EXTENDED AGAIN: LUCY PREBBLE S THE EFFECT, DIRECTED BY DAVID MUSE

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1 CONTACT: Amy Horan Marketing and Publicity Supervisor x106 DATE: October 31, 2017 EXTENDED AGAIN: LUCY PREBBLE S THE EFFECT, DIRECTED BY DAVID MUSE "A spectacularly immersive staging on the top floor of Studio Theatre a mindblowing exploration into the biochemistry of human love... The Effect is thought-provoking and poignant, and a must-see production." DC Metro Theater Arts The Effect by Lucy Prebble directed by David Muse now playing through November 11 The Effect, written by Lucy Prebble and directed by Studio s Artistic Director David Muse, extends again at Studio Theatre, now playing through November 11. Together with a veteran Studio design team including set designer Luciana Stecconi (Cloud 9, Bad Jews, An Iliad), sound designer Ryan Rumery (The Father, Constellations), and lighting designer Jesse Belsky (Three Sisters/No Sisters) Muse has transformed Stage 4 with an allin design experience now signature to Studio X. The Effect marks Prebble s DC debut, and has been met with both critical and audience acclaim. About The Effect Connie and Tristan can t hide how they feel around each other: Hearts thumping, sleepless nights, a slightly ill feeling of excitement. Unless their infatuation is a side-effect of the new antidepressant they re testing in a clinical trial. As the trial s supervising doctors try to get their subjects in line and debate Big Pharma s profits in medicating mood Connie and Tristan engage body and mind with the mysteries and chemistry of love. Praise for The Effect Smart and stimulating Muse, Studio s artistic director, applies his accustomed intelligence to another Studio-worthy project here. He elicits the best from his actors, most notably from Silver and Kleiger, who have personality to spare. They persuasively offer up fallible people, endearing and flawed and yes, in each other s company possessing that magic ingredient: chemistry. The Washington Post

2 So important and a must-see! MD Theatre Guide Studio Theatre's production of The Effect explores love and mental health with heart-racing, gut-wrenching gusto. Broadway World "The Effect is a profoundly moving and surprisingly funny must-see, brought to life by some truly electrifying talent and unforgettable visuals." Brightest Young Things It is full of humor and ultimately manages to accomplish a delicate and difficult goal: to demonstrate how people profoundly affect one another, physically and emotionally, when they fall in love. Theatremania "A spectacularly immersive staging on the top floor of Studio Theatre... a mindblowing exploration into the biochemistry of human love... The Effect is thought-provoking and poignant, and a must-see production." DC Metro Theater Arts Poignant and original, The Effect is a mind-tingling affair for the heart. DC Theatre Scene About Lucy Prebble Lucy Prebble received the George Devine Award 2004 for her debut play The Sugar Syndrome followed by the TMA Award for Best New Play in She also received the 2004 Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. Lucy is the creator of the television series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billie Piper in the main role. Secret Diary is on its fourth season and was sold to Showtime. Prebble s second play, Enron, transferred to The West End and Broadway in 2010 after sold out runs at both The Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre. Sony has optioned the rights to develop Enron into a film. Enron won Best New Play at the TMA Theatre Awards, and was shortlisted for The Evening Standard Award for Best New Play About David Muse David Muse is in his eighth season as Artistic Director of Studio Theatre where he has directed The Father, Constellations, Chimerica, Murder Ballad, Belleville, Cock, Tribes, The Real Thing, An Iliad, Dirt, Bachelorette, The Habit of Art, Venus in Fur, Circle Mirror Transformation, reasons to be pretty, Blackbird, Frozen, and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. Previously, he was Associate Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he directed seven productions, including Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Coriolanus. Other directing projects include King Charles III (Shakespeare Theatre Company, A.C.T., Seattle Rep), Frankie

