Studio Theatre Extends Pulitzer Prize-Winning DOUBT: A Parable

 

Studio Theatre is extending its season-opening production of Doubt: A Parable, adding five performances through October 13, 2019. John Patrick Shanley's masterpiece received the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for its compelling interrogation of certitude and scandal within the Catholic Church. Studio's production is directed by the theatre's Associate Artistic Director Matt Torney and is anchored by DC theatre treasure Sarah Marshall, distinguished by having performed at Studio more than any other actor. Joining Marshall are Christian Conn (Studio Theatre's Venus in Fur) as Father Flynn, Amelia Pedlow as Sister James, and Tiffany M. Thompson as Mrs. Muller.

Doubt takes in the Bronx in 1964. Suspicions surface at a parochial school about a charismatic young priest's interest in a Catholic school's first and only Black student. Absent hard proof, Sister Aloysius, the school's starched and self-assured principal, tries to protect the innocent, but is she doing God's work or is her certitude actually pride? A searing masterwork by John Patrick Shanley about faith, ambiguity, and the price of moral conviction.

About Matt Torney

The 2019-2020 season will be Matt Torney’s fourth as Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre, where he has previously directed If I Forget, Translations, The Hard Problem, MotherStruck!, Hedda Gabler, Jumpers for Goalposts (nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards, including Best Ensemble), The New Electric Ballroom, and The Walworth Farce (nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards). Prior to his work at Studio, Matt served as the Director of Programming for Origin Theatre in New York, an Off Broadway company that specializes in European new writing. His New York credits include Stop the Tempo and Tiny Dynamite (Origin Theatre, Drama Desk Award nominee), The Twelfth Labor (Loading Dock), The Dudleys (Theater for the New City), The Angel of History (HERE Arts Center), and Three Sisters and A Bright Room Called Day (Atlantic Theater Company). Regional credits include Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre), and Improbable Frequency (Solas Nua, Helen Hayes Award nominee for Best Choreography). International credits include Digging for Fire and Plaza Suite (Rough Magic, National Tour), Angola (workshop at the Abbey Theatre), Paisley and Me (Grand Opera House, Belfast), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Making Strange, Irish Theatre Award nominee for Best Director), and Woyzeck (Rough Magic, Best Production nominee at the Dublin Fringe Festival). Originally from Belfast, Matt holds an MFA from Columbia University. 

About John Patrick Shanley

Playwright, screenwriter, and director John Patrick Shanley is from the Bronx. His plays include The Portuguese Kid, Prodigal Son, Outside Mullingar (Tony Award nomination), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Four Dogs and a Bone, Dirty Story, and Beggars in the House of Plenty. His theatrical work is performed extensively around the world. For his play Doubt: A Parable, he received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the arena of screenwriting he has nine films to his credit, most recently Doubt with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. Doubt, directed by John, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Other films include Five Corners (Special Jury Prize, Barcelona), Alive, Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed), and Live from Baghdad for HBO (Emmy nomination). For his script of Moonstruck, he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2009, The Writers Guild of America awarded him the Lifetime Achievement in Writing.

ABOUT THE CAST

• Sarah Marshall (Sister Aloysius) returns to Studio Theatre for Doubt: A Parable after appearing in Admissions last season. Sarah has the honor of having performed at Studio Theatre more than any other performer in its history. Some of her Studio credits include The Apple Family Cycle, The Rocky Horror Show, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Prometheus, Betty’s Summer Vacation,  Three Sisters, Miss Margarida’s Way, Sylvia, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Baltimore Waltz, When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout, My Sister in this House, Playing for Time, A Taste of Honey, The Visit, and Medea. She has performed at many Washington theatres including Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Signature Theatre, and the Kennedy Center. Sarah has taught acting for 30 years and currently teaches at Georgetown University. 
• Christian Conn (Father Flynn) previously played Thomas in Venus in Fur at Studio Theatre. New York credits include Desire Under the Elms on Broadway, The Metromaniacs and The School for Scandal at Red Bull Theater, The Liar at Classic Stage Company, and Fulfillment at The Flea Theater. DC credits include the world premieres of The Metromaniacs and The Liar at Shakespeare Theatre Company, as well as last season's The Comedy of Errors. Other recent regional work includes Frost/Nixon at Bay Street Theater, The Importance of Being Earnest at The Old Globe, Other Desert Cities at the Guthrie Theater, God of Carnage at Theatre Aspen, and three seasons with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Television, film, and gaming work includes Jack Ryan, The (718), Tough Crowd, and Tom Dickens in Red Dead Redemption II. Christian earned a BFA from Rutgers University. 
• Amelia Pedlow (Sister James) recently appeared in New York in the world premiere of Intelligence at New York Theatre Workshop for Next Door at NYTW. Other Off Broadway credits include The Metromaniacs and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore with Red Bull Theater, the world premiere of Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice with Primary Stages, The Liar and The Heir Apparent with Classic Stage Company, and You Never Can Tell with The Pearl Theatre Company. Regional credits include Love’s Labours Lost at Folger Theatre; Playing with Fire at the Guthrie Theater; Fortune at Hangar Theatre; Pride and Prejudice and The General from America with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Red Velvet and The Metromaniacs with The Old Globe; The Metromaniacs, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Merchant of Venice with Shakespeare Theatre Company; Ether Dome with La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, and Huntington Theatre Center; The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet, and The Liar with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Legacy of Light with Cleveland Play House; and The Diary of Anne Frank with Virginia Stage Company. Her television credits include The Good Wife, Blue Bloods,  Shades of Blue, and The Blacklist. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School. 
• Tiffany M. Thompson (Mrs. Muller) recently appeared as Chelle in Detroit '67 at the Detroit Public Theatre. Other productions include Diana Goodman in Next to Normal, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Fabian in Twelfth Night, and Anna Mae/Afua in By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. Tiffany also was cast as Leafy Lee in Polk County by Zora Neale Hurston in a joint production with the McCarter Theatre Center and Berkeley Repertory Theater, and also as Mattie Campbell in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, directed by Delroy Lindo. Tiffany has a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from Wayne State University. 

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