Shakespeare Theatre Company will present a new work this season from multi-Tony-nominated Moisés Kaufman, Amanda Gronich, and Tectonic Theatre Project (The Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife): Here There Are Blueberries, winner of Theater J’s Trish Vradenburg Jewish Play Prize.
The production replaces Goddess, originally slated for May/June, which will no longer be part of the 22/23 season due to a scheduling matter that proved to be insurmountable. “We regret not being able to deliver this production as we had originally anticipated,” said Artistic Director Simon Godwin. “But I am confident that STC audiences will find Here There Are Blueberries to be a resoundingly revelatory experience.”
Here There Are Blueberries—conceived and directed by Moisés Kaufman and written by Kaufman and Amanda Gronich—is based on true events surrounding a mysterious album of never-before-seen Nazi-era photographs that arrived at the desk of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist Rebecca Erbelding. As Rebecca and her team of historians begin to unravel the shocking story behind the images, the album soon makes headlines around the world. In Germany, a businessman sees the album online, recognizes his own grandfather in the photos, and begins a journey of discovery that will lead him to a reckoning of his family’s past and his country’s history. Here There Are Blueberries tells the story of these photographs—what they reveal about the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and about our own humanity.
“I am sure STC patrons will appreciate this beautiful and resonant piece,” says Godwin. “DC is where the story of this play began and I am thrilled we get to bring it back.”
“It means the world to me to bring this production to Washington where the journey of this play began more than a decade ago,” said Moisés Kaufman, founding artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project. “My very first conversations with Dr. Rebecca Erbelding at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gave us a map for exploring Karl Höcker’s album. It feels just right for it to have a home at STC this spring.”
“The life of this production began in Washington, and was nurtured along the way by Michel Hausmann and Miami New Drama before being given a gorgeous world premiere production at the La Jolla Playhouse,” said Matt Joslyn, executive director of Tectonic Theater Project. “Now, to be given this invitation from Simon and Chris and the family at Shakespeare Theatre Company is a tremendous honor. On behalf of Moisés, Amanda, Amy, and the scores of artists who played a part in the development of this play, we’re profoundly grateful.”
Said Wayne K. Green, CEO of Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics: “FASPE has been actively supporting Moisés, Amanda, and Tectonic Theater Project’s artists through their development process of Here There Are Blueberries for the past five years. The play is very important to us, and the themes explored align with FASPE’s mission of bringing the doctors and other professionals who played such a prominent role in the design and execution of the Holocaust to contemporary examination. We are eager to help Tectonic bring this play to audiences around the world, and we will continue to support meaningful and deeper conversations by connecting Blueberries audiences with world-renowned Holocaust scholars and medical (and other professions’) ethicists.”
The world premiere of Here There Are Blueberries was co-produced by Tectonic Theater Project and California’s La Jolla Playhouse, where the Los Angeles Times named it the Best of Theater 2022, referring to it as “an impeccable production with symphonic subtlety.” The San Diego Union Tribune called the production a “chilling world-premiere—engrossing, unsettling, and deeply moving” while BroadwayWorld exclaimed, “Here There Are Blueberries should be staged in every major city in America.”
Here There Are Blueberries will run May 7 through May 28 in Harman Hall, 610 F Street NW, Washington, DC. Casting will be announced at a later date. Tickets are on sale now online.
COVID Safety: All performances in STC spaces are mask recommended.
Here There Are Blueberries is written by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, conceived and directed by Moisés Kaufman, and devised with Scott Barrow, Amy Marie Seidel, Frances Uku, Grant James Varjas, and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project. The design team includes scenic design by Derek McLane, costumes by Dede Ayite, lighting design by David Lander, sound design by Bobby McElver, projection design by David Bengali, dramaturgy and associate direction by Amy Marie Seidel, and production stage management by Joseph Smelser.
About the Creative Team
Moisés Kaufman
Co-Author & Director
Broadway credits include Paradise Square (10 Tony nominations), the recent revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, 33 Variations with Jane Fonda (writer/director; Tony Award nomination for Best Play, Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award) and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife (Obie Award, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations). West End: Gross Indecency (writer/director, Gielgud Theatre); I Am My Own Wife (Duke of York’s Theatre); This Is How It Goes by Neil LaBute (Donmar Warehouse). Off-Broadway/Regional: Here There Are Blueberries (Tectonic Theater Project / La Jolla Playhouse), Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic Theater Project/Madison Wells Live), One Arm by Tennessee Williams (Tectonic Theater Project/The New Group); The Laramie Project (writer/director; Theater in the Square, Drama Desk nomination); The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later(writer/director; Alice Tully Hall); Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (writer/director; Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play and the Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction); Macbeth with Liev Schreiber (Delacorte Theater); Master Class with Rita Moreno (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Opera: El Gato Con Botas (New Victory Theater). Film/TV: The Laramie Project (HBO; two Emmy nominations for writing and directing, Opening Night Selection at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, National Board of Review Award, the Humanitas Prize); The L Word. Mr. Kaufman is the Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project, a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting, and an Obie Award winner.
Amanda Gronich
Co-Author
Amanda has devoted her career to bringing non-fiction stories to the stage and screen. An Emmy-nominated scriptwriter, she created dozens of hours of top-rated series and specials for diverse broadcast networks, including Discovery Channel, History Channel, and Science Channel. Over a ten-year career in television, she worked as a lead series writer for National Geographic Television and became the Supervising Senior Writer at Hoff Productions. Prior to this, Ms. Gronich was a charter member of Tectonic Theater Project, where she co-wrote Here There Are Blueberries which made its premiere at La Jolla Playhouse, directed the company’s Toronto production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and was one of the group of artists who traveled to Wyoming and co-created The Laramie Project, later made into an HBO film. Currently, she works as a playwright and a script development consultant in theater and documentary television. She also teaches interview-based storytelling as a Lead Teaching Artist at the Moment Work Institute, using techniques she developed as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre, City College New York. She is at work founding a non-fiction play development institute. In addition, a book about her original play-devising methods will be released by SIU Press.
Derek McLane
Scenic Design
Broadway designs include: MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical, Moulin Rouge! (Tony Award), Soldier’s Play, American Son, Parisian Woman, Beautiful, Follies, Anything Goes, Bengal Tiger…, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations (Tony Award), Little Women, How to Succeed…, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife, Ragtime. He designed the Academy Awards six times as well as four live musicals for television. Winner of multiple Obie, Lucille Lortel, Art Director’s Guild, Emmy, Drama Desk, and Tony Awards.
Dede Ayite
Costume Design
Dede is a two-time Tony Award-nominated costume designer whose Broadway credits include American Buffalo, How I Learned to Drive, A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, Chicken & Biscuits, and Children of a Lesser God. Select Off-Broadway credits include Richard III, Merry Wives (The Public Theater); Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic); Secret Life of Bees, Marie and Rosetta (Atlantic); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature); Nollywood Dreams, BLKS, School Girls… (MCC); Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); The Royale (Lincoln Center); Toni Stone (Roundabout). Regionally, Ayite’s work has appeared at La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Arena Stage, and more. She has worked in television with Netflix, Comedy Central, and FOX Shortcoms. Ayite earned her M.F.A. at the Yale School of Drama and has received an Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff Award.
David Lander
Lighting Design
Broadway: Torch Song, The Heiress, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Drama Desk Award; Tony and Outer Critics nominations), 33 Variations (Tony and Outer Critics nominations), I Am My Own Wife (Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations), Dirty Blonde (Drama Desk nomination), Golden Child, among others. Off-Broadway: Too Much Sun, Fran’s Bed, Modern Orthodox, among many others. Regional: Ahmanson Theatre, Alley Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, among others.
Bobby McElver
Sound Design
Bobby is a sound designer for theatre and dance. A former company member of The Wooster Group, he has toured internationally for over a decade and presented works in many major cities around the world. Additional artistic collaborators include Tectonic Theater Project, Andrew Schneider, Faye Driscoll, New York City Players, Kaki King, and Tina Satter (Half Straddle). Off-Broadway: AFTER (The Public Theater); Thank You For Coming: PLAY (BAM, Jacob’s Pillow). He has recently joined the faculty in the department of Theatre & Dance at UC San Diego.
David Bengali
Projection Design
Credits include Twilight, Los Angeles: 1992 (Signature; Drama Desk Award nom.); The Visitor (The Public Theater; Lortel nom.) 1776, We Live in Cairo (A.R.T.); Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical (Seaview; Drama League nom.); Bollywood Kitchen (Geffen Playhouse); Circle Jerk (Fake Friends; Drama League nom.); Einstein’s Dreams (59E59; Drama Desk nom); Girls (Yale Rep); The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Co.); Frankenstein (Dallas Theater Center); The Temple Bombing (Alliance Theatre); Uncommon Sense (Tectonic Theater Project); In the Moment (The Kennedy Center/Ephrat Asherie Dance); Rockin’ Road to Dublin (National Tour). Proud member: USA-829.
Amy Marie Seidel
Devisor, Associate Director, & Dramaturg
Amy is a Company Member at Tectonic Theater Project, where she has traveled the world to research and create new works of theater. She has developed numerous Tectonic productions, including Here There Are Blueberries, Seven Deadly Sins, Treatment & Data, Three Hotels, and Laramie: A Legacy. Select credits outside of Tectonic: Paradise Square on Broadway (Assistant Director), Eternal Flamer! at the Fresh Fruit Festival (Director), A Sacred Song of Thebes at Irondale (Director), and Theater J’s Annual Benefit (Director).
Joseph Smelser
Production Stage Manager
STC: Resident Stage Manager; 40 productions including King Lear; Much Ado About Nothing; Our Town; Once Upon a One More Time; The Amen Corner (2021 remount); The Oresteia; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The Comedy of Errors; Camelot; Hamlet; The School for Lies; The Secret Garden (also at 5th Avenue Theatre and Theater Under the Stars); The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound (also at Guthrie Theater); Kiss Me, Kate; Man of La Mancha; The Tempest; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Strange Interlude; All’s Well That Ends Well. REGIONAL: Arena Stage: The Heiress, Let Me Down Easy | Seattle Repertory Theatre: Eight seasons including An Ideal Husband, Play On!, Golden Child, Don Juan, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (with Lily Tomlin) | American Conservatory Theater: The Rivals, The Circle, The Government Inspector, Vigil | Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Journey to the West, An Almost Holy Picture, Having Our Say | Regional Tour: Let Me Down Easy and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (both with Anna Deavere Smith). PERSONAL: Training: Oberlin College: BA.
Tectonic Theater Project
Based in New York City and guided by founder and artistic director Moisés Kaufman, Tectonic Theater Project develops new plays using the company’s trademarked theater-making method, Moment Work, and through a rigorous process of research and collaboration in a laboratory environment. Since its founding in 1991, the company has created and staged over twenty plays and musicals, including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project, Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, the Tony Award-winning 33 Variations, and the Drama Desk Award-winning Seven Deadly Sins. Tectonic Theater Project’s newest world-premiere play, Here There Are Blueberries, made its debut in a co-production with California’s La Jolla Playhouse.
Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE)
FASPE provides a unique historical lens to study contemporary ethics in the professions. FASPE offers fellowships to students pursuing professional degrees in business, journalism, law, medicine, seminary, and design & technology, as well as to early-career professionals in these fields. Fellows in each of FASPE’s six programs spend two intensive weeks in Germany and Poland, visiting Auschwitz and key historical sites in Berlin and Krakow, and participating in rigorous seminars led by experts in their respective fields. Fellows begin their studies by examining the roles their professional counterparts played in Germany and elsewhere from 1933-1945, and then draw on historical, cultural, philosophical, literary, and discipline-specific sources to explore the ethical issues facing their fields today. FASPE also provides shorter programs to mid-career professionals that integrate history and contemporary ethical issues. These include tailored onsite ethics training at corporations, law firms, and other professional settings, as well as a condensed version of the program in Europe in which the FASPE fellows participate.
Shakespeare Theatre Company
For more than 35 years, the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company has dedicated itself to being the nation’s premier classical theatre. Classical plays are realized best not by originalism but by walking the path Shakespeare himself followed, creating works that spoke to his own contemporary audience. We tell vital stories in audacious forms. We tell stories that are Shakespearean in the deepest sense, even {{ if (and especially when) they are not written by Shakespeare. By focusing on works with profound themes and complex characters, STC’s artistic mission is unique among regional theatres: to bring to vibrant life groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible theatre.
STC picks feminist revenge comedy as sixth show of 2022/23 season
Michael Urie to return to Shakespeare Theatre Company as William Shakespeare in ‘Jane Anger.’
Season announcement update published July 8, 2022.
Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced the sixth show of its 2022/23 season, a feminist revenge comedy titled Jane Anger or The Lamentable Comedie of Jane Anger, that Cunning Woman, and also of Willy Shakefpeare and his Peasant Companion, Francis, Yes and Also of Anne Hathaway (also a Woman) Who Tried Very Hard. (See below for descriptions of STC’s five previously announced 2022/23 shows.)
It’s 1606 and Shakespeare (played by STC favorite Michael Urie) is plagued… with writer’s block. London’s theaters are closed and the actual plague has the Bard stuck in quarantine with his “young” apprentice, Francis (Ryan Spahn). In through the window climbs Jane Anger (Amelia Workman), a Cunning Woman and a writer of her own merit with a dream to change history. As Jane tries to assist Shakespeare in writing King Lear, she and Anne Hathaway (of Stratford, not Hollywood, and played by playwright Talene Monahon) take matters into their own more than capable hands.
“I am thrilled that STC has the privilege of hosting the DC premiere of this magnetic, revisionist comedy,” states STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin. Presented in association with Jennifer Campos Productions, Jane Anger has been dubbed “gloriously silly and gleefully entertaining” (Theatrely). “Talene Monahon is clearly a gifted comedy writer,” notes The New York Times. “The production has a liveliness that the exceptional cast runs away with, delivering Monahon’s mile-a-minute gags with zest.”
“DC is the perfect place to bring Jane next,” notes director Jess Chayes. “In Talene’s brilliant play, Jane is a revolutionary, unafraid to speak truth to power. And her collision with Shakespeare himself brings comic pyrotechnics and incisive questions. I know Michael is enthusiastic about returning to Shakespeare Theatre Company, and I can’t wait to see his joyful wit at work on that stage.”
“I’ve been lucky enough to play Hamlet and Ben Jonson at STC, and I’m incredibly excited to perform the role of the theater’s namesake next,” says Urie. “A truly lovely group brought this show to life, and I know STC’s audiences are going to love it!”
For those interested in seeing this exciting production alongside the rest of STC’s vibrant 22/23 lineup, Full Season and Mini Subscription packages are now on sale. Single-Ticket sales will be available starting in August 2022.
About the Jane Anger Creative Team
JESS CHAYES
Director
She/Her
Jess recently completed three seasons as the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at Northern Stage as an inaugural member of the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle. She is a founding co-artistic director of New York-based ensemble The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed ten original productions. New York: Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher and Misery (as Associate), Off-Broadway: The Antelope Party (Dutch Kills), Intelligence (NYTW Next Door), and new work development at NYTW, The Vineyard Theatre, The Atlantic, Playwrights Horizons, and others. Regional: Jordan and Venus Rising (Northern Stage), Off Peak (Hudson Stage Company), and The Flick (The Warehouse Theatre). Jess was awarded the 2017 Lucille Lortel Award by the League of Professional Theater Women and the 2019 Collaboration Award from the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition. www.jesschayes.com.
TALENE MONAHON
Playwright, Anne Hathaway
She/Her
Talene Monahon is a Brooklyn-based playwright and actor. Her plays include Jane Anger (New Ohio; 2022 Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Play Nominee), How to Load a Musket (Less than Rent; TheaterMania’s “The 10 Best Theater Productions of 2020”), Frankie & Will (MCC), and All in Good Fun (Peterborough Players). Her work has been developed by NYSAF, Bedlam Theater, Red Bull Theater, Cape Cod Theater Project, and Northern Stage and her writing has been published by Stage Rights, The Cincinnati Review, and McSweeney’s. As an actor, her credits include productions at Roundabout Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, the Atlantic, MCC, New Georges, Encores!, Red Bull, La Jolla Playhouse, Gingold Theater Group, and Partial Comfort, as well as selected film and television. B.A. from Dartmouth College. When she was eighteen, Talene won first prize in the English Speaking Union’s National Shakespeare Competition, awarded by the late great Gene Wilder.
RYAN SPAHN
Francis
He/Him
STC: Hamlet. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Jand Anger, Lessons in Survival, Mr. Toole, How To Load A Musket, Moscow x6, Daniel’s Husband, Summer and Smoke, Still at Risk, Exit Strategy, Gloria. FILM: September 17th, The Raging Heart of Maggie Acker, Shirley, Abducted, Nora Highland (writer/director), He’s Way More Famous Than You (co-writer), Grantham and Rose (writer), Woven (co-writer). TELEVISION: Chicago P.D., Modern Love, The Bite, The Blacklist. PERSONAL: Ryan has been published by Rotten Tomatoes, IntoMore, Talkhouse, Metro Weekly, American Theatre Magazine, and USA Today. | Training: The Juilliard School.
MICHAEL URIE
William Shakespeare
He/Him
STC: Hamlet, Will on the Hill (2022). NEW YORK: Broadway: Chicken & Biscuits, Grand Horizons, Torch Song, How To Succeed in Business… Off-Broadway: Buyer & Cellar, The Government Inspector, Angels in America, The Temperamentals. TELEVISION: Ugly Betty, Younger, Modern Family, Good Wife/Fight, Hot in Cleveland. FILM: Single All The Way, Swan Song, Lavender, Decoy Bride, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, He’s Way More Famous Than You. Michael has played Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mercutio, Roderigo, Saturninus, Flute, Boyette, Horatio, Hastings, Benvolio, Demetrius, Chiron, and now the Bard himself!
AMELIA WORKMAN
Jane Anger
She/Her
TELEVISION: Succession, Bull, and Blindspot (selected). Amelia’s work onstage has led her to work with Pulitzer- winning playwrights, understudy Kerry Washington, and perform on stages in over a dozen countries. She played the titular role in the lauded 2019 revival of Fefu and her Friends. ameliaworkman.com.
Season announcement as originally published April 7, 2022
Shakespeare Theatre Company announces 2022/23 lineup
A season focused on love, loss, and the spaces between.
Shakespeare Theatre Company and Artistic Director Simon Godwin have announced the Tony Award-winning theater’s 37th season. The 2022/23 lineup includes fresh new work and spectacular experiences centered around the backbone of some of The Bard’s biggest titles. “Theater has faced enormous challenges over the last two years,” shares Godwin. “It has loved, lost, and been born anew. We at STC are indebted to the DC theater community for their unwavering support and we are privileged to continue serving this community such vital stories, audaciously told.”
The 2022/23 Season opens with the return of Mary Zimmerman (Candide, Pericles) to STC. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci explores the writing of one of the world’s greatest thinkers. Science, art, and psychology coalesce in a visual feast directed by the boundless imagination of Zimmerman. “I’m very happy to be returning to STC with a piece that is so close to my heart. It is a series of vignettes that illustrate, or sometimes counter-illustrate, fragments of Leonardo’s private notebooks that have miraculously survived for almost 500 years. All of these little scenes coalesce into a portrait of a singularly attentive consciousness, one that I hope inspires in us a similar attentiveness to the wonders of our world.”
“I am pleased to say that we can at last fulfill our promise of bringing The Jungle and Much Ado About Nothing to our patrons,” says Executive Director Chris Jennings. “Both of these dynamic productions were shelved during the pandemic, and I’m excited to finally bring them to our stages.”
The Jungle, presented in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, is an intimate piece that brings audiences into a refugee camp as cultures clash and the dream of freedom pushes their community to action. “This collaboration has been a long time coming for Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth, and its timing couldn’t be more prescient,” says Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes. “Our hearts are breaking for the families displaced in so many parts of our world, and this extraordinary piece of theater asks us to empathize with their plight in a deeply visceral way. We are thrilled to partner with our neighbors at STC to finally bring this show to Washington, DC!”
Due to limited capacity, priority will be given to STC season subscribers or Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Golden Ticket holders.
Godwin’s much-anticipated Much Ado About Nothing brings audiences into a television newsroom to witness the quick-witted repartee of co-anchors Beatrice and Benedick. Missed cues, skewed reporting, and a pinch of screwball fun make this production as heart-warming as it is hilarious.
STC favorite Patrick Page (Hadestown, All the Devils Are Here), who has previously appeared as Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Prospero at STC, returns to perform King Lear. “I have lived with King Lear in my head for the past 40 years,” says Page. “To do the play in the nation’s capital under the direction of Simon Godwin is a true blessing. The play seems as if it were written yesterday.” Godwin is equally enthusiastic about the upcoming collaboration: “Patrick has delivered powerhouse performances time and time again for STC audiences. I can’t wait for the world to see his Lear.”
The season also includes a sizzling new musical inspired by the African myth of Marimba. Goddess is the story of what happens when love, duty, and magic collide. Conceived and directed by Saheem Ali (Merry Wives, Nollywood Dreams) with music and lyrics by acclaimed composer Michael Thurber (Merry Wives) and a book by Jocelyn Bioh (Merry Wives, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play), this contemporary romance is sure to delight.
“Our final play is currently in the works,” teases Godwin, “but I am confident it will be an exciting addition to an already captivating season, and I can’t wait to tell you more soon.”
In addition to the main season, STC is delighted to announce that Associate Director Whitney White will be leading a week-long workshop on an examination of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. This exciting workshop will culminate in a rehearsed reading available to STC subscribers and donors.
STC will also expand its work on The Shift, an initiative focused on broadening partnerships with local organizations and the next generation of artists to expand the definition of classical theater. “We plan to connect and collaborate with new partners to shift the future of theater using our spaces and teams as resources,” explains LeeAnét Noble, STC’s Director of Equity and Enrichment and the driving force behind The Shift. “We will continue our collaboration with Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts and The Greater Washington Urban League in the upcoming year. And I am excited to say that a few more schools and institutions will be added to our growing list of partners very soon.”
“The future of STC is bright as we look bravely toward tomorrow,” says Godwin. “We are grateful to our growing community for joining us in this adventure together.”
All titles and artists are subject to change.
Six-play full-season subscriptions are available now. Single tickets for most shows will be available for purchase in late summer. Advance access to single tickets will be made available to STC Subscribers and Donors.
SHOW DESCRIPTIONS
THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Written and Directed by Mary Zimmerman
Tony Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient Mary Zimmerman, the creative leader behind some of STC’s most imaginative productions (Candide, Pericles), brings the writings of Leonardo da Vinci to life in this stunning revival of one of her earliest creations. Comprised solely of text from the surviving notebooks of the 15th-century renaissance man himself, Notebooks is “a true revelation” (The Chicago Tribune) that celebrates the interplay of science, art, and the human spirit in a glorious kaleidoscope of beauty and remarkable insight.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
The course of true love never did run smooth, especially when the ON AIR sign is lit. Shakespeare’s cherished romantic comedy lands in a cable newsroom, where sparring co-anchors Benedick and Beatrice trade barbs behind the news desk. Helmed by “one of the most insightful and sensitive directors of Shakespeare today” (WhatsOnStage), Much Ado About Nothing is the perfect blend of sparkling screwball comedy and revelatory romance.
KING LEAR
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
Caught in a carousel of memory, the head of a dysfunctional royal family grapples with power-hungry children and the threat of losing the empire he created. Real and imagined worlds coalesce, creating a political and personal horror that threatens to swallow the mind of the monarch. The incomparable Patrick Page (Hadestown, The Gilded Age) returns to STC as the once-revered king caught in an emotional hurricane ravaging his home, head, and heart.
St. Ann’s Warehouse and Good Chance
THE JUNGLE
By Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson /Directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin Originally a National Theatre, Young Vic, and Good Chance co-production
Welcome to The Jungle where cultures collide and thousands dream of crossing the English Channel to the possibility of freedom. Laughter, tears, allegiances, and prayers are shared by this extraordinary community of refugees caught up in a global crisis beyond their control. STC teams up with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company to bring this exclusive theatrical experience to Washington after sold-out runs in the West End and in New York. Co-directed by Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry (An Inspector Calls, The Crown) and Justin Martin, this “thrilling…ravishing…devastating” play (The New York Times) immerses the audience in the camp’s environment “to astonishing emotional effect” (The New Yorker). Note: Due to limited capacity, priority will be given to STC subscribers or Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Golden Ticket holders.
