Studio Theatre to Open 19-20 Season with DOUBT

Studio Theatre opens its 2019-2020 season on September 4, 2019 with Associate Artistic Director Matt Torney directing Doubt: A Parable, John Patrick Shanley's masterpiece about faith, ambiguity, and the price of moral conviction. The production stars Washington, DC theatre treasure Sarah Marshall, distinguished by having performed at Studio more than any other actor, as Sister Aloysius, the stern and unflinching principal of St. Nicholas Church and School. 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 opens amidst the social and political change of the 1960s, as Sister Aloysius, the rigid, by-the-book principal of a Bronx parish school clashes with Father Flynn, the charismatic, progressive priest trying to upend St. Nicholas's traditional customs. She also questions Father Flynn's actions, after she learns of his potentially objectionable interest in the school's first and only Black student. But is there hard proof of any misconduct? As the polarity between the two grows, it threatens dire consequences for all involved.

"Doubt is as complex as it was 15 years ago, and its questions of how to handle unprovable suspicions-and how the most vulnerable usually bear the brunt of unequal justice-are as timely as ever," said Studio's Artistic Director David Muse. "It's a particular pleasure to welcome Sarah Marshall and Christian Conn back to Studio as they face off in Shanley's moral drama."

The Bronx, 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 certitudea??actually pride? A searing masterwork by John Patrick Shanley about faith, ambiguity, and the price of moral conviction.

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