Studio Theatre welcomes new Associate Artistic Director Jess Chayes. Chayes is an award-winning director and producer of new work. She spent three seasons as the Associate Artistic Director of Northern Stage as an inaugural member of the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle and is a founding co-artistic director of New York-based ensemble The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed eleven original productions. She has developed new plays with Playwrights Horizons, The Vineyard Theatre, and The New Group, among others, and worked as a member of Woolly Mammoth’s new work department. She is also a founding member of the New Georges Jam artists lab and a NYTW Usual Suspect. Chayes 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.
Chayes’ directing credits include Next Year in Connecticut at sheNYC, Misery at Warehouse Theatre, Smart at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, In Corpo at The Assembly, Jane Anger at Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC and Jen Campos Productions, Off Peak at Hudson Stage Company and 59E59, The Antelope Party at Dutch Kills, and Jordan at Northern Stage.
“Jess brings a wealth of producing, directing, and new work development experience,” says Artistic Director David Muse. “She’s seasoned and enthusiastic, knows the DC scene well, and brings a point of view that complements Studio’s sensibility. She comes highly recommended—it’s clear that New York City will miss her—and I’m looking forward to the commitment and perspective she’ll bring to the DC theater community and her work here at Studio.” Chayes’ tenure will overlap briefly with her predecessor in the role, Danilo Gambini, who departs Studio in order to pursue opportunities as a freelance director. Gambini’s most recent directorial work has been at Studio, with consecutive turns in the director’s chair on this summer’s Wipeout and the ongoing The Heart Sellers. His next show will be directing A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter at Mosaic Theater.
About Studio Theatre
Studio Theatre is a longstanding Washington cultural institution dedicated to the production of contemporary theatrer. Over more than 40 years and 350 productions, the theater has grown from a company that produced in a single rented theater to one that owns a multi-venue complex stretching half a city block, but has stayed committed to its core distinguishing characteristics: deliberately intimate spaces; excellence in acting and design; and seasons that feature many of the most significant playwrights of our time. Studio is a values-focused organization that pursues artistry and inclusion, and brings characteristic thoughtfulness and daring to their efforts, onstage and off. The theater serves nearly 75,000 people each year, including more than 1,000 youth and young adults through community engagement initiatives. Founded in 1978, the quality of Studio’s work has been recognized by sustained community support, as well as 78 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in professional theatwe.
