A sinister twist on high farce, this chilling tale exposes a family’s Sisyphean games as a father forces his two sons to reenact their troubled past through cross-dressing, slapstick and denial. When a young woman unwittingly intrudes, things take an irrevocable turn.
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.
The New Ireland Festival was generously underwritten by Culture Ireland, David and Helen Kenney, Virginia A. McArthur, the National Endowment for the Arts, and an anonymous donor.
Additional support was provided by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; and Toni Ritzenberg.
Called “one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre” by The Guardian, Enda Walsh’s plays have been widely produced and translated into more than 20 languages.
Born in Dublin, Walsh moved to Cork in his early twenties, where he was one of the first playwrights involved with the Corcadorca Theatre Company. The Corcadorca premiered several of his plays including Walsh’s break-through play Disco Pigs (1996), which went on to numerous productions, winning the Best Fringe Production Award of 1996 and The Critics’ Award in 1997 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Walsh also received a Stewart Parker Award for New Playwrights and the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.
Walsh again swept the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001 with Bedbound. In 2006 he won the Abbey Theatre Writer in Association Award at Ireland’s National Theatre, and The Walworth Farce premiered at Druid Ireland – solidifying his reputation as a consistently intriguing and theatrical voice in Irish theatre. By this point, Walsh had left Cork and moved to London, where he lives with his wife and daughter. The Walworth Farce garnered a Fringe First Award in 2007 and was quickly followed by Walworth’s “sister play,” The New Electric Ballroom, which won a Fringe First Award, the Herald Archangel Award and the coveted Irish Times’ Best New Play Award in 2008. His other plays include Penelope (recently seen at The Studio Theatre), as well as The Ginger Ale Boy, Sucking Dublin, Misterman, The Small Things, Pondlife Angels, Chatroom, and Delirium.
Since his initial success as a playwright, Walsh has gone on to write screenplays as well, including adaptation of his plays Disco Pigs and Chatroom. His 2008 biopic, Hunger, told the story of the final days of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and won a host of awards, including the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Heartbeat Award at the Dinard International Film Festival. It was nominated for seven British Independent Film Awards (including Best Screenplay), six British Film and Television Awards (including Best Screenplay, and Best Independent Film) and BAFTA’s Outstanding British Film Award 2009.
(As of April 2011)
Matt Torney is entering his fifth season as Associate Artistic Director at Studio, where he has previously directed If I Forget, Translations, The Hard Problem, MotherStruck!, Hedda Gabler, Jumpers for Goalposts, The New Electric Ballroom, and The Walworth Farce. Prior to his work at Studio, Matt served as the Director of Programming for Origin Theatre in New York, an Off Broadway company that specializes in European new writing. His New York credits include Stop the Tempo and Tiny Dynamite at Origin Theatre (Drama Desk Award nominee), The Twelfth Labor at Loading Dock, The Dudleys at Theatre for the New City, The Angel of History at HERE Arts, and Three Sisters and A Bright Room Called Day at the Atlantic Theatre School. Regional credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs at Theatre J (nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards), Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, and Improbable Frequency at Solas Nua (Helen Hayes Award nominee for Best Choreography). International credits include Digging for Fire and Plaza Suite with Rough Magic (National Tour), Angola workshop at the Abbey Theatre, Paisley and Me at the Grand Opera House Belfast, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Making Strange (Irish Theatre Award nominee for Best Director), and Woyzeck at Rough Magic (Best Production nominee at the Dublin Fringe Festival). Originally from Belfast, Matt holds an MFA from Columbia University.
(As of August 2019)
Ted van Griethuysen returns to Studio for The Father after appearing in Sorry, Regular Singing, That Hopey Changey Thing and Sweet and Sad (Helen Hayes Award), The Habit of Art, The Walworth Farce, Moonlight, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Invention of Love, A Number, The Steward of Christendom, and The Life of Galileo, a role he also played in London, both productions directed by David Salter. He was recently seen on the West End in three one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. A member of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s permanent acting company since 1987, he has appeared in more than 50 productions, including as Philip II in Don Carlos, John of Gaunt in Richard II, the title role in King Lear, Prospero in The Tempest, Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara, and Malvolio in Twelfth Night, also at the McCarter Theatre. He spent twenty-five years in New York, appearing on Broadway in Gore Vidal’s Romulus, The Moon Besieged, and Inadmissible Evidence (Drama Desk Award). In 1968, he and his wife Rebecca Thompson founded the Opposites Company, an acting company based on the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel. He has taught acting privately in New York and at Columbia University, the University of South Carolina, and Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the recipient of seven Helen Hayes Awards, the Will Award, and the Richard Bauer Award for Outstanding Contribution to Washington Theatre.
