Studio Theatre has assembled a powerhouse cast for its production of Ossie Davis’ monumental 1961 farce, Purlie Victorious. Directed by Psalmayene 24, the cast of Warner Miller, Danaya Esperanza, Kelli Blackwell, Jason Bowen, John Sygar, Lizan Mitchell, Stephen Patrick Martin, Elliott Bales, and Jacob Thompson will be taking on this classic send-up of American race relations. “When I saw this play on Broadway three years ago, I couldn’t understand why I’d never heard of it, and immediately wanted DC audiences to experience this rediscovered classic,” said Studio Artistic Director David Muse. “It manages to make a powerful statement about race in America and be hilarious at the same time. It’s tonally challenging to put on a play that deals with such heavy themes and remains genuinely funny, but anyone who saw The Colored Museum at Studio in 2023 knows how capably Psalm can thread that needle.”  When the play originally debuted in 1961, it counted among its fans Civil Rights leaders like Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Ossie Davis himself, along with his wife Ruby Dee (who starred in the play as Purlie and Lutiebelle), were major civil rights activists who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and served as its emcees. Addressing the play’s relevance to today’s audiences, Psalm said, “As forces in America are currently attempting to obscure and erase Black history, the act of remembrance is essentially an act of resistance. Purlie Victorious is a play that is beautifully subversive in the way it uses the healing balm of laughter to help us remember and take stock of a painful chapter in our collective American history.” ABOUT THE CAST WARNER MILLER (Purlie Victorious Judson) is a Brooklyn-born, New Jersey-raised actor and writer making his Studio Theatre debut. His Broadway credits include The Piano Lesson and the Tony Award-winning revival of A Soldier’s Play with Roundabout Theatre Company. Off Broadway credits include By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at Signature Theatre Company (NYC) and Hamlet at The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. Regional theatre credits include SOUL: The Stax Musical (world premiere) at Baltimore Center Stage; Pullman Porter Blues at Arena Stage; The Convert (world premiere) at McCarter Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre, and Center Theatre Group; The Brothers Size at Seattle Rep; Antony and Cleopatra at McCarter Theatre Center; A Raisin in the Sun at Hartford Stage; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Syracuse Stage; and Fences at Huntington Theatre Company. His film and television credits include American Gangster, Manifest, and Luke Cage (Netflix); Harlem (Amazon Prime); Boardwalk Empire (HBO); Law Order and Chicago P.D. (NBC); and CSI: NY (CBS). DANAYA ESPERANZA (Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins) is making her Studio Theatre debut. Her Off Broadway credits include O.K.! at the Intar Theatre; The Merchant of Venice with Theatre for a New Audience at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh; The Comedy of Errors, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night at The Public Theater; Buena Vista Social Club at the Atlantic Theater Company; The Misanthrope at Molière in The Park; Bayano at National Black Theatre; Play On! Shakespeare with the Classic Stage Company/Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Breitwisch Farm with the Esperance Theater Company; Mary Jane and Othello with the New York Theatre Workshop; Men on Boats with Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb; Washeteria at Soho Rep; and Our Lady of Kibeho at Signature Theatre Company (NYC). Her DC-area credits include Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare Theatre Company, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Folger Theatre. Her regional credits include The Bleeding Class at the Chautauqua Institution; Alma at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Annie Salem: An American Tale at New York Stage and Film; Joe Turner Vino y Se Fue at Seattle Rep; Protect the Beautiful Place at McCarter Theater Center; and Another Word for Beauty at the Goodman Theatre. Her digital/audio credits include Richard III and Coriolanus for Play On/Next Chapter Podcasts, Isolated Incidents for the Rattlestick Theater and the Broadway Podcast Network, Missing Them for Working Theater, The Bleeding Class with Geva Theatre, mother’s tongue with Milwaukee Rep, Letters From Cuba with The Acting Company, and Alma with Arizona Thea. Her television credits include The Blacklist (NBC) and Elementary (CBS). She attended The Juilliard School.  