Studio Theatre 2026-27 Season Equity Principal Actors - Studio Theatre Auditions

STUDIO THEATRE (WASHINGTON DC) 2026-27 SEASON - WASHINGTON, D.C. EPA

Studio Theatre | Washington, DC
Notice: Audition Call Type: EPA

AUDITION DATE

LOCATION

Monday, May 4, 2026
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St NW
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM (E)
Washington, DC 20005-3706
BREAK: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Please enter the building through the 14th Street doors. Holding area will.

APPOINTMENTS

PERSONNEL

Auditions will be held on a first come first served basis. See breakdown for production-specific personnel. Sign-ups will begin at 9:30 AM on the day of the auditions.

EXPECTED TO ATTEND:
Jess Chayes - Associate Artistic Director
Ella Talerico - Artistic Producing Fellow

CONTRACT

LORT Non-Rep
$889 weekly minimum (LORT D)

OTHER DATES

See breakdown for production-specific dates.

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in Studio Theatre's (Washington DC) 2026-27 Season (see breakdown).
www.studiotheatre.org

The character breakdowns within this document include gender specifications that reflect the identity of the characters as written by the playwrights. However, we strongly encourage performers with any gender expression and/or gender identity to audition for any role. Some roles will be understudied. An Equity Monitor will not be provided. The producer will run all aspects of this audition.

PREPARATION

Please prepare 2 contrasting short contemporary monologues (Contemporary as in: plays written in the last 30 years). Auditions may not exceed 3 minutes. Please bring your headshot and resume, stapled together.

BREAKDOWN

STUDIO THEATRE 2026-27 SEASON

WISH YOU WERE HERE

By Sanaz Toossi

FIRST REHEARSAL: 8/24/26
PREVIEWS BEGIN: 9/21/26
OPENS: 9/27/26
CLOSES: 11/1/26 (with a possible two-week extension)

SEEKING:

• NAZANIN – 20s-30. Iranian. Female. Sort of mean. Strong. Unapologetic. Uninterested in marriage or motherhood. Practical. Territorial. Not very religious.
• SALME – 20s-30. Iranian. Female. The peacemaker. Thinks of others more than she thinks of herself. Religious. Steadfast. Daring if her friends need her to be.
• ZARI – 20s-30. Iranian. Female. Open, curious, and easygoing. Hopeful. Heart on her sleeve, more prone to nerves and big feelings. Empathetic. Not very religious.
• SHIDEH / NEW FRIEND – 20s-30. Iranian. Female. A little uptight. An aspiring doctor, ambitious. Grounded. Direct and honest, at times to a fault.
• RANA – 20s-30. Iranian. Female. Jewish. The queen of cool. A sharp, playful, and raunchy sense of humor. Bold. Ambitious. Not the kindest.

WILDERNESS GENERATION

By James Ijames

FIRST REHEARSAL: 10/20/26
PREVIEWS BEGIN: 11/16/26
OPENS: 11/22/26
CLOSES: 1/3/27 (with a possible two-week extension)

SEEKING:

• RAMONA – Late 40s. Black. Female. Eldest cousin. Sibling to Smitty. Tries to keep everything together, the leader. Pragmatic. Thoughtful. Newly divorced.
• NICOLE – Late 30s. Black. Female. Second youngest cousin. Only child. An influencer, content creator, consultant. Confident, honest, and direct. A girlie girl. Lives a glamorous life. Not an easy laugh.
• SMITTY – 30s. Black. Male. Youngest cousin. Sibling to Ramona. Optimistic. Open. Empathetic. Has rose-colored glasses, sees in technicolor. A writer and intellectual. PhD student. The butt of the joke at times.
• MICAH – 40s. Black. Male. Estranged cousin. Second oldest. The black sheep because his mom is the black sheep. Playful, smart, steadfast, positive, a little bizarre. Plays the trumpet, scores music films. Lives in Philly. Sober-ish. In a fragile place, but the best he’s been.
• DONOVAN – 30s. Black. Male. Not a part of the family; Nicole’s boyfriend. Very handsome. Content creator, rapper, yoga-practitioner. Lives in New York. A little full of himself but well-meaning and full of light. Kind, tender, emotionally intelligent. Easy-going.