3 and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Arena Stage), The Bluest Eye (Theatre Alliance), and Patrick Page's Swansong (New York Summer Play Festival). He has helped to develop new work at numerous theatres, including New York Theatre Workshop, Geva Theatre Center, Arena Stage, Ford s Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Mr. Muse has taught acting and directing at Georgetown, Yale, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company s Academy of Classical Acting. A seven-time Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Direction, he is a recipient of the DC Mayor s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist and the National Theatre Conference Emerging Artist Award. Mr. Muse is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Drama. About the cast Gina Daniels (Dr. Lorna James) was a member of the Broadway company of All The Way, originating the role of Coretta at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she is a ten season company member. Ms. Daniels New York, international, and regional credits include The White Snake at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Roe at Arena Stage and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Our Town at Portland Center Stage, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Paper Mill Playhouse, Broke-ology at TheaterWorks, Doubt at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Private Lives and Hamlet at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth at Delaware Theatre Company, An Ideal Husband at Baltimore Center Stage, and Medea at Pittsburgh Public Theater. Her television credits include Orange is the New Black and High Maintenance. Eric Hissom s (Dr. Toby Sealey) Broadway credits include the national tour of The Thirty-Nine Steps. Regional credits include Arcadia at the Folger Theatre (Helen Hayes Award for Supporting Actor), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at Round House Theatre, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Arena Stage, Twelfth Night at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Game s Afoot at Cleveland Playhouse, Glengarry Glen Ross at Asolo Rep, and many others. Film credits include Out of Time. Television credits include One Tree Hill and Mortal Kombat. Mr. Hissom is also a director and a playwright and has an MFA from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. Katie Kleiger (Connie) makes her Studio Theatre debut. Off Broadway credits include Ring Twice for Miranda at New York City Center and The Fall at Soho Playhouse. DC credits include Miss Bennet at Round House Theatre; the premiere of the new play Home, Again at the Kennedy Center; and A Christmas Carol at Ford s Theatre. Regional credits include Juno and the Paycock, Christmas Carol, and Blue Stockings at Guthrie Theater. Ms. Kleiger holds a BFA from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program. Upcoming projects include The Book of Will at Round House Theatre and The Wolves at Studio Theatre. Rafi Silver (Tristan) makes his Studio Theatre debut. He has been seen Off Broadway in Masked at the Dr2, Manipulation at the Cherry Lane, Carrie at PS122, and regionally in The Cry of the Reed at the Huntington Theatre Company. His television credits include NCIS, NCIS: LA, Shameless, Elementary, Happy Endings, Ben and Kate, Fringe, Scandal, American Dad, and We Bare Bears. Mr. Silver holds an MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program, a BFA from Syracuse University, and is currently on faculty at Columbia University's MFA Graduate Acting Program.

