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Studio’s Muse

New artistic director first to succeed founder Zinoman

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David Muse, the new artistic director of the Studio Theatre. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

He has been labeled a “wunderkind,” but no one would mistake this young man who has taken the helm of the Studio Theatre as a “wild child,” a Rimbaud on the rampage, scary, impudent, a feral genius in a state of artistic nature.

For with David Muse, who became at age 36 Studio’s second artistic director when founder Joy Zinoman passed him the reins last September, the clearest impression is of a young man with artistic time and motion studies on his mind, with a bookkeeper’s talent for cutting costs or adding a new line to the budget — either way, it’s the temperament of a manager.

But that would be the wrong impression also.

The best explanation about what makes David Muse run — as an artist himself, Yale-educated twice over, as well as the new manager of Studio Theatre — may come from Zinoman, who says, “David’s story is the classic, American story of a smart, talented kid from a small town who finds his passion, pursues it with dedication and intensity, and manages to win friends and admirers by virtue of his charm, sensitivity and intelligence.”

She has also said of the preternaturally calm and highly cerebral Muse, a vegan, a cyclist and a fitness buff, that “he’s very seductive and charming,” and Susan Butler, Studio’s board chairman, told the Washington Post that “I hope he likes to raise money.” That’s a handy charm in that rarefied realm of courting wealthy patrons, coaxing those birds from their tall trees and out of their mansions, just another talent for Muse to demonstrate.

Muse must use persuasion to find new patrons just as he has also found old patrons, key sponsors like Zinoman of course but also Michael Kahn at the Shakespeare Theatre Company who plucked Muse from New York City to return to Washington in 2004 to become his artistic aide-de-camp. His talent is in having talent and in inspiring others more senior also with talent to appreciate and invest in his own talent. Which is sizable.

Consider that he has amassed a glittering resume as a director — including staging an all-male version of “Romeo and Juliet” — since arriving in D.C. in 1996 to teach calculus to kids at Eastern High School, when he was soon drawn to theater at Studio’s own acting conservatory, where first he was a student and then began to dabble part-time as a “juvenile,” the theatrical term for a male newcomer, enchanted by the stage, focusing on acting at the beginning, one time even dressing as an ostrich in size-13 high heels. He later tackled directing also.

Today he is filling even bigger shoes, succeeding the trail-blazing Zinoman in command of about 60 staff in four stages seating 900 in three buildings with about 60,000 square feet set in the heart of D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood, anchoring in a former auto showroom at 14th and P Streets. With its more than $5 million annual budget, Studio is a major force on the local theater scene, mounting major productions every year and with its new and impressive 2011-2012 season just announced. And of course he is also in charge, with Joy Zinoman still as its lead faculty member, of the Studio Theatre Acting Company, where his serious career in theater began.

Born in Appleton, Wis., he spent most of his childhood in Fulton, Mo., a small town (11,000). In high school he threw himself into theater and graduated valedictorian. In 1992 he left Fulton, the first student from his high school to attend an Ivy League school, for New Haven and Yale University where he studied ethics, politics and economics. Upon graduation, Muse joined Teach for America and headed for D.C., teaching math and also leading Outward Bound wilderness programs for troubled youths during the summer. But he also found his way to Studio’s acting school, to hone his passion for drama, and in 2000 he returned to Yale, this time to its drama school, to earn a master’s in directing.

Next he moved to New York City, but then he soon came back to D.C. when summoned by Kahn to become his second in command as associate artistic director at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he helped grow the company from its single theater at the Lansburgh with the addition of the new Harman Hall. He also was primary liaison for all the talent. He also began to direct plays at Studio’s smaller and edgier 2nd Stage.

The next year, 2006, also at Studio, he directed Bryony Lavery’s critically lauded “Frozen.” Then, last year, while also directing an electrifying version of Neil LaBute’s “Reasons To Be Pretty” there, he also threw his hat into the ring to replace Zinoman. After a scrupulous nationwide search lasting a year, he pulled that rabbit from out of that hat, emerging from half a dozen finalists to step into her shoes there officially last September.

Asked about his artistic vision, he demures at first, saying that he finds it “challenging to say the least” to define such an overview “when the work here is so purposefully eclectic, with so broad a range of theatrical offerings.” He also offers what he calls “another disclaimer” to having any “broad vision,” in that “you need to leave room,” he insists, for the thespian Holy Spirit, “for what feels right, this year, or at any other moment.”

Besides, Muse says, Studio “is not a place that needed someone to come in, to save or reinvent it.” But that said, he has even so his own vision of course, which is why in addition to his managerial mindset he was chosen for this job.