WE HAD A WORLD

By Joshua Harmon
Directed by Jess Chayes

FIRST REHEARSAL: 12/7/26
PREVIEWS BEGIN: 1/11/27
OPENS: 1/17/27
CLOSES: 2/21/27 (with a possible two-week extension)

SEEKING:

• RENEE – 60-90s. White. Female. Jewish. Harsh. Loving. Impulsive. Lacks accountability. A creative soul. Loves the opera and the finer things. A strong love of freedom. Alcoholic.
• ELLEN – 30-60s. White. Female. Jewish. Stubborn. Judgmental. Caring. Reliable. A fixer. When her family is in need, she will take action promptly. A strong sense of duty.
• JOSHUA – 5-30s. White. Male. Jewish. A playwright. Big heart and big imagination. Struggles with depression. Open-minded. Sees the grey areas in life. Sensitive, empathetic, kind, and perceptive.

LIBERATION

By Bess Wohl
Directed by Whitney White
Co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Geffen Playhouse

Berkeley Repertory Theatre:
Rehearsal (NY): Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Tech (CA): Sunday, October 18, 2026
Preview: Friday, October 23, 2026
Opening: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Closing: Sunday, November 29, 2026

Geffen Playhouse:
First Rehearsal: Tuesday, January 12, 2027
First Tech: Tuesday, January 19, 2027
Previews begin: Wednesday, January 27, 2027
Opening: Thursday, February 4, 2027
Closing: Sunday, February 28, 2027

Studio Theatre:
Tech/Spacing: 3/15/27
Previews begin: 3/22/27
Opening: 3/29/27
Closing: 5/30/27 (with a possible four-week extension)

Lizzie – Female identifying. Flexible age to play 20s-40s. White. A journalist, searching to understand choices made in the past so she can find a way to live with the present-day complications of motherhood, ambition, and heterosexual marriage. Plays herself in the present and her mother in the past. In the present, she is searching, curious, insistent, and secretly navigating a deep and crippling sense of loss. As her mother in the 1970's, she is ambitious, hopeful, optimistic, brave, and profoundly conflicted. As both, she is a woman striving to step into her true self, if only she could figure out how. This role will require nudity.

Margie – Female identifying. 50’s-60’s. White. A midwestern homemaker, mother of two grown boys, and wife of a man who neither appreciates her nor notices her thinly sublimated rage. Her husband is retired now and she is looking for a way to get out of the house so she doesn't stab him. Maybe she's kidding... Maybe she's genuinely homicidal. (She's not even sure herself.) Important: she is not a doormat and could have done many things if she had been given the chance. For now, she must settle for making an excellent cheese ball. This role will require nudity.

Susan – Female identifying. Early 20’s. White. A radical, queer free spirit living out of her car with a pet bird and a fragile relationship to her own mental health. Her way of seeing the world is utterly brilliant, completely unique, and at times deeply painful. She has profound visions; she has frightening dreams -- all in all, she is ahead of her time, which makes it very hard to live at all. This role will require nudity.

Celeste – Female identifying. Late 30’s. Black. Harvard/Radcliffe educated, editor and writer. Left her life as a New York City writer and activist and came home to this stifling midwestern town to care for her sick mother, who is slowly dying. She is grounded, precise, and at times guarded -- in part as she is on a journey with being open with her sexuality and where she sits at the intersection of queerness and blackness. This role will require nudity.

Isidora – Female identifying. 30’s. White. An Italian immigrant who came to the US at age 12, was abandoned by her mother and raised by nuns, and later got married to an American -- but only to get a green card (and maybe a credit card too). She is brash, proud of her sexuality and sensuality, opinionated, and bitterly desperate for action. Hard to tell at times whether what's motivating her is optimism or nihilism. Or maybe it's just plain rage. This role will require nudity.

Dora – Female identifying. Mid 20’s. White. A prim, midwestern good girl, whose neat hair and sensible pumps belie a fierce ambition and growing determination to claw her way up the professional ladder. Her character goes through drastic growth and change as she will mature from a quietly deferential, competent secretary to a successful, globe-trotting marketing maven over the course of her life. Ultimately, she will find the courage to resist the conventions of her upbringing. This role will require nudity.

