“English Only.” It’s spring, 2009 in Karaj, Iran and four adult students are studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the key to their green card, medical school admission, or family reunification. Playing out in awkward lessons of word games and mistranslation, English is both a comedy of miscommunication and a look at the ways speaking a new language can expand your world and change your voice. A hit in its 2021 New York premiere, Studio presents playwright Sanaz Toossi in her Washington, DC debut.
Runtime: 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission
Read the program.
In the interest of welcoming people with a wide range of needs and life experiences, Studio offers a bit of information on what you will encounter in the play. Use this information as it is helpful to you.
Environment Warnings: This production of English includes loud music and the smoking of two herbal cigarettes.
Please note: ALL performances of English through March 12, 2023 will continue to be “Masks Required” events.
English is generously underwritten by Albert G. Lauber and Craig Hoffman.
Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include English (New York Times Critics Pick; Weissberger New Play Award) co-produced by Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company, and Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theatre Festival (available to stream on Audible). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company (Launch Commission; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant), Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). For television, Sanaz was a staff writer on Invitation to a Bonfire (AMC), A League of Their Own (Amazon), and 5 Women (Marielle Heller/Big Beach), and sold an original idea, The Persians, to FX with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields attached as Executive Producers. Sanaz is a member of Youngblood, the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s early-career writers’ group. She was the 2019 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow and a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award. She holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
(As of June 2022)
Knud Adams is a Brooklyn-based director of artful, innovative new plays. His world-premiere production of English in NYC was cited as one of the best plays of 2022 by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out New York, and Slant Magazine. His other recent premiere productions include I'm Revolting and Paris at Atlantic Theatre Company, Bodies They Ritual with Clubbed Thumb, Private with Mosaic Theatre Company, The Headlands at LCT3, Notes on My Mother's Decline with The Play Company, and The Workshop with softFocus. He also directed a radio play, Vapor Trail, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed by Playwrights Horizons. This spring, he will direct Primary Trust with Roundabout Theatre Company, starring William Jackson Harper. Knud is an alumnus of the Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship, the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab, the Playwrights Horizons Directing Residency, and Kenyon College. He is deeply honored to have been selected by Sanaz to premiere her play and continue its journey with this new production.
(As of December 2022)
Tara Grammy is an actor, writer, and producer. Her theatre credits include her one-woman show Mahmoud (Best of Toronto Fringe and Patron’s Pick Winner, Fringe NYC Encore Series and Excellence in Solo Performance Award), which she co-wrote, produced, and starred in. Mahmoud was published by Playwrights Canada Press and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award (the highest honor in Canadian dramatic literature), as well as a Dora Mavor Moore award for Best Performance. Tara is one of the hosts of Persia’s Got Talent (MBC Persia), part of the Got Talent franchise. She recently starred in the hit romantic comedy A Simple Wedding (dir. Sara Zandieh) opposite Maz Jobrani, Rita Wilson, and Shohreh Aghdashloo. She can also be seen as a series regular in the TBS sketch show 2042 and in episodes of S.W.A.T. (CBS), and Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero. She holds a BA in Theatre Performance from the University of Toronto.
(As of December 2022)
Narges Kalogli is an actor and filmmaker. Her theatre credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at The New School of Drama, Crossroads at Stanford University, and Tarabnameh at Visual and Performing Arts Center at De Anza. She recently served as assistant director for Band Bazi, the first musical reality show in Iran. Her short film Sokoutée received the Best Documentary Award from the Berlin Flash Film Festival. Narges holds a BFA in Theatre and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, where she received The Mark Goodson Prize for Distinguished Artistic Talent, and an MFA in Acting from The New School. On social media @narguesskh (Instagram) NargesKalogli.me
(As of December 2022)
Nazanin Nour is an actor, writer, voice-over artist, and host. Her theater credits include Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons, Pack of Lies at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, and Othello at Vpstart Crow Productions. Television credits include roles on Madam Secretary, Political Animals, and appearing as a judge on Persia’s Got Talent. Nazanin can currently be seen in the Showtime film A Thousand Little Cuts, and voices multiple characters in an upcoming episode of Netflix’s Big Mouth.
