Update, 5/15/19: As Joy Zinoman hinted to us in February, her acting conservatory is moving to Columbia Heights. The school will renovate a church at 3423 Holmead Place NW, purchased with the help of a $1.5 million donation from local philanthropists Dan and Gloria Logan, according to the Washington Post. Until the renovation is completed sometime next year, the school will move into the home of the former Shaw Middle School at Garnet Patterson. The Post reports that the conservatory’s last day at its current location at Studio Theatre is August 4.

Original: Back in June, Joy Zinoman says, leadership at Studio Theatre called her into a meeting. They had called Zinoman, the founder and former artistic director of Studio, to discuss the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, which she also founded.

“They said ‘This is going to be a difficult conversation,'” Zinoman tells DCist. “They proceeded to say we needed to have a divorce. To which I say, how can we have a divorce? We were never married—and we certainly never had sex! Maybe it was an annulment.”

The news was finally shared with conservatory students and faculty on Monday via email: Studio Theatre is eliminating the 43-year-old acting conservatory “as part of a multi-year effort to focus on other strategic priorities.” Zinoman followed up the announcement on Tuesday afternoon with a terse Medium post, calling the move an “eviction from the building.”

“Studio Theatre’s leadership says their intention is to move beyond education and focus on community engagement instead,” Zinoman wrote. “They also informed us that their proposed multi-million-dollar renovation project would now necessitate our eviction from the building. If you wish to inquire about this expansion, I encourage you to pose your questions to @Studio_Theatre on Twitter.”

Kelly Nelson, a spokesperson for Studio Theatre, says that the availability of space was not the reason for parting ways with the conservatory. In a statement released Wednesday, Studio Theatre artistic director David Muse and managing director Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg say the move to close the conservatory “is one of the results of a strategic planning process that looked to the future, assessed our resources, and identified key priorities for the company.” As for the renovation Zinoman mentions, in January, the D.C. Zoning Office approved Studio Theatre’s application to expand on 14th Street. The conservatory occupies about 6,000 square feet of space in Studio’s building.

“All of the teachers, all of us, are horribly unhappy to leave this space that we love and where we have worked for so long, doing what we consider special work,” Zinoman tells DCist. “Of course we are unhappy about it.”

The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory predates the founding of Studio Theatre. Zinoman opened the school in 1975—then known as the Joy Zinoman Acting Studio—and expanded it into the professional theater three years later. According to Zinoman, the conservatory’s tuition made up 95 percent of Studio Theatre’s revenue. These days, she says, it’s more like 5 percent.

The school enrolls about 500 students per year and employs 20 teachers, offering courses in acting, movement, directing, and other theater topics. Zinoman lists alums of the conservatory that have acted and directed professionally around D.C., including Helen Hayes Award winners Holly Twyford and Nancy Robinette. “I would say all the best actors in Washington are my students,” Zinoman says.

Since Zinoman published the Medium post, and after it was picked up by Washingtonian and tweeted out by her son, New York Times comedy columnist Jason Zinoman, she says she’s received an “overwhelming” response from alumni and the theater community.

The conservatory “is deeply embedded in the lifeblood and growth of theater in Washington,” she says. As she wrote in her Medium post, the conservatory isn’t disappearing: She’s reopening the school as the Studio Acting Conservatory. She and her team are on the hunt for a new location in D.C., with a particular eye for Columbia Heights. With GALA Hispanic Theatre and the Dance Institute of Washington nearby, Zinoman says, “Another little arts corridor could be created there.” 

Other theater conservatories have also made their home in D.C., like the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Georgetown and the Honors Acting Conservatory at The Theatre Lab in Chinatown.

Zinoman says the conservatory is set to leave Studio Theatre in early August, right after the end of the summer semester, and estimates they’ll be occupying temporary spaces for at least six months before securing a permanent location. She says becoming an independent school will allow the school to grow—“if we can figure out the space part,” she says. “I think there’s a lot of potential and a lot of energy in the faculty, and in the students. Really it’s quite moving.”

Cordilia James contributed reporting to this story. It has been updated to reflect that the acting conservatory enrolls approximately 500 students per year.