2.5 Minute Ride

05/30/21 - 06/06/21

WRITTEN BY LISA KRON
DIRECTED BY JOANIE SCHULTZ

Lisa’s father is 74, nearly blind, a Holocaust survivor, and addicted to roller coasters. 2.5 Minute Ride follows two very different father-daughter trips: the annual Kron family pilgrimage to roller-coaster heaven in Sandusky, Ohio and Lisa’s once-in-a-lifetime trip to Auschwitz with her father. A travelogue through thrill and loss, Lisa Kron (book and lyrics, Fun Home) tracks her father’s enthusiasm, physical frailty, and ambivalence about the lives he might have lived with humor and unsentimental compassion. 

2.5 Minute Ride is no longer available.

Read the program.

2.5 Minute Ride is intended for mature audiences. Click on the content note for a detailed explanation.

Video Production by Studiio Box DC, studiioboxdc.com.

SHOW INFORMATION

Runtime: 1 hour and 15 minutes

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. There are some spoilers in here, so be ready, and please use this information as it is helpful to you.

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.

Multimedia

The Artists

Cast

Production Team

DIRECTOR OF VIDEO

Wes Culwell

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)

LIGHTING DESIGN

Sherrice Mojgani

Sherrice Mojgani recently designed for DC-area productions of The Heiress and Two Trains Running at Arena Stage and Spunk, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and The Scottsboro Boys at Signature Theatre. Regionally, she has designed for A Few Good Men and Sweat at Pittsburgh Public Theater; What You Are and Skeleton Crew at The Old Globe; Roz and Ray, Black Pearl Sings, and Outside Mullingar at San Diego Repertory Theatre; and Blue Door, Trouble in Mind, and Mud Blue Sky at MOXIE Theatre. Sherrice is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University. She holds a BA in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA in Lighting Design from UC San Diego. smojgani.com

(As of February 2021)

SOUND DESIGN

Matthew M. Nielson

Matthew M. Nielson returns to Studio, where his design and composition credits include The Remains, Hand to God, MotherStruck, The Real Thing, and Venus in Fur. DMV-area credits include Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Theater Alliance, Contemporary American Theater Festival, and The Smithsonian. Off Broadway credits include The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, and 59E59 Theaters. Regional credits include Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Barrington Stage Company. Film and TV credits include Those Who Wait, The Hero Effect, Elbow Grease, From Hell to Here, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and Delivery.com. Matthew has won five Helen Hayes Awards and several regional theatre and film festival awards. matthewnielson.com

(As of April 2021)

DIALECT COACH

Keri Safran

Keri Safran is a performer and dialect coach. She is one of the accent coaches for NBC's Young Rock and Showtime's The First Lady, and coaches at theatres around the country. Her private clients include Oscar and Tony winners, and she runs a BIPOC Scholarship Program to sponsor actors of color to take her courses for free. As a performer, she has appeared in films at the Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals as well as television productions Ray Donovan, The Blacklist, Richard Linklater’s $5.15/hr., The Real O’Neals, and How I Met Your Mother, among others. She appeared on stage in multiple shows at Barrington Stage Company, including Forbidden Broadway directed by Gerard Alessandrini. On Instagram at @keri-safran. kerisafran.com.

DRAMATURG

Adrien-Alice Hansel

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 Until the Flood, Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Constellations, 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 10 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 2021)

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

Allie Roy

Allie Roy returns after stage managing Studio’s first audio play, Kings, and first streaming play, Cock, 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 April 2021)

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Lücién Reubens

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 and Until the Flood. 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 April 2021)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Annabel Heacock

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 production of Cock. 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 April 2021)

Press

One of the most successful adaptations to the virtual theatre space that this reviewer has encountered.
Broadway World
Riotously funny... You really don’t want to miss this play.
MD Theatre Guide
A funny and poignant riff on the mysteries of life and family
WASHINGTON POST
Hilarious and moving
DCMTA

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