Open Studio Campaign Book

PLAY A KEY ROLE IN TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE FOR STUDIO THEATRE AND ITS SURROUNDING COMMUNITY.

Letter from Leadership Dear Supporter, For 40 years, Studio Theatre has been an anchor in Washington, DC. As times change and theatre evolves, we are keeping our eyes on the horizon, but our feet remain rooted firmly along the city’s historic 14th Street corridor. From our early years as a one-stage space in a former hotdog cart factory to our current multi-theatre complex on what is now one of Washington’s liveliest corridors, Studio is proud of our community and endeavors to continue adding to its vibrancy while also maintaining its historic legacy and roots.

We give credit to you, our stakeholders, because you have challenged us to expand and innovate to keep pace with the vitality of the city. As Studio Theatre approached its 40th anniversary in the 2018-2019 season and reflected on our growth over the past four decades, as well as the rapidly changing neighborhood around us, we established a comprehensive campaign, Open Studio, to prepare Studio Theatre for the next 40 years.

Through Open Studio, we will invest deeply in artistic innovation, open our doors to the community, and sustain Studio as a landmark of the neighborhood.

Early momentum of the nearly $20 million Open Studio campaign included receipt of a significant leadership gift from the DC Commission on

David Muse

Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg

the Arts and Humanities, which included the challenge to match that gift in less than one year. Generous leading support enabled us to meet this ambitious goal. Now, as we look toward groundbreaking in spring 2021 and a grand opening in early 2022, we are connecting with our nearest and dearest friends. We want you to play a key role in transformative change for the Theatre and its surrounding community. Your support of the Open Studio campaign will make a critical impact as we seek to reimagine our space as a hub for artistic innovation and community dialogue that is open to all.

Sincerely,

David Muse Artistic Director

Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg Managing Director

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A Vision for Studio’s Future Since 1978, Studio Theatre has harnessed the power of live theatre to reflect a wide range of the human experience. Guided by our mission—to produce exceptional contemporary theatre in deliberately intimate spaces, fostering a more thoughtful, more empathetic, and more connected community, in Washington, DC and beyond—Studio serves over 65,000 visitors annually, including more than 700 youth and young adults through engagement and education initiatives. Each season, Studio produces seven to nine contemporary dramas, and throughout its four decades, the quality of Studio’s work has been recognized by sustained community support, as well as 392 nominations and 72 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in professional theatre. Having anchored the revitalization of Washington, DC’s historic 14th Street corridor, today Studio stands as one of the city’s premier cultural organizations, committed to artistic innovation, education and professional development, and to our community.

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Leading up to Studio’s 40th anniversary in the 2018-2019 season, Studio stakeholders worked together to refresh the Theatre’s mission and articulate a vision for the future. Those conversations helped identify significant areas of strength and opportunity. First, building on recent success in immersive productions, Studio affirmed its aspiration of becoming a leader in the DC theatre community—and beyond—for innovative performance and design. Second, Theatre leadership recognized the need to build stronger, deeper connections with its surrounding communities. And finally, the leadership determined significant areas of improvement in infrastructure and operational efficiencies that will create greater organizational stability for years to come.

To realize these ambitions, Studio needs to confront a series of constraints—architectural, technological, and financial— necessary to propel our Theatre forward.

JAYSEN WRIGHT, JONATHAN BURKE, ERIC LOCKLEY, AND JELANI ALLADIN IN CHOIR BOY. PHOTO: IGOR DMITRY.

Through Open Studio, a comprehensive capital renovation, Studio leadership will advance the Theatre’s ambitions through the achievement of three key organizational priorities:

ONE

TWO

THREE

When Studio reopens in 2022, the Metheny Theatre will have been renamed and completely transformed. The new Victor Shargai Theatre—in memory of our late board member and local theatre champion—will be a state-of-theart, fully flexible space in which to create immersive environments for Studio’s audiences. The campaign will also allow Studio to create its first-ever, dedicated rehearsal space.

This campaign will reintroduce our immediate neighborhood to Studio by updating the façade of the building, reimaging its public spaces as a welcoming gathering place and increasing our reach across the District through expanded partnerships with core community partners that explore access, engagement, and opportunity.

Open Studio will invest in Studio’s long-term, financial stability well beyond the campaign’s end. Critical building systems and infrastructure will be upgraded, including replacing the HVAC system. The building’s assets will be optimized to create a more diversified earned income revenue stream, and all prior debt will be eliminated.

