How did The Watershed come to be?

I’m Madeleine Burke Pitt, a fourth-generation Washingtonian. My grandmother and great-grandmother grew up on Capitol Hill near Eastern Market. It’s both my family’s and artistic home.

It was at the Studio Acting Conservatory under Joy Zinnoman that I found my artistic home—first as a student, then as an actor at Studio Theatre, and finally as a teacher. After many years teaching and directing at Imagination Stage, I returned to the Studio to teach. I’d been percolating the idea of starting a new theater company in DC for a long time; the pandemic gave that idea urgency. Two and a half years of separation from live performances galvanized me to found The Watershed. 

I’m inspired by plays that hold the mirror up to the human experience in all its complexity. The Watershed’s inaugural production is The Approach, by Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe.