Studio Theatre's next season will feature the talents of six accomplished and exciting directors, artists who will bring unique and compelling perspectives to our stages. First, Christine Quintana's bilingual, character-driven two-woman tour-de-force Espejos: Clean will be directed by Elena Araoz, internationally known for her work in theatre, opera, and immersive events. Fat Ham, James Ijames' delirious, Tony-nominated take on Hamlet, will be directed by Taylor Reynolds, one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of OBIE-award winning The Movement Theatre Company in Harlem. Studio Artistic Director David Muse will direct Mike Bartlett's lacerating generational comedy Love, Love, Love, while distinguished DC actor and rising director Tom Story will helm another romantic comedy, one of queer, millennial love and heartbreak, Bryna Turner's At the Wedding. Studio-commissioned director Sivan Battat will direct the world premiere of Problems Between Sisters, Julia May Jonas' newest work in her series reinterpreting American classics from women's perspectives. And Psalmayene 24, most recently seen just this season leading the world premiere of James Ijames' Good Bones to the stage, will bring a completely new vision to George C. Wolfe's classic The Colored Museum.
"It's such a pleasure to welcome back so many directors with deep ties to Studio," said Muse, speaking as Artistic Director. "Sivan Battat, who was a directing apprentice early in my tenure at Studio, and who turned out a nuanced production of Heroes of the Fourth Turning last season; Tom Story, long known to DC audiences as an actor and becoming known as a director of vibrancy and insight; Psalmayene 24, who returns with a passion project of The Colored Museum to close out our season with fellow Studio favorite Natsu Onoda Power as his set designer. All four of these artists are also members of Studio's Cabinet, our affiliate artist program. I am pleased to welcome two directors new to our audiences as well: Elena Araoz, who brings her experience with opera and multi-media performance to the expansive and intimate Espejos: Clean; and Taylor Reynolds, a director who's making quite a name for herself in New York and just received an OBIE for directing earlier this year. She has a real way with actors and designers, and I'm looking forward to her production of Fat Ham."
Adriana manages the housekeeping staff at a Cancún resort, 200 miles and a world away from the home she left. Sarah, sister of the bride and the self-declared disaster of the family, is just trying to keep it together at this destination wedding. When a storm floods the roads and forces the women together, a series of misunderstandings breaks open the secrets both women have taught themselves to ignore. A bilingual play with Spanish and English supertitles, Espejos: Clean is a potent look at isolation, the power of being seen, and the ways people can grow around their own damaged places.
Hamlet, but with more barbeque and disco. Swapping a Danish castle for a North Carolina BBQ pit, Fat Ham remakes Shakespeare's story of murder and revenge into what the New York Times calls "a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy." Juicy, a Black queer Southern kid, has a lot on his plate already when his father's ghost shows up, demanding vengeance. As generations clash at the family's backyard barbeque, Juicy must face the legacies of violence he's been raised with and shape the man he wants to be in James Ijames's Pulitzer Prize-winning play fresh from its Tony-nominated Broadway run.
It's London, 1967, and the sixties are in full swing when we meet Ken and Sandra, two carefree spirits in a world that belongs to the young. Love, Love, Love drops in with them over the next 44 years, from free love to middle-class comfort to well-compensated retirement-when their adult daughter accuses them of squandering the world they inherited. Mike Bartlett turns his sharp eye and biting humor on the Baby Boomers and the generation they spawned.
Carlo crashes her ex's wedding with three simple goals: Don't get drunk. Don't make any kids cry. Don't try to win back the bride, no matter how boring the groom is. (She'll ultimately fail at all three.) A very, very funny play about loneliness, estrangement, and a slow-burn romance with being alive.
Two pregnant sisters-one visual artist, one con artist-converge on a remote family cabin in Vermont. Jess races to finish her long-awaited solo show; Rory sees a new audience for her latest scam. When Rory hatches a plan for an art project of her own, the problems between the sisters flare into a collision of family baggage, personal morality, and artistic taste. A response to True West, Sam Shephard's surreal psychodrama about brothers with problems, Problems Between Sisters is a funny and savage take on domestication, creativity, and the elusive demands of the Primal Female.
The Colored Museum is a provocative and seriously funny tour of eleven "exhibits"-toxic narratives about Black American experiences. From confrontational to aspirational, morbid to triumphant, Wolfe's satiric sketches target America's most pernicious stereotypes of Black culture, looking to retire outdated exhibits and make room for the future. This innovative environmental production immerses the audience in George Wolfe's 1986 classic about the grief, madness, and hope of Black life. This production will be a one-of-kind collaboration between two members of the Studio Theatre Cabinet: Director Psalmayene 24 (Pass Over, Good Bones) and designer Natsu Onoda Power (Vietgone, Astro Boy).
