In the cramped kitchen of an Asian restaurant, four cooks pull the tooth of a young Chinese co-worker. His tooth ends up in the Thai soup of a flight attendant—who overhears the fight of a young couple who live above the restaurant, whose fighting disturbs the shopkeeper of the dry goods store next door to the restaurant, who is more connected to the young Chinese man than anyone suspects.
A kaleidoscopic look at a globalized world, this play by one of Germany’s most innovative and adventurous writers unfolds in brief and fierce comic scenes. Five actors cross age, race, and gender to play fifteen characters in this vicious, poetic, and surprisingly moving investigation of how intertwined our lives really are.
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Studio's production of The Golden Dragon.
Studio Theatre 2011-2012 Season was generously underwritten by Robert and Arlene Kogod.
Underwriting for the International Plays of the 2011-2012 Season was provided by an anonymous donor.
This production of The Golden Dragon was underwritten by Joan and David Maxwell and Virginia A. McArthur.
Roland Schimmelpfennig is Germany’s most produced playwright. Born in Göttingen, Germany in 1967, he first became interested in drama at the town’s small regional theatre. He went straight from high school to Istanbul, where he spent much of the 1980s working as a journalist. Upon his return to Germany, he studied directing and spent several years working at Kammerspiele, Munich’s flagship theatre, while writing plays.
In 1996, Schimmelpfennig had his first professional production and started writing full-time. He received his first major writing award in 1997, and in 2001 wrote his breakout hit, The Arabian Night. Based in part on his experiences in Istanbul, the play took Germany by storm. The piece started in the state theatre of Stuttgart and exploded across Germany, produced at theatres in nearly every German city, and then around the world—a path many of his subsequent plays would follow.
Frankfurt’s leading paper, the Rundschau, has declared Schimmelpfennig “the leading German dramatist.” Having written more than 30 plays in the last 15 years, he is undeniably one of the most prolific. His plays include Hier und Jetzt (Here and Now), Die Frau von früher (The Woman from the Past), Vorher/Nachher (Before/Afterwards), Die arabische Nacht (The Arabian Night), Push-up 1-3, Peggy Pickit sieht das Gesicht Gottes (Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God), and Der goldene Drache (The Golden Dragon).
The Golden Dragon was awarded the Mühlheimer Dramatists Award and was chosen as Theater heute’s Play of the Year in 2010. Schimmelpfennig’s writing has won most of the prestigious prizes in Germany, including the 1997 Else-Lasker-Schüler Prize for Fisch um Fisch (Fish to Fish), the Nestroy Prize for Best Young Author in 2002, and the Nestroy Prize for the Best Play for Besuch bei dem Vater (Visit with the Father) in 2009. In 2010, Schimmelpfennig received the highest playwriting award in Germany, the Else-Lasker-Schüler Prize, to honor his body of work.
(As of October 2011)
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)
Amir Darvish is pleased to be in DC with The Studio Theatre. His New York theatre credits include Taxi to Janna, Falling, Homeland, Shoes, Dinner with Ahmed, Mona’s Dream, and the critically acclaimed Off Broadway one-man show about Freddie Mercury, Mercury: The Afterlife & Times of a Rock God. Regional theatre credits include Single Lives at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre; SubUrbia at SpeakEasy Stage Company; and Rafta, Rafta at the Old Globe Theatre. Mr. Darvish is the recipient of the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in Psych and a 2009 Midtown International Theatre Best Actor nominee for The Higher Education of Khalid Amir. In addition to voiceover and commercial work, Mr. Darvish has appeared in numerous film and television productions, including Month to Month, Charlie Wilson’s War, Confessions, Trooper, The Pink Panther, October Haze, Atlas Mountains, Love Magical, Bar Karma, Running Wilde, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Human Giant, Late Show with David Letterman, Spin City, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, The Unusuals, NYPD Blue, and Damages.