(As of December 2022)
Maboud Ebrahimzadeh is an Iranian actor and filmmaker whose previous work at Studio includes People, Places & Things; Water by the Spoonful; and Edgar & Annabel. Additional theatre credits include Disgraced and Murder on the Orient Express at McCarter Theatre; Disgraced at Milwaukee Rep; The Invisible Hand at Theatre Exile (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lead Actor); Murder on the Orient Express at Hartford Stage; The Price at Arena Stage; Oslo, Small Mouth Sounds, The Book of Will, and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at Round House Theatre (Resident Artist); Mockingbird at The Kennedy Center; 1 Henry IV, King John, Timon of Athens, and Julius Caesar at Folger Theatre. He’s also worked with People’s Light, Theater J, Olney Theatre Center, Gulfshore Playhouse, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Taffety Punk, Baltimore Center Stage, and others. Film and television credits include Jessica Jones, Imperium, Sally Pacholok, and Homebound. On social media as @mindthechasm (Instagram and Twitter) maboudebrahimzadeh.com زن زندگی آزادی
(As of December 2022)
Nina Ameri (she/her) is an Iranian born actress who was raised in Los Angeles, CA. Her theater credits include The Festivities, The Wedding Reception, and The Shadow at Artworks Theatre; and La Gioconda at The Stages Theatre Center (Ovation Award for Best Ensemble Cast). She can be seen as a multi-season recurring guest star on Netflix’s Atypical. She is trained in the American Meisner Method and graduated from the Barron Brown Studio in Los Angeles. On social media @ninaameri (Instagram)
(As of December 2022)
Afsoon Pajoufar is a New York based designer of stage and environment for plays, operas, and other live performances. Afsoon’s artistic practice is often focused on the intersection of space and new technologies including XR and live video. Her recent works include Molière’s Dom Juan (Fisher Center at Bard SummerScape 2022), Lady M (HeartBeat Opera), MƆɹNIŊ[MORNING//MOURNING] (PROTOTYPE), Mad Forest (Theatre for a New Audience and Fisher Center at Bard), Word.Sound.Power (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Will You Come With Me (The Play Company), ICONS/IDOLS: IN THE PURPLE ROOM (New Ohio Theatre), s.i.n.s.o.f.u.s (Harvard University), and The Silence (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). She is a proud member of USA829. afsoonpajoufar.com
(As of December 2022)
Dina El-Aziz (she/her) is a costume designer and artist based in New York. Her theater credits include Selling Kabul at Seattle Rep; Unseen at Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF); When Monica Met Hillary at Miami New Drama; This is Who I Am, a virtual play in collaboration with OSF, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, American Repertory Theater, and PlayCo; 9 Parts of Desire at Portland Center Stage; and King Lear at Northern Stage. NYC credits include Weightless at WP Theater; The Vagrant Trilogy at The Public Theater; Spindle Shuttle Needle at Clubbed Thumb; and Heartland for Geva Theatre Center at 59E59. Dina often collaborates with the Brooklyn-based Target Margin Theater on multi-year projects such as One Night, a nine-hour theatrical event. Her awards include The Heilman and Haver Theatre Award for Best Costume Design in a play. Dina has an MFA in Design for Stage and Film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. dinae.me
(As of December 2022)
Minjoo Kim is an international lighting designer. Her credits include The Great Leap (Round House Theatre), Twelfth Night (Synetic Theater), Henry V (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), The Royale (KCRep), The Chief (Pittsburgh Public Theater), A Few Good Men (Bristol Riverside Theatre), Sh-Boom! Life Could Be A Dream (Sierra Rep), Life Sucks (Cygnet Theatre), One in Two (Diversionary Theatre), Bette Davis Ain't for Sissies (Mile Square Theatre), Qulili (Blindspot Collective). International credits include The Two (The Space Aul), Crimson Girl (Dongsoong Art Center), Die or Not (Seoul Art Space Mullae) in South Korea, and Mask on/off (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre) in China. Her work The Royale was selected for the National Exhibit at Prague Quadrennial in 2023. minjoo-design.com
(As of December 2022)
Kenny Neal is a Helen Hayes Award recipient (The Royale at Olney Theatre Center/1st Stage) and seven-time Helen Hayes-nominated sound designer, composer and arranger. At Studio, Kenny has designed Straight White Men, Jumpers for Goalposts, and Choir Boy. Other area credits include Dance Nation and Oil (Olney Theatre Center); She A Gem and Digging Up Dessa (The Kennedy Center); The Upstairs Department, Daphne’s Dive, Heisenberg, John, and The Gulf (Signature Theatre); Recent Tragic Events (Prologue Theatre); The Master and Margarita (Constellation Theatre Company); Klytemnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (Theater Alliance); Airness, columbinus, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Well, Floyd Collins, and Bat Boy: The Musical (1st Stage); Agnes of God (Factory 449); Pramkicker and Mom Baby God (Taffety Punk Theatre Company); as well as productions for NextStop Theatre Company, Avant Bard, The Welders, Rorschach Theatre, Imagination Stage, and Adventure Theatre MTC. Kenny has a BA in Music History & Composition from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
(As of December 2022)
Zavier Augustus Lee Taylor is a multimedia artist and designer with a focus on interactive and impactful video design for live performance. Zavier specializes in the creation of experimental artwork, motion graphics, short films, videography, photo-editing, and interactive media systems. His work has been seen on stages at Studio, The Apollo Theater, Guthrie Theater, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Theater J, The Classical Shakespeare Theatre of Harlem, Arena Stage, and Baltimore Center Stage. Zavier also operates a multimedia production company known as ZALT Productions. ZALT Productions is a creative entity that enables people and businesses to fully realize their potential through design. Zavier is eager to connect with and build a network of creatives locally, nationally, and abroad. Learn more about Zavier and his previous work by searching #ZALTproductions. On social media @zaltproductions (YouTube) @zaltslaw (Instagram) zavier.myportfolio.com
(As of December 2022)
Rhiannon Sanders is a designer, craftsperson, and storyteller from Virginia. This is her first production at Studio since her internship, where she assisted on Wig Out! and Skeleton Crew. Other theatre credits include A Christmas Carol (2020 and 2021); Macbeth; Henry V; All’s Well That Ends Well; Twelfth Night; and Thrive, or What You Will at the American Shakespeare Center. She recently served as Interim Assistant Technical Director on A Midsummer Night’s Dream presented by the Folger Shakespeare Library at the National Building Museum.
(As of December 2022)
Ana Bayat is the award-winning creator of the critically acclaimed multilingual show Mimi’s Suitcase (recipient of the Neda Nobari Foundation Grant in Innovative Arts; nominated for a Freedom of Expression Amnesty International Award at 70th Edinburgh Festival Fringe) with over three decades of experience in theatre, film, voiceover, and language/dialect coaching worldwide. Thanks to her multicultural and multilingual upbringing, Ana is fluent in Spanish, UK and US English, French, and Persian, and proficient in German, Italian, and Catalan. An accomplished linguist, Ana coaches actors in feature films, television series, and stage plays. She recently coached Glenn Close in speaking Persian for Tehran (Apple TV+). On social media @theanabayat (Instagram) anabayat.com
(As of December 2022)
Adrien-Alice Hansel (she/her) is the Literary Director at Studio, where she has dramaturged the world premieres of John Proctor is the Villain, I Hate it Here, Queen of Basel, No Sisters, I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, Red Speedo, Dirt, Lungs, and The History of Kisses, among others, as well as productions of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, The Hot Wing King, White Noise, Tender Age, Flow, Until the Flood, 2.5 Minute Ride, Cry It Out, Translations, Curve of Departure, Wig Out!, Straight White Men, Hedda Gabler, Jumpers for Goalposts, Bad Jews (twice), The Apple Family Cycle, 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 11 editions of plays through Studio. Adrien-Alice holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
(As of December 2022)
Leigh Robinette makes her Studio Theatre debut. Off Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen. DC credits include Holiday, Change Agent, The Originalist, Dear Evan Hansen, Fiddler on the Roof, and Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage; A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Folger Theatre; The Second City's Love, Factually at The Kennedy Center; Love Sick and The Jewish Queen Lear at Theater J; and There’s Always the Hudson, Describe the Night, Gloria, Botticelli in the Fire, Familiar, The Arsonists, and An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She has also worked with the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, MA and the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY. She is a graduate of Boston University.
(As of December 2022)
JZ Casting Geoff Josselson, CSA and Katja Zarolinski, CSA are New York-based casting directors, handling productions for theater, film, and television. Theatre credits include Broadway, Off Broadway, and regional productions at Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Cape Playhouse, Denver Center, The Irish Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Merrimack Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Round House Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Theaterworks Hartford, Weston Playhouse and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. jz-casting.com.
(As of December 2022)
English is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com