Sam Shepard’s first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1964. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays won Obie Awards, including Chicago, The Tooth of the Crime, and Curse of the Starving Class. Other award-winning plays include Fool for Love, True West, A Lie of the Mind, and Buried Child, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979.

In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame two years later. As a writer and director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue. As an actor, he appeared in numerous films, including The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven and Resurrection. His final works of prose, The One Inside and Spy of the First Person, were published in 2017, the year of his death.

Cleopatra Mavhunga (Director; she/her) is a director, actor, and Studio Theatre’s directing apprentice for the 2023-2024 season. This reading of True West is her first professionally directed show. Her previous theater credits include assistant directing Problems Between Sisters; Love, Love, Love; Fat Ham; and Espejos: Clean at Studio Theatre, and directing Scapino!, Cave Canem, The Family Showcase, and Sweat at Yale University. She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, concentrating on directing and earned distinction. cleopatra-mavhunga.com

Cody Nickell theatre credits include Animal (World Premiere) at Studio, The Tempest (produced by Round House Theatre), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Antony and Cleopatra, Mary Stuart, The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes nomination), Arcadia (Helen Hayes nomination), The School For Scandal, Macbeth at Folger Theatre; Richard III, The School For Lies (Helen Hayes nomination), and Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Ink (Helen Hayes Nomination), we declare you a terrorist (World Premiere), Curious Incident…, and Oslo at Round House Theatre; The Nosebleed, Botticelli in the Fire, Stupid F***ing Bird (World Premiere), Clybourne Park (Helen Hayes nomination) at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (where Cody is also a company member); and Tuesdays With Morrie at Theater J. Other regional credits include plays at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Playmakers Repertory Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theater, Arden Theatre Company, Capitol Repertory Theatre, and Gulfshore Playhouse (Artistic Associate for three seasons). Cody’s work also includes film, television and voiceovers. 

Michael Glenn has been a DC-based actor and voice over artist for more than two decades, who has worked with nearly every professional theater company in the area. Some favorite previous performances include; Jumpers for Goalposts at Studio, Red Velvet with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ink at Round House Theatre, Junk at Arena Stage, Sense & Sensibility at the Folger Theatre, The Lieutenant of Inishmore at Signature Theatre, Brighton Beach Memoirs at Theater J, Clybourne Park at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Tiger Style! at Olney Theatre Center, Cat's Cradle with Longacre Lea. Michael has also been an ensemble member with Graphic Audio productions, appearing as literally thousands of outlaws, mutants, superheroes, and were-lions in hundreds of their full-cast audiobook adaptations over the years graphicaudio.net

Jamie Smithson just finished his Studio Theatre debut playing Eli in At the Wedding. His Off Broadway credits include Arcadia, Persuasion, and Fall River Fishing with Bedlam and The Comedy of Errors and Romeo and Juliet with The Acting Company. Some of his favorite regional credits include Sense and Sensibility with Bedlam at Folger Theatre, Newsies at Arena Stage, Cake Off at Signature Theatre, The Wanderers at Theater J, Boeing Boeing with No Rules Theatre Company, Twist Your Dickens with Second City at the Kennedy Center, and Fly By Night at 1st Stage. He has also worked with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Mosaic Theater Company, Ford's Theatre, Imagination Stage, Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Portland Center Stage, American Repertory Theater, and Guthrie Theater, among others. This winter he can be seen playing Oaken in the musical Frozen at Olney Theatre Center. He has been nominated for two individual Helen Hayes awards for Best Actor and received his MFA in acting at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.     

Naomi Jacobson has acted at most of the DC area theatres including The Children, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, The Remains at Studio Theatre; as well as premieres at The Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap Opera. She’s an Affiliated Artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company and a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She’s traveled regionally to the Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, Center Stage, Village Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Indiana Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Delaware Theatre, and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. She has a few independent film and network TV credits, voice over work includes NPR, PBS, Discovery Channel, & the Smithsonian. She’s received the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship, the Anderson-Hopkins Award, a DC Arts Individual Artist grant, three Helen Hayes Awards and numerous nominations. naomijacobson.com