Nya is a single mom and dedicated teacher at a high-poverty city school, determined to give her teenaged son Omari opportunities that her students will never have. When an altercation with a teacher at his private school threatens Omari’s future, Nya has to fight a system that’s against him in any environment. A searing, eloquent, and deeply compassionate look at a broken education system, the moments we are pushed to our limits, and the ferocity of one parent’s love.
Runtime: This performance will run approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission.
Environmental Warnings: This production will feature herbal cigarette smoke and strobe lighting effects.
Pipeline is generously underwritten by
Joan and David Maxwell.
Click on artist headshot to see bio
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)
Awoye Timpo’s Off Broadway directing credits include Good Grief at Vineyard Theatre, The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d at The Playwrights Realm, and The Homecoming Queen at Atlantic Theater Company. Regionally she has directed Everybody Black at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Paradise Blue at Long Wharf Theatre. Additional credits include Carnaval at the National Black Theater; Sister Son/ji at the Billie Holiday Theatre; The Vanished (site-specific); Skeleton Crew at Chester Theatre Company; and Ndebele Funeral at 59E59, Edinburgh Festival/Summerhall, and South African tour. She is a producer for CLASSIX, a series exploring classic plays by Black playwrights.
(As of September 2019)
Andrea Harris Smith makes her Studio debut with Pipeline. Local and regional credits include Theory with Mosaic Theater Company; Small Mouth Sounds at Round House Theatre; Our Town at Olney Theatre Center; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pericles, Les Blancs, and Chicago at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Mules at Magic Theatre (San Francisco); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Critics Circle Award) at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. International credits include Katrina at Jericho House, London; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and Love’s Labour’s Lost with The Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon and West End; To Kill a Mockingbird at Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse. Film and television credits include Last Chance Harvey, Hamlet (RSC/BBC), Doctor Who (BBC), and Casualty (BBC). Andrea holds an MFA from American Conservatory Theater and trained at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK.
(As of November 2019)
Justin Weaks returns to Studio Theatre after appearing in Curve of Departure during the 2017-2018 season. He was most recently seen in Fences at Ford’s Theatre. Selected local credits include BLKS, Gloria, and Describe the Night at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Long Way Down at The Kennedy Center; Gem of the Ocean at Round House Theatre; The Christians at Theater J; Word Becomes Flesh and Still Life With Rocket at Theater Alliance; and Charm at Mosaic Theater Company. Additional regional and New York credits include work with Ensemble Studio Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Shakespeare & Company, and Barter Theatre. Justin received a Helen Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor and Ensemble (Word Becomes Flesh at Theater Alliance) as well as three additional nominations. He is a teaching artist in the DMV area and a company member of the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. He holds a BA in Theatre from Greensboro College.
(As of November 2019)
Monica Rae Summers Gonzalez makes her Studio Theatre debut with Pipeline. Her New York credits include The Siblings Play at Cherry Lane Theatre, Ten Days in a Mad-House with Strangemen & Co., Cost/Benefit with F* It Club, and TALLY HO! Navigating the Future at Theatre for a New City. Regional credits include Scapino at Gulfshore Playhouse, and Native Gardens at Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre, and Portland Center Stage. Television credits include Orange is the New Black, BULL, and Shades of Blue. Monica was nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Play in the 2019 SALT Awards. She holds a BFA in Acting from the Conservatory of Theater Arts at SUNY Purchase College.
(As of January 2020)
Bjorn DuPaty’s New York credits include MLIMA in Mlima’s Tale at the Public Theater, Two Mile Hollow with Women's Project Theater, and Carnaval with the National Black Theatre. National tour credits include Julius Caesar and Comedy of Errors with The Acting Company. Regional credits include Mud Row with the People's Light Theater, Fairfield at the Cleveland Playhouse, Do You Feel Anger in the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, A Raisin in the Sun at the Crossroads Theater, and Clybourne Park at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. His film and television credits include Demolition, Alpha House, Sleepy Hollow, The Blacklist, Person of Interest, Zero Hour, and All My Children. Bjorn holds an MFA from Rutgers’ University, Mason Gross School of the Arts.
