When Eric falls for the handsome Wilson on the subway, he doesn’t know what he’s in for. Because Wilson is also Nina, a rising drag star in The House of Light, and when a competing house calls a ball for midnight, Eric is drawn into battle. Part turf war, part pageant, all conquest, Wig Out! is a mesmerizing trip into the heart of African-American drag ball culture by way of Ovid, Jay-Z, and Destiny’s Child. From the acclaimed author of The Brother/Sister Trilogy and Choir Boy comes a dazzling spectacle about the timeless desires to be desired, find your home, and dominate anyone who throws you shade.
Runtime: 2 hours with one 15 minute intermission.
Environmental Warnings: This production will feature fog, haze, and strobe effects. Double check your curtain time—there is no late seating for Wig Out!
Wig Out! is generously underwritten
by Susan and Dixon Butler.
Tarell Alvin McCraney is best known for his acclaimed trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays: The Brothers Size, In the Red and Brown Water, and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. They have been performed at McCarter Theater in Princeton, The Public Theater in New York, Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, at a trio of theaters in the Bay Area: Marin Theatre Company, ACT, and Magic Theatre, as well as the Young Vic in London (Olivier Award nomination) and around the world. Other plays include The Breach (Southern Rep, Seattle Rep), Wig Out! (Sundance Theatre Institute, Royal Court, and Vineyard Theatre - GLAAD Award for Outstanding Play), and American Trade (Royal Shakespeare Company/Hampstead Theatre). Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he is an ensemble member, will produce the world premiere of his commissioned play, Head of Passes in the spring of 2013.
Tarell was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s International Playwright in Residence in 2009-2011, where he co-edited and directed the Young People's Shakespeare production of Hamlet which toured throughout the UK and was presented at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. He is the recipient of the prestigious Whiting Award and Steinberg Playwright Award, as well as London's Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, the inaugural New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, and the inaugural Paula Vogel Playwriting Award.
He is a graduate from the New World School of the Arts High School, the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and the Yale School of Drama. He is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a member of Teo Castellanos/D-Projects in Miami.
(As of July 2014)
Kent Gash returns to Studio for Wig Out! after directing Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy (2015) at Studio Theatre and as a result of that production has been the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Artist in Residence for 2016-17. Mr. Gash is the founding director of the NYU Tisch New Studio on Broadway. New York credits include the World Premiere production of Barbecue at The Public Theater, Broke-Ology at the Juilliard School, the Off Broadway premiere of Miss Ever’s Boys for the Melting Pot Theatre Company, the world premiere musical Call the Children Home for Primary Stages, the York Theatre concert presentation of Duke Ellington’s Beggar’s Holiday, and Samm-Art William’s Home. Future projects include Gem of the Ocean at South Coast Rep and The Wiz at Ford’s Theatre. Mr. Gash has numerous regional credits across the country including Signature Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, Denver Center Theatre Company, McCarter Theater, Sundance Theatre Institute, Intiman Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Kennedy Center, Arizona Theatre Company, San Jose Rep, Trinity Rep, Hartford Stage Company, and Maltz-Jupiter Theatre. Mr. Gash formerly served as the Associate Artistic Director for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and as the Associate Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre. Mr. Gash holds a BFA in acting from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA in directing from UCLA.
(As of July 2017)
Michael Kevin Darnall returns to Studio for Wig Out! after appearing as Dan in Studio X's Animal. Recent credits include Jitney at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Ulysses on Bottles at Mosaic Theater Company; Father Comes Home From the Wars at Round House Theatre; Yentl at Theater J; Journey to the West, The Fire and The Rain, and Metamorphoses at Constellation Theatre Company; Savage in Limbo and The Sandstorm at MetroStage; Optimism! (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Ensemble), The Wedding Dress, and Last of the Whyos (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Actor) at Spooky Action Theater (Entangled Artist); and Big Love and Failure: A Love Story (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Supporting Actor, Outstanding Ensemble) at The Hub Theatre (Company Member). His television credits include HBO’s The Wire. Mr. Darnall received his BFA in acting at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Theatre Arts.
(As of July 2017)
Jamyl Dobson makes his Studio Theatre debut with Wig Out!. His credits include a Broadway workshop of Fela!, and his Off Broadway credits include Fondly Do We Hope, Fervently Do We Pray at the Lincoln Center Festival, The Seven at New York Theatre Workshop, The Anthem at the Culture Project, Washer/Dryer at the Ma-Yi Theatre Company, and Romeo and Juliet and Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Regional credits include The Seven at La Jolla Playhouse, Of Ebony Embers at the Core Ensemble, Moon Over Buffalo and Lend Me a Tenor at Iowa Summer Rep, and Hamlet and Two Gentleman of Verona at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Film and television credits include The Path on Hulu, A Good Man on American Masters/PBS, and the independent films Cain, Moments the Go, and Hall Pass. Mr. Dobson holds an MFA in acting from the University of Iowa.