ARTISTIC INNOVATION AND FLEXIBILITY:

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS:

ALEX MANDELL, SOFIA LUCIO, MAGGIE ERWIN, AND JOE PAULIK IN BAD JEWS. PHOTO: TEDDY WOLFF.

OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY:

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ONE

Invest in Artistic Innovation and Flexibility As the most flexible space capable of a transformation into immersive environments, Stage 4 has been home to some of Studio’s most dynamic and groundbreaking projects: a dive bar (Murder Ballad, 2015), a church basement (Hand to God, 2015), a psychological test lab (The Effect, 2017), and a soccer field (The Wolves, 2018). Its blank canvas excites directors and designers alike, drawing notable talent and artistry to Studio’s spaces. Stage 4, however, has its limitations: low seating capacity, minimal production infrastructure, no back-of-house, and its fourth-floor location isolates what are becoming our most exciting productions to the most remote location in the building.

Through a complete renovation of Studio’s current Metheny Theatre, which will open anew as the Victor Shargai Theatre thanks to the generous support of a group of donors, Open Studio will bring the excitement of Stage 4 and its promise for innovative productions and design down to the first floor. With nearly double the seating capacity of Stage 4, the revamped Victor Shargai Theatre will enable Studio to share its most innovative projects with a wider audience in a totally flexible, open theatre space that can be configured into a variety of layouts including but not limited to alley theatre, end-stage, and in the round—far extending the possibility for productions at Studio today.

While Studio has long been known for producing exceptional contemporary dramas in unique thrust spaces, we have also earned a reputation for developing and premiering more experimental projects, especially those with innovative design and staging, for which the current thrust, fixed-seat spaces are at times ill-suited. This bold transformation of one of Studio’s most prominent spaces will create a new hallmark for the work being produced here. These efforts are sure to contribute to and enrich the national canon, attract top artists eager to create exciting new works, draw new audiences, and help cement Studio’s place as a leading American regional theatre.

Alongside the newly-renovated Victor Shargai Theatre, Open Studio will bring outdated production technology and theatre infrastructure up to date, providing a new full tension wire grid to support new lighting OPEN STUDIO P 4

infrastructure, sound, and projection technology; much-needed audiovisual improvements; and spaces with vastly improved acoustical separation— transforming Studio into a remarkable home for the field’s most ambitious projects.

The campaign will also create Studio’s first-ever rehearsal room. Currently, creative teams and production staff share the theatre space, rotating between set construction and rehearsals simultaneously. This new rehearsal space will allow creative teams to work uninterrupted, maximizing their respective times in the theatre for finalizing the creative process.

WITH NEARLY DOUBLE THE SEATING CAPACITY OF STAGE 4, THIS NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART, FULLY

Open Studio will bring the excitement of Stage 4 and its promise for innovative productions and design down to the first floor.

FLEXIBLE SPACE WILL ENABLE STUDIO TO SHARE ITS MOST INNOVATIVE PROJECTS AND EXCITING NEW WORKS WITH A WIDER AUDIENCE.

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TWO

Build Community Connection

REFRESHED LOBBY SPACES WILL EMBRACE THE OPENNESS OF THE ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE, WITH A NEW LOUNGE AREA ON THE GROUND FLOOR.

Through Open Studio, the Theatre’s leadership will advance our engagement in the civic life of the community— including our immediate neighborhood, and across the District. While Studio’s mission calls out the importance of fostering a more connected community, the Theatre’s current fortress-like exterior and rarely activated public spaces serve as a barrier to deeper engagement with immediate neighbors and visitors to the 14th Street corridor. Rather than serving as an anchor in our community, all too often neighbors pass by with a confused sense of Studio’s purpose, not knowing who we are, who we serve, or what we offer.

Seeking a more welcoming and inviting façade, the campaign will make possible an updated exterior and reimagine the Theatre’s public spaces. The renovation will unite the three outer buildings and create a unified, branded street presence featuring a revamped entrance on 14th Street. The Box Office will relocate OPEN STUDIO P 6

BELOW: THE RELOCATED BOX OFFICE WILL CREATE A STREET-FRONT PRESENCE RIGHT NEXT TO THE THEATRE’S MAIN ENTRANCE.

to just inside the Theatre’s main entrance, allowing guests to locate patron and ticketing services more easily. Also serving as a concierge desk, the new Box Office will ensure that our neighbors can easily find help, ask questions about our programs, and navigate our building.

Lobby spaces will be refreshed, embracing the openness of the original industrial architecture. Patrons and visitors will enjoy a new, dedicated public lounge; a genderinclusive restroom; and a destination café, featuring a local vendor, that spills out onto P Street with the aim of welcoming non-theatregoers into the building.

In addition to these architectural and functional improvements, the campaign will allow Studio to invest more robustly in its community engagement initiatives.

This not only brings an opportunity for current programs of exposure, access, and professional development to thrive, this investment also allows for new opportunities in program creation, partnership building, and audience engagement that enrich outcomes of participation, greater collaboration, and thoughtful connection with those we serve.

Studio’s mission calls out the importance of fostering a more connected community.

A DESTINATION CAFÉ WITH OUTDOOR SEATING ON P STREET WILL HELP DRAW PEOPLE TO THE BUILDING. ACTORS, TITLE OF PRODUCTION, PHOTO CREDIT.

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THREE

Improve Operating Ef ficienc y

As leadership looks to renovate the Theatre’s physical space and grow Studio’s presence in the community and beyond, the Open Studio campaign must address physical, human, and financial resources as necessary to maintain this new momentum for years to come. And it will do so in a variety of ways.

First, through the quiet phase of the Open Studio campaign, Studio leadership retired a $1.25M mortgage on apprentice housing, thereby eliminating all pre-existing debt and sending Studio off into its future and this capital project totally free of any long-term debt.

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EXTERIOR CHANGES TO STUDIO WILL RENEW THE THEATRE AS AN UNMISSABLE BEACON FOR THE ARTS ALONG DC’S BUSIEST ENTERTAINMENT AND NIGHTLIFE CORRIDOR

Next, the renovation further ensures long-term stability by improving systems and infrastructure throughout the building that have not been sufficiently modernized in over 15 years. Most notably, the renovation will upgrade Studio’s currently failing HVAC systems, optimizing them to operate in our intimate theatre spaces and to run more efficiently. Switching to LED lighting and reducing our water usage with new bathroom fixtures will also improve the operating efficiencies of our historic buildings and reduce our environmental impact. This investment will bring down annual expenses and provide Studio with the systems needed to appropriately support the Theatre’s operations.

And finally, by creating new spaces and upgrading others, the Open Studio renovation will optimize the spaces in the building that have the potential to drive additional earned income revenue through the creation of a more robust space rental program. Located in vibrant Logan Circle, Studio’s historic spaces with their original industrial character have long been a draw for corporate functions, community gatherings, neighborhood meetings, partner workshops, weddings, and outside productions.

Space availability is often limited. Open Studio will optimize the use and allocation of Studio’s greatest asset, our building, increasing rental inventory to facilitate greater space use income as an investment in the Theatre’s longterm financial sustainability.

ALEXANDER STRAIN INTERACTS WITH AUDIENCE MEMBERS DURING THE PARTICIPATORY PRODUCTION EVERY BRILLIANT THING. PHOTO: TEDDY WOLFF.

What results from the Open Studio campaign is a Studio Theatre that disrupts expectations, expands possibilities, and invites our patrons to expect more from their theatre experience. Studio will become even more of a hub for artistry and innovation, a place that welcomes conversation and invites new audiences, and an enterprise that will sustain itself for years to come.

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Open Studio Par tners Hickok Cole

Charcoalblue

Forrester Construction

JM Zell Partners

ARCHITECTS

THEATRICAL AND ACOUSTIC CONSULTANTS

CONSTRUCTION

PROJCET MANAGERS

Established in 1988, Forrester Construction Company is an award-winning general contractor offering clients construction management, preconstruction, and design build services. A locally-owned leader in the Washington, DC Metropolitan market, Forrester has a proven record of construction excellence, client satisfaction, and efficient project delivery that has led to the receipt of over 265 construction industry awards.

Forrester’s cultural portfolio ranges from performing arts centers, museums, historic landmarks, and monuments to community resource centers, libraries, and faith-based facilities. Forrester understands the unique challenges that arts organizations face and has the experience to navigate them.

With prior work completed for the nation’s leading cultural institutions, including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Ford’s Theatre, as well as local theatres such as Round House Theatre and The Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts, Forrester is proud to have been selected by Studio Theatre and excited to bring this experience to bear on its exciting renovation project.

Leaders today face increasingly challenging real estate issues with enormous impact on every aspect of their business, firm, or organization. This is why they come to JM Zell Partners, Ltd.

Hickok Cole is a 100-person collective of architects, project managers, interior designers, graphic/media designers, strategists and researchers, each contributing to a broad based design practice. Led

by Sr. Principals Michael E. Hickok, FAIA and Yolanda Cole, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP, it is also one of the most successful architectural firms in the Washington, DC region, experiencing steady growth over a period of 30 years. Hickok Cole has designed over 60 million square feet of corporate office buildings, multi-family housing, and interiors in the years since its founding. The firm’s portfolio demonstrates a commitment to context over style. As designers, the team at Hickok Cole respond to each region, city, and neighborhood’s unique characteristics and distinct opportunities. The firm consistently seeks design strategies that are authentic and in resonance with a project’s time and place. An inquisitive nature pervades each of its cross-collaborative project teams, formed from core practice groups: commercial office, housing, commercial interior design, Lifestyle interiors, and a full-service branding and ad agency, Hickok Cole Creative.

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Charcoalblue was established in the heart of the UK theatre industry in 2004 by ex-chief electrician Andy Hayles, lighting and sound engineer Jon Stevens, architect Gavin Green, and production manager Jack Tilbury. Since then, it has carved out a reputation as the world’s leading integrated Theatre, Acoustic, and Digital Consultancy service.

Charcoalblue now operates as a cohesive and collaborative team across six international studios in the UK, US, and Australia, delivering projects to every corner of the globe.

The firm was born out of the desire to build a different, more thoughtful kind of practice, bringing together people from different sectors. Their practice is defined by really listening to organizations, taking time to understand their vision and delivering innovative, fresh, uniquely tailored solutions, whatever the scale of the project.

JM Zell has earned its reputation as the firm to retain when creativity, persistence, and the ability to resolve complicated requirements are needed. They find real estate solutions compatible with the vision, needs, and organization of each client they serve—whether a missionbased not-for-profit, theatre, museum or cultural institution, government entity, multinational corporation, professional firm or entrepreneurial startup.

JM Zell prides itself on a total devotion to clients and its ability to take on demanding projects. With a culture built on client advocacy, JM Zell maximizes value for clients through committed service and dedicated implementation. The firm zealously protect its clients’ interests whether negotiating costs, structuring agreements, or managing a project.

The firm’s professionals in business, finance, law, brokerage, planning, construction, and project management apply their specialized expertise while thinking holistically to explore many ideas, perspectives, and avenues to develop feasible strategies to deliver the best value for each client.

The Numbers This bold transformation of one of Studio’s most prominent spaces will create a new hallmark for the work being produced here.

$10,824,133

$4,651,928

$3,178,355

$735,298

CAPITAL PROJECT CONSTRUCTION

CAPITAL PROJECT DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT

CAMPAIGN ADMINISTRATION

Construction costs, permits and inspections, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, theatre technology and infrastructure

Architects, engineers, theatrical consultants, management, and financing fees

Financial stabilization, investment in the artistic fund, community engagement, and website and brand redevelopment

Supplemental staffing, consultants, donor cultivation, research, and collateral material

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The People OPEN STUDIO STEERING COMMITTEE

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

STUDIO THEATRE LEADERSHIP

Larry Naake, Chair

David Muse, Artistic Director

Susan Butler, Co-Chair

Amy Weinberg, Vice-Chair

Amy Weinberg, Co-Chair

Hal Jones, Secretary

Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg, Managing Director

Theo Adamstein

Robert B. Batarla, Treasurer

Carl and Rise Cole

David Muse, Ex-Officio

John Guggenmos

Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg, Ex-Officio

John and Meg Hauge Virginia A. McArthur and E.C. Michael Higgins

Marc Albert

Mr. Craig Pascal and Mr. Victor Shargai*

Susan Butler, Chair Emeritus

Jeremias Alvarez Karen Doyne Dr. Mark Epstein Mark W. Foster Navroz Gandhi Jinny Goldstein Susan L. Gordon Jean Heilman Grier Martin Klepper Albert G. Lauber Stanley J. Marcuss Renee Matalon Herb Milstein Nike Opadiran Jamie C. Pate Katy Kunzer Rosenzweig Luz Sevak Teresa Schwartz Steven A. Skalet Bobbi Terkowitz, Chair Emeritus Terry Theologides Robert Tracy

* In Memorium

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Jonathan Tycko

Bianca Beckham, Director of Development Ryan-Patrick McLaughlin, Capital Project Manager

1501 14TH STREET NW WASHINGTON, DC 20005 DEVO@STUDIOTHEATRE.ORG 202.919.3712