A quirky assortment of Vermont locals come together in a community center’s acting class and learn that acting exercises can create real drama. Marty, the co-director of the community center, finally fulfills her goal of finding enough students to justify offering an adult drama class. The students include her reluctant husband James as well as Theresa, a pretty former actress from New York; Lauren, an awkward high school student and Schultz, a vulnerable divorcee. The students engage in theatre games and warm-ups, giving monologues from one another’s perspective, creating tableaus of personal memories from one another’s lives, and trying to count to ten as a group, until these once-strangers know each other far better than even they realize. Love triangles, family troubles, personal triumphs and confessions underlie a theatre game as seemingly simple as the circle mirror transformation.
Studio’s Subscription Season is the core of our programming, offering an uncommonly rich repertoire of provocative contemporary writing from around the world and inventive stagings of contemporary classics.
The inaugural 2010-2011 season of new Artistic Director David Muse was generously underwritten by Jaylee Mead, and Robert and Arlene Kogod, with additional underwriting from The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Stanley and Rosemary Marcuss, and Vicki and Roger Sant.
This production of Circle Mirror Transformation was generously underwritten by Gerald and Laura Rosberg.
Annie Baker grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her full-length plays include Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, OBIE Award for Best New American Play), and Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright).
Ms. Baker’s plays have been produced regionally at The Studio Theatre, South Coast Repertory, The Guthrie, Victory Gardens, Artists Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hyde Park Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and San Francisco Playhouse. Internationally, her plays have been produced in London, Melbourne, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. She has developed work at Signature Theatre, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, the Orchard Project, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Utah and Ucross, Wyoming.
Ms. Baker is a member of New Dramatists, MCC’s Playwrights Coalition, and EST. She is an alumna of Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Recent honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, a Lilly Award, a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship, a MacDowell fellowship, and a Master Artist Residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts. A published anthology of her work, The Vermont Plays, was published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG) in November 2011, and her adaptation of Uncle Vanya had its world premiere at Soho Rep in June 2012.
(As of November 2012)
David Muse is in his twelfth season as Artistic Director of Studio Theatre, where he has directed Cock (the in-person and digital productions), The Children, The Remains, The Effect, The Father, Constellations, Chimerica, Murder Ballad, Belleville, Tribes, The Real Thing, An Iliad, Dirt, Bachelorette, The Habit of Art, Venus in Fur, Circle Mirror Transformation, reasons to be pretty, Blackbird, Frozen, and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. As Studio’s Artistic Director, he has produced 105 productions; established Studio R&D, its new work incubator; significantly increased artist compensation; created The Cabinet, an artist advisory board; and overseen Open Studio, a $20M expansion and upgrade of Studio’s four-theatre complex. Previously, he was Associate Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he has directed nine productions, including Richard III, Henry V, Coriolanus, and King Charles III (a co-production with American Conservatory Theater and Seattle Rep). Other directing projects include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at Arena Stage, The Bluest Eye at Theatre Alliance, and Patrick Page's Swansong at the New York Summer Play Festival. He has helped to develop new work at numerous theatres, including New York Theatre Workshop, Geva Theatre Center, Arena Stage, New Dramatists, and The Kennedy Center. David has taught acting and directing at Georgetown, Yale, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy of Classical Acting. A nine-time Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Direction, he is a recipient of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist and the National Theatre Conference Emerging Artist Award. David is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.
(As of July 2021)
Jennifer Mendenhall has been a DC-area actor for many years; Studio Theatre was one of her first artistic homes in the city. She has appeared in Studio's productions of The New Electric Ballroom, Circle Mirror Transformation, A Beautiful View, Crestfall, and many more. She met Ike Holter at The Kennedy Center Playwrights Initiatives, where she served as a reader for many years. She is a company member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where her performances include Cherokee, Clyborne Park, Measure for Pleasure, Grace, Lenny & Lou, Homebody/Kabul, Cooking With Elvis, The Day Room, and many more. Most recently, she appeared as Q in Handbagged at Round House Theatre; Hooded, Or Being Black For Dummies at Mosaic Theater Company; Cripple of Inishmaan at Scena Theatre; Pluto and Angels in America at Forum Theatre; After the Fall, Imagining Madoff, Apples from the Desert, The Accident, and Andy and the Shadows at Theater J; Ambition Facing West, The Monument, You Are Here, and Slaughter City at Theater Alliance; Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major at The Kennedy Center; dark play, or stories for boys at the Humana Festival; and Cradle of Man at Florida Stage. As audio book narrator Kate Reading, she has recorded hundreds of books of all genres. Her awards include a Helen Hayes for Outstanding Lead Actress, a Mary Goldwater Award from Theatre Lobby, Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association, the AudioFile Earphones Award, and Audio Book Reader of the Year from Publisher’s Weekly. katereadingaudiobooks.com
(As of November 2020)
Harry A. Winter was last seen at Studio Theatre in Circle Mirror Transformation. His first production at Studio was The Birthday Party in 1986, which was followed by The Slab Boys, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Rhinoceros. A four-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, Mr. Winter has been working in the Washington Metropolitan area since 1978 and most recently played the role of the Station Manager in Spin at Signature Theatre. Mr. Winter will next be seen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.