“The challenge,” he says, is “to balance all the historic strengths of this place with some new energy, and that’s what I aim to do.”

Those strengths, he says, include that it stages what he rightly boasts are “plays of real literary and theatrical merit.” He intends, he says, to build on that Studio strong deck of cards by pulling out some new ones — by “going in a little less familiar direction,” in part by bringing in more international productions but especially by “working with living writers, and working with them on the creation of new work,” not generally seen as a strong card at Studio in the past.

“We want to welcome these writers into the building as active collaborators,” he says, pointing to two world premieres slated for Studio in its just-announced 2011-2012 season.

This year, meanwhile, has included a season of superb performances in productions like the gay-themed “Marcus; or the Science of Sweet” (though Muse is straight and has a girlfriend), a season that has been the result of his collaboration with Zinoman, which will also later feature Anna K. Jacob’s “Pop!” a new musical about Andy Warhol.   Muses also draws attention to “The History of Kisses,” set for this summer as an example of collaboration with its author, David Cale, someone Muse calls “an electrifying solo performer, returning to D.C. after a long history here, but having been away for about 10 years.”

But it is with next year’s slate of 11 offerings that Muse lets his own muse come to the fore. First out of the gate, Sept. 7-Oct. 16, comes a new play in its U.S. premiere, directed by Muse, “The Habit of Art,” by Alan Bennett, the English author of “The History Boys,” whose career began decades ago as a member of the Oxford-Cambridge troupe of performers, “Beyond The Fringe.”

Starring the great D.C. actor Ted van Griethuysen as the gay poet W.H. Auden, it is set deep in the bowels of London’s National Theatre as rehearsals for a new play go on and the famed composer Benjamin Britten, also gay, and Auden’s former lover, now troubled at work on a new opera, seeks out the poet after a 25-year separation, to collaborate again, this time artistically. Between visits by Auden’s rent-boy and a biographer — briefly mistaken for the rent-boy — these two aging artists must wrestle with long-buried desire and current jealousy and seek to understand all the reasons their erstwhile friendship fell apart.

Called both wistful and “filthily funny,” the play is what Muse calls “an imaginary meeting” between the two great artists, when after a quarter century Auden comes to talk about collaborating again, but the rent-boy keeps returning” as the play progresses.

David Muse (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Looking to the new season, Muse also points to two world premieres — one in the Lab Series Sept. 28-Oct. 16 — “Lungs,” by Duncan Macmillan,” the chamber drama of a couple trying to face their future in a time of global anxiety over terrorism and erratic weather. The other world premiere comes next February and March in Studio’s 2nd Stage, in a new play, “Astro Boy and the God of Comics,” by Georgetown University theater professor Natsu Onoda Power, who also directs.

Muse says she has been invited to come to Studio “to conceive of this new play” there. It takes on Japanese Manga in a highly visual performance that he calls “a retro and sci-fi, multi-media extravaganza” about the 1960s animation series “Astro Boy,” a crime-fighting boy robot, and the life of his creator Osamu Tezuka.

Another play, set for November-December, is written and performed by former “Daily Show” correspondent Lauren Weedman, who has been called “a female Robin Williams.” This one-woman show, “Bust” is based on her experiences working as a volunteer advocate in a Southern California prison for women. In her solo performance she plays dozens of characters, switching from prostitute to parole officer, addict to editor with what Muse calls “nuance and empathy.”

Other plays will also startle and stir audiences, he predicts, including “The Golden Dragon” by German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig, in its U.S. premiere in November-December. Called both “poetic” and “brutal,” it is set in the cramped kitchen of an Asian restaurant where four cooks pull the tooth of a Chinese co-worker. His tooth ends up in the Thai soup of a flight attendant, and that’s just the beginning of unexpected linkages connected to the young Chinese man sans tooth. Muse calls it “fierce and vicious” but also “a kaleidoscopic look at a globalized world,” where five actors “cross age, race and gender” to play 15 characters showing “how intertwined our lives really are.”

Also certain to draw attention, Muse predicts, will be another of the 2nd Stage productions, coming in the summer of 2012, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” by Alex Timbers, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman.

“American history has never been this sexy,” Muse says, “in this rowdy and irreverent musical,” a scathing satire that re-imagines President Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson as a rock star.

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Woman crashes ex-girlfriend’s wedding to a man in new play

Nonbinary playwright Bryna Turner brings ‘At the Wedding’ to Studio

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Playwright Bryna Turner (Photo by Lila Barth)

‘At the Wedding’
Through April 21
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St., N.W.
$45-$99
Studiotheatre.org

For nonbinary playwright Bryna Turner, the way to theater was first as an actor. But as gender non-conforming, they couldn’t really see a future in it, so they decided to write their own plays.