(As of October 2011)
Joseph Anthony Foronda makes his Studio Theatre debut. His Chicago credits include Yellow Face and Durango at Silk Road Rising, Annie Get Your Gun with Patti LuPone at the Ravinia Festival, Yeast Nation at American Theater Company, The Romance of Magno Rubio at Victory Gardens Theater, Let the Eagle Fly at Goodman Theatre’s Latino Theatre Festival, A Year with Frog and Toad at Chicago Children’s Theater, Miss Saigon and The King and I at Drury Lane Oakbook, Urinetown at the Mercury Theater, and Pacific Overtures at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Mr. Foronda’s regional credits include Les Miserables and The King and I at Weston Playhouse, Flower Drum Song at American Music Theatre San Jose, Miss Saigon at Theatre Under the Stars, and The Fantasticks at East West Players (directed by Mako). He has been seen on Broadway in the 2004 revival of Pacific Overtures with BD Wong, Miss Saigon with Lea Salonga (as well as both National Tours), and James Clavell’s SHOGUN: The Musical. In London, he appeared in the Olivier Award-winning Pacific Overtures at the Donmar Warehouse. Film credits include Contagion and Formosa Betrayed.
(As of October 2011)
Sarah Marshall returns to Studio Theatre for Doubt: A Parable after appearing in Admissions last season. Sarah has the honor of having performed at Studio Theatre more than any other performer in its history. Some of her Studio credits include The Apple Family Cycle, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Prometheus, Betty’s Summer Vacation, Three Sisters, Miss Margarida’s Way, Sylvia, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Baltimore Waltz, When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout, My Sister in this House, Playing for Time, A Taste of Honey, The Visit, and Medea. She has performed at many Washington theatres including Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Signature Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Sarah has taught acting for 30 years and currently teaches at Georgetown University.
KK Moggie is excited to make her Studio Theatre debut with The Golden Dragon. Her Off Broadway appearances include Bottom of the World at Atlantic Theater Company, The Bereaved with Partial Comfort Productions, Grace with MCC, and Richard III at Classic Stage Company. Ms. Moggie also workshopped Macbeth 1969 with the Long Wharf Theatre, now a part of their 2012 season. Her television credits include New Zealand’s Street Legal and The Strip. She was also a core cast member on NBC’s Mercy and can soon be seen in a recurring role as Dr. Barnes on the CW’s Gossip Girl. Film credits include Anna and the King with Jodie Foster and The Sleeping Dictionary with Jessica Alba.
(As of October 2011)
Chris Myers is thrilled to be making his Studio Theatre debut. Recent credits include 10x25 at Atlantic Theater Company, Youth Ink! at The McCarter Theatre, The Others Project at New York Theater Workshop, and Brave New Works at The Connelly Theater. He is the co-founder of Special Sauce Company, a young theatre company focusing on unique presentations of collaborative work, which is currently developing a musical. Mr. Myers is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School, where his favorite roles include Astrov, Othello, and Captain Bluntschli.
(As of October 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)
Evan Rogers makes his Studio Theatre design debut with The Golden Dragon. Past designs include Madness and Civilization and The Omnivore’s Dilemma with Georgetown University’s Performing Arts Center. Recent performances of his music include the premiere of his song cycle Six Significant Landscapes at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France and Trio for two violins and viola at the 33rd San Miguel de Allende International Chamber Music Festival. As a music technologist, Mr. Rogers has been assisting in the development of spatial audio software tools for use in music and sound at VRSonic, Inc in Arlington, VA. He holds a BS in Music Technology from Northeastern University and an MM in Composition from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University.
(As of October 2011)
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)
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)
Jamila Reddy is the Artistic Apprentice at The Studio Theatre, and is thrilled to be working on Bachelorette. At The Studio Theatre, she served as assistant director on Sucker Punch, Time Stands Still, The Golden Dragon, and The Habit of Art. She is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received a BA in both Dramatic Art and Sociology. She directed several productions at the undergraduate level, including the premiere of Kind of Blue, an original play by Kuamel Winston Stewart, and Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. For her contributions to the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC, Jamila received the Richard and Christopher Edward Adler Award for Excellence in Dramatic Art (2010) and the Louise Lamont Award for Excellence (2011).
(As of May 2012)
