Arthur Przybyszewski, a burnt-out hippie whose guilt over avoiding military service has alienated everyone he loves, has little interest in life anymore. Even an act of vandalism to his donut shop, Superior Donuts, which outrages his irascible neighbor Max, an ambitious Russian immigrant with designs on purchasing the shop, fails to bring Arthur out of his haze. However, when a charismatic young African-American man named Franco Wicks talks his way into a job, Arthur begins to recover his spark. He begins paying attention to the female police officer with a crush on him, connects with the local homeless woman who stops in for free donuts and encourages Franco’s goal of publishing the next Great American novel. When Luther Flynn, a middle-aged gangster, and his thug Kevin confront Franco about an outstanding debt, Arthur takes the matter into his own hands.
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 Superior Donuts was generously underwritten by Steve and Linda Skalet and Lizbeth Dobbins.
Tracy Letts was born in 1965 to an artistic Southern family in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Encouraged by his parents, he dropped out of college and moved to Dallas to become a professional actor. By the age of twenty, Letts moved to Chicago. Soon after, he began acting with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he is still an active ensemble member. The displaced Southerner now calls Chicago his home.
Mr. Letts is the author of the plays Superior Donuts, August: Osage County, Killer Joe, Bug, Man From Nebraska (named one of Time Magazine’s Top Ten Plays of 2003), and an adaptation of Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters. Even as his reputation as a playwright grows, Letts continues to regularly act in leading roles. At the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, he has performed in such productions as Homebody/Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross, Three Days of Rain, and Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Film and television appearances include Guinevere, U.S. Marshalls, Chicago Cab, The District, Profiler, The Drew Carey Show, Home Improvement, and Seinfeld. Mr. Letts made his directing debut at the Lookingglass Theatre with Glen Berger’s play Great Men of Science, No’s 21 & 22.
Mr. Letts was the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play August: Osage County. He is currently writing the screenplay for The Weinstein Company.
Mr. Letts’s latest play Superior Donuts opened on Broadway in October of 2009.
(As of November 2010)
Serge Seiden directed Studio’s hit production of Bad Jews (which broke Studio box office records) and returned by popular demand in the 2015-2016 season. Bad Jews was nominated for 4 2015 Helen Hayes Awards including Outstanding Director. Seiden also directed all four plays in the Apple Family Cycle: That Hopey Changey Thing and Sweet and Sad (2013) and Sorry and Regular Singing (2015). Seiden is now the Managing Director/Producer of Mosaic Theater Company of DC, the area's only theater devoted to social justice. Seiden directed Everett Quinton's A Tale of Two Cities at Synetic Theater and Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing! at Olney Theatre Center. From 1990 to 2015 Seiden held many positions at Studio Theatre including Production Stage Manager, Literary Manager, and Producing Director. In 2013 he received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director/Resident Musical for Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris… at MetroStage. Other Studio Theatre credits include The Motherfucker with the Hat, The Golden Dragon, Superior Donuts, In the Red and Brown Water, Grey Gardens, and My Children! My Africa! He also directed Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins, which received three Helen Hayes Awards and five Helen Hayes Award nominations including Outstanding Director and Outstanding Resident Play; A New Brain, which received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Resident Musical; and Old Wicked Songs, which received seven Helen Hayes nominations, including Outstanding Director. Additional Studio credits include The Long Christmas Ride Home, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Black Milk, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The York Realist, Two Sisters and a Piano, Blue Heart, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and A Class Act. For Studio 2ndStage, Mr. Seiden directed Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, All That I Will Ever Be, This Is Our Youth, Ecstasy, Mad Forest, Hot Fudge, Sincerity Forever, and Durang/Durang. His theatre for young audiences productions at Adventure Theatre MTC—A Little House Christmas and Charlotte’s Web—were both nominated for Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Production/Theatre for Young Audiences. He has directed several readings for the annual Zeitgeist Festival at the Goethe-Institut and Moth for the National New Play Network. For 20 years Seiden has been a member of the faculty of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, where he trained as an actor and director. Serge is a graduate of Swarthmore College.
(As of December 2015)
Gregor Paslawsky has performed at theatres throughout the country including in The Kite Runner at San Jose Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company; The Unseen with Actors Theatre of Louisville; Pericles, Two Noble Kinsman, and As You Like It at San Diego’s The Old Globe; Travesties, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and The Skin of Our Teeth at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; and Inana at The Contemporary American Theater Festival. In New York, he has worked with Katt Lissard on her piece Outpost and performed in numerous productions with Mixed Mess@ge including The Sadness of Others, Pegleg!, and Not Knowing. He is delighted to be making his Studio Theatre debut.