“At the Wedding,” Turner’s play about a woman named Carlo who crashes her ex-girlfriend’s wedding to a man, is currently making its area debut at Studio Theatre with a production staged by out director Tom Story.  The comedy made its world premiere at LCT3 at Lincoln Center Theater and was featured in the New York Times Best of 2022 “Unforgettable Theatrical Moments” category. 

Brooklyn-based Turner, 33, is inspired by experience, storytelling, and language. With “At the Wedding,” they humorously explore loneliness, estrangement, and a love for living.

WASHINGTON BLADE:  How do we meet Carlo? 

BRYNA TURNER: In the opening monologue, Carlo is at the kids table at a wedding reception telling them not to make her mistake. You’ll fall in love but that will only break your heart. That kicks the show off and this is who we’re dealing with.  

BLADE: How was falling in love for you? 

TURNER: My experience when I fell in love was that I was joining the human race. But then comes heartbreak…. that other thing everyone was always talking about. Poems and music took on new meaning. 

BLADE: But you can find a laugh in pain? 

TURNER: Comedic tone is important to me because that’s how I view the world. I like to have a laugh when things are hard or sad. 

Also, I feel like it’s a way to bring people in. You relate to a character who makes you laugh. Two of my plays begin with a lesbian yelling at the audience. It’s almost like crowd work.

BLADE: Were you ever hesitant about writing queer plays? 

TURNER: I was lucky at Holyoke [Mount Holyoke College where Turner was an undergrad]. Director Brooke O’Hara was teaching there when I attended and she brought in some queer plays; she showed me there was a canon to join and that was exciting.

BLADE: When did you first identify as nonbinary? 

TURNER: In 2022. I’d been butch-presenting for over a decade. Then during the pandemic, I began spending more time alone. When alone, you grant yourself more permission to think. 

For me, I’d always wanted to be independent and not ask for anything, to be butch on my own. As nonbinary, suddenly I had to ask people to use my pronouns. Also, it granted the opportunity to allow people to surprise me in mostly positive ways.

BLADE: Was becoming a produced playwright tough?

TURNER: I wanted to be a playwright at 21 and I had a play produced when I was 27. Now, looking back, I can see it happened pretty quickly, but at the time it felt like forever.  

While doing my MFA in playwriting at Rutgers University, I was working in the box office at the Public Theater in New York where I managed to see things like “Fun Home” and “Hamilton.” 

If I wasn’t working, I was commuting to Rutgers in New Jersey, and I was always writing. I had to be diligent. I’m a perfectionist, but I got things done. I wrote scenes in between waiting for customers at the box office or on the train. It took a lot of energy; drive pushes you. 

BLADE: A while before “At the Wedding,” you wrote “Phases of the Moon” about lesbian poet Elizabeth Bishop. What sparked that interest? 

TURNER: It’s about her time at Vassar College when she fell in love with a woman. It’s set in the 1930s but it’s bit anachronistic. There’s a scene with a Tegan and Sara song. 

Bishop identified as a socialist vegetarian while at one of the most expensive women’s colleges during the height of the Great Depression. I thought to myself, ‘I know that girl, too.’ I love how we can know this person across nearly 100 years.

BLADE: Can you describe your formative years? 

TURNER: I grew up the youngest of four in a small coastal town surrounded by redwoods. It was pretty rural but included an enclave of hippies. Despite being a shy kid, I developed an interest in theater. My parents were relieved. I had tried a lot of things and quickly lost interest: soccer, ballet, Tee-Ball. I remember striking out and all my family laughing. I threw down the bat and that was it. 

BLADE: Do you think about who you’re writing for? 

TURNER: I do. I’m thinking of a queer audience, and writing things that I want to see. In doing that, I’ve been happily surprised that straight people want to come along too.

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Theater

D.C.’s spring theater scene offers ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Peter Pan,’ Sedaris and more

Queer themes well represented in season’s productions

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Out actor Adam Chanler-Berat to play Andrew the archivist in ‘Unknown Soldier’ at Arena Stage (March 29-May 5). (Photo courtesy Arena)

There’s a lot on for theater this spring. And here’s a queer heavy sampling. 

