Luna, an outgoing immigrant from the Philippines, and the more cautious Jane, recently arrived from South Korea, meet in a near-empty grocery store on Thanksgiving Day, 1973. Their husbands are working. Alone in a country they don’t know, they join forces to celebrate Thanksgiving together. Over wine and a stubbornly frozen turkey, these new Americans and even newer friends discuss Soul Train and Jane Fonda, chart the shape of their homesickness, and consider the cost of pursuing an American dream.
LLOYD SUH is a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Far Country. In addition, Lloyd was the recipient of the 2022 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award, the 2020 Horton Foote Prize and the 2019 Herb Alpert Award for Theater. His play The Chinese Lady premiered as a co-production by Barrington Stage Company and Ma-Yi Theater Company and was hailed a New York Times Critics’ Pick during its New York run. It returned to NYC in a co-production between The Public Theater and Ma-Yi in 2022. In the 2022-2023 season, Lloyd’s play The Far Country premiered at the Atlantic Theater Company and was also a New York Times Critics’ Pick; The Heart Sellers also premiered that season at Milwaukee Rep to rave reviews. His other plays include Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery produced by National Asian American Theatre Company; The Wong Kids in The Secret of the Space Chupacabra GO! produced by the Children's Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis and Ma-Yi; Bina’s Six Apples produced by CTC and Alliance Theater Company. Lloyd is currently under commission at The Huntington Theatre Company, Barrington Stage Company and The Perelman Performing Arts Center.
DANILO GAMBINI is a director and producer originally from São Paulo, Brazil. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre. Recent directing credits include Wipeout at Studio, the world premiere of Ni Mi Madre at Rattlestick Theater (OBIE Award Winner, Drama Desk Nomination, NYT Critic’s Pick), as well as The Rake’s Progress and Iolanta at Yale Opera. Upcoming engagements include A Case for the Existence of God at Mosaic Theater Company. His production of Agreste (Drylands) at Spooky Action Theater received six Helen Hayes Awards Nominations, including Outstanding Director. Other credits include the world premiere of the musical Sabina at Portland Stage; Fun Home, The Tempest, and Rock Egg Spoon at the Yale School of Drama; and Agreste (Drylands), Bakkhai, The Swallow and the Tomcat, and Truck at Yale Cabaret. Operas include Don Giovanni, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Eugene Onegin at Theatro São Pedro. Before his tenure at Studio Theatre, he was the Associate Artistic Director at Rattlestick Theater, Co-Artistic Director at Yale Summer Cabaret, a member of Roundabout Directors Group, and a member of TPOC - Theater Producers of Color. He has developed work at The Public Theater, Joe’s Pub, The Old Globe, Ars Nova, Milwaukee Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Chautauqua Opera, Gulfshore Playhouse, and Latinx Playwrights Circle, amongst others. Danilo holds an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and a BFA in Film and Television and an artist diploma as an actor from the School of Dramatic Art, both at the University of São Paulo. danilogambini.com
FRANCESCA FERNANDEZ (Luna) is a New York-based actor making her Studio Theatre debut. Her theatre credits include Smart at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Jonah (u/s) and …what the end will be (u/s) at Roundabout Theatre Company; Sex and the Abbey at The Brick; Sorry/Not Sorry at Ars Nova; Gloria: A Life at the Daryl Roth Theatre; Kenny’s Tavern at 59E59; Marilla of Green Gables: Becoming a Family at Royal Family Productions; House of Telescopes at Pipeline Theatre Company; Love, Medea at The Center at West Park; Bald Sisters at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play at San Francisco Playhouse; Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B at Dorset Theatre Festival; Twelfth Night at KC Rep; The Good Person of Szechwan at California Shakespeare Theater; and The Hotel Plays at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. Television credits include Law & Order: SVU (NBC), Blue Bloods (CBS), and Great Performances - Gloria: A Life (PBS). Audio performances include King Lear and Othello (Play on Podcasts). She holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama. On social media @chesfernandez. francescafm.com
JEENA YI (Jane) is a Korean American actor, writer, and serial DIYer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now calls New York City home. Captivated by what drives us forward each day, she relishes exploring the complexities and absurdity of human nature, whether through performing on stage and screen or crafting emotionally charged worlds in her writing. Jeena made her Broadway debut in Network. Other credits include The Beastiary at Ars Nova, Daphne at LCT3, Somebody’s Daughter at Second Stage, Judgment Day at Park Avenue Armory, and Vietgone at Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Seattle Rep. Television work includes Nyad (Netflix), The Resident (FOX), and Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). Jeena is a member of Seoulful Productions’s 2025 Korean Writers Lab. Her first play JESA will make its Off Broadway premiere through Ma Yi Theater Company at The Public Theater in Spring 2026. She holds an MFA from Columbia University. On social media @JeenaYi. JeenaYi.com
MARCELO MARTÍNEZ GARCÍA (Scenic Designer; he/him/él) is a proud Mexican scenic designer and architect. His Off Broadway credits include Manahatta at The Public Theater and The Wind and The Rain at En Garde Arts and Vineyard Theatre. Regional credits include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at Gulfshore Playhouse, AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf) at Hakawati NGO and Golden Thread Productions, Dial M for Murder at The Alley Theatre and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Sandra and The Garbologists at TheaterWorks Hartford, Torera at The Alley Theatre, The Woman in Black at Weston Theater Company, and Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles at Yale Repertory Theatre. He also served as associate/assistant designer for SUFFS and Lempicka on Broadway and Scene Partners at Vineyard Theatre. Marcelo holds a degree in Architecture from Tecnológico de Monterrey, a specialization in Scenic Design from Centro CDMX, and an MFA in Theater Design from Yale School of Drama. marcelomg.com. On social media @marcelomgdesigns
HELEN Q. HUANG (Costume Designer) is an award-winning costume designer whose credits include Summer, 1976 at Studio Theatre; Quixote Nuevo at the Denver Center for Performing Arts (Henry Award), South Coast Repertory, Seattle Rep, and Portland Center Stage; Soft Power at Signature Theatre (Helen Hayes Award nomination); The Chosen at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; Next to Normal at Round House Theatre; The Far Country at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Janeiad at The Alley Theatre; and Much Ado About Nothing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Helen is a professor of Costume Design at the University of Maryland, College Park. helenqhuang.com.