GODDESS
Conceived by Saheem Ali
Music and Lyrics by Michael Thurber
Book by Jocelyn Bioh
Choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie
Directed by Saheem Ali
From award-winning playwright Jocelyn Bioh (Merry Wives, School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play), composer Michael Thurber (Merry Wives), and director/conceiver Saheem Ali (Merry Wives, Nollywood Dreams) comes an exuberant new musical brimming with magical secrets. Following its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goddess tells the story of a mysterious singer who arrives at Moto Moto, a steamy Afro-jazz club in Mombasa, Kenya. She casts an entrancing presence on everyone at the club, including a young man who has returned home from America. Will the big plans for his life—stepping into a political legacy and marrying his fiancée—be upended? Inspired by the myth of Marimba, who created beautiful songs from her heartbreak, Goddess is a rousing tale of romance, the supernatural, and the quest of stepping into one’s true identity.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
SAHEEM ALI
Conceiver/Director, GODDESS
Saheem Ali is a proud immigrant from Kenya. Recent productions include Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The New Englanders (MTC), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep), Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company), Dangerous House (Williamstown Theater Festival), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Tartuffe (Playmakers Rep), Where Storms Are Born (WTF), Twelfth Night (Public Theater), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater), Nollywood Dreams (Cherry Lane), The Booty Call (Inner Voices) and Dot (Detroit Public Theater). He has workshopped new plays at Playwrights Horizons, Playwrights Realm, MCC, New York Stage & Film, Page 73, and The Lark. He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theater Workshop, Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow, and a Shubert Fellow.
JOCELYN BIOH
Book, GODDESS
Jocelyn Bioh is an award-winning Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. Her written works for theater include Merry Wives (adapted from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor for The Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park), Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater), Goddess the musical which will have its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in 2022 and the multi-award-winning School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play which was originally produced at MCC Theater in 2017/2018 and has gone on to have over 40 regional productions. She is a former TOW playwriting fellow (2017 – 2018) and has been commissioned by MTC, Atlantic Theater Co., Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Second Stage. Jocelyn has also written for TV on Russian Doll, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and is also writing the live screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once on This Island for Disney+.
STEPHEN DALDRY
Co-Director, THE JUNGLE
Stephen started his career at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre and directed extensively in Britain’s regional theaters. In London, he was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre where he headed the £26million redevelopment. He has also directed at the National Theatre, the Public Theatre in New York, and transferred many productions both to Broadway and the West End. His award-winning 1992 National Theatre production of An Inspector Calls is currently touring the UK. Billy Elliot the Musical has previously played in the West End, on Broadway, Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), North America, Toronto, The Netherlands, UK & Ireland Tours, Hamburg, Tokyo, and Seoul. In 2009, the production won ten Tony Awards including Best Musical, more than any other British show in Broadway history.
His first four films Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close together received 19 Academy Award® nominations and two wins. His most recent film, Trash, set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, was nominated for Best Film not in the English Language at the 2015 BAFTAs. Stephen directed productions of The Audience and Skylight, both were highly acclaimed and went on to win major theater awards, completing sell-out runs in London and on Broadway. In 2017 Stephen directed The Jungle at the Young Vic, an intimate immersive theatrical experience about the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe. The Jungle transferred to the West End in June 2018 and also completed a well-received run at The Curran Theatre in San Francisco and is due to return to the US in 2022.
In March 2018 Stephen directed The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s epic two-part play, which, following its sold-out run at the Young Vic, transferred to the West End. Stephen won the 2019 Best Director Olivier Award for The Inheritance. The production moved to Broadway in 2019 and Stephen won a Tony for Best Direction of a Play in 2021. Stephen has previously directed for BBC Radio and Television and was Director, and currently serves as Executive Producer, on the Netflix series The Crown written by Peter Morgan, the fifth season of which is due to be released later in 2022. He is Director of the Pier 55 Performance Park, Little Island, in New York, and was Creative Executive Producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Stephen is Chairman of a refugee arts charity Good Chance, which produced The Jungle. His latest production with Good Chance, The Walk, saw a 10ft tall puppet of a Syrian refugee girl, Little Amal, walk from Turkey to Glasgow
SIMON GODWIN
Director, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING; KING LEAR
Simon Godwin joined Shakespeare Theatre Company as Artistic Director in September 2019. Most recently, he returned to the National Theatre to direct Romeo & Juliet, an original film for television (Sky Arts in the U.K./PBS in the U.S.) starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. Simon has also directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including productions of Timon of Athens with Kathryn Hunter in the titular role, which was reimagined in early 2020 for Theatre for a New Audience in New York City and Shakespeare Theatre Company; an acclaimed Hamlet, which toured to the Kennedy Center; and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He has served as Associate Director of the National Theatre of London, the Royal Court Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, and the Royal and Derngate Theatres (Northampton). While at the Royal Court, Simon directed seven world premieres, including Routes, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep, NSFW, The Witness, Goodbye to All That, The Acid Test, and Wanderlust. He has directed several shows at the National Theatre including Strange Interlude, Man and Superman, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Twelfth Night, a celebrated production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, and the world premiere of Simon Wood’s Hansard. In 2012 Simon was awarded the inaugural Evening Standard/Burberry Award for an Emerging Director.