(As of November 2019)
Pilar Witherspoon’s international credits include Tsiana in The Doctor and the Patient at Theatre Lluire Barcelona and the Rezo Gabriadze Theatre in Tbilisi, Georgia. She appeared on Broadway in The Father with Frank Langella. Her Off-Broadway credits include Lear/Goneril in Storm Still at the Sheen Center, Nia in Fighting Words at Playwright’s Horizons/Underwood Theatre, Sandra in Beautiful Thing at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Adele in Far and Wide and Clara in The Widowing of The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd at The Mint Theatre. Select regional credits include Othello, Macbeth, and Henry V at The Shakespeare Theatre; Twelfth Night at Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Other Desert Cities at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre; All’s Well That Ends Well at Playmakers Repertory Theatre; and Bus Stop at Baltimore Center Stage. Film credits include Lust Life with Bill Irwin, Custody, The Taking of Beslan, Ten Stories Tall, and Warlord. Television credits include Lincoln, Instinct, Sneaky Pete, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, The Big C, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Third Watch. Pilar is a recipient of the Fox Foundation Fellowship and is a graduate of The Juilliard School’s Drama Division.
(As of November 2019)
Ro Boddie returns to Studio Theatre for the fourth time, where he previously appeared in Dirt, Three Sisters, and No Sisters. Off-Broadway credits include Socrates at The Public Theater, Appomattox at 59E59 Theaters, and the upcoming production of A Play is a Poem at Atlantic Theater Company. Select regional credits include A Play is a Poem at the Mark Taper Forum, Blueprints to Freedom at La Jolla Playhouse, Skeleton Crew at The Old Globe, The Mountaintop at Cleveland Playhouse, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Baltimore Center Stage, The Whipping Man at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Television credits include The Good Wife, Elementary, Person of Interest, and Unforgettable. Ro is an alumnus of University of the North Carolina School of the Arts.
(As of November 2019)(As of October 2019)
Chaundre Broomfield is a Newburgh, NY native whose previous credits include Hamilton and understudy for the role of Omari in the original production of Pipeline at Lincoln Center Theater. He graduated with a BFA in Acting from SUNY Purchase.
(As of February 2020)
Arnulfo Maldonado makes his Studio Theatre debut. Off-Broadway credits include Power Strip and The Rolling Stone at Lincoln Center Theater, Sugar in Our Wounds (Lucille Lortel Award) at Manhattan Theater Club, School Girls… and Charm at MCC, A Strange Loop and Dance Nation at Playwrights Horizons, Usual Girls at Roundabout Underground, The Underlying Chris at Second Stage, and Fires In The Mirror at Signature Theatre. Regional design credits include The Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Guthrie Theater, Humana Festival, Long Wharf Theatre, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Tour credits include The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (BAM Next Wave, International). Arnulfo is a Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist, a recipient of a Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award, and a multiple Henry Hewes Design nominee. He holds an MFA in Set/Costume Design from NYU Tisch.
(As of December 2019)
Sarita Fellows makes her Studio Theatre debut with Pipeline. Her selected credits include A Bright Room Called Day with the Public Theater; Native Son with The Acting Company; Original Sound with Cherry Lane Theater; Hatef**k with The Women’s Project; Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, and Measure for Measure with the Classical Theatre; A Chronicle of the Death of Two Worlds with New York Theater Workshop; Fur, MUD, Prospect, and Fabuloso! with The Boundless Theater Company; and Paradise Blue, Forbidden City, Golden Boy, and Hoodoo Love at The Juilliard School. Her regional credits include Top Girls and Her Portmaneau at A.C.T; The Royale at the Arizona Theater Company; Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Signature Theatre; School Girls… with the Pittsburgh Public Theater; Haunted Life at Merrimack Repertory Theatre; Two Trains Running at the Weston Playhouse; Berta Berta and A Late Morning with Reagan at Contemporary American Theatre Festival; Having Our Say with the Philadelphia Theater Company. Her film and television credits include “Sight Pictures”, “Everybody Dies”, “Afronauts”, (by Frances Bodomo, premiere SWSX 2016); “Dirt” (by Darius Clark Monroe, premiere Sundance 2016). Sarita is a Lecturer at Princeton University and an Associate Professor at NYU @ Playwrights Horizons. She holds an MFA from NYU.
