The death of his best friend’s father Shango causes Marcus to reflect on the death of his own father, Elegba. Although he loves his mother and best friends Osha and Shaunta, he longs for someone to teach him to become a man. He finds a measure of solace in Ogun Size, whose brother Oshoosi had been intimate with Elegba. But when Marcus’s friends see him kiss Ogun, the gesture of comfort forces Marcus and his best friends to confront his homosexuality—an act that is complicated by the fact that Osha is in love with Marcus. Alienated and alone, Marcus becomes involved with a mysterious man he meets on the beach. When it turns out that this man is also seeing Osha, tensions and secrets bubble to the surface, and the life stories of Osha, Ogun, Marcus, Elegba, and the mysterious man intertwine to form the satisfying conclusion of The Brother/Sister Plays.
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 Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet was generously underwritten by Peter Bieger.
Tarell Alvin McCraney is best known for his acclaimed trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays: The Brothers Size, In the Red and Brown Water, and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. They have been performed at McCarter Theater in Princeton, The Public Theater in New York, Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, at a trio of theaters in the Bay Area: Marin Theatre Company, ACT, and Magic Theatre, as well as the Young Vic in London (Olivier Award nomination) and around the world. Other plays include The Breach (Southern Rep, Seattle Rep), Wig Out! (Sundance Theatre Institute, Royal Court, and Vineyard Theatre - GLAAD Award for Outstanding Play), and American Trade (Royal Shakespeare Company/Hampstead Theatre). Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he is an ensemble member, will produce the world premiere of his commissioned play, Head of Passes in the spring of 2013.
Tarell was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s International Playwright in Residence in 2009-2011, where he co-edited and directed the Young People's Shakespeare production of Hamlet which toured throughout the UK and was presented at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. He is the recipient of the prestigious Whiting Award and Steinberg Playwright Award, as well as London's Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, the inaugural New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, and the inaugural Paula Vogel Playwriting Award.
He is a graduate from the New World School of the Arts High School, the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and the Yale School of Drama. He is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a member of Teo Castellanos/D-Projects in Miami.
(As of July 2014)
Timothy Douglas served as Associate Artistic Director for Actors Theatre of Louisville and was recently named Artistic Director of Chicago’s Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. He has directed nearly 100 stage productions, with recent credits including his acclaimed Caribbean-inspired Much Ado About Nothing for The Folger Theatre, Permanent Collection for Roundhouse Theater, the world premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf for Yale Repertory Theatre, Insurrection for Theatre Alliance (two Helen Hayes Award nominations), and a premiere translation of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm Off Broadway for Oslo Elsewhere. Other directing credits include the world premiere of Line in the Sand for Virginia Stage Company; Good Breeding for American Conservatory Theater; Gem of the Ocean, Trouble in Mind, Radio Golf, and the world premiere of The Night is a Child with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; the west coast premiere of A Feminine Ending at South Coast Repertory Theatre and Portland Center Stage; Pride and Prejudice at Playmakers Repertory Company; In the Blood at the Guthrie Theater; Assassins, Insurrection, and Blues for an Alabama Sky at the Berkshire Theatre Festival; Crowns, Shakespeare’s R&J, Sorrows and Rejoicings, A Raisin in the Sun at the City Theatre; The Crucible, Jitney, and Intimate Apparel at Syracuse Stage; Bocón! with Mark Taper Forum (Mellon Fellow/Director in Residence 1994-1997); The Game of Love and Chance at the San Jose Repertory Theatre; Portia Coughlin and The Cripple of Inishmaan at Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre; Valley Song at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; and Mules with Downstage (New Zealand). Mr. Douglas is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(As of January 2011)
J. Mal McCree is pleased to make his Washington DC debut. A native of Detroit, Mr. McCree’s recent Off Broadway credits include Zooman and the Sign at Signature Theatre Company in New York; Colored People’s Time with MidTown International Theatre Festival; The Fabulous Miss Marie at the Cherry Lane Theatre; Subway Love at The Actors’ Playhouse; and The Etymology of Bird at Summerstage. His film credits include The Art of Love, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Recreator, White Sugar in a Blackpot, and Real Talk. He has appeared on television in Law & Order. He trained under the late Israel Hicks at Rutgers University, where he received his B.F.A. in Theatre Arts. He also received classical training at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. Mr. McCree is a member of the historic Negro Ensemble Company.