(As of September 2013)
Jeff Talbott is making his first appearance at The Studio Theatre. He has appeared on Broadway in Sly Fox and Fortune’s Fool, and Off Broadway in Such Good Friends and Arthur Laurents’ Home of the Brave. Recent roles include Ralph in A Christmas Story, Frost in Frost/Nixon, Father Flynn in Doubt, Vice Principal Panch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men. His regional theatre credits include roles at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Geva Theatre Center, Pioneer Theatre Company, Paper Mill Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Yale Repertory Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Virginia Stage, Florida Stage, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Syracuse Stage. His film and television work includes Julie & Julia, The Sopranos, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: CI, One Life to Live, and As the World Turns. Mr. Talbott has written several plays and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(As of September 2010)
Kathleen McElfresh makes her Studio Theatre debut with Circle Mirror Transformation. Recently she understudied on Broadway in Present Laughter, and performed Off Broadway in Greek Holiday and The Frugal Repast at the Abingdon Theatre. Other regional credits include The 39 Steps at Weston Playhouse; Slight Hitch with New York Stage and Film at Vassar College; The Women at The Old Globe; Brendan with The Huntington Theatre Company and Pride and Prejudice at the Dallas Theater Center. Her television work includes Law and Order: CI and Royal Pains. Ms. McElfresh earned a B.F.A from Florida State University and an M.F.A from the Yale School of Drama where she received the Herschel Williams Acting Award.
(As of September 2010)
MacKenzie Meehan is thrilled to be making her Studio Theatre debut. Her New York theatre credits include Candle-Light and The Devil Passes with The Actors Company Theatre; The Sacrifices for the 2009 Summer Play Festival at The Public Theater and The Green Manifesto at the 2009 New York Fringe Festival. She has also performed in Out Of Orbit at the Sundance Theater Lab; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Six Degrees of Separation; The Three Sisters; Journey of the Fifth Horse; The Constant Wife with New York University’s graduate acting program and Caviar on Credit at The Guthrie Theater. Television credits include Mildred Pierce on HBO. Ms. Meehan trained at The Guthrie Theater’s A Guthrie Experience. She received her B.A. from California State University, Long Beach and her M.F.A. from New York University. She is a proud member of The Actors Company Theater.
(As of September 2010)
Debra Booth has a long history with Studio, where she has designed White Pearl, Translations, The Wolves, The Father, The Hard Problem, Constellations, The Apple Family Cycle, Jumpers for Goalposts, Belleville, Cock, Edgar & Annabel, Bachelorette, Moonlight, Blackbird, My Children! My Africa!, The Pillowman, and many others. Her international work includes premiere opera Marco Polo (Tan Dun/Martha Clarke) in Munich, Hong Kong, and New York. Regionally, her credits include Sooner/Later and Vicuna at Mosaic Theater Company; Small Mouth Sounds at Round House Theatre; Richard III, The Collection, and The Lover at the Shakespeare Theatre Company; Marisol at Hartford Stage and The Public Theater; Trying, The Illusion, and Happy Days at Portland Stage; the New York premiere of Angels in America at The Juilliard School; Broken Glass at Philadelphia Theatre Company (Barrymore Award nomination); and A Moon for the Misbegotten at Yale Rep. Debra is the recipient of a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts design grant. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(As of February 2020)
Colin K. Bills (he/him/his) returns to Studio where he designed the stage productions of Cock, as well as An Iliad, Lungs, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Year of Magical Thinking, Stoop Stories, Radio Golf, Contractions, POP!, That Face, Autobahn, The Death of Meyerhold, Tommy, Four, and Bat Boy. He is a Company Member and Board Member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where he has designed over 50 productions, including the recent streaming production of Hi, Are You Single?, and is a member of the company’s EDI Working Group. He was a founding member of the devised theatre troupe dog & pony dc, serving as director, writer, actor, and designer for a dozen new works, including A Killing Game and Beertown. Colin is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award and three Helen Hayes Awards. He has taught design at Howard University and is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
(As of January 2021)
(As of May 2014)
Alex Jaeger has designed costumes for multiple Studio Theatre productions, including Cock; The Habit of Art; Circle Mirror Transformation; The Solid Gold Cadillac; Grey Gardens; The History Boys; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Caroline, or Change; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Black Milk; The Russian National Postal Service; A Class Act; and The Cripple of Inishmaan. He has also designed A Parallelogram and Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum; The Nether, Eclipsed, and The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; and Two Sisters and a Piano for the Public Theater. Other credits include Venus in Fur, Major Barbara, Arcadia, Speed-the-Plow, Maple and Vine, and Rock ‘n’ Roll (also for the Huntington Theatre Company) for the American Conservatory Theater and A Wrinkle in Time, A Streetcar Named Desire, August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Romeo and Juliet, Handler, and Fuddy Meers for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
(As of September 2014)
Neil McFadden has designed many shows at The Studio Theatre, including Circle Mirror Transformation, reasons to be pretty, Adding Machine: A Musical, Radio Golf, The Seafarer, Blackbird, The Internationalist, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, This Is How It Goes, Red Light Winter, Fat Pig, Take Me Out, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Topdog/Underdog, and Betty’s Summer Vacation. He was the Resident Sound Designer at Round House Theatre for eleven years. His work has also been heard at Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Folger Theatre, Longacre Lea, Olney Theatre Center, Theatre J, WSC-Avant Bard, The Washington Savoyards, and numerous others. A ten-time nominee, he was the recipient of the 1990 Helen Hayes Award for Sound Design for his work on Heathen Valley at Round House Theatre. Neil is also a musician and composer: he has written music and played for many area shows; he also performs regularly with his rock/blues band Mike’s Garage and as a solo acoustic performer.
(As of May 2012)
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)