The night after their grandfather’s funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal battle royale over a family heirloom. In one corner is “Super Jew” Daphna: volatile, self-assured, and unbending. In the other, Liam: secular, entitled, and just as stubborn. And in the middle, Liam’s brother Jonah tries to stay out of the fray and honor his grandfather’s memory on his own. A savage comedy about family, faith, and legacy.
Runtime: This performance will run approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes with no intermission.
Bad Jews is generously underwritten
by Albert Lauber and Craig Hoffman
Joshua Harmon’s plays include Bad Jews (Roundabout Theatre Company), Significant Other (Roundabout Theatre Company; Broadway/Booth Theatre), Admissions (Lincoln Center Theater); Ivanka (staged readings across the country on Election Eve, 2016) and Skintight (upcoming at Roundabout Theatre Company). Bad Jews is one of the most produced plays in the United States of the last few years and has received international productions in Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, South Africa, and London’s West End, following sold-out runs at Theatre Royal Bath and the St. James. Fellowships include the MacDowell Colony, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and NNPN. Joshua is an associate artist at Roundabout Theatre Company and under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
(As of June 2018)
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)
Irene Sofia Lucio was recently seen as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at California Shakespeare Theater. Her other regional theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet and Master Builder at Yale Repertory Theatre, After the Revolution and Golden Gate at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Amadeus at the Chautauqua Theater Festival. Her New York credits include the Broadway production of Wit with Cynthia Nixon and Off Broadway productions that include: Love and Information at New York Theatre Workshop, We Play for the Gods at the Women’s Project, and Estrella Cruz (the Junkyard Queen) at Ars Nova. Her other credits include Gossip Girl, the film Stranded in Paradise, and the HBO Latino film Casi Casi. Ms. Lucio was a recipient of the Herschel Williams Award for Outstanding Ability in Acting in 2011 and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama Graduate Acting Program. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature and Theater Studies from Princeton University.
(As of October 2014)
Alex Mandell is making his Studio Theatre debut. Mr. Mandell’s New York credits include Hand to God at MCC, Sleep No More, and the New York premiere of Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love at The Flea Theater. His DC-area work includes Never the Sinner at 1st Stage, which received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble, and he was most recently seen in Awake and Sing at Olney Theatre Center. Regionally, he has appeared at Powerhouse Theater and Allentown Shakespeare in the Park. Mr. Mandell trained at LAMDA and is a proud graduate of the Boston University School of Theatre.
(As of October 2014)
Joe Paulik is excited to make his Studio Theatre debut. His Off Broadway credits include P.S. Jones and the Frozen City (New Ohio Theatre), Timon of Athens (The Public Theater/NYSF), A Feminine Ending (Playwrights Horizons), The Sporting Life (Vineyard Theatre), Measure for Measure (45 Bleecker Street Theater), and a staged reading of The Good Smoke with Meryl Streep (The Public Theater/NYSF). His regional credits include The Power of Duff (Huntington Theatre Company); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Twelfth Night (Hartford Stage); Moonchildren (Berkshire Theatre Group, dir. Karen Allen); Major Barbara (Guthrie Theater); Old Wicked Songs opposite Michael Cristofer (Westport Country Playhouse); and Eurydice, Cabaret & Main, and Kilroy Was Here (Williamstown Theatre Festival). His television credits include Guiding Light, The Good Wife, and Person of Interest. Mr. Paulik holds an MFA from New York University’s graduate acting program and completed the Shakespeare course of study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
(As of October 2014)
Maggie Wilder appeared in both the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 productions of Bad Jews at Studio Theatre. Ms. Wilder was recently seen in When She Had Wings at Imagination Stage. Her other DC credits include Rapture, Blister, Burn at Round House Theatre, The BFG with National Children’s Theatre, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at Adventure Theatre-MTC, Abominable and Failure: A Love Story (2015 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play — Helen Production) at The HUB Theatre, and Edgar & Annabel at Studio 2ndStage. Ms. Wilder will be seen later this season in An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She is a recipient of Boston University’s Award for Theatrical Collaboration and interned with the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney, Australia. Ms. Wilder is a graduate of Boston University and holds a BFA in Acting/Theatre Arts.
(As of December 2015)
Sara Dabney Tisdale was recently seen in Bad Jews at Studio Theatre. Her other credits include The T Party at Forum Theatre; Yentl at Theater J; The Minotaur at Rorschach Theatre; A Little Trick at Quotidian Theatre Company; National Smoke Signal Day, Northern Indiana Wildlife Preserve, and The Old Grey Devil at The Source Festival; SubUrbia at LiveArts Charlottesville; The Scarlet Letter with WAMU Public Radio and Lean and Hungry Theater; POP! with Studio 2ndStage; and Pippin at the Edinburgh International Fringe. Ms. Tisdale has understudied roles and performed in workshops and staged readings with various local companies including Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Theater J, The Inkwell, Field Trip Theatre, Artists’ Bloc, and The American Shakespeare Center. Ms. Tisdale is a graduate of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory and holds a BA in English, Religious Studies, and Drama from the University of Virginia.