4 About the Creative Team Luciana Stecconi (Set Designer) s previous designs for Studio Theatre include Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Bad Jews, An Iliad, Lungs, The History of Kisses, In the Red and Brown Water, The Year of Magical Thinking, Amnesia Curiosa, Souvenir, Contractions, and Crestfall, among others. She has designed for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, Mosaic Theater, Theater J, Everyman Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Georgetown University, Catholic University, American University, Imagination Stage, and many more. She received the 2010 Washington DC Mayor s Art Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist and the 2006 Brandeis University Ira Gershwin Prize. Ms. Stecconi holds an MFA in design from Brandeis University. Jesse Belsky (Lighting Designer) previously designed Three Sisters, No Sisters, and Animal at Studio Theatre. Regional credits include The 39 Steps, Pump Boys & Dinettes, Shipwrecked, and Kingdom of Earth at Triad Stage; Lydia and Rough Crossing at Yale Repertory Theatre; and The Year of Magical Thinking at Playmakers Repertory Company. DC designs include Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Ford s Theatre, The Year of Magical Thinking at Arena Stage, The Mystery of Love & Sex at Signature Theatre, Sense & Sensibility and A Midsummer Night s Dream at Folger Theatre, and The Magic Play at Olney Theatre Center. His designs for Everyman Theater in Baltimore include The Roommate, Deathtrap, Blithe Spirit, and Outside Mullingar. Mr. Belsky holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and he has taught lighting design at Connecticut College and UNC Greensboro. Heather C. Jackson (Costume Designer) previously worked at Studio Theatre as Assistant Designer on The Apple Family Plays. Most recently she designed Whipping, or The Football Hamlet with Longacre Lea. Other recent designs include The Tempest and Richard III at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Orfeo ed Euridice/Orphee aux Enfers at Maryland Opera Studio, The Wild Party at the University of Maryland, and Gospel of Lovingkindness at Mosaic Theater Company, among others. Upcoming projects include Spring Awakening at Loyola University Maryland, The Winter s Tale at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, and Assistant Designer on Samson & Delilah at Virginia Opera Company. Ms. Jackson holds an MFA from the University of Maryland. Ryan Rumery (Sound Designer) is a musician, composer, and producer. His music is in the films Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock (Tribeca Film Festival 2017), How to Let Go of the World (And Love All the Things Climate Can't Change) (Sundance 2016, HBO), and City of Gold (Sundance, SXSW 2015). Recent theatrical scores include Fool For Love on Broadway, The End of Longing at MCC Theater, Emperor Jones at The Irish Repertory Theatre, and Between Riverside and Crazy at the Atlantic Theater Company and Second Stage Theater. Mr. Rumery, Christian Frederickson, and the late Jason Noble recently released their album The Painted Bird Amidst. Mr. Rumery recently produced three albums for Jeremy Bass. Upcoming albums include Arlo Hannigan and The Walker Project. Mr. Rumery recently received the Obie

5 Award for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design and Composition, and was a selected composer for the Sundance Institute of Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound. Alex Basco Koch (Projection Design) previously designed Invisible Man at Studio Theatre (also at the Court Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company). Recently he did the concert design for The Magnetic Fields s 50 Song Memoir. Broadway credits include Irena's Vow. Off Broadway credits include Buyer & Cellar at Barrow Street Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Body of an American at Primary Stages, The Liquid Plain at Signature Theatre, and Lenin's Embalmers at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regional credits include Marley at Baltimore Center Stage, and ReEntry at Baltimore Center Stage, Round House Theatre, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. INFORMATION Where: Studio Theatre s Stage 4, th St NW, Washington, DC Performances: Week of October 30: Thursday-Saturday, 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday, 2:30pm Week of November 6: Wednesday- Saturday, 7:30pm; Saturday, 2:30pm Ticket Prices: Tickets range from $20 - $60 Must close November 11 STUDIO THEATRE Entering its eighth season under the leadership of Artistic Director David Muse, Studio Theatre is Washington s premier venue for contemporary theatre, where local audiences will find today s edgiest playwrights (Variety). Muse is joined by Managing Director Meridith Burkus. One of the most respected midsized theatres in the country, Studio Theatre produces the work of today s greatest writers, augmented by occasional productions of modern classics, performed by acclaimed actors in intimate spaces. Throughout the Theatre s 39-year history, the quality of its work has been recognized by sustained community support as well as with 363 nominations and 68 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in professional theatre. GENERAL INFORMATION Location: th Street NW (northeast corner of 14th and P Streets). Parking: Studio has a parking partnership with Washington Plaza Hotel at 10 Thomas Circle NW, three blocks south of Studio; patrons who park at the hotel s parking garage can purchase a $13 voucher at concessions. Street parking is extremely limited; arrive early to increase your options. Metro Stops: Red Line: Dupont Circle, Orange/Blue Lines: McPherson Square, and Green/ Yellow Lines: U Street/Cardozo. Accessibility: Studio s theatres are all wheelchair accessible; seats are available by reservation. Assistive listening devices are available for all shows at concessions. Call the Box Office at for more information.

6 Contact Information: Tickets and Subscriptions: Administration: Website: studiotheatre.org ###