CAST

BRIANNA-LYNN BAKER

(Marilla) is joining Virginia Stage Company for her debut performance. Notable performances include the all-female sketch comedy show Panties in a Twist at the NorVA, Feld Entertainment’s Trolls: The Experience, and Juror Eight in Twelve Angry Jurors. Brianna-Lynn would like to thank Brad and Sean at Push Comedy Theater for re-igniting her creative flame and encouraging her to audition. You can follow her creative journey on Instagram at @beingbriannalynn or on her website at briannalynnbaker.com

ROBERT BEITZEL*

(Dracula) Off-Broadway: Women or Nothing, The Atlantic Theater. Our Town, Barrow Street Theater. In Masks Outrageous and Austere, The Culture Project. Hallway Trillogy, Rattlestick Playwrights’ Theater. Finer Noble Gases, Rattlestick. Faster, Rattlestick.  Light Raise the Roof, NYTW. Bulrusher, Urban Stages. Regional: Appropriate, The Mark Taper Forum, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Shakespeare Theater, D.C.  Finer Noble Gases @ Actors’ Theater Louisville, The Bush Theater (London), and The Edinburgh Fringe. Jane Eyre, GEVA Theatre. Measure Still For Measure, Boston Court. Film and T.V.: Babylon, Ramona at Midlife (upcoming), Winter Passing, Art Machine, Blackbird, Side Effects (short). True Detective season 1 (HBO), Turn (AMC), Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central), Feud: Capote’s Women (FX), NCIS New Orleans, Law and Order, ER. Robert has a BFA in drama from the Juilliard School. 

VICTORIA BLAKE

(Miller/Merchant) is very pleased to be returning to the VSC stage, after a one-night stand last year as an emergency cover for Fiddler On the Roof. In film, she can be seen acting alongside Chadwick Boseman (The Kill Hole), Ariana De Bose (Seaside), Rebecca Romijn (The Librarians) and Fred Armisen (Portlandia). In theatre, Victoria has won Best Supporting Actress awards for To Kill A Mockingbird, The Vagina Monologues, and Pterodactyls.

MADELINE CALAIS-KING*

(Mina Harker) is thrilled to make her VSC debut this season. Madeline has performed across the country with the American Shakespeare Center’s National Tour as well as internationally at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Krokusfestival in Hasselt, Belgium.  Previous credits include: Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Cleveland Play House), Constanze Weber in Amadeus (Cleveland Play House), Ophelia in  Hamlet 50/50 (Shakespeare at Notre Dame), Hero in Much Ado About Nothing and Cordelia in King Lear (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), and Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (Red Bull Theater). madelinecalais.com

DAN CIMO

(Dr. George Seward) is ecstatic to be returning to the historic Wells Theatre right after completing the run of Virginia Stage Company’s Season 46 opener, Arsenic and Old Lace. Other previous credits include Tuck Everlasting, Spring Awakening, Seussical (Virginia Rep); Jekyll & Hyde, Seussical, La Cage aux Folles, Mary Poppins (Virginia Musical Theatre); Buyer & Cellar, The Normal Heart, Falsettos, Cabaret, Psycho Beach Party (Richmond Triangle Players); Assassins, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Richmond Shakespeare); Mr. Burns, Significant Other (TheatreLAB). Dan holds a BFA in Theatre Performance and MSW in Clinical Practice from Virginia Commonwealth University. In his clinical work, Dan specializes in LGBTQ+ mental health and relationships (queerwell.com/dan-cimo). Dan extends his heartfelt gratitude to God, his family and friends, and all of his other supports along the way. Enjoy the show!

ERIC HARRELL*

(Jonathan Harker) is thrilled to be back onstage at Virginia Stage Company! Previous VSC credits include All My Sons (George Deever), The Hampton Years (Malcolm MacLean), A Christmas Carol (vocal coach) and Sense and Sensibility (dialect coach). Eric currently serves as Chair of the theatre department at Regent University where he teaches as a voice and movement specialist in the MFA Acting program. For eight years, he served as Producing Artistic Director of the university’s professional summer company, Tidewater Stage, which he founded in 2012. He also teaches for the Armed Services Arts Partnership of Hampton Roads. This past spring, Eric was on sabbatical to direct Henry V at Jessup University in Sacramento and direct/devise an original production entitled Two Gardens with Betel-UK in Birmingham, England. Eric holds an MFA degree in Acting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln/Nebraska Repertory Theatre and has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA for over 20 years. Much love to Holly, Naomi and Judah. Psalm 27:4

