Jessie is a corporate lawyer in a Manhattan firm. Lina is a community-college dropout and born-and-bred Long Islander. They don’t seem to have anything in common, but marooned at home with infants, they strike up a fast friendship. In the yard between their houses—as far as their baby monitors will reach—they bond over sleep deprivation, unreliable childcare, and “having it all.” A candid comedy about who gets to make which hard choices in the tinderbox of parenthood and class in the United States.
Runtime: This performance will run approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission.
Environmental Warnings: This production will feature smoking of an electronic cigarette.
Cry It Out is generously underwritten
by Steve and Linda Skalet.
Molly Smith Metzler is the author of Cry It Out, Elemeno Pea, The May Queen, Carve, Close Space, and Training Wisteria. Her regional credits include Northlight Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Repertory, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Chautauqua Theater Company, City Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Geva Theatre Center, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, and more. New York credits include Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC). Metzler’s awards include the Lecomte du Nouy Prize from Lincoln Center, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting, and a finalist nod for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is a proud alumna of the Ars Nova Play Group, the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages, and the Cherry Lane Mentor Project. She is currently under commission at Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory. In television, Metzler has written for Casual (Hulu), Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), Codes of Conduct (HBO), and is currently a writer and producer on Shameless (Showtime). She is also a screenwriter, currently adapting Ali Benjamin’s award-winning novel The Thing About Jellyfish into a film for OddLot Entertainment with Made Up Stories and Pacific Standard (Reese Witherspoon’s company). Metzler was educated at the State University of New York at Geneseo, Boston University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the Juilliard School.
(As of October 2018)
Joanie Schultz last directed Hand to God at Studio Theatre and is a member of the Studio Theatre Cabinet. Schultz currently serves as Artistic Director at WaterTower Theatre, recently named the best theatre in Dallas by the Dallas Observer. Recent work includes directing and adapting A Doll's House and directing Hand to God, Pride and Prejudice, and Hit the Wall at WaterTower Theatre; Queen, Cocked, Rest, and The Whale at Victory Gardens Theater; Sex with Strangers at the Cleveland Playhouse; Lot's Wife at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Venus in Fur at The Goodman Theatre; fml: or how Carson McCullers Saved my Life at Steppenwolf Theatre; and other plays at various Chicago theatres. Schultz holds an MFA in directing from Northwestern University, had the TCG Leadership U Fellowship, was a Drama League Fellow, The Goodman Theatre’s the SDCF Denham Fellow, a Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab participant, and was 2013 Co-Artistic Curator for Theater on the Lake. Her work has garnered Helen Hayes Awards, Joseph Jefferson Awards, and DFW Theatre Critics Forum awards.
(As of November 2018)
Paolo Andino is a first-generation Cuban-American from Miami, and has appeared in The Santaland Diaries at The Blank Theatre in Los Angeles and Pieces at the Los Angeles and New York City Fringe Festival. His regional credits include Agamemnon and his Daughters at Arena Stage; Anna in the Tropics at Seattle Repertory Theatre, The 39 Steps at Portland Stage, The Food Chain at The Old Globe, and Venecia (with Chita Rivera) at Georgetown Street Playhouse. On television, Andino has appeared in Colony, Modern Family, The Last Ship, Ray Donovan, The Odd Couple, and Baby Daddy. He holds an MFA in theatre from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
(As of November 2018)
Emjoy Gavino’s Chicago credits include Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, About Face Theatre, The Hypocrites, The Second City, House Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Paramount Theatre, Broadway Playhouse, Lookingglass Theatre Company, The Neo-Futurists, and Goodman Theatre, The Repertory Actors Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, 5th Avenue Theatre, and Village Theatre. On television she was featured in The Exorcist, Mob Doctor, Empire (Fox), Chicago Fire, and Chicago Med (NBC). Gavino graduated from The School at Steppenwolf. She is the casting director and associate artistic director of Gift Theatre, a 3 Arts Make a Wave grantee, and is the founder and producer of The Chicago Inclusion Project. She is represented by Stewart Talent.