If it’s “Company” you’re after, try the Kennedy Center. The national tour of the Tony-winning, gender-swapped revival of out legend Stephen Sondheim’s hit musical withBritney Colemanas forever single Bobbie is moored to the Opera House through March 31. Kennedy-center.org 

Signature Theatre in Arlington presents “Penelope” (through April 21), a one-woman musical featuring out Broadway star Jessica Phillips. With glass of bourbon in hand, Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, gets a few things off her chest. Think Trojan War. Sigtheatre.org

At Studio Theatre, nonbinary playwright Bryna Turner’s “At the Wedding” is currently making its regional debut in a production helmed by out director Tom Story. It’s a queer comedy about a woman crashing her ex’s wedding with the intention of not making a scene. Good luck with that. Out actor Holly Twyford plays Maria, mother of the bride. Studiotheatre.org

At Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Helen Hayes Award-winning actor Justin Weaks is workshopping his new play “A Fine Madness” (March 17-24)). The solo piece is inspired by the talented out actor’s 2016 HIV diagnosis and the ensuing years he spent alone and processing. (Tickets are pay what you will – starting at $5.)

Also slated for Woolly is “Amm(i)gone” (April 20–May 12). Created and performed by queer theater maker Adil Mansoor, the personal story is about inviting his Pakistani mother to translate “Antigone” into Urdu as means of exploring the tensions between family and faith. Woollymammoth.net

At Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street, N.E., Mosaic Theater presents Rhiana Yazzie’s “Nancy” (March 30- April 21), a tale of ambition and ancestry soaked in ‘80s nostalgia. Staged by out director Ken-Matt Martin, the seven-person cast includes Lynn Hawley as Nancy, out actor Michael Kevin Darnall as Ronnie, and Anaseini Katoa is Esmeralda, a Navajo woman advocating for her community. Mosaictheater.org

Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., delivers divas. Meow Meow, the post-post-modern phenom from down under, brings her globally celebrated act to the park’s Barns venue on March 21. And on June 8, a single show featuring both Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight promises to light up Wolf Trap’s cavernous Filene Center with legendary star power.Wolftrap.org  

Arena Stage presents “Unknown Solder” (March 29-May 5), Daniel Goldstein and Michael Friedman’s sweeping musical about a woman in search of her family’s past. The topnotch cast includes Lori Lee Gayer, out actor Adam Chanler-Berat, and Broadway’s Judy Kuhn. Arenastage.org

At 1st Stage in Tysons, Va., wonderful out actor Michael Rusotto plays the titular sissy in Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Nance” (April 4-21). Set in 1930s New York, the action follows a queer burlesque actor as he navigates his way through a world where it’s safer to be gay onstage than off. Nick Olcott directs. 1ststage.org

Broadway at the National moves musically into spring with “Peter Pan” (April 9-21). Playwright Larissa FastHorse’s fresh adaptation of the eternal boy’s classic tale feels fresh without losing the familiar including terrific tunes like “I’m Flying,” “I Gotta Crow,” and “I Won’t Grow Up.” Broadwayatthenational.com

Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) presents “Macbeth” (April 9-May 5) starring movie star Ralph Fiennes as the Thane of Glamis, and Indira Varma as sleepwalking Lady M. Staged by STC’s artistic director Simon Godwin, the production won’t be performed in the company’s usual digs but rather a borrowed former BET soundstage (1301 W St., N.E.) where the world of the Scottish play will be created. Exciting stuff. Shakespearetheatre.org

Attention dance lovers! In Fairfax, GMU Center of the Arts presents Martha Graham Dance Company — the oldest modern dance ensemble in the country— for just one night (April 13) with a program that showcases the company’s legacy through iconic classics and new work. Cfa.gmu.edu

Also on April 13, bestselling gay author David Sedaris brings his inimitably hilarious take on life to the Strathmore in North Bethesda. Strathmore.org 

Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater presents Opera Lafayette’s modern premiere of “Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie” (May 3 and 4), an opéra-ballet that broke with serious French operas by putting contemporary characters on stage. Renowned French conductor/musician Christophe Rousset conducts. Operalayette.org

At GALA Hispanic Theatre, it’s Gustavo Ott and Mariano Vale’s “The Return of Eva Perón: Momia en el closet” (May 9–June 9), a dark musical comedy filled with “historical intrigue and spine-chilling entertainment.” (Performed in Spanish with English surtitles.) Galatheatre.org

This spring, Creative Cauldron in Falls Church presents Kirsten Childs’ new musical “The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin” (May 16-June 9), the humorous and pointed story of a seemingly confident woman’s journey through racism, sexism, showbiz, and finally self-acceptance. Angelisa Gilyard directs. Creativecauldron.org 

For one night only, the Alden Theatre in Mclean, Va., presents “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now — The Three Leading Ladies of ‘Hairspray’” (Saturday, June 8) with Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler, and Laura Bell Bundy. Broadway’s original Tracy, Penny, and Amber are staging a rare reunion to celebrate the hit musical’s 20th anniversary. Mcleancenter.org