(As of November 2010)
Julie-Ann Elliott previously appeared in Chimerica and Superior Donuts at Studio Theatre. Select credits include Marjorie Prime, The Tempest, Angel Street, Dinner with Friends, The Constant Wife, The Millionairess, Hedda Gabler, The Mousetrap, Blithe Spirit, Tartuffe, and Trip to Bountiful at Olney Theatre, where she is an Artistic Associate. Elsewhere in the DC/Baltimore area, she has performed with Center Stage, Everyman Theatre, Folger Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Metro Stage, Potomac Theatre Project, Rep Stage, Round House Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Theater J, and Washington Stage Guild. Her television/film credits include Veep, Jamesy Boy and Really Love. Ms. Elliott is a Senior Adjunct of Acting at Howard Community College and narrates books for Potomac Talking Book Services, Inc. She holds an M.F.A. in Acting from The Catholic University of America.
(As of August 2018)
Jason McIntosh returns to The Studio Theatre where he previously appeared in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Jerry Springer: The Opera (2009 Helen Hayes Nominee for Best Ensemble) and Fucking A in The Studio 2ndStage. He recently appeared in Twisted at the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival; The Constellation at Active Cultures Theatre; The F Word at The Inkwell; and Antigone at Forum Theatre. Jason is a graduate of The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of November 2010)
Barbara Broughton last appeared at The Studio Theatre as Big Edie in Grey Gardens. She has performed on Broadway in Music Music at City Center and Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. Her Off Broadway credits include Grey Gardens at Playwrights Horizons; Concertina’s Rainbow at The Cherry Lane Theatre; The Red Truck at The Epic Theatre; Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller at The Lamb’s Theatre; A Little Night Music at York Theatre; and Pets at Theatre East. Regional appearances include The Bird Sanctuary and Beauty and The Beast at Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Pride and Prejudice at Dallas Theatre Center; The Price at Northern Stage; Les Liaisons Dangereuses and George Washington Slept Here at Pittsburgh Public Theatre; My Fair Lady at Pioneer Theatre; Quilters at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville; and Dolly in Hello Dolly at The Hangar Theatre. National Tours include Company, Cover Girls, and George M! Television and film appearances include Law and Order, The Sunset Gang (PBS), and The Producers Movie Musical.
(As of November 2010)
Richard Cotovsky is a founding member of Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. in Chicago and is their current Artistic Director. He has performed there in many productions including as Dodge in Buried Child, Davies in The Caretaker, Weston in Curse of the Starving Class, Paddy in The Hairy Ape, Edmond in Edmond, Stanley in The Birthday Party, Max in The Homecoming, Eddie in Fool for Love, and Azdak in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. He performed in Mother Courage and her Children and The Time of Your Life at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and he also understudied the role of Arthur in Superior Donuts at Steppenwolf. Mr. Cotovsky has performed at numerous Chicago theatres including Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, The Hypocrites, Strawdog Theatre Company, and Red Orchid Theatre. He also toured with Remains Theater as Melville in Moby Dick. He will soon be seen in the movies Janie Jones and A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas and in the television series Ride Along.
(As of November 2010)
Johnny Ramey makes his Studio Theatre debut with Superior Donuts. He has appeared Off Broadway as Fedotik in Three Sisters with the Classical Theatre of Harlem; Hector in God is A Puerto Rican at Manhattan Theatre Source; and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Nylon Fusion Collective. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Ramey performed there as Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog, Seth in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Flip in Our Lady of 121st Street, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Jackson in St. James Infirmary, Kent in King Lear, Posthumous in Cymbeline and Antigonus in The Winter’s Tale. His film appearances include A Happy Ending, Prodigal, The Three Way, and Sealed.
(As of November 2010)
THE STUDIO THEATRE: Superior Donuts, Shining City. BROADWAY: Shining City. NEW YORK – Off Broadway: The Other Side, Manhattan Theatre Club; Rose Rage, The Duke on 42nd St. REGIONAL: King Lear, The Goodman; The Seafarer, TheatreWorks; King John, Rose Rage, and others, Chicago Shakespeare. LOCAL: King Lear, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline, Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare Theatre Company; Cyrano, Othello, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Folger Theatre.
(As of April 2012)
Logan Bennett is delighted to make his professional debut at The Studio Theatre. Other credits include Christy in The Playboy of the Western World, the Young Mariner in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Charles Lang in The Water Engine at Tidewater Community College. He has also appeared in Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and As You Like It for TCC's annual Shakespeare in the Grove; and as Katurian in The Pillowman at Source Theatre in Norfolk, VA. Mr. Bennett also recently completed a summer workshop at the Atlantic Acting School in New York City.