(As of January 2011)
Rachael Holmes made her Washington DC debut in last season’s Leadership Repertory at The Shakespeare Theatre Company as Queen Isabel and Princess Katharine in Richard II and Henry V. Prior stage credits include Ruined at Manhattan Theatre Club; No Child… at The Hangar and Capital Repertory Theatres; and the international productions of SEVEN and Widowers’ Houses with Epic Theatre Ensemble (AUDELCO nomination for best lead actress). Her television credits include The Good Wife, Dirt, Guiding Light, All My Children, national commercials, and several voice-overs. Ms. Holmes is a master teaching artist for The New Victory Theatre and is a new addition to The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s education team. She received her M.F.A. from New York University.
(As of January 2011)
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)
Bianca LaVerne Jones has appeared Off Broadway in McReele with Roundabout Theatre Company; Trojan Women (AUDELCO nomination) and Macbeth (also performed in Germany) with the Classical Theatre of Harlem; and Virgin of the Vieux Carré with Primary Stages. Other credits include Iken’s Perversion with F. Murray Abraham at Loft 21/21; the world premiere of A Civil War Christmas at Long Wharf Theatre; Macbeth at the Lillian Theatre; The Threepenny Opera at Williamstown Theatre Festival; and Breath Boom and Medea/MacBeth/Cinderella at Yale Repertory Theatre among others. Ms. Jones most recently played DJ Truth in Homage 3: ILLMATIC at the Black River Theatre. Her television and film credits include 12 Steps To Recovery, What Would You Do, and Men in Love. Ms. Jones attended North Carolina School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, and Yale School of Drama.
(As of January 2011)
Stephanie Berry was recently seen in a revival of her OBIE Award winning one-woman show The Shaneequa Chronicles: The Making of a Black Woman in New York at the National Black Theatre. She has appeared on Broadway in Drowning Crow. Her stage credits also include Trouble in Mind and Gem of the Ocean at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; Intimate Apparel at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Oedipus the King at Hartford Stage; Fences at the Arden Theatre and Actors Theatre; Distracted at Mark Taper Forum; King Lear at Portland Center Stage; When Grace Comes In at La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Reprtory Theatre; and To Kill a Mockingbird at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has appeared on all three versions of Law & Order. Some of her film credits include the upcoming The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, No Reservations, The Invasion, and Finding Forrester. Ms. Berry was the 2009-2010 recipient of the Theatre Communications Group/Fox Foundation Actor’s Fellowship for “Distinguished Artist.”
(As of January 2011)
Montae Russell appeared on Broadway in King Hedley II and Prelude to a Kiss. His Washington DC credits include King Hedley II and the August Wilson 20th Century Staged Readings, both at The Kennedy Center. He has performed at numerous Off Broadway, Los Angeles, and regional theatres, and is one production away from having performed in all 10 plays in the August Wilson cycle. His recent television appearances include Detroit 187 and Cold Case. Mr. Russell spent many seasons on ER as Paramedic Zadro White. Film credits include The Players Club, Banged Out, Laurel Avenue, and Lily in Winter opposite Natalie Cole. Mr. Russell has directed several short films, including the award-winning Something For Nothing. He is a graduate of University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers University. Mr. Russell is pleased to make his Studio Theatre debut.
(As of January 2011)
Lance Coadie Williams is grateful to return to The Studio Theatre, having appeared in last season’s Marcus; Or The Secret of Sweet. His DC credits include Booty Candy at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Fences at Round House Theatre. He toured to Athens with The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s pro¬duction of The Oedipus Plays. Other credits include My Children! My Africa!, The Children’s Hour, Blues for an Alabama Sky, and Fences at Everyman Theatre; and the title role in Hamlet at The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Williams is a graduate of The Baltimore School for the Arts, and earned his BFA at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film.