(As of May 2015)
Luciana Stecconi’s previous designs for Studio Theatre include The Effect, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Bad Jews, An Iliad, Lungs, The History of Kisses, In the Red and Brown Water, The Year of Magical Thinking, Amnesia Curiosa, Souvenir, Contractions, and Crestfall, among others. She has designed for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, Mosaic Theater, Theater J, Everyman Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Georgetown University, Catholic University, American University, Imagination Stage, and many more. She’s the Assistant Professor in Scenic Design at Emerson College. Stecconi holds an MFA in design from Brandeis University and is a member of USA Local 829.
(As of December 2018)
Daniel MacLean Wagner served as Resident Lighting Designer at Studio Theatre from 1984-1997, designing more than 50 productions. He recently designed The Apple Family Cycle (2015) in the Milton Theatre, Bad Jews in the Mead Theatre, The Apple Family Plays (2013) in the Milton Theatre, and 4000 Miles in the Mead Theatre. He has designed more than 400 productions at many other theatres, including Arden Theatre Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, New Repertory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Portland Stage Company, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Theatre of the First Amendment, Horizons Theatre, Potomac Theatre Project, Rep Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Olney Theatre Center. He is an eight-time recipient of the Helen Hayes Award, for which he has received 28 nominations. Recent designs include Awake and Sing! at Olney Theatre; Fool for Love, Seminar, and This at Round House Theatre; and Freud's Last Session at Theater J; upcoming productions include Freud’s Last Session at New Repertory Theatre. Mr. Wagner holds the rank of Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, where he served as Professor of Lighting Design from 1990-2014 and Director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies from 2001-2012.
(As of October 2015)
Kelsey Hunt is a costume designer based in the DC area. Previous Studio Theatre credits include Bad Jews, Carrie: The Musical, Edgar & Annabel, and Skin Tight. Other credits include Cherokee at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Life Sucks and Body Awareness at Theater J; Slow Falling Bird and In the Red and Brown Water at Georgetown University; As You Like It and Pride & Prejudice at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company; Die Fledermaus at the Maryland Opera Studio; and One Flea Spare at Elsewhere Artist’s Collaborative. Ms. Hunt previously served as Resident Costume Designer for Triad Stage and is co-author of Elizabethan Costume Design, Focal Press. Upcoming projects include The Nether at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Stage Kiss at Round House Theatre, and The Sisters Rosensweig at Theater J.
(As of December 2015)
Palmer Hefferan returns to Studio Theatre after previously designing Moment, Sorry, Regular Singing, Bad Jews, and Edgar & Annabel. Other select DC credits include Baby Screams Miracle (Helen Hayes nomination), Guards at the Taj (Helen Hayes nomination), Women Laughing Alone With Salad, and Cherokee at Woolly Mammoth; Urinetown, Equus (Helen Hayes nomination), Absolutely! {Perhaps}, and 36 Views at Constellation Theatre Company; and Everything Is Illuminated, The Call, and Yentl at Theater J. Select Off Broadway credits include Charm and School Girls at MCC; Orange Julius (Henry Hewes nomination) at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre; The Death of the Last Black Man… at Signature Theatre; Friend Art at Second Stage; Samara and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Henry Hewes nomination) at Soho Rep; and Important Hats of the Twentieth Century at Manhattan Theatre Club. Select regional credits include Henry V and Henry IV, Part One at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Romance Novels for Dummies at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Tiger Style! at Alliance Theatre and Huntington Theatre, peerless at Marin Theatre Company, Twelfth Night at Baltimore Center Stage. She has her MFA from Yale School of Drama.
(As of March 2018)
Adrien-Alice Hansel is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of Queen of Basel, The Remains, No Sisters, I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, Animal, Laugh, Red Speedo, Dirt, Lungs, and The History of Kisses as well as productions of Cry It Out,Translations, Curve of Departure, The Effect, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Constellations, 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 also served as production dramaturg on roughly 50 new, contemporary, and classic plays there, including premieres by Naomi Wallace, Gina Gionfriddo, Kirk Lynn and Rude Mechs, Rinne Groff, The Civilians, Anne Bogart and SITI Company, Jordan Harrison, and John Belluso. She is the co-editor of eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre and editor of eight editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of April 2019)
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)
Nathan Norcross is Studio Theatre’s Artistic Apprentice. He serves as the Assistant Director for each Subscription Series production as well as collaborating with the literary department. As a director, Mr. Norcross’ early professional career has spanned a variety of genres and forms—from large-scale musicals to intimate chamber pieces, from developing new plays with living playwrights to developing his own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Mr. Norcross has worked alongside a number of directors he now counts as valuable mentors, including Mark Lamos, Nicky Martin, Gary Griffin, Bob Moss, and Eric Rosen. He assisted Phylicia Rashad in directing a production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Westport Country Playhouse. Mr. Norcross is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where he earned a BFA in acting, as well as Florida State University where he recently completed an MFA in directing.
(As of May 2015)
