parks. He holds a BFA in Acting from Shenandoah Conservatory. On Instagram at @theyaretaylor. www.taylor-stevens.com.
Carenna Slotkoff is a DC-based actor and writer making her Studio Theatre debut. Select credits include War and Peace with the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra at The Kennedy Center, Dresses That Twirl at Young Playwrights’ Theater, and The Cherry Orchard at Elon University. She holds a BFA in Acting from Elon University. On Instagram at @caren.na and @sensitivescribbler. CarennaSlotkoff.com.
Krit Robinson is an award-winning designer, artist, and educator. Select design credits include Rheology at The Bushwick Starr, The Energy Curfew Music Hour and Drinking in America at the Audible Theater, Hilma at The Wilma Theater, Don Giovanni at Wolftrap Opera, Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova, graveyard shift at the Goodman Theatre, Familiar at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and In the Green at LCT3. Krit is a founding member of Queens Lighting Collective and co-lead designer for their upcoming sculpture Orogeny, in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. A Princess Grace Fellow, she holds an MFA from Yale University and is a proud member of USA 829. kristenrobinsondesign.com and queenslightingcollective.com.
Danielle Preston’s previous Studio credits include Downstate, At the Wedding, Fat Ham, Clyde’s, and P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumcation of Dorian Belle. Off Broadway credits include This Much I Know at 59E59. Recent regional credits include Julius X at Folger Theatre; fire work at Theater Alliance; Primary Trust, King James, and Blues for an Alabama Sky at Barrington Stage Company; The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Passing Strange and Penelope at Signature Theatre (DC); and Sleepova at Olney Theatre Center. Danielle received a 2024 Helen Hayes nomination in Costume Design for Agreste (Drylands) at Spooky Action Theater. She holds an MFA in Costume Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. On social media @danielleprestondesign (Instagram). daniellepreston.com.
Amith Chandrashaker is a lighting designer who works in theatre, opera, and dance. His Broadway credits include Prayer for the French Republic (Tony Nomination), Merrily We Roll Along, and Purpose. Off Broadway he has worked with The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, Signature Theatre, Second Stage, and Manhattan Theater Club. His work with regional theatres include Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Geffen Playhouse, and The Huntington Theatre Company. His opera credits include The Glimmerglass Festival, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera. He is the recipient of a Drama Desk and a Henry Hewes award and is a member of Union Trustee for United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE. He holds an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is on the faculty at The University of Maryland.
Sinan Refik Zafar previous Studio credits include Fat Ham and Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Broadway credits include English and What the Constitution Means to Me. Off Broadway credits include We Had a World at Manhattan Theatre Club, What to Send Up… and Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons, English (Obie Award) and Shhhh at The Atlantic, Letters from Max (Drama Desk and Lortel nomination) at Signature Theatre, Which Way to the Stage and All the Natalie Portmans at MCC Theater, Lunar Eclipse and To My Girls at Second Stage, and The Vagrant Trilogy and cullud wattah at The Public Theater. Regional credits include productions with The Kennedy Center, Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Sinan holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. sinanzafar.com.
Shawn Boyle makes his Studio Theatre debut with The Mother Play. Shawn is a projection and lighting designer whose work spans theater, musical theater, opera, dance, installation, and architectural projects. Shawn made their Broadway debut in 2022 with the musical Paradise Square. Off Broadway, Shawn designed Eddie and Dave at the Atlantic Theater Company, FUBAR at 59E59, and the Pieces of Paper Project – Aspirations of 9/11 at HERE Arts Center. Recent regional credits include Escaped Alone and Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles at Yale Repertory Theatre. Design for dance includes Alice in Wonderland, Carmen, Cinderella, and The Nutcracker for Tulsa Ballet. Shawn received the inaugural Connecticut Critics Circle recognition for projection design for Sheila Callaghan’s Elevada at Yale Repertory Theatre. ShawnBoyleDesign.com
Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she oversees new work development, supports season planning, and has served as the dramaturg on roughly 70 plays, including world premieres of Good Bones, John Proctor is the Villain, I Hate it Here, Red Speedo, and Lungs, among others, and productions of The Heart Sellers; Paradise Blue; Summer, 1976; The Colored Museum; Fat Ham; Fun Home; English; Curve of Departure; and Wig Out! Her recent freelance work includes projects for Solas Nua, Musical Theatre Factory, and Young Artists of America. Prior to joining Studio, she spent eight seasons as a member of and then running the Literary Department at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and its Humana Festival of New American Plays. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Becky Reed (she/her)’s previous Studio Theatre credits include Clyde’s, P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Bell, The Effect, and No Sisters. Other DC-area stage management credits include Macbeth and King John at the Folger Theatre; Finn and The Cerulean Time Capsule at The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences; Marjorie Prime and I and You at Olney Theatre Center; Penelope at Signature Theatre; and Becoming Dr. Ruth, Everything is Illuminated, and Copenhagen at Theater J. Assistant Stage Management credits include Sanctuary City at Arena Stage, Waitress at Olney Theatre Center, Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Simply Sondheim and Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Signature Theatre, and others. Regionally, Becky has stage managed at the McCarter Theatre Center, the Resident Ensemble Players, Baltimore Center Stage, and Playhouse on the Square.
Katja Zarolinski, CSA is thrilled to be casting for another production for Studio Theatre. Katja is a New York-based casting director handling productions for theater, film and television. Previous casting work includes Broadway, off Broadway and regional productions at Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Cape Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, City Theatre Company, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Crossroads Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Guthrie Theater, Irish Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh CLO, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Rep, Shakespeare & Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre (DC), South Coast Repertory, TheaterWorks Hartford, Virginia Stage Company, Virginia Theatre Festival, Weston Theater Company and many more.
Unpacking Urbanization: Moving Through Change in the DMV
The Heart-Home: Paula Vogel and The Art of Grieving
DC’s Gay Community Then and Now: Interview with Olivia and Wes
The Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions Community Partners
A Note from the Dramaturg: Adrien-Alice Hansel