(As of March 2012)
Nickolas Vaughan recently appeared in The Kennedy Center’s world premiere production of Locomotion. He was also seen in Fucking A at The Studio 2ndStage; The Piano Lesson at the Hangar Theatre; Tamar on the River (21/24 Workshop Series) at Signature Theatre; Barrio Grrrl! and Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly (part of the New Visions/New Voices Festival) at The Kennedy Center; U.G.L.Y. A New Musical with the Page-to-Stage Festival; and the world premiere of Shadowboxer, at the Kay Theatre (UMD). Mr. Vaughan received a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Howard University where he performed in A Chorus Line, Working, and Company.
(As of January 2011)
Daniel Conway has designed more than two dozen plays for Studio Theatre including Three Sisters and No Sisters, The Aliens, and his Helen Hayes Award-winning design for Hand to God. His recent work on Macbeth for Chicago Shakespeare Theater and The Scottsboro Boys for Signature Theatre was featured in the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of World Stage Design and Performance Art. He is currently designing Singin’ in the Rain for Olney Theatre Center. Other regional credits include work for Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Cleveland Play House, Shakespeare Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Milwaukee Rep, A.R.T., The Kennedy Center, and Boston Lyric Opera. Daniel is the designer for the performance artists/magicians Penn and Teller. Awards include 14 Helen Hayes nominations and four awards for Outstanding Set Design, nominations for the Los Angeles and Boston Critics Awards, and The Anderson-Hopkins Award for Sustained Contributions to Theatre in Washington DC.
(As of August 2019)
Michael Giannitti was Resident Lighting Designer at Studio Theatre from 2006-2010; since 1991 he has designed 45 productions at Studio, including The Hard Problem, Jumpers For Goalposts, Water by the Spoonful, The New Electric Ballroom, American Buffalo, Reasons to Be Pretty, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Pillowman, and Seven Guitars (Helen Hayes Award nomination). He designed lighting for the Broadway premiere of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. His Off Broadway credits include Cross That River and Sounding Beckett. He has designed extensively for Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Dorset Theatre Festival, Capital Rep, Trinity Rep, Shakespeare & Company, and the Weston Playhouse. Giannitti has also designed for Arkansas Rep, Barrington Stage, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Virginia Stage, Indiana Rep, Portland Stage, George Street, Yale Repertory Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, and the Spoleto Festival. He has been on the faculty at Bennington College in Vermont since 1992. As a Fulbright Specialist, he taught in Romania and New Zealand, and has been a guest lecturer at the Guangxi Arts Institute in China.
(As of August 2018)
Reggie Ray has designed numerous productions at The Studio Theatre including In the Red and Brown Water, Radio Golf, My Children! My Africa!, Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins (Helen Hayes Award), Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Take Me Out, Topdog/Underdog, Lobby Hero, Hambone, Jitney, Betty’s Summer Vacation, SLAM!, Seven Guitars, Hip 2: Birth of the Boom, Two Trains Running, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, The Old Settler (Helen Hayes Award nomination), and Spunk (Helen Hayes Award). He also designed Venus, Terrence McNally: Five Short Plays, A Language of Their Own and Capote at Yaddo for The Studio 2ndStage. Other design credits include Stick Fly and Sophisticated Ladies at Arena Stage; King Hedley II at Signature Theatre Company in New York, and Emergence-See at The Public Theater. Mr. Ray is a faculty member of the Howard University Theatre Arts Department and a member of USA Local 829 IATSE.
(As of January 2011)
Erik Trester previously designed projections for the Studio Theatre productions of The Night Watcher, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Grey Gardens, A Number, This Is How It Goes, and The Long Christmas Ride Home. His Studio 2ndStage credits include The Rocky Horror Show, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Passing Strange, Fucking A, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Reefer Madness: The Musical, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, and autobahn. Mr. Trester is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin.
(As of November 2013)
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 Flow, 2.5 Minute Ride, Until the Flood, Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, 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 eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre and editor of 10 editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of May 2021)
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)