MINJOO KIM (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer who works internationally and whose work was last seen at Studio in Fat Ham and English. Her other DC credits include Kim's Convenience and Waitress at Olney Theatre Center, Twelfth Night at Folger Theatre, The Comeuppance at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Ink at Round House Theatre, and King of the Yees at Signature Theatre. Regional credits include The Far Country at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Demon at The Bushwick Starr, American Fast at City Theatre Company, The Chief at Pittsburgh Public Theater, The Royale at KCRep, A Few Good Men at Bristol Riverside Theatre, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder and Cambodian Rock Band at TheatreSquared, Life Sucks at Cygnet Theatre, one in two at Diversionary Theatre. International credits include The Two at The Space Aul, Crimson Girl at Dongsoong Art Center, and Die or Not at Seoul Art Space in South Korea, and Mask on/off at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre in Mullae, China. Her work The Royale was selected for the National Exhibit at Prague Quadrennial in 2023. minjoo-design.com
LIAM BELLMAN-SHARPE (Sound Designer) is a U.S.-based Australian composer, sound designer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist working in theatre, music, film, dance, installation, and hybrid forms. Liam’s recent theatrical credits include The Smuggler and The Beacon at The Irish Repertory Theatre, SUMO at The Public Theater and Ma-Yi Theater Company, The Matchmaker and Octet at Hudson Valley Shakespeare, The Song of Rome at The Spoleto Festival USA, The Age of Innocence at Arena Stage, Babbit at Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Escaped Alone at Yale Repertory Theatre. Recent film credits include the score for Mothers and Lovers and music and lyrics for Parallel, which won first place in the 2024 Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Festival. Liam holds an MFA in Sound Design from the Yale School of Drama, and a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne.
JOY LANCETA CORONEL (Dialect Coach) Joy's selected New York credits include What Became of Us, The Great Leap, and Nomad Motel at Atlantic Theater Company and Among the Dead and Once Upon a (Korean) Time at the Ma-Yi Theater Company. Selected regional credits include A Christmas Carol, Dial M for Murder, and Stones In His Pockets at TheatreSquared; The Sins of Sor Juana, Smart People, and Sense and Sensibility at American Players Theatre; King John, Loving and Loving, and Dracula at Actors Theatre of Louisville; Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; The Heart Sellers at the Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and The Huntington Theatre Company; The Far Country at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Drawing Lessons at Children's Theatre Company. She holds a BFA from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music and an MFA from Central School of Speech and Drama. www.joylancetacoronel.com
ADRIEN-ALICE HANSEL (Dramaturg; she/her) is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of The Scenarios, Problems Between Sisters, Good Bones, John Proctor is the Villain, I Hate it Here, Queen of Basel, Red Speedo, and Lungs, among others, as well as productions of Wipeout; Paradise Blue; Summer, 1976; Exception to the Rule; The Colored Museum; Fat Ham; Fun Home; English; Curve of Departure; and Wig Out!; among many others. 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. She is the co-editor of eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre and editor of 13 editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
EBONY GENNES (Co-production Stage Manager) is a writer, advocate, and theatre creator. Her theatre credits include Paradise Blue at Studio; Sleepova, Built for This (workshop), and Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Soprano at Olney Theatre Center; Tiny Lights and The Chameleon at Theater J; Romeo and Juliet and By the Queen (Reading Room Festival) at Folger Theatre; and Company, Rock of Ages, True West, and The Outsiders at The Cumberland Theatre. She has a bachelor's degree in Theatre from Frostburg State University. ebonycharlene.com On social media @EbonyGennes (Instagram and Facebook).
ANTHONY O. BULLOCK (Production Stage Manager) is happy to be back at Studio after last working on The Children and prior was the Resident Production Stage Manager (PSM) for two seasons with highlights The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, and Jumpers for Goalposts, among others. Other credits include The School for Lies at Classic Stage Company; Frankenstein, Leopoldstadt, Red Velvet, and Our Town at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Billy Elliot at Signature Theatre (DC); The Pajama Game at Arena Stage; SOUL: The Stax Musical and Twisted Melodies at Baltimore Center Stage; and five seasons as Resident PSM at Theater J, with highlights including Prayer for the French Republic, Hester Street, Moses, and Sheltered. Additional credits include Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Passage Theatre Company, Shakespeare & Company, and McCarter Theatre Center, among others. The White Snake, produced in association with the Goodman Theatre as part of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in Wuzhen China, was an international highlight. He holds a BFA from Oklahoma City University.
KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA (Casting) 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.