(As of December 2019)
Jesse Belsky previously designed P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, The Remains, The Effect, Three Sisters, No Sisters, and Animal at Studio Theatre. Regional credits include The Magic Play at Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, and Actors Theatre of Louisville; Lydia and Rough Crossing at Yale Repertory Theatre; and The Year of Magical Thinking at PlayMakers Repertory Company. DC designs include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Ford’s Theatre; J.Q.A. and The Year of Magical Thinking at Arena Stage; Oslo, Handbagged and Book of Will at Round House Theatre; The Mystery of Love & Sex at Signature Theatre; Henry IV P1, Winter’s Tale, Sense & Sensibility, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Folger Theatre; Labour of Love, The Invisible Hand and The Magic Play at Olney Theatre Center. Jesse holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and he has taught lighting design at Connecticut College and UNC Greensboro.
(As of December 2019)
Fan Zhang makes her Studio Theatre debut with Pipeline. Off-Broadway designs include Paris at Atlantic Theater Company, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord with Second Stage & WP Theatre, Pumpgirl at Irish Rep, Suicide Forest at Ma-Yi, Molly Sweeney at Theatre Row, Round Table at 59E59, Behind the Sheet at Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Trail of the Catonsville Nine at Transport Group, Scissoring at INTAR, Beautiful Day Without You at West End Theatre, Three Girls Never Learnt the Way Home at Cherry Lane, Tania In the Gateway Van at New Georges, The Mecca's Tale at The Sheen Center, and Interstate at NYMF. Regional work includes Yasmina’s Necklace at Premiere Stages, Seven Guitars at Yale Rep, Redeem at Cincinnati Ballet, The Revolutionists at City Theatre (Pittsburgh), and Red Maple at Capital Rep. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of December 2019)
Kelly Colburn is a DC-based freelance interdisciplinary artist working as a director and projections & multimedia designer. Select design credits include P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, The Hard Problem, and If I Forget with Studio Theatre; Small Mouth Sounds with Round House Theatre; The Invisible Boy with Children’s Theatre of Charlotte; The 2019 Shakespeare Theatre Gala with Shakespeare Theatre Company; The Fantasticks with Infinity Theatre Company; Kiss with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Blood at the Root with Theater Alliance; Of Equal Place with Dance Exchange; and The Royale at Olney Theatre Center. Kelly was a 2017-2018 NextLOOK Resident Artist and a recipient of the 2018 Jim Henson Puppetry Grant. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (2011) and an MFA from the University of Maryland (2018). Kelly Colburn is a DC-based freelance interdisciplinary artist working as a director and projections/multimedia designer. Select design credits include The Hard Problem and If I Forget with Studio Theatre, Small Mouth Sounds with Round House Theatre, Matilda with Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, The 2018 Shakespeare Theatre Gala with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kiss with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Blood at the Root with Theater Alliance, and The Diary of Anne Frank at Olney Theatre Center. Kelly was a 2017-2018 NextLOOK Resident Artist and a recipient of the 2018 Jim Henson Puppetry Grant. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (2011) and an MFA from the University of Maryland (2018).
(As of December 2019)
Lauren Halvorsen is in her ninth season as Studio’s Associate Literary Director. Her dramaturgy credits here include Pipeline, 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 February 2020)
Patti Kalil makes her Studio Theatre debut with Pipeline. Her selected credits include Love Factually and Twist Your Dickens with The Second City at The Kennedy Center; Dante''s Inferno, Peter Pan, and Titus Andronicus with Synetic Theatre; Still Life with Rocket and Going to a Place at Theatre Alliance; Where Words Once Were and How to Catch a Star at The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences; Don Cristobal and Minnie the Moocher with Pointless Theatre; Tour 71 with The National Players at Olney Theatre; and Que Las Hay at Gala Hispanic Theatre. Patti is the Co-Founder/Artistic Director of DC-based Pointless Theatre and a graduate of the Juilliard School Professional Internship program. She earned her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and BA from The University of Maryland, College Park.