(As of July 2017)
Michael Rishawn makes his Studio debut with Wig Out!. Off Broadway credits include The Old Masters at The Flea, 24-hour plays at The New School, The History Boys at Gallery Players, and workshops at Roundabout Theatre Company and Exquisite Corpse Company. Select regional credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merry Wives of Windsor, and All’s Well That Ends Well (Free for All) at Shakespeare Theatre Company; A Christmas Carol and Antony & Cleopatra at Hartford Stage; and Henry V at Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. He has been featured in various independent films and commercials: Dare, Keep It, and Pepsi, among others. Mr. Rishawn holds a BFA in acting from The Hartt School.
(As of July 2017)
Edwin Brown III returns to Studio Theatre for Wig Out! after understudying Three Sisters and No Sisters. Off Broadway credits include Thoughts of a Colored Man directed by Taye Diggs. Select regional credits include The Freedom Trial of Anthony Burns at Coterie Theatre, The Boys from Syracuse at Kansas Classical Repertory Theatre, Romeo and Juliet and Freedom Rider at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and A Soldier’s Play and Miss Evers’ Boys at Ira Aldridge Theatre. He was featured in the documentary Lincoln’s War at Washington on the Smithsonian Channel. Mr. Brown holds an MFA in acting and directing from Kansas City Repertory Theatre and BFA from Howard University.
(As of July 2017)
Desmond Bing makes his Studio Theatre debut with Wig Out! His local credits include All The Way at Arena Stage, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Unexplored Interior at Mosaic Theater Company, and Occupied Territories at Theater Alliance (2016 Helen Hayes Award recipient for Best Choreography). Mr. Bing recently completed a year-long Kenan Institute Playwriting/Acting Fellowship at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where he finished and workshopped his first play, The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker, and began writing his second, PRIDE. Mr. Bing trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Steppenwolf Classes West, and UCB Los Angeles.
(As of July 2017)
Ysabel Jasa makes her Studio debut in Wig Out!. Select credits include Twelfth Night and Henry V at The Shakspeare Academy at Stratford; Pericles with Make Trouble; and The Serpent Woman, Quilters, and Love’s Labour’s Lost the Musical at NYU Tisch. She has participated in numerous new play and musical readings at NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, LaMaMa, Theatre Lab, and the PlayGround Experiment. She is a graduate of the New Studio on Broadway at NYU Tisch.
(As of July 2017)
Melissa Victor makes her Studio Theatre debut in Wig Out!. She has been seen locally in Sweeney Todd at Olney Theater Center, Jelly’s Last Jam at Signature Theatre, and Black Nativity at Theater Alliance. New York City credits include For All My Girls and All Her Faces... Her national tour credits include James and the Giant Peach (Summer Theatre of New Canaan) and Diary of a Worm, a Spider, and a Fly (Omaha Theatre Company). Ms. Victor holds a Bachelor of Music from The Catholic University of America, class of 2012.
(As of July 2017)
Dane Figueroa Edidi makes her Studio debut with Wig Out!. She has been seen in New York at the WOW Café Theatre in the premiere of her play Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem. She is the first TWOC to be nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for choreography of Theater Alliance’s Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea. As an advocate, she is the founder of the Inanna D Initiative and has created several arts advocacy initiatives to help combat the erasure of TGNC artists of color. In 2013, she became the first TWOC to publish a work of fiction in DC; she released her ninth book, Incarnate, in May 2017.
(As of July 2017)
Frank Britton makes his Studio Theatre debut in Wig Out!. In New York, he performed in Shape at La MaMa ETC. His area credits include Two Trains Running and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at Round House Theatre, Kafka’s Metamorphosis at Synetic Theater, Orpheus Descending at Arena Stage, The Freshest Snow Whyte at Imagination Stage, Back To Methuselah Part 3 at Washington Stage Guild, Black Nativity at Theater Alliance, Floyd Collins and When The Rain Stops Falling at 1st Stage, Deathtrap at NextStop Theatre Company, and King Lear at WSC Avant Bard, where he is an Acting Company member.
(As of July 2017)
Alex Mills returns to Studio Theatre for Wig Out! after performances in Torch Song Trilogy, 2-2 Tango, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Local credits include Shakespeare’s R&J at Signature Theatre and A Tale of Two Cities, The Man in the Iron Mask, Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) (Helen Hayes Nomination: Outstanding Supporting Actor), Antony and Cleopatra, Othello (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Lead Actor), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Supporting Actor) at Synetic Theater.
(As of July 2017)
Jaysen Wright returns to Studio for Wig Out! after performances in Choir Boy and The Rocky Horror Show. Selected credits include Smart People at Arena Stage; Choir Boy at Marin Theater Company; A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theater; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and Looking for Roberto Clemente at Imagination Stage; Sons of the Prophet at Theater J; Now Comes the Night and Take Me Out at 1st Stage; and Measure for Measure, Wallenstein, and Coriolanus at Shakespeare Theatre Company. He recently had a supporting role in the independent feature film Saints Rest. Mr. Wright holds an MFA in acting from Indiana University.
(As of July 2017)
Dell Howlett is full-time professor at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts in the Department of Drama’s New Studio on Broadway. He is the recent recipient of the Suzi Bass Award for his choreography for The CA Lyons Project at the Alliance Theater. Directing/Choreography highlights include The Legend of Georgia McBride (Marin Theater), Dream (Off Broadway workshop, composer Michael McElroy), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (The Acting Company Touring Company), Is Anybody Listening? (Off Broadway, Sheen Center), and YoungArts 2017 (Barishnykov Arts Center), Broke-Ology (Juilliard School), The Wiz (Ford’s Theatre, 2018 upcoming). Performance highlights include: Aida (Broadway), Bombay Dreams (original Broadway cast), Pippin (first national tour), West Side Story (intl. tour/La Scala Opera House), and Koresh Dance Company. He is the Artistic Director for Young Performers of America.
(As of July 2017)
Jason Sherwood returns to Studio Theatre for Wig Out! after previously designing Choir Boy. Mr. Sherwood recently designed the stage adaptation of Frozen for Disney Creative Entertainment. His Off Broadway design for the new musical The View UpStairs was honored with Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominations. Other recent credits include designs for Saturday Night Live, New York Theatre Workshop, the Old Globe, Signature Theatre, Denver Center, 5th Avenue Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, the Alliance, Studio Theatre, Ford’s Theater, and Kansas City Rep. He is an NYU graduate, a repeat guest artist at Yale, a Henry Hewes Design Award nominee, and was named a “Designer to Watch” by LiveDesign Magazine.
(As of July 2017)
Dawn Chiang was previously the lighting designer for Wig Out! and Choir Boy at Studio Theatre. On Broadway, Dawn designed Zoot Suit and was co-designer for Tango Pasion. Off Broadway, she has designed for Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Encores! concert musicals. Dawn was Resident Lighting Designer for New York City Opera. She has designed for Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, and the Guthrie Theater. Awards include two Lighting Designer of the Year Awards (Syracuse) and two Drama-Logue Awards (Los Angeles).
(As of August 2019)
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)
David Lamont Wilson is thrilled to be working on his first sound design project for Studio Theatre with Wig Out!. Mr. Wilson’s design was last heard for Mosaic Theater Company’s critically acclaimed production of Blood Knot directed by Studio Theatre founder Joy Zinoman. Mr. Wilson’s next design will be for the Geva Theatre production of The Agitators. Recent sound designs include Theater J’s Queens Girl In The World, Alliance Theatre’s The C.A. Lyons Project (Suzi Bass Award nominated), The Welder’s Not Enuf Lifetime, the critically acclaimed Charter Theatre production of Am I Black Enough Yet?, Dead Man Walking at American University, Inns & Outs at Source Theatre, and Titus for the Washington Shakespeare Theatre. He has also designed at the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Imagination Stage, the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, and Georgetown University.
(As of July 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)
Shayna O'Neill makes her debut at Studio Theatre with Wig Out!. Her NYC credits include work at the American Realness (three years), Fault Line Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, National Yiddish Theatre, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Page 73, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Target Margin Theater, The Acting Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (operations team), and Human Fruit Bowl (tour). Regionally, she has worked at Yale Baroque Opera Project (four years), International Festival of Arts & Ideas (five years), Trinity Repertory Company, Playwrights Rep, Opera Providence, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Rep Stage, Bay Theatre, and in numerous Chicago venues, including the Goodman Theatre. Ms. O’Neill is an alumna of The Theatre School at DePaul University.
(As of July 2017)
Marne Anderson makes her Studio Theatre debut. Select DC credits include A Raisin in the Sun, Roe, Moby Dick, All the Way, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, King Hedley II, Five Guys Named Moe, and The Mountaintop at Arena Stage; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Folger Theatre; Angels in America: Parts 1 and 2 at Round House Theatre; and You for Me for You and Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play at Woolly Mammoth. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
(As of July 2017)
