Faye has spent her career at one of Detroit’s last auto-stamping plants. Shanita is pregnant, Dez has a whole future to plan, and their manager Reggie must navigate his debt to his work family and need to support his family at home. As rumors of a plant shutdown spread, these tight-knit workers must decide what they will sacrifice to survive. A timely and searing portrait of the African-American working class from Detroit native Morisseau.
Studio welcomes Dominique Morisseau, one of the most significant and talented voices in the theatre, to DC for the first time. Starring DC native Caroline Clay, Skeleton Crew is an important work by an important writer that excavates the lives of working class people in America today.
Runtime: 2 hours and 5 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.
Environmental Warnings: This production will feature smoke, haze, and the smoking of electronic cigarettes.
Skeleton Crew is generously underwritten
by Steve and Linda Skalet.
Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle), Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit ‘67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem, and the National Black Theatre). Additional plays include Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre), Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre), and Follow Me to Nellie’s (Premiere Stages). She is also the book writer on the new musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Broadway/Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, Women’s Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop, and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Her work has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre, Women’s Project, South Coast Repertory, People’s Light and Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Penumbra Theatre. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series Shameless. Awards include: the Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, Obie Award, Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, and being named one of Variety’s Women of Impact (2017-18).
(As of September 2019)
Patricia McGregor has twice been profiled by The New York Times for her direction of world premieres. Recent credits include Good Grief at Center Theatre Group; Hamlet at The Public Theater; Measure for Measure at The Old Globe; The Parchman Hour at Guthrie Theater; Ugly Lies the Bone at Roundabout Underground; brownsville song: b-side for tray at Lincoln Center; Holding It Down at the Metropolitan Museum; A Raisin in the Sun, The Winter’s Tale, and Spunk at California Shakespeare Theater; Blood Dazzler at Harlem Stage; Hurt Village at Signature Theatre Company; and The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. Ms. McGregor attended the Yale School of Drama, where she was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow and Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret. Ms. McGregor is also a Co-founder of Angela's Pulse.
(As of September 2017)
Caroline Stefanie Clay makes her Studio Theatre debut in Skeleton Crew. Broadway credits include The Little Foxes, Doubt (including national tour, Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress recipient), Come Back Little Sheba, Drowning Crow, and The Royal Family. Off Broadway credits include productions at Signature Theatre, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, and Playwrights Horizons. DC credits include Clementine in the Lower Nine and Gidion’s Knot (Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Actress) as a Forum Theatre Company Member. She has also appeared at Ford’s Theatre, Folger Theatre, NextStop Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Theater J, and the Kennedy Center. Regional credits include productions at Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and La Jolla Playhouse. Ms. Clay holds a BFA from University of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Maryland.
(As of September 2017)
Jason Bowen makes his Studio Theatre debut in Skeleton Crew. Off Broadway credits include My Mañana Comes at Playwrights Realm. Select regional credits include Jazz at Baltimore Center Stage; All The Way at Cleveland Playhouse; As You Like It and Black Odyssey at Denver Center Theatre Company; The Lake Effect at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley; June Moon at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Ruined at La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre; A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (IRNE Award), Prelude To A Kiss, and A Civil War Christmas at Huntington Theatre Company; Love's Labours Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Twelfth Night, Othello, and The Tempest at Actors' Shakespeare Project; It's A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Television and film credits include Law & Order: SVU, Madam Secretary, Elementary, Braindead, What's Your Number?, and Untouchable. Mr. Bowen received a Best Actor award from Boston Magazine in 2012.
(As of September 2017)
Shannon Dorsey returns to Studio Theatre in Skeleton Crew after appearances in Tarell Alvin McCraney's Brother/Sister Plays: In the Red and Brown Water and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. She is a new Woolly Mammoth Company Member, recently seen in Kiss and An Octoroon (Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress). Other local credits include Kennedy Center/Synetic Theatre's Carmen and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble), All the Way at Arena Stage, Two Trains Running at Round House Theatre, The Shipment at Forum Theatre, and Stick Fly at Everyman Theatre. Off Broadway credits include The Great MacDaddy at Negro Ensemble Company New York City, The Power of the Trinity at New York City SummerStage, and The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller at West End Theatre New York City. Regional credits include Safe House and The Trip to Bountiful (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), and A Raisin in the Sun at Perseverance Theatre. Ms. Dorsey holds two BAs in Theater and in African American Studies.
(As of September 2017)
Tyee Tilghman makes his Studio Theatre debut in Skeleton Crew. Select regional credits include Public Enemy: Flint, a community engagement piece at the M.A.D.E. Institute; Gem of the Ocean and Fences at Marin Theatre Company; Spunk!, American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose, Lady Windermere’s Fan, and A Winter’s Tale at California Shakespeare Theatre; A Raisin in the Sun at Denver Center Theatre Company; Three Sisters at Chautauqua Theatre Company; Romeo & Juliet at Folger Shakespeare Theatre; and An American Daughter at Arena Stage. Recent television credits include Criminal Minds and The Young & The Restless on CBS. Mr. Tilghman holds an MFA in acting from the American Conservatory Theatre.
(As of September 2017)
Tim Brown recently designed the set for J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only and 2014 Forest Hills Drive International Tour. He also designed the set for the world premiere of Ugly Lies the Bone for Roundabout Theatre Company. His scenic and projection designs have been seen at Yale Repertory Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Harlem Stage, Interact Theatre Company, Redhouse Arts Center, Astoria Performing Arts Center, New York Fringe Festival, Columbia University, Barnard College, Yale School of Drama, and Connecticut Repertory Theatre. He has also been an assistant projection designer for Driving Miss Daisy and Macbeth on Broadway and productions at The Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Second Stage, and New York Theatre Workshop. His work has been featured in American Theatre Magazine and Opera America Magazine. He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and teaches scenic design at The University of Connecticut and Trinity College.
(As of September 2017)
Nancy Schertler's most recent Studio production was The Habit of Art. Broadway credits include productions of Bill Irwin’s Fool Moon and Largely New York (Tony Award nomination). Off Broadway productions include Hilda (dir. Carey Perloff), Texts for Nothing, and The Regard Evening (dir. Bill Irwin). Recent productions include Los Otros at Everyman Theatre, Fickle at Olney Theatre Center, and Watch on the Rhine at Arena Stage. World premiere opera productions include The Difficulty of Crossing a Field commissioned by American Conservatory Theatre and Shadowboxer, Clara, and Later the Same Evening, commissioned by the University of Maryland Opera Studio.
(As of September 2017)
Marci Rodgers recently designed She’s Gotta Have It, a new Netflix series directed by Spike Lee that premieres on November 23, 2017. Other recent designs include Word Becomes Flesh (Helen Hayes Award recipient), For Colored Girls, and Black Nativity at Theatre Alliance; Simply Simone at Theatrical Outfit; Milk Like Sugar and The Promised Land at Mosaic Theatre Company; What I Learned in Paris at Congo Square Theatre; and the Fall 2015 production of Intimate Apparel at the University of Maryland's Kaye Theatre. She holds a BBA from Howard University and a MFA from University of Maryland.
(As of September 2017)
Everett Elton Bradman was most recently music director for As You Like It at the California Shakespeare Theater. Other designs include The Winter’s Tale at California Shakespeare Theater, Thurgood at the Lorraine Hansberry Theater, as well as music for Lincoln-Mercury, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the New Pickle Circus. Mr. Bradman contributed bass work on Madi Das’s 2015 Grammy-nominated album Bhakti Without Borders. As a writer/editor, Mr. Bradman has worked for Rolling Stone, Vibe, Guitar World, and Bass Player. He holds a BS in journalism from Florida A&M University and an MFA in music for visual media from Academy of Art University.
(As of September 2017)
Lauren Halvorsen is in her ninth season as Studio’s Associate Literary Director. Her dramaturgy credits here include Doubt, P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, Admissions, Kings, If I Forget, Vietgone, The Wolves, Skeleton Crew, The Father, Three Sisters, The Hard Problem, Hand to God, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, The Wolfe Twins, Belleville, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, The Real Thing, The Motherfucker with the Hat, The Aliens, Bachelorette, The Big Meal, and Time Stands Still. Previously, Lauren spent three seasons as Literary Manager of The Alley Theatre. She was the Artistic Associate of the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory for six years and has worked in various artistic capacities for The Kennedy Center, City Theatre Company, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, First Person Arts Festival, and The Wilma Theater. Lauren is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.
(As of December 2019)
John Keith Hall's DC credits include many productions at Studio Theatre including Bad Jews, Choir Boy, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, Torch Song Trilogy, 4000 Miles, Sucker Punch, In The Red And Brown Water, The History Boys, Adding Machine: A Musical, and The Road To Mecca; Hir, The Nether, and An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Soon, SCKBSTD, and West Side Story at Signature Theatre; Sweeney Todd, Mary Poppins, and The Producers at Olney Theatre Center. Regional credits include several seasons as a Resident Stage Manager at The Barter Theatre in Virginia where he supervised over 40 productions, Shadowland Stages in New York, and Virginia Musical Theatre in Virginia Beach. A graduate of Virginia’s Longwood University, Mr. Hall is a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association.
(As of September 2017)
Manna-Symone Middlebrooks is Studio's Artistic Apprentice this season. Her directing credits include Assistant Director for Studio's productions of Translations, The Wolves, Curve of Departure, and Skeleton Crew; Broken Glass at Theater J; Scarred for Life at American University; and The Ruiners: A Modern Romance at Keegan Theatre. Ms. Middlebrooks holds a BA in Theatre Arts and Literature from American University and is an alumna of The British American Drama Academy.
(As of April 2018)
