Five generations share the moments, both epic and intimate, that make a life. From the excitement and awkwardness of a first date to the grief of watching a parent fade, The Big Meal portrays the arc of a family’s experience from a single restaurant table at a chain restaurant. Called “one of the more emotionally consuming experiences of recent decades” (Chicago Sun Times), The Big Meal explodes from the mind of one of the country’s most intriguing playwrights.
2ndStage is Studio’s playground for emerging artists, offering innovative and thrillingly eclectic programming with shorter rehearsal periods and smaller budgets than our other productions, with a spirit of exuberance and experiment.
The 2011-2012 season of the Studio 2ndStage was generously underwritten by Don and Nancy Bliss
and A. Fenner Milton.
Dan LeFranc received the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, premiered by Page 73 Productions and SoHo Rep. His other plays include Origin Story, Bruise Easy, Night Surf, In The Labyrinth, The Fishbone Fables, Backyard, Kill The Keepers, and Catgut. The Big Meal received its world premiere at American Theater Company in Chicago and its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. LeFranc’s awards include the Whitfield Cook Award, the John C. Russell Fellowship, a Djerassi Resident Artists Program Fellowship, and a MacDowell Colony/Alpert Foundation Residency. He has been commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and American Theatre Company in Chicago. He is a proud member of New Dramatists, the MCC Playwrights Coalition, and a former member of the SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab. A graduate of the MFA playwriting program at Brown University, LeFranc served as visiting faculty in Literary Arts at Brown and head playwriting instructor of the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium.
(As of April 2012)
THE STUDIO THEATRE 2NDSTAGE: The Big Meal. NEW YORK – OFF BROADWAY: Buried Words, NY International Fringe Festival; Mr. Crossover, Sam French Short Play Festival; Mine, Bright Young Things; BillyJoelTookMeToTheProm.Com, American Globe Theatre. REGIONAL: No Child…, Weston Playhouse. LOCAL: Apples From the Desert, Theatre J. ACADEMIC: The Mistakes Madeline Made, University of California, San Diego (artist-in-residence); The Cocktail Party, Johns Hopkins University (director-in-residence). ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: Angels in America (dir. Daniel Kramer, London & UK tour); Compulsion (dir. Oskar Eustis, The Public Theater); The Human Scale (dir. Oskar Eustis, The Public Theater and The Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv). TRANSLATOR: This Great Sea by Yosef Bar-Yosef; The Admission by Motti Lerner.
(As of April 2013)
LOCAL: Siren, Mayzsoul Dance Company; Stage Door, American Century Theater; Have Your Cake, Warehouse Theater; Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, The Keegan Theatre; Beauty and the Beast (selections), Wolftrap International Children’s Festival. TRAINING: The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of April 2012)
NEW YORK: Balm in Gilead. REGIONAL: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Ion Theatre; True West, Lotus Theatre; Pagan Play, Moving Parts Theatre; The Tutor, Vox Nova; Woyzeck, The Mistakes Madeline Made, Betty’s Summer Vacation, Waiting For Lefty, The Distance from Here, University of California, San Diego. EDUCATION: University of California, San Diego, BA Theater and Political Science.
(As of April 2012)
NEW YORK – Off Broadway: Slow Children, The Public Theater; Vera’s Place, Cucaracha Theatre. REGIONAL: Beach Blanket Sunday, The Groundlings Theatre. LOCAL: The Sound of Palin, The Atlas Theater; The Vagina Monologues, Silver Spring Stage; Aquarium, Imagination Stage. INTERNATIONAL: Woyzeck, The Edinburgh Festival. TV: Chelsea Lately. FILM: The Brothers Solomon, Revolution. EDUCATION: Royal Academy of Arts, London; Bennington College, BA in Drama.
(As of April 2012)
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)
LOCAL: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Synetic Theatre; Annie, Rockville Musical Theatre; Gypsy, The Little Theatre of Alexandria; Annie Get Your Gun, City of Fairfax Theatre Company; The Music Man, Peter Pan, Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theater. HONORS: 2012 Washington Area Theatre Community Honors Nomination for Lead Actress in a Musical (Annie), 2010 Little Theatre of Alexandria Junior Performer of the Year (Gypsy). TRAINING: Synetic Teen Company.
(As of April 2012)
THE STUDIO THEATRE: The Habit of Art. THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (voiceover). LOCAL: Night and Day, Washington Shakespeare Company. EDUCATION: The Field School, The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of April 2012)
LOCAL: As You Like It and others, Folger Theatre; Present Laughter, Olney Theatre Center; The Seagull, Rep Stage; Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Synetic Theater; The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore and others, WSC Avant Bard; Seascape and others, American Century Theater; Three Sisters, Constellation Theatre; You Are Here, Theater Alliance; bobrauschenbergamerica, Forum Theatre.