(As of November 2010)
Aaron Tone has been onstage at The Studio Theatre twice before in The Pillowman and in The Studio 2ndStage’s All That I Will Ever Be. Mr. Tone has also appeared as Shane Mungitt in Take Me Out with Counter Productions; Dr. Gibbs in Our Town at CTEK Arts; and Frank Stark in Slap & Tickle. He received his B.A. in Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI and is a graduate of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of November 2010)
Russell Metheny has designed more than 50 productions at The Studio Theatre over the past thirty-five years. Some of his Studio Theatre designs include Superior Donuts, American Buffalo, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Seafarer, Grey Gardens, The History Boys, Shining City, Ivanov, Topdog/Underdog, The York Realist, A Class Act, The Play About the Baby, The Invention of Love, Indian Ink, bash, Far East, The Three Sisters, and The Slab Boys Trilogy. His regional credits include productions at Indiana Repertory Theatre, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre, Portland Stage Company, and Weston Playhouse. Recent productions include A Little Night Music, Blithe Spirit, The House That Jack Built, 1776, My Fair Lady, Jekyll and Hyde, Two Gentlemen of Verona. Upcoming productions include Philadelphia, Here I Come! for Asolo Repertory Theatre and 1776 for American Contemporary Theatre in San Francisco, both with director Frank Galati.
(As of March 2013)
Peter West returns to Studio Theatre, where he previously designed Torch Song Trilogy and Superior Donuts. His recent designs include The Importance of Being Earnest with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Zero Cost House with Pig Iron Theatre Company, and The Mystery of Irma Vep at Red Bull Theater. His work has been seen throughout the United States and in Europe, Japan, and South America in theatres such as the Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, California Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Geva Theatre Center, The Barbican, Denver Center Theatre Company, the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, and the American Dance Festival. He has designed more than 40 productions for the Drama Division of The Juilliard School and has been an adjunct lecturer at Williams College and Brooklyn College. Mr. West is an artistic associate of Red Bull Theater.
(As of September 2014)
Kate Turner-Walker has previously designed costumes for Reasons to Be Pretty, Blackbird, This is How it Goes, Red Light Winter and Fat Pig at The Studio Theatre. Ms. Turner-Walker’s other design credits include How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, The Little Prince, A Prayer for Owen Meany and A Murder a Mystery and a Marriage at Round House Theatre; Arcadia, Henry IV Part 1, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helen Hayes Nomination), The Game of Love and Chance, Much Ado About Nothing, Clandestine Marriage and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Helen Hayes Nomination) at the Folger Theatre; Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Vigils, Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis, Starving, and many more at The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Ms. Turner-Walker holds an MFA in Costume Design and is a member of United Scenic Artists.
(As of November 2010)
Gil Thompson designed more than 70 productions at The Studio Theatre over the last 20 years, for which he received six Helen Hays Award nominations. He was awarded the Helen Hayes Award for The Studio Theatre’s Indian Ink. More recently, his work was heard at The Studio Theatre in Superior Donuts, Moonlight, Rock’n’Roll, Grey Gardens, The Road to Mecca, The History Boys, Shining City, The Pillowman, Souvenir, and A Number. He was sound engineer for The Passion of the Crawford, and he also designed lights and sound for Crestfall, directed by Joy Zinoman, for The Studio 2ndStage. Other credits include Black Milk, Far Away, Privates on Parade and The Invention of Love at The Studio Theatre; Angel’s Voices and Children of the Sun at The Kennedy Center and several productions at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. He has also worked at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Source Theatre, Horizons Theatre, Theater of the First Amendment and The Opera Camerata of Washington. He is Production Stage Manager for The Christmas Revels and Resident Lighting Designer and Technical Director for Sidwell Friends School.
(As of November 2010)
Robb Hunter has directed violence for more than 20 Studio productions including Vietgone, The Effect, Hand to God, Bad Jews, Belleville, The Motherfucker with the Hat, Reasons to be Pretty, Invisible Man, Superior Donuts, American Buffalo, Red Speedo (Helen Hayes nomination for choreography) and The Walworth Farce (Helen Hayes nomination). He also directs movement/violence for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth (where he received a Helen Hayes Award for HIR and nomination for An Octoroon), Signature Theatre, and many others. He is a member of SDC, AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and is a Certified Fight Director for the Society of American Fight Directors. He is on faculty at The Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting, is the Choreographer in Residence at American University and is a teaching artist for the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of February 2019)
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)