(As of April 2017)
Alex Morf is making his Studio Theatre debut. Other area credits include Cymbeline and The Alchemist at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. New York credits include Women Beware Women at Red Bull Theater and Viva Los Bastarditos (Audience Favorite Award at FringeNYC) at LaMama ETC. Regionally, he has appeared in The Rainmaker and The Government Inspector at the American Conservatory Theater, as well as in multiple productions at California Shakespeare Theater, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Chautauqua Theater Company, The Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, Park Square Theatre, and Frank Theatre. Television credits include The Good Wife. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College and The American Conservatory Theater.
(As of April 2011)
Aubrey Deeker was last seen at The Studio Theatre in The Cripple of Inishmaan. Other area credits include 13 plays at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and productions at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Theatre J, Olney Theatre Center, Theater Alliance, Rep Stage, Everyman Theatre, and Potomac Theatre Project. Internationally, he appeared at The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in Love’s Labour’s Lost. New York credits include two Thornton Wilder one-acts at The Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He has appeared in world-premiere works by David Ives, Ken Ludwig, Naomi Iizuka, David Grimm, and Snu Wilson. Film and television credits include True Blood, The Wire , Leave No Marine Behind, and The Seer. He is a graduate of The North Carolina School of the Arts.
(As of April 2011)
Azania Dungee makes her Studio Theatre debut in The Walworth Farce. Other area credits include My First Time at Rasa Arts Collective; Much Ado About Nothing (U/S Beatrice) at The Folger Theatre; It’s Not Easy Being Green at Journeyman Theatre; as well as various productions with the Discovery Theatre, and a series of staged readings with Theatre Lab at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She can be seen in the daily program Join the Student Sit-ins at the National Museum of American History. New York credits include productions with Quo Vadimus Theatre, Dreamscape Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
(As of April 2011)
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)
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)
Helen Huang designs her 29th production at Studio with White Pearl. Her regional credits include Alice in Wonderland at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Great Leap at Guthrie Theater; Matilda the Musical at The Children’s Theatre, Minneapolis; and Miss Bennet and Christmas at Pemberley at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. DC area credits include JQA at Arena Stage; A Doll’s House, Part 2 at Roundhouse; Fences at Ford’s Theatre; Me…Jane at The Kennedy Center; and Fickle: A Fancy French Farce at Olney Theatre Center. She has received a Helen Hayes Award and an Ivey Award. Helen is a professor of MFA Costume Design at University of Maryland, College Park.
(As of October 2019)
Martin Desjardins is in his 10th Season as the Resident Sound Designer and Audio Supervisor for The Shakespeare Theatre Company/Harman Center for the Arts. Mr. Desjardins is also a freelance composer and designer in the United States and abroad. Credits include productions with The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Centerstage, The Huntington Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Off Broadway credits include The Scene, columbinus, Below the Belt, and Gunshy, as well as North Atlantic and House/Lights with The Wooster Group. International credits include R.E.M. in Norway; Embracing the Riddle at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Death of a Salesman in Toronto; and Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Sound Design in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Mr. Desjardins has also received a Lucille Lortel Award for columbinus with New York Theatre Workshop. He trained at Yale School of Drama and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
(As of April 2011)
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)
Sarah Wallace is The Studio Theatre’s Associate Literary Manager/Dramaturg and has served as dramaturg for Adding Machine, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Blackbird, among others. She has also worked with American Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. She has lectured on theatre at Harvard, Brandeis, and Boston Universities. Ms. Wallace holds an M.F.A. from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre Institute at Harvard University and a B.A. from Oberlin College.
(As of April 2011)
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)
Augustus Heagerty recently served as Assistant Director on The Comedy of Errors at The Folger Theatre; Hamlet at Seattle Shakespeare Company; Snow White, Rose Red and Fred! at The Kennedy Center; and The Good Book of Pedantry and Wonder at The Theatre @ Boston Court. Upcoming projects include assisting on The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwright’s Horizons and directing Who Killed Captain Kirk? at the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival. Mr. Heagerty is the 2010-2011 Kenan Directing Fellow at The Kennedy Center. He holds a B.F.A. in Directing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
(As of April 2011)
Nancy Krebs returns to Studio Theatre, where she previously served as Dialect/Vocal Coach for Constellations (Helen Hayes Award-winning production), Animal (world premiere), The Habit of Art (American Premiere), and The Enda Walsh Festival: The New Electric Ballroom and The Walworth Farce. She has been the Resident Dialect/Vocal Coach for the Annapolis Shakespeare Company for the past five years, coaching over 35 productions during her tenure at ASC. Her most recent credits are The Glass Menagerie, Blithe Spirit, A Christmas Carol, Much Ado About Nothing, Alice and the Book of Wonderland, The Tempest, and Richard III. Ms. Krebs has served in this capacity for hundreds of professional productions in the region since 1994, working with other notable companies as Theater J, Baltimore Center Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Everyman Theatre, and Rep Stage in Columbia. Ms. Krebs teaches the Lessac Voice & Body Training at the Baltimore School for the Arts, operates her own voice studio The Voiceworks, is an accomplished musician/singer/songwriter, and belongs to AEA, AFTRA, SAG, and VASTA
(As of March 2018)