Joanne – Female identifying. Early 30’s. Black. She's got four obstreperous young sons and an unhelpful husband to deal with, on top of working a full-time job. She cannot get on board with women fighting to work outside the home when she's already been working outside the home her whole life -- and would change places with a bored housewife any day of the week. She's direct, perceptive, and unafraid to call out hypocrisy wherever she finds it. (This actor will also play Lizzie in a single scene with Bill.)

Bill – Male identifying. Late 20’s- early 30’s. White. Bill is smart, clean-cut, athletic, down-to-earth. A hard-working young lawyer with a healthy sense of ambition, and an equally strong sense of justice. He's got the chance of a lifetime to move to New York for a job opportunity but is also head-over-heels in love with Lizzie. He's an optimist who truly believes in the promise of equal partnership between men and women, and that, with love, anything is possible. He's also deeply scared that Lizzie will break his heart.

WINE IN THE WILDERNESS

By Alice Childress

FIRST REHEARSAL: 4/13/27
PREVIEWS BEGIN: 5/10/27
OPENS: 5/16/27
CLOSES: 6/20/27 (with a possible two-week extension)

SEEKING:

• Bill Jameson – An artist, 30s. Black. Male. Gifted, focused, and intense. Principled. Values beauty over reality, idealism over practicality, his art over all else. Well-read. A bit of a player.
• Oldtimer – An old roustabout, 60s. Black. Male. Bold, rowdy, not as well-read as Bill or Sonny-man. Kind and empathetic.
• Sonny-man – A writer, late 20s. Black. Male. Spirited, open, a leader. Married to Cynthia.
• Cynthia – A social worker, mid-20s. Black. Female. Well-read and soft. Has tact with men and love. Empathetic, but lets the men lead. Married to Sonny-man.
• Tommy – A factory worker, 30. Black. Female. Born in Baltimore, raised in Harlem. Salt of the earth. Lost everything she owned to the riot. Genuine. Independent. Tough. Full of unfiltered humor and kindness. Lonesome, looking for love.

PUNCH

By James Graham
Directed by David Muse

FIRST REHEARSAL: 5/24/27
TECH BEGINS: 6/14/27
PREVIEWS BEGIN: 6/21/27
OPENS: 6/27/27
CLOSES: 8/1/27 (with a possible two-week extension)

SEEKING:

• JACOB – 19-29. White. Male. From Nottingham; sensitive, hotheaded, troubled, impulsive; socially awkward, quiet, and has a big heart. Doesn’t do great in school and gets in hot water a lot with his mates. Prone to defensiveness.
• JOAN – 50s. Female. The mother of James; deeply empathetic, thoughtful, determined, strong, and perceptive. Driven by love. Doubles as others, including NAN – Jacob’s Nan, community-oriented, conservative.
• DAVID – 50s. Male. The father of James; loyal, loving, principled with a strong sense of honor. Hesitant and follows Joan’s lead. Kindhearted. Driven by honor. Doubles as others including Tony, Raf’s Dad, and others.
• MUM – 40s. Female. Jacob's mum. Quick to blame herself or others, makes excuses for Jacob. Hard-working. Determined to support her children no matter what. Caring and deeply loving, sometimes to the point of coddling. Carrying a lot of emotional weight and baggage. Doubles as others including WENDY – a probation officer – thoughtful, professional, determined to look after Jacob, FACILITATOR and others.
• RAF – 20s. Male. Mate from the Meadows - Bad influence. Hot-headed and impulsive. Unmotivated and unfocused. Grows over the course of the play, turns his life around. Strong.
• CLARE – 20s-30s. Female. A local girl - funny, direct, clever, and open. Doubles as others including NICOLA – a charity worker - kind, professional, focused, good at her job; TEACHERS and POLICE OFFICERS and others.
• DEREK – 40s-50s. Male. A college professor - direct, pointed, informational. Doubles as DETECTIVE SERGEANT.