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Joy Zinoman, Studio Theatre’s artistic director (Photo by Scott Suchman)

One of the best-kept secrets in this rumor-addicted town has to have been the decision of Joy Zinoman to step down as the artistic director of the Studio Theatre. She told her staff that she’d set a September 2010 date for her retirement at the staff retreat of 2005 – four years before she made the public announcement. That word didn’t leak out says something about the loyalty of her team.

Zinoman’s departure from the leadership of the institution she built at the corner of 14th and P streets NW will mark a real turning point not only for the theater but for the entire city, for Zinoman’s contributions aren’t limited to the marvels that have appeared on her stages over the last 34 years. To a very real extent, the health of the entire community in the Logan Circle/14th Street corridor is due to her commitment. When she settled her theater there, the neighborhood may not have still been literally smoldering from the 1968 riots, but it was still suffering from the economic disaster that followed.

Many people told her, “No one will come to theater there,” but she was determined, and her company has led the community out of the detritus of destruction. Now, the atrium of her complex looks out on a bustling district of upscale shops, restaurants and condos.

The theater has made progress that could not have been predicted when Zinoman joined forces with designer Russell Metheny to produce shows to give her acting conservatory students the opportunity to appear in full productions. It was a “shoe string” operation with a budget of $10,000 in a former hot dog warehouse, but it made inroads. Today, The Studio Theatre has three full theaters and one experimental space in a 60,000-square-foot complex and an operating budget of over $5 million. Last year’s total attendance reached 70,000 despite Zinoman’s refusal to build larger theaters with more seats because of her belief that 200 to 250 is the ideal size for an audience to experience live performances.

As the company prospered, they purchased the former automobile dealership building, which now anchors their complex at the corner of 14th and P streets. First they opened a ground floor theater, the Mead named for theater-loving philanthropists Gil and Jaylee Mead, in 1987. In 1997, a second theater, named for board member and contributor A. Fenner Milton, was added on the second floor. When the company was able to buy the two neighboring buildings, consolidate administrative functions and incorporate the acting conservatory operations within one complex, a third theater was added and named the Metheny. It opened in 2004.

Memories
Anyone who has attended much theater in Washington over the years has a number of personal memories of Joy Zinoman, her company and the magic that has taken place in her theaters. I know I have many.

One that strikes me as most revealing of her personality is of the evening she hosted the American Theatre Critics Association in her complex during their 2008 annual convention here in Washington. Many of the artistic directors of local theaters addressed the group of visiting critics from around the country. Some spoke about their own theaters. Others, like Zinoman, spoke about the amazing strength of the Washington theater community.

I also remember one special night that didn’t happen here in Washington. It happened in New York. I was sitting in a Broadway theater watching British import Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys” when it suddenly felt as if I were at Studio watching one of Zinoman’s impeccable productions. The feel of the play was such a match for the feel of Zinoman’s company that I included in my review the hope that, when the Broadway run ended, Studio would produce the play. Well, they did, and they did a better job of it than the original which had pulled down no fewer than five Tony awards.

But mostly I have a wealth of memories of magical moments in Studio’s theaters. Many were among the 70 shows she directed herself. Among those that stand out in my memory are a visually fluid mounting of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” Sarah Marshall in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” a step back to ancient classics with Aeschylus‘ tragedy “Prometheus,” the pairing of Ted van Griethuysen and Tom Story in Tom Stoppard’s “The Invention of Love” and a rather unorthodox musical, the English play-with-songs “Privates on Parade.” As you can see, this is a rather eclectic list. She is not confined to one style or one genre.  

The Producer
As wide-ranging as is the catalogue of productions she directed, the list of those she produced without directing is even more diverse. There are actually two producing units under the Studio Theatre umbrella. In addition to the main operation, 2nd Stage is an experimental unit that works under a more permissive agreement with the actors’ union. Among the 2nd Stage productions that spring to my mind as memorable evenings are the story of a reclusive computer geek who designs a robot to explore the world outside her bedroom door, “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow”; the confrontation between a grieving mother and the serial murderer who raped and killed her child, “Frozen”; and three, small off-Broadway style musicals of note, “Batboy,” “Reefer Madness” and “Jerry Springer.”

Among the regular productions was the unforgettable solo performance of Gin Hammond in Pamela Gien’s powerful story of two South African families (one white, one black) during apartheid, “The Syringa Tree”; a mounting of Richard Greenberg’s dramatic comedy of a gay baseball player with its double entendre title, “Take Me Out”; the bizarre “Souvenir” about a concert vocalist who couldn’t hit a note on key if her life depended on it; the world premiere of Paula Vogel’s “The Long Christmas Ride Home” with its delicate Japanese theatrical techniques and two incendiary productions of disturbing plays by Neil LaBute; “The Shape of Things” with its great performance by Holly Twyford; and “Fat Pig” with Kate Debelack as the weighty woman in an age of slender fashions.

There were a number of memorable musicals as well. “A Class Act,” the bio-musical built from songs left by “A Chorus Line’s” Ed Kleban was, in fact, a class act. William Finn’s “A New Brain” about a songwriter wrongly diagnosed with a terminal cancer had two great performances from Michael Rupert and Will Gartshore. We won’t go into the well-received production of “Caroline, or Change” – a musical the charms of which completely escape me.