(As of November 2018)
Tessa Klein returns to Studio after appearing in The Hard Problem (Helen Hayes Nomination) and Chimerica. Broadway and Off Broadway credits include War Horse at Lincoln Center Theater; The Weir and Philadelphia, Here I Come at Irish Repertory Theatre; and A Touch of the Poet at 14th Street Theatre. DC and Regional credits include Labour of Love at Olney Theatre, An Ideal Husband at Shakespeare Theatre; Argonautika at Shakespeare Theatre, McCarter Theatre, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Call and The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall at Theater J; The Trojan Women at Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Hamlet, She Stoops to Conquer and Aristocrats at Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre. Film and television credits include The Whitest Kids U' Know, Disappearances, and Peter and John. She studied at Moscow Art Theatre and holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.
(As of November 2018)
Dina Thomas is making her Studio debut after her recent move from New York City to DC. Off Broadway credits include The Metromaniacs at The Duke Theater, Tribes at Barrow Street Theatre, Clever Little Lies at the Westside Theatre as well as workshops at Red Bull Theater, National New Play Network, and The Lark. Select regional credits include The Metromaniacs at Shakespeare Theatre Company and The Old Globe, Tribes at La Jolla Playhouse, Everything You Touch at Contemporary American Theater Festival, See How They Run at Barrington Stage, and Bad Jews at the Unicorn Theatre. Recently, she was featured in the web series Tales of Toverud and narrates regularly for Chatterbox Audio Theater. Thomas holds an MFA from University of Missouri-Kansas City.
(As of November 2018)
Chelsea M. Warren is a theatre artist with a focus on scenic design, puppetry, and devised theatre, newly based in the Twin Cities. Puppet design credits include Hand to God at Studio Theatre, WaterTower Theatre, and Jungle Theater; Shrek the Musical and The Little Mermaid at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Scenic design credits include Kate Hamill’s Little Women and Hand to God at Jungle Theater, A Doll’s House and Kate Hamill’s Pride & Prejudice at WaterTower Theatre, Cocked and The Whale at Victory Gardens Theatre, and fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life at Steppenwolf Theatre. Warren received her MFA from Northwestern University and is an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at the University of Minnesota.
(As of November 2018)
Heather Gilbert returns to Studio Theatre after designing last spring’s Vietgone. She is a Chicago based designer, where her work has been seen on numerous stages including The Hypocrites, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Northlight Theatre, and countless storefronts all over the city. Her regional credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theater, Magic Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Huntington Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. International credits include the Almeida in London and the Singapore Repertory Theatre. Gilbert was a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Grant and the 3 Arts Award. Gilbert serves as the head of lighting design at Columbia College Chicago and holds an MFA from the Theatre School at DePaul.
(As of November 2018)
Kathleen Geldard returns to Studio Theatre after designing Cry It Out, Curve of Departure, Animal, Choir Boy, Jumpers for Goalposts, Tribes, and Invisible Man. Other recent regional credits include Macbeth at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Misery and Shakespeare in Love at Cincinnati Playhouse; and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; and Humana Festivals 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Other regional credits include Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, Huntington Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Florida Studio Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Imagination Stage, and Folger Theatre. She is an artistic associate for Signature Theatre.
(As of January 2019)
Composer and sound designer Sarah O’Halloran has recently worked on Things That Are Round at Rep Stage, Labour of Love at Olney Theatre Center, Swimming with Whales at 1st Stage, Nat Turner in Jerusalem at Forum Theatre, and The Return at Mosaic Theatre Company. Upcoming projects include Talley’s Folly at Theater J, The Brothers Size at 1st Stage, and Dinner with Friends at Everyman Theatre. O’Halloran has worked at educational institutions including University of Maryland Baltimore County, American University, The George Washington University, and Imagination Stage. She holds a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technology from the University of Virginia.
(As of November 2018)
Lauren Pekel returns to Studio Theatre after stage managing last season’s Bright Colors and Bold Patterns. Additional Studio stage management credits include Cry It Out and Vietgone, in addition to her numerous assistant stage management credits with Studio including P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, Skeleton Crew, The Father, and No Sisters, among others. Her DC theatre credits include productions with Woolly Mammoth, Theater Alliance, Imagination Stage, and Arts on the Horizon. Regionally, she has worked with the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and Skylight Music Theater in Milwaukee, among others. Lauren is an alumna of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Theatre Program, with a BFA in Stage Management, and is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.
(As of August 2019)
Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of Queen of Basel, The Remains, No Sisters, I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, Animal, Laugh, Red Speedo, Dirt, Lungs, and The History of Kisses as well as productions of 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 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)