And on time for Pride, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington presents what promises to be a beautifully rendered multidisciplinary event. Titled “Portraits” (Sunday, June 16 at Lincoln Theatre), the concert features visual art, music, and dance, representing a vibrant spectrum of sexual, gender, racial, ethnic, and cultural identities in a nine-movement commission combining the work of nine visual artists, nine composers, nine choreographers, and sung by the Chorus and featuring 17th Street Dance. Gmcw.org

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‘Avaaz’ traces journey from Iran to California

Olney production brings comedy, singing, improv, and even magic

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Michael Shayan in ‘Avaaz.’ (Photo by Jenny Graham)

‘Avaaz’
Through April 7
Olney Theatre Center
2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road
Olney, MD 20832
$55-$90
Olneytheatre.org

How better to understand your own mother’s psyche than by playing her on stage? 

In his solo show “Avaaz,” queer actor/writer Michael Shayan pretty much does just that. As “Roya” (not his mother’s actual name), he explores how a woman’s fun, larger-than-life presence might belie a deeper sadness. It’s a party but not without truth and moving drama. 

And now, after a successful world premiere run in California’s South Coast Repertory last spring, his play is at Olney Theatre Center (through April 7) before kicking off on a national tour. 

“Avaaz,” a Farsi word for “a song as it is being sung,” follows Roya’s journey from Tehran to what Shayan cheekily tags “Tehran-geles, CA, formerly known as Westwood.” It’s here where the courageous single mother carves out a life for herself and her closeted queer son.

Recently, via phone, Shayan offered a glimpse into his show, describing how we first meet Roya in her heavily chandeliered L.A. living room where she’s marking Nowruz (Persian New Year) with a lavish party; but despite the festive atmosphere there’s some detectable tension in the air.

Over 80 minutes, Roya’s story unfolds, alternating between dark revelations and her return to fabulous hostess mode. After all, Roya is entertaining guests – in this case it’s the 200 theatergoers seated in Olney Theater’s intimate Mulitz-Gudelsky space. 

He adds, “There’s a lot going on. This show brings everything together: writing, acting, comedy, a little singing, lots of improv, and even some magic.”  

For Shayan, an early and ardent interest in magic set the stage for theater: “As an illusionist, I was big on the bar mitzvah circuit. With magic, you’re a one man show. There was acting, directing, learning about audience and theatricality. I learned a lot.” 

He also did characters — Elaine Stitch, Bernadette Peters, all the divas, but other than a few snippets of her Persian accent, never his mom. 

Higher education lured Shayan eastward. A Harvard grad with an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College, his bio includes gigs such as Emmy-nominated writer and consulting producer on “The Book of Queer” for Max and worked on “We’re Here,” the Emmy-winning Max show featuring former “Drag Race” contestants.

But the actual genesis of Roya, and in turn “Avaaz,” was sparked at a Lambda Literary Retreat. “We were doing an exercise where you put your hand on your heart and feel the heartbeat of a character. I felt my mom’s heartbeat, and listened to what she had to say.

“I’d always wanted to better understand my mother and had even interviewed her in the past, but it was at the Lambda retreat that a first draft really poured out. And still, more continues to be revealed about her past and our dynamic.”

When asked exactly how he approaches the part, Shayan, who exudes warmth and humor, replies, “It’s about the channeling of energy and personality.”

Visually, he’s not exactly going for total realness. Shayan paints his nails but keeps his full beard. Emmy-winning costume designer Joshua “Domino” Schwartz dresses him in a golden Persian-inspired robe over pants emblazoned by a single outsized Gucci logo.  

“When I put that on, I become Roya, baby,” Shayan says. “It’s very powerful. It’s a ritual. There are several pieces. My posture changes.”

Roya’s over the top décor comes compliments of Tony Award-winning set designer Beowulf Borritt.

And because Roya leans on humor to pivot away from what’s uncomfortable, Shayan indulges in a bit of standup: “Tony-nominated director Moritz von Stuelpnagel and I share a language – not Farsi, but humor. Recently he surprised me by singing a Persian pop song pitch perfect and almost word perfect. I call him Persian adjacent. He’s a comic genius.”

As both performer and writer, his solo show is serving up new opportunities for the Iranian American theater maker. 

Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, whom Shayan describes as both an inspiration and a friend, has given him parts in several readings of some funny and moving new works. He says, “I’d like to be acting more, but my writing career is busier than ever.”

These days, Shayan very happily splits time between New York and L.A., depending on when and where he’s needed for each of his many projects. 

There isn’t a lot of down time, and he couldn’t be happier. 

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