KELLI BLACKWELL (Missy Judson) is an actor, teaching artist, and self-published children’s author. Her theater credits include Downstate, The Colored Museum, and Fat Ham at Studio Theatre; Merry Wives at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Shout Sister Shout! at Ford’s Theatre; Beauty and the Beast and A.D. 16 at Olney Theatre Center; Crowns and Thunder Knocking on the Door at Creative Cauldron; A Streetcar Named Desire and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at Everyman Theatre; The Wiz, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Next to Normal at ArtsCentric; Ain’t Misbehavin’, Dreamgirls, and Grease at Toby’s Dinner Theatre; Hairspray at Sharon Playhouse; Once on This Island at Cortland Repertory Theatre; and the national tours of Chicago and Amazing Grace. Kelli serves on the senior leadership team and as the Director of Arts Education with Baltimore-based theater company, ArtsCentric. JASON BOWEN (Gitlow Judson) previously appeared at Studio in Skeleton Crew. He was on Broadway in The Play That Goes Wrong at the Lyceum Theater. Other credits include Goddess at The Public Theater, The Half-God of Rainfall at the New York Theatre Workshop/American Repertory Theater, Crumbs from the Table of Joy at Keen Company, Long Day’s Journey Into Night at Audible Theater, Native Son at The Acting Company, and If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka at Playwrights Horizons. His film and TV credits include Law Order: SVU, Chicago P.D. (NBC), Blue Bloods, Madam Secretary, Elementary, The Good Fight (CBS), Mother/Android (Hulu), The Upside, and What’s Your Number?  JOHN SYGAR (Charlie Cotchipee) is a Helen Hayes-nominated actor who recently appeared on Broadway in Swept Away. Some DC credits include As You Like It at the Folger Theatre; Swept Away at Arena Stage; Guys and Dolls at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Light Years at Signature Theatre; Beauty and the Beast, A.D. 16, and Once at Olney Theatre Center; Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks at Theatre Alliance and The Kennedy Center; Spring Awakening at Round House Theatre; Peter and the Starcatcher at Constellation Theatre Company; Floyd Collins at 1st Stage; and Head Over Heels at Monumental Theatre Company. Regional credits include Once at the Capital Repertory Theatre. John is also a member of the Only Make Believe acting company and makes music with the band baseball hat. LIZAN MITCHELL (Idella Landy) is making her Studio Theatre debut. She has appeared on Broadway in Ohio State Murders, Electra, Having Our Say, and So Long on Lonely Street. Her Off Broadway credits include Cold War Choir Practice at MCC Theater/Clubbed Thumb/Page 73, The Refuge Plays at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW)/Roundabout Theatre Company, The Half-God of Rainfall at NYTW/American Repertory Theater, shadow/land and cullud wattah at The Public Theater, On Sugarland at NYTW, Passage at SoHo Rep, Brownsville Song at LCT3, Trojan Women at Harlem Stage and The Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death at The Classical Theatre of Harlem. Her regional credits include Our Daughters, Like Pillars at Huntington Theatre Company, Skeleton Crew at Trinity Rep, A Raisin in the Sun at Arena Stage, Richard III at Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Tempest at The Old Globe, and Gem of the Ocean at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. Her film and television credits include Detroit, The Preacher’s Wife, and The Human Stain, Dying for Sex (Hulu), Evil (Paramount+), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix), The Good Wife (CBS), The Wire (HBO), and Law Order (NBC). STEPHEN PATRICK MARTIN (Ol’ Capn’ Cotchipee) is making his Studio Theatre debut. His previous theater credits include An Enemy of the People and Prayer for the French Republic at Theater J; The Winter’s Tale, Henry VIII, and Hamlet at Folger Theatre; Ben Butler and Major Barbara at Washington Stage Guild; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Glengarry Glen Ross at Round House Theatre; Two Gentlemen of Verona and Lady Windermere’s Fan at Shakespeare Theatre Company; The Grapes of Wrath and A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre; The Beaux’ Stratagem, A Raisin in the Sun, and Gem of the Ocean at Everyman Theatre; The Oresteia, Dracula, and The Diary of Anne Frank at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company; and Christmas Eve at ExPats Theatre. Stephen is a graduate of the inaugural class of The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy at George Washington University. He is also a Washington, DC tour guide. ELLIOTT BALES (Sheriff) returns to Studio Theatre where he previously appeared as Senator McDowell in Kings. Other DC theater credits include productions at Round House Theatre, Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Theater Alliance, 1st Stage, The Welders, and Spooky Action Theater. Elliott has also worked extensively with Riverside Theatre in Iowa. His film credits include the feature films Remote, Harmony, and The Sultan and the Saint, and the award-winning short films A Civil Civil Servant, Macabre, and Wireless. He recently released his first book, The Best Day of My Life: An Answer to Life’s Most Frequent Question. Elliott previously served as a US Army Officer, retiring after 26 years of service. JACOB THOMPSON (Deputy) is a DC-based actor and musician making his Studio Theatre debut. His recent theater credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet at Synetic Theater, A Jumping Off Point at Round House Theatre (u/s), and Drunk Romeo and Juliet with Drunk Shakespeare. He graduated from George Mason University with a BFA in acting and studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT Ossie Davis was a writer, actor, director, and activist. Born in Cogdell, Georgia, Davis was educated at Howard University before moving to New York to join the Rose McClendon Players. His playwriting credits include Purlie Victorious (1961) on Broadway (in which he co-starred with his wife, Ruby Dee) and its musical adaptation, Purlie (1970). His additional stage credits include A Last Dance with Sybil at New Federal Theatre; Bingo! at Amas Repertory Theatre; Paul Robeson, All American at Crossroads Repertory Theatre; and Escape to Freedom by the Performing Arts Repertory Theatre. As a screenwriter, Davis’ credits include Cotton Comes to Harlem; Countdown at Kusini; and For Us, The Living: The Medgar Evers Story.  As an actor, Davis made his Broadway debut in 1946 in Jeb. His subsequent Broadway credits include The Wisteria Trees, Jamaica (for which he received a Tony award nomination), Purlie Victorious, The Zulu and the Zayda, and I’m Not Rappaport. Davis’s notable screen credits include Miss Evers’ Boys, The Client, Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, The Cardinal and The Scalphunters, as well as the television series Evening Shade, King, and With Ossie and Ruby. Davis was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. With Ruby Dee, Davis was a Kennedy Center honoree and the recipient of SAG’s Lifetime Achievement Award. ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Psalmayene 24 is an award-winning director, playwright, and actor. Directing credits include The Colored Museum, Good Bones, Flow, and Pass Over at Studio Theatre; Metamorphoses at Folger Theatre; Tempestuous Elements at Arena Stage; Necessary Sacrifices: A Radio Play at Ford’s Theatre; Young John Lewis and Native Son at Mosaic Theater Company; and Word Becomes Flesh at Theater Alliance. Playwriting credits include Young John Lewis (book lyrics) at Theatrical Outfit; Monumental Travesties, Dear Mapel, and Les Deux Noirs at Mosaic Theater Company; Out of the Vineyard at Joe’s Movement Emporium; An Eloquent Fugitive Slave Flees to Ireland (part of The Frederick Douglass Project) at Solas Nua; and Zomo the  Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth at Imagination Stage. His solo play Free Jujube Brown! is published in the anthology Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation. Psalm’s acting credits include Ruined at Arena Stage, Free Jujube Brown! at The African Continuum Theatre Company, and HBO’s The Wire. He is the writer/director of the short film The Freewheelin’ Insurgents. Psalm is the recipient of two Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play and has received the Imagination Award from Imagination Stage. His work has received grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Walt Disney Corporation. Psalm is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Mosaic Theater Company. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Dramatists Guild, and Actors’ Equity Association. Purlie Victorious runs May 6 – June 21, 2026, in the Victor Shargai Theatre at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St NW, Washington, DC. Tickets range from $55-$117 and are available online or by calling the box office at 202.332.3300. ABOUT STUDIO THEATRE Studio Theatre is a national leader in the production of contemporary plays. Over 46 years and more than 425 productions, Studio has grown from a company that produced in a single rented theater to one that owns a multi-venue complex stretching half a city block, but has remained committed to core distinguishing characteristics: deliberately intimate spaces, excellence in acting and design, and seasons that feature many of the most significant playwrights of our time. Studio’s seasons are intentionally diverse and eclectic, featuring buzzworthy plays from today’s hot writers, groundbreaking world premieres, and reinvigorated contemporary classics, produced and performed by leading local, national, and international artists. Studio also incubates and develops new work, nurtures the next generation of arts leaders, and proactively engages with its community through a wide array of initiatives. Studio is committed to inclusion and access, and makes a concentrated effort to proactively dismantle barriers that have excluded people from joyful participation in our art form. Studio’s location, rich history, unique venues, and commitment to artistry have made it a regional landmark, where audiences find the best that contemporary theater has to offer.  ...read more read less