Laugh

03/11/15-04/19/15

WRITTEN BY BETH HENLEY
DIRECTED BY DAVID SCHWEIZER
ORIGINAL MUSIC BY WAYNE BARKER
WORLD PREMIERE

The West. The 1920s. Mabel’s had a hard few weeks. A dynamite accident at a gold mine has left her wealthy but orphaned, and she’s shipped off to a calculating aunt whose nephew is charged with seducing her to control Mabel’s fortune. This hapless courtship reveals a shared love of silent movies and a plan for greater things. A story of mishaps and moxie, the romance of Hollywood and ultimately a Hollywood-caliber romance. A world-premiere slapstick comedy from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Crimes of the Heart.

Play Name

Show Information

Runtime: This performance will run approximately 2 hours and fifteen minutes with one intermission.

Laugh is generously underwritten
by Dr. Mark Epstein and Amoretta Hoeber.

WAMU 88.5 is the official media sponsor
for
Laugh.

Multimedia

The Artists

Cast

Production Team

SET DESIGNER

Andromache Chalfant

Andromache Chalfant's recent New York credits include Laura Eason’s Sex with Strangers (directed by David Schwimmer) at Second Stage Theatre and Kimber Lee’s brownsville song (b-side for tray) (directed by Patricia McGregor) and Daniel Pearle’s A Kid Like Jake (directed by Evan Cabnet) at Lincoln Center Theater. Her opera designs include a co-production with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Gotham Chamber Opera of Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda; a new work by composer Lembit Beecher titled I Have No Stories To Tell You, directed by Robin Guarino; El Gato Con Botas produced by Gotham Chamber Opera at El Museo Del Barrio; A Streetcar Named Desire at Virginia Opera; and Faust at Minnesota Opera. Regionally, she has designed at Hartford Stage, The Old Globe, Arena Stage, McCarter Theatre, The Curtis Institute, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Hartford Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, Two River Theater, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Ms. Chalfant is a graduate of Bennington College and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

(As of March 2015)

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Michael Lincoln

Michael Lincoln has designed Constellations, The Night Watcher, The Adding Machine: A Musical, Bachelorette, Venus in Fur, The History Boys, Grey Gardens, Privates on Parade, Take Me Out, and Topdog/Underdog, among many productions for Studio since 2000. He was also the lighting consultant for Studio Theatre’s building expansion and renovation in 2002. His work in New York City includes Copenhagen, Skylight, and More to Love on Broadway and Off Broadway productions of Mr. Goldwyn, The Bubbly Black Girl…, If Love Were All, Defying Gravity, and Bunny Bunny. Mr. Lincoln was the Associate Designer for Broadway’s Guys and Dolls, Six Degrees of Separation, and City of Angels. He has designed over 300 productions with other long associations at Indiana Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, and Cleveland Play House. He is currently serving as the Artistic Director of the Theater Division at Ohio University.

(As of February 2016)

COSTUME DESIGNER

Frank Labovitz

Frank Labovitz returns to Studio Theatre where he has previously designed Wig Out!, having previously designed Cloud 9, Silence! the Musical, Laugh, Torch Song Trilogy, and Dirt. His other design credits include The Threepenny Opera and Dreamgirls for Signature Theatre, NSFW and Ordinary Days for Round House Theatre, Guards at the Taj and The Totalitarians for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and The Tale of The Allergist's Wife and The Religion Thing for Theater J. Mr. Labovitz is a company member of Pointless Theatre, where his designs include Gimme a Band, Gimme a Banana and Doctor Caligari. Mr. Labovitz received his MFA in costume design from The University of Maryland.

(As of April 2018)

SOUND DESIGNER

Adam W. Johnson

Adam W. Johnson, a DC-based sound designer and engineer, returns to Studio after designing and mixing Carrie the Musical for 2ndStage. Locally, he has designed Los empeños de una casa and Puro Tango 2 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, as well as F@#king Up Everything for the New Musical Foundation. Other designs include Always... Patsy Cline at Stoneham Theatre, Aesop’s Network for the BTF PLAYS! program at Berkshire Theatre Festival, and Metamorphoses at Live Arts. He was the Associate Sound Designer for The Love of the Nightingale with Tom Teasley at Constellation Theatre, and has assisted John Gromada on productions at Ford’s Theatre including Fly and The Laramie Project. Mr. Johnson works as a staff audio engineer at Arena Stage, where his engineering credits include The Mountaintop, The Music Man, and the world premiere of Pullman Porter Blues. He is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia.

(As of March 2015)

FIGHT DIRECTOR

Joe Isenberg

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven. NEW YORK: Romeo and Juliet, The Metropolitan Opera (upcoming). REGIONAL: Macbeth, Two River Theatre; The Three Musketeers, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival. LOCAL: Macbeth and Cyrano, Folger Theatre; The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Signature Theatre. AWARDS: S.A.F.D 2010 Swashbuckler of the Year. INSTRUCTOR: North Carolina School of the Arts, Summer Session. EDUCATION: North Carolina School of the Arts.

(As of December 2010)

MOVEMENT CONSULTANT

Elena Day

Elena Day pecializes in movement theatre and circus. Ms. Day served as the Movement Director for Moth in Studio 2ndStage and teaches Movement for the Actor at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. Other area credits include directing Balloon Plays at Capital Fringe and directing/producing on the nOse at Round House Theatre, which was also seen at Brick Theater and Orlando Fringe. She served as Movement Director on Wiley and the Hairy Man at Imagination Stage, Merrily We Roll Along at Sidwell Friends, and Mockingbird at The Kennedy Center. Ms. Day served as Assistant Director on Stuart Little and Movement Consultant on Tiny Tim at Adventure Theatre MTC. She also consulted on the Look Both Ways Festival at The Kennedy Center. Regionally, Ms. Day directed Hair at Mad Cow Theatre and Cirque du Charme at Artscape, which she also wrote. Her performing credits include Cirque Mechanics’ Boom Town and Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba. Ms. Day performs worldwide with Cirque du Soleil in their special events department and is a graduate of Oberlin College, L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq, and the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.

(As of March 2015)

DRAMATURG

Adrien-Alice Hansel

Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of  Queen of Basel, The Remains, No SistersI Wanna Fucking Tear You ApartAnimalLaughRed SpeedoDirtLungs, and The History of Kisses as well as productions of Cry It Out,Translations, Curve of Departure, The EffectWig Out!Straight White MenCloud 9Hedda GablerConstellationsJumpers for GoalpostsBad Jews (twice), The Apple Family PlaysInvisible ManSucker PunchThe 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 also served as production dramaturg on roughly 50 new, contemporary, and classic plays there, including premieres by Naomi Wallace, Gina Gionfriddo, Kirk Lynn and Rude Mechs, Rinne Groff, The Civilians, Anne Bogart and SITI Company, Jordan Harrison, and John Belluso. She is the co-editor of eight 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 2019)

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

Anthony O. Bullock

Anthony O. Bullock returns to Studio Theatre after previously being the Resident Stage Manager for two seasons. Prior Studio credits include The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, Jumpers for Goalposts, and Laugh. Additional DC area credits include Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, and Theater J, where he will be their new Resident Stage Manager for the 2019-2020 season. Other regional credits include McCarter Theatre Center, Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Passage Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company, among others. He toured with The White Snake by Mary Zimmerman in association with the Goodman Theatre, as part of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in Wuzhen, China. Anthony received his BFA from Oklahoma City University. He is also on the board of The Stage Managers’ Association as the Eastern Regional Director. He is a proud member of AEA. 

(As of April 2019)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Nathan Norcross

Nathan Norcross is Studio Theatre’s Artistic Apprentice. He serves as the Assistant Director for each Subscription Series production as well as collaborating with the literary department. As a director, Mr. Norcross’ early professional career has spanned a variety of genres and forms—from large-scale musicals to intimate chamber pieces, from developing new plays with living playwrights to developing his own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Mr. Norcross has worked alongside a number of directors he now counts as valuable mentors, including Mark Lamos, Nicky Martin, Gary Griffin, Bob Moss, and Eric Rosen. He assisted Phylicia Rashad in directing a production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Westport Country Playhouse. Mr. Norcross is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where he earned a BFA in acting, as well as Florida State University where he recently completed an MFA in directing.

(As of May 2015)

Press

Wonderfully madcap.
The Washington Post
Physical comedy brilliance.
DC Theatre Scene
Decidedly and unreservedly silly.
Washington City Paper

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