DARLENE HOPE*

(Doctor Van Helsing) is a NYC–based classically trained actress. She earned her BA in Theatre Arts from the University of South Florida and her MFA in Acting from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. She also studied extensively in London, Paris, and Italy under lauded international artists Corin Redgrave, Sir Donald Sinden, Dame Sian Phillips, Patsy Rodenburg OBE, Maestro Antonio Fava, Sheridan Morley, and Tony Award winner Mark Medoff. Perhaps best known as the title character in A Visit from Aunt Flo, the Cannes Lion Award–winning viral video that has received over 2.5 million views worldwide, Miss Hope has toured extensively throughout the US, South America, and the Caribbean, combining her bright and captivating performances with philanthropy, humanitarian relief, and young artist mentorship. She is the author of multiple plays, screenplays, and faith-based journals, and is the founder of HopeFull Productions. Off-Broadway: The Doctor, Blood Work, Sistas: the Musical, Normalcy. Regional: Barrington Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Asolo Repertory Theatre, George Street Playhouse, William Inge Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, American Stage Theatre Company, Miami New Drama, Playhouse on Park, Theatre East, Norwegian Cruise Line, TheatreWorksUSA. Film: Commedia By Fava. Television: Halston (Netflix), The Blacklist (NBC), Blue Bloods, FBI, God Friended Me (CBS), Strut (Revry). New media: Don’t Shoot the Messenger, A Visit from Aunt Flo, When Bae Doesn’t Pay Attention.

YAYRA MCGODFRED

(Maid) is ecstatic to make her VSC debut as a part of this production. A recent addition to the theatre scene, Yayra has made several appearances on the Tidewater Community College stage. Notable roles include Mindy in the student-led Stressed, Young Townsperson in Elephant’s Graveyard, and most recently, Hero in Much Ado About Nothing with Shakespeare in the Grove. Outside of work and the stage, Yayra is often found either crafting new stories or contemplating the next great idea. With a deep love for both performing and writing, Yayra continues to explore and grow in the world of theatre.

LIZZIE MORGAN

(Lucy Westerna) VSC debut! Originally from Williamsburg, VA, Lizzie Morgan is a multifaceted artist based in NYC, working as an actor, writer, film director, and producer. Her short films Man’s Best Friend, Three Ways Out, and It’s Not You, It’s Her excelled in the festival circuit, with the latter securing a buying deal from Sony Pictures. This past summer, Lizzie produced and acted in her most ambitious short film project to date, View From Chimney Rock, which is set to enter the festival scene in early 2025. A proud graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied in the Meisner Studio, Lizzie also honed her skills in Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. For updates, follow her on Instagram @itslizziemorgan.

KOMAL SMRUTI

(Drusilla) is beyond excited for her first production with the Virginia Stage Company. She completed a local tour of All Roads Lead to Home with Rouge Theatre in spring of this year. Coming from roughly a decade of working on indie film and tv projects in NYC, Philadelphia and in the Hampton Roads area, she is excited to be back to her roots with stage work.

ANNA SOSA*

(Renfield) is a proud Filipina-American, born and raised in Norfolk, VA. She is humbled to return to the Wells, where you may recognize her from past VSC productions such as The Hobbit (Kili, Gollum) , and Henry V (Bardolph, M. Le Fer).  Catch her again in the current tour of Every Brilliant Thing, and during this holiday season for A Merry Christmas Carol.  Then  in Spring '25 see her in a new original work in development with Rouge Theater and Philip Odango - The Great Filipino Aswang Pageant.  She gives special thanks to Bobby, Deb, and her feminist fantasy fam at VSC.  And finally, a tremendous warm hug to all the designers and technicians out there keeping Hampton Roads stages alive and breathing--Salamat sayo!

CREATIVES

MELISSA MOWRY

(Director, she/her), is an East Coast director with creative collaborations in Richmond, New York, Indianapolis, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Tamil Nadu, India. She holds a BA in Drama from Randolph-Macon College and an MFA in Directing from The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. Previous works include: How to Bruise Gracefully (Cadence Theatre/Virginia) Skeleton Crew (Summit Performance Indianapolis/Indiana), I Have a Dream (Virginia Repertory Theatre/Virginia), Trouble in Mind (Rutgers University/New Jersey), The Slave (ASDS Repertory Season/New York), Proof (ASDS Repertory Season/New York), “The Audition” from The Good Doctor (ASDS Repertory Season/New York), North of Providence (ASDS Repertory Season/New York). In 2028, