Nearly four decades after its startling debut, Cloud 9’s audacious, playful take on sexual politics resonates anew with its prescient exploration of power and perception. The repression of colonial Africa and the liberation of late-1970s London intersect in Caryl Churchill’s revolutionary masterwork. Bending time, gender, and genre, this nimble modern classic embraces the confusion and complication of identity: What forces define who we are—and at what cost?
Runtime: 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one 15 minute intermission.
Cloud 9 is generously underwritten
by Albert Lauber and Craig Hoffman.
Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company since 1986, has led the Company to national and international prominence, including the 2012 Tony Award for Regional Theater. He is the former Artistic Director of the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut; the McCarter Theater; the Acting Company; and the Chautauqua Theater Company. Mr. Kahn was a founding faculty member of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School, where he still teaches, having served as its Richard Rodgers Director of the Division for 13 years. Additionally, he has served on the faculties of the NYU graduate program and the Circle in the Square Theater School. His theater and opera productions have been seen Off-Broadway, Broadway, across the United States, and internationally in Australia, Egypt, and Greece. Mr. Kahn was inducted in the Theater Hall of Fame in 2012 and was invested as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty, the Queen in June 2013. His future productions include Paul Downs Colaizzo’s new play Pride in the Falls of Autry Mills for Signature Theater and both parts of Henry IV with Stacy Keach opening at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in the spring.
(As of September 2013)
John Scherer makes his Studio Theatre debut in Cloud 9. He originated the role of Bertie Wooster in Andrew Lloyd Webber's By Jeeves, written and directed by Sir Alan Ayckbourn, both on Broadway and in the film version. He also appeared on Broadway in LoveMusik, directed by Harold Prince, and he played Joe Gillis opposite Betty Buckley in Sunset Boulevard. He recently appeared at Arena Stage in All The Way. Other regional credits include the Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Ahmanson Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Paper Mill Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, and many others. Film and television credits include Spinning Into Butter, The Shield (recurring), Crossing Jordan, Law and Order (all versions), Titus, and Guiding Light. Mr. Scherer is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
(As of August 2016)
Wyatt Fenner makes his Studio Theatre debut in Cloud 9. He appeared most recently in Darko Tresnjak's production of Romeo and Juliet at Hartford Stage and Moisés Kaufman's production of Bent at the Mark Taper Forum. Select regional credits include the West Coast premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale and the premiere of Mr. Hunter's Rest at South Coast Repertory, the world premiere of Steve Yockey's Pluto at Actor's Express, and the West Coast premiere of Dog Sees God at the Havok Theatre Company. On television he has been seen on Bones and Veronica Mars. Mr. Fenner studied at the University of Southern California. As a teenager Mr. Fenner appeared on stage at Ford's Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Folger Theatre, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Cloud 9 marks his area debut as an adult.
(As of August 2016)
Philippe Bowgen makes his Studio Theatre debut in Cloud 9. He will next be seen in Lindsey Copeland's highly anticipated feature Hedgehog starring Ann Dowd and Madeline Brewer. Mr. Bowgen’s Off Broadway credits include The Changeling at Red Bull Theater, Twilight at 59E59, and several others at New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theatre Company, {Your Name Here}, MCC Theater, and Classic Stage Company. His extensive regional credits include the title role in Pericles at Two River Theater, The Liar at Westport Country Playhouse, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Paper Mill Playhouse, the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War at Yale Rep, Caviar on Credit at the Guthrie Theatre, Antony and Cleopatra at McCarter Theatre directed by Emily Mann, and Darko Tresnjak's repertory productions of La Dispute and Macbeth for Hartford Stage's 50th anniversary season, among others. Mr. Bowgen's film credits include The Renovation, Hamlet, Sobrevivo, and The Remains of Something Whole. Mr. Bowgen is a member of The Actors Center and holds an MFA from Brown/Trinity Repertory Company. He also studied in the post graduate classical conservatory at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and is a graduate of Georgetown University.
(As of August 2016)
Holly Twyford returns to Studio Theatre for Cloud 9. She most recently directed both Mary Kate Olsen is in Love and Edgar and Annabel for Studio 2ndStage, and was last seen on stage at Studio Theatre in the Lab production of Dirt. Other favorite roles at Studio include Evelyn in The Shape of Things, Elsa in Road to Mecca, and Bunny in Desk Set. She has appeared in over 50 productions with many of the area’s theaters including Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, and Arena Stage. She has performed regionally in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Santa Cruz, Red Bank, NJ and Milwaukee. Ms. Twyford has been nominated twenty times for a Helen Hayes Award and is a four-time recipient. She received the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence for her portrayal of Anna in Old Times and she is a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow. She is proud to be a charter member of the Studio Cabinet, Studio Theatre’s new affiliated artist program. She has appeared in several independent films, including John Waters’ Pecker. Television credits include Homicide: Life on the Street and House of Cards. Her credits also include numerous commercials, voiceovers, and educational and training films.
(As of August 2016)
Joy Jones returns to Studio Theatre after performances in Cloud 9, Invisible Man (Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Ensemble), and Belleville. Off Broadway credits include Zaide at Lincoln Center Festival and The Champion at BRIC Media Arts and workshops at The Public, Playwrights Horizons, and New Dramatists. International credits include Tantalus at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Select regional credits include Mary T & Lizzy K at Arena Stage; Ruined and Tantalus at the Denver Center; Fences at Everyman Theatre; Invisible Man at Huntington Theatre; and Pericles and Romeo & Juliet at PlayMakers Repertory. Recently, she was featured in String Music on BBC4 and in the independent film The Confidential Informant. Ms. Jones holds an MFA in acting from UNC-Chapel Hill.
(As of December 2016)
Laura C. Harris returns to Studio Theatre after appearances as Edward/Victoria in Cloud 9, Mandy in Time Stands Still, Gena in Bachelorette, and Lydia in Red Speedo. Other Washington, DC credits include The Flick and Tender Napalm at Signature Theatre; NSFW, Seminar, Amadeus, Young Robin Hood, and 26 Miles at Round House Theatre; Vicuña at Mosaic Theater; Awake and Sing! at Olney Theatre Center; Love and Information, Passion Play, and World Builders with Forum Theatre; Our Class at Theater J; and The Winter’s Tale and The School for Scandal at Folger Theatre. Harris is a graduate of Middlebury College.
(As of December 2018)
Christian Pedersen is making his Studio Theatre debut in Cloud 9. New York credits include Vieux Carre at The Pearl Theatre Company, Eternal Equinox at 59E59, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at 3-Legged Dog, Another Vermeer with Abingdon Theatre Company, The Fabulous Kane Sisters at Cherry Lane Theatre, and the rock musical Mother Eve's Secret Garden of Sensual Sisterhood at FringeNYC, which he also composed. Regional credits include Cleveland Play House, Geva Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, People's Light and Theatre Company, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Theatre 40, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, the Geffen Playhouse, and New Jersey Rep, where he is a company member. His film and TV credits include The Good Wife, Fringe, Damages, Royal Pains, One Life to Live, All My Children, The Other Woman, Animal Husbandry, and The Last American Guido. Mr. Pedersen is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. He has just completed writing a second musical with Uma Incrocci, his partner in all things.
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)
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)
Frank Labovitz returns to Studio Theatre where he has previously designed Wig Out!, having previously designed Cloud 9, Silence! the Musical, Laugh, Torch Song Trilogy, and Dirt. His other design credits include The Threepenny Opera and Dreamgirls for Signature Theatre, NSFW and Ordinary Days for Round House Theatre, Guards at the Taj and The Totalitarians for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and The Tale of The Allergist's Wife and The Religion Thing for Theater J. Mr. Labovitz is a company member of Pointless Theatre, where his designs include Gimme a Band, Gimme a Banana and Doctor Caligari. Mr. Labovitz received his MFA in costume design from The University of Maryland.
(As of April 2018)
Christopher Baine returns to Studio for Three Sisters / No Sisters after designing Cloud 9 and Water by the Spoonful. He recently composed the music for When She Had Wings (Helen Hayes Award) and The BFG with Imagination Stage (Helen Hayes Award nomination). Some recent designs include The Critic & The Real Inspector Hound and Heir Apparent with Shakespeare Theater Company and Guthrie Theater, Colossal with Olney Theatre Center (Helen Hayes Award), Wonderful World of Dissocia at Theatre Alliance (Helen Hayes Award), Fetch Clay, Make Man at Marin Theater Company, Detroit at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes Award nomination) and Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes Award nomination) at the Folger Theatre. He also designed The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Gruesome Playground Injuries and A Bright New Boise (Helen Hayes Award) with Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, and Gift of Nothing and Jason Invisible at The Kennedy Center Theatre For Young Audiences. Other regional credits include Everyman Theatre, Forum Theatre, dog & pony dc, Adventure Theatre MTC, Children’s Theater Charlotte, Synetic Theater, and Theater Alliance. He has been a guest artist with The University of Maryland, Catholic University, UMBC and American University. Mr. Baine has been the Resident Sound Designer for Imagination Stage since 2009, and was a Kenan Fellow at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2012.
(As of March 2017)
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)
Elizabeth Forte Alman returns to Studio Theatre after coaching Cloud 9 earlier this season. Residing in the DC area for over 15 years, she has coached productions at the Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Rep Stage, and Everyman Theatre. Maintaining a private practice of voice, speech, and performance coaching, she engages clients from the Congressional, Department of State, and Department of Defense community; members of multi-national organizations and corporations; and practitioners in the fields of health care, law, science, journalism, education, investment banking, public relations, and acting. Currently a member of the Performance Faculty at George Mason University, Dr. Alman has taught Acting and Voice classes at the University of Maryland, Catholic University of America, the Academy of Classical Acting at George Washington University, and the University of Maryland- Baltimore County. She is a Shakespeare's Globe Fellow, a Cosmos Club Scholar, and an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Dr. Alman received her PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland, an MFA from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/University of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program, and a BA from Illinois State University.
(As of December 2016)
Jonathan Ezra Rubin returns to Studio Theatre for Constellations after fight directing Animal for Studio X and Mary-Kate Olsen Is in Love for Studio 2ndStage. Choreography credits include Flying V Fights: Heroes & Monsters, The Pirate Laureate and the King of the Sea, Lobster Alice, Flying V Fights: Love is a Battlefield, The Best of Craigslist, and The Pirate Laureate of Port Town at Flying V; Macbeth at the Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society; She Kills Monsters at Marshall High School; Shakes Alive! Tour and Romeo & Juliet at Maryland Shakespeare Company; Hamlet at Lumina Studio Theatre; Klecksography: Haunting Monsters — Wolfman at Rorschach Theatre; and Social Creatures at Single Carrot Theatre. Coming up in June, his choreography will also be seen in LiveArt DC's The Merry Death of Robin Hood, Cohesion Theatre Company's Neverwhere, and Flying V's Matt & Ben. Mr. Rubin is recognized as an Advanced Actor/Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, and freelances as a fight choreographer.
(As of February 2016)
Victoria Gruenberg has previously appeared at Studio assisting Michael Kahn on Cloud 9, Shana Cooper on Straight White Men, Matt Torney on The Hard Problem, and Jackson Gay on Three Sisters. Princeton main stage directing credits include Anouilh’s Antigone, Annika Bennett’s Spackle, and Johnna Adams’ Gidion’s Knot. Main stage acting credits include Cloud 9; Uncle Vanya; Kiss Me, Kate; and Sunday in the Park with George. She has worked under John Rando, John Doyle, and Tim Vasen, as well as several South African directors during her time with ASSITEJ South Africa and Cape Town Edge. Ms. Gruenberg is a recipient of the Frances LeMoyne Page Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative Arts, and a recent graduate of Princton University's English and Theatre programs.
(As of April 2017)
Anthony O. Bullock returns to Studio Theatre after previously being the Resident Stage Manager for two seasons. Prior Studio credits include The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, Jumpers for Goalposts, and Laugh. Additional DC area credits include Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, and Theater J, where he will be their new Resident Stage Manager for the 2019-2020 season. Other regional credits include McCarter Theatre Center, Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Passage Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company, among others. He toured with The White Snake by Mary Zimmerman in association with the Goodman Theatre, as part of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in Wuzhen, China. Anthony received his BFA from Oklahoma City University. He is also on the board of The Stage Managers’ Association as the Eastern Regional Director. He is a proud member of AEA.