DARRELL GRAND MOULTRIE
Choreographer, GODDESS
A recipient of the Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, Darrell Grand Moultrie has established himself as one of the most diverse and sought-after choreographers and master teachers. On stage, Darrell has provided choreography for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Merry Wives, MCC’s Space Dogs, Fat Ham at The Public Theatre, the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’s off-Broadway play Daddy, Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theater directed by Tony winner Diane Paulus, Sugar in Our Wounds at Manhattan Theatre Club, the off-Broadway musical Invisible Thread at Second Stage, the world premiere of Redwood at Portland Center Stage Theater, and Evita and Pride & Prejudice at Kansas City Repertory Theatre.
Darrell choreographed El Publico, a new opera at the world-famous Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain directed by Robert Castro and conducted by Robert Heras-Casado. Recent premieres include “Indestructible Light” for American Ballet Theatre, “Dichotomy of a Journey” at Hubbard Street Dance, and “Flight Anew” for Milwaukee Ballet. Moultrie has created and staged works for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, Ailey 2, Tulsa Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, The Juilliard School, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and NBA Ballet in Japan, among others.
Darrell served as a choreographer on Beyoncé’s record-breaking Mrs. Carter world tour. Moultrie is a proud New Yorker, born and raised in Harlem, and a graduate of P.S. 144, The Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Laguardia High School, and The Juilliard School.
JUSTIN MARTIN
Co-Director, THE JUNGLE
Justin Martin most recently directed Jodie Comer in her West End debut of Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie at the Pinter Theatre. Previous theatre credits include the critically acclaimed, sellout production of The Jungle (Young Vic / West End / St. Ann’s Warehouse / Curran); Woman In Mind (Chichester); sellout productions of Low Level Panic (Old Fitz Theatre, Sydney / Galway Theatre Festival / Irish National Tour); Last Chance: A Plea For the Unaccompanied Children of Calais (Young Vic); The Nether (Seymour Centre, Sydney); Far Away, Skintight (fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne); Fifty Two (The Leicester Square Theatre); Good Chance / No Chance (as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of Love); Harvey and Frieda (Arcola Theatre); Street (Mick Laly Theatre, Galway Theatre Festival); and The Kitchen (HM Theatre, VIC). As Associate Director: Inheritance (Young Vic/West End/Broadway); Skylight (West End/Broadway); The Audience (West End / Broadway); Let The Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland/ Royal Court / West End / St. Ann’s Warehouse); Billy Elliot (Broadway / Toronto / Chicago/ North America tour / Korea / Australia); and The Give and Take (Sydney Theatre Company/Melbourne Theatre Company). Film credits include Together starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan co-directed with Stephen Daldry (BBC Films/SFP/Shoebox); The Beautiful Game starring Bill Nighy dir. Thea Sharrock (Netflix). Television credits include The Crown (Series 1 and 2); Insider (Fremantle/Amazon – in development); Untitled Refugee Project with Badwolf.
JOE MURPHY and JOE ROBERTSON
Co-Writers, THE JUNGLE
Joe and Joe are British playwrights and the co-founding Artistic Directors of Good Chance Theatre. They began writing together at university, and their short plays include Fairway Manor, Ten Bits on Boondoggling, and Paper Play. Together, they founded Good Chance, which built its first temporary theater space in the Jungle refugee camp in Calais in 2015. Good Chance works extensively around the UK, Europe, and across the world creating spaces of art, expression, and welcome for local and newly arrived people.
Joe & Joe’s first full-length play, The Jungle, opened at the Young Vic Theatre in London in 2018 and moved to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End, before transferring to the US for sell-out runs in New York and San Fransisco. Last year, Good Chance embarked on The Walk, its most ambitious project to date: an 8,000 km moving festival of welcome from the Turkey/Syria border to Manchester in the UK. At its heart was Little Amal, a character from The Jungle, in the form of a giant puppet, representing the hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children who have been forced to flee their homes.
Joe and Joe are recipients of the Evening Standard Theatre Award (2016), the Peter Brook Empty Space Award (2016), the Southbank Theatre Award (2018), the Genesis Prize (2018), the Mousetrap Award (2019), and, along with the Cast and Creative Team of The Jungle, an Obie (2019).
PATRICK PAGE
Lear, KING LEAR
Patrick Page most recently starred in Hadestown on Broadway (Tony Award nomination and a Grammy Award) after starring as Hades in the off-Broadway, Citadel Theatre, and National Theatre productions. Other Broadway: The Inquisitor in Saint Joan, Valentina in Casa Valentina, Buckley in Time to Kill, Adult Men in Spring Awakening, DeGuiche in Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons, Decius Brutus in Julius Caesar, Scar in The Lion King, The Grinch in Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, and Mackie in The Kentucky Cycle. Other New York: Cymbeline in Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival/Delacort), Max in The Sound of Music (Carnegie Hall). Regional: Page recently created the roles of Dom Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at La Jolla Playhouse and Papermill Playhouse, and Captain Dragutin Dimitrijevic in Rajiiv Joseph’s Archduke at the Mark Taper Forum. He is an Associate Artist of The Old Globe in San Diego (Cyrano, Malvolio), and the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C. (Coriolanus, Prospero, Macbeth, Iago, Claudius). Film: In The Heights, Estella Scrooge, The Sixth Reel. Television: recurring roles on The Gilded Age, Evil, Elementary, Madam Secretary, Flesh and Bone, and guest-starring roles on NCIS: New Orleans, The Good Wife, The Blacklist, Chicago P.D., and Law and Order: S.V.U.
MICHAEL THURBER
Music and Lyrics, GODDESS
Michael Thurber is an NYC-based composer/performer, who has written music for The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Public Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, and The Atlantic. Michael composed Merry Wives at the Delacorte Theatre in the summer of 2021. Michael was the bass player on Season 1 of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and is a co-founder of CDZA, a YouTube music collective that headlined at the YouTube Music Awards alongside Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire. Thurber’s symphonic pieces have been performed by orchestras around the country including The Louisville Orchestra, The Williamsburg Symphony, and The Interlochen Orchestra; recent theatrical writing and performing include The Booty Call (TBG Theater) and Twelfth Night (Public Theater Mobile Shakespeare Unit). Michael’s work has been developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference, and SPACE on Ryder Farm; he studied music at the Juilliard School and sits on the Board of NPR’s “From The Top.”
WHITNEY WHITE
Director, The Crucible (Workshop)
Whitney White, an Associate Director at Shakespeare Theatre Company, is an Obie Award and Lilly Award-winning director, writer, and musician originally from Chicago. She is a believer of alternative forms of performance, multi-disciplinary work, and collaborative processes. She is the current recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing Award, is part of the Rolex Protegé and Mentorship Arts Initiative and is an Associate Artist at Roundabout Theatre Company. Recent directing: STC: The Amen Corner | WP Theatre and Second Stage: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (NYT Critic’s Pick) | The Movement Theatre Company/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company/American Repertory Theater/The Public Theater: Aleshea Harris’ What to Send Up When It Goes Down (NYT Critic’s Pick) | Long Wharf: An Iliad | IAMA Theater Company: Canyon by Jonathan Caren (LA Times Critic’s Choice and recipient of the CTG Block Party Grant) | PlayMakers Repertory Company: Jump by Charly Evon Simpson (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere). Digital projects include: Finish the Fight by Ming Peiffer (The New York Times, 24K+ viewers) | Animals by Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Williamstown Theatre and Audible), and Soft Light by Aleshea Harris (The Movement Theatre Company). Her original musical Definition will debut at the Bushwick Starr in 2021 and her five-part cycle deconstructing Shakespeare’s women and female ambition is currently in development with American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA). Past residencies and fellowships: Sundance Theatre Lab, Colt Coeur, The Drama League, Roundabout Theatre Company, and the 2050 Fellowship at the New York Theatre Workshop. Training: Brown University/Trinity Rep: MFA in Acting, Northwestern University: BA.
MARY ZIMMERMAN
Adapter/ Director, THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Mary Zimmerman is an Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre, where over the past 25 years she has directed 17 productions including her own adaptations of Candide, The Jungle Book, White Snake, Mirror of the Invisible World, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Journey to the West, and The Odyssey as well as directed The Music Man, Wonderful Town, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Trojan Women, Pericles, and Silk. Many of these productions as well as her Arabian Nights, Argonautika, The Secret of the Wings, Treasure Island, and Eleven Rooms of Proust have played across the country and internationally. Her adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which originated at Northwestern and Lookingglass Theatre, ran on Broadway for a year and she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a play. Opera directing credits include Galileo Galilei at the Goodman (with Philip Glass), Lucia de Lammermoor (Metropolitan Opera, La Scala), and Armida, la Sonnambula, Rusalka (Metropolitan Opera). Zimmerman is a Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University and an Ensemble Member at Lookingglass Theatre Company, recipient of the 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, and recipient of numerous Jeff Awards.
WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY
Woolly Mammoth creates badass theater that highlights the stunning, challenging, and tremendous complexity of our world. For over 40 years, Woolly has maintained a high standard of artistic rigor while simultaneously daring to take risks, innovate, and push beyond perceived boundaries. One of the few remaining theaters in the country to maintain a company of artists, Woolly serves an essential research and development role within the American theater. Plays premiered here have gone on to productions at hundreds of theaters all over the world and have had lasting impacts on the field. Co-led by Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes and Managing Director Emika Abe, Woolly is located in Washington, D.C., equidistant from the Capitol Building and the White House. This unique location influences Woolly’s investment in actively working towards an equitable, participatory, and creative democracy.
Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples. Furthermore, the foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, DC, were funded by the sale of enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands.