(As of April 2012)
THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Hot Fudge. LOCAL: Mad Forest, Forum Theatre; Public Enemy, Dublin Carol, Romulus the Great, Our Jane, SCENA Theatre; Playing With Fire, Washington Shakespeare Company; Benefactors, Wordstage.
(As of April 2012)
BROADWAY: Fela! (Associate Designer/Broadway, West End, Africa, Amsterdam, US and UK Tour) NEW YORK: Ars Nova, Culture Project. DANCE: Doug Varone, Cedar Lake Dance. REGIONAL: Yale Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Williamstown, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Weston Playhouse, Northern Stage, North Shore Music Theatre, Maltz Jupiter, Florida Stage. FILM: Margot at the Wedding. TELEVISION: The Today Show, Football Night in America. EDUCATION: BFA, North Carolina School of the Arts; MFA, Yale School of Drama.
(As of April 2012)
John Burkland returns to The Studio Theatre, where he has designed Souvenir and multiple Studio 2ndStage productions, including The Big Meal, Mojo, Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, A Beautiful View, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, Frozen, TempOdyssey, and All That I Will Ever Be. He has also designed locally for Theater Alliance, Longacre Lea, MetroStage, The Bay Theater, Washington Shakespeare Company, Rorschach Theater, and the Kennedy Center. New York credits include productions at Lincoln Center Institute, La MaMa, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Manhattan Music and Movement Center, Sonnet Repertory, HB Playwrights Studio, Guggenheim Arts in Process, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Skirball Center, the New York Fringe Festival, and Summer Play Festival. Regionally, Mr. Burkland has designed at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Paper Mill Playhouse, Opera Tampa, Bellingham Theater Guild, Actors Theater of Atlanta, Andrea Dance, Big Apple Circus To Go, and The Dance Gallery. He is a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts.
(As of October 2012)
Elisheba Ittoop is a sound designer, composer, and audio producer. She returns to Studio having designed for The Big Meal, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, That Face, and The Receptionist. She has produced podcasts and written music for NPR, CNN, Audible, WGBH, Futuro Media, WFMT Radio Network and Glimmerglass Opera Festival, Wonder Media, Pinna, Three Uncanny Four, and others. Her sound designs and original music for theatre have been heard at The Kennedy Center, The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, and many others across the country. She has created sound and music installations for the Bonnaroo Music Festival and the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival. She has an MFA in Sound Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a BFA in Theatre from New York University. elishebaittoop.com.
(As of February 2021)
LOCAL: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, Adventure Theatre; Rent, The Seagull, They are of Threaded Glass, Gilgamesh, University of Maryland. REGIONAL: Altar Boyz, Phoenix Theatre; The Winter’s Tale, Southwest Shakespeare; The Bluest Eye, Black Theatre Troupe. AWARDS: 2009 ariZoni Award in Excellence in Costume Design for Youth Theatre, National Youth Theatre Award in Excellence in Costume Design. EDUCATION: BA, University of Tulsa; MFA, University of Maryland.
(As of June 2012)
Lauren Halvorsen is in her ninth season as Studio’s Associate Literary Director. Her dramaturgy credits here include Doubt, P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, Admissions, Kings, If I Forget, Vietgone, The Wolves, Skeleton Crew, The Father, Three Sisters, The Hard Problem, Hand to God, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, The Wolfe Twins, Belleville, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, The Real Thing, The Motherfucker with the Hat, The Aliens, Bachelorette, The Big Meal, and Time Stands Still. Previously, Lauren spent three seasons as Literary Manager of The Alley Theatre. She was the Artistic Associate of the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory for six years and has worked in various artistic capacities for The Kennedy Center, City Theatre Company, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, First Person Arts Festival, and The Wilma Theater. Lauren is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.
THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Frozen (u/s). THE STUDIO THEATRE: The Solid Gold Cadillac (u/s), Moonlight (u/s), The Long Christmas Ride Home (u/s), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (u/s). LOCAL: Richard III, Small Craft Warnings, Peace, Red Noses, Caligula, Edward III and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, WSC Avant Bard; The Country Girl, Seascape, Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Hellzapoppin, MacBird!, Tea and Sympathy, and Paradise Lost, American Century Theater; Life’s a Dream, Journeymen Theatre.
(As of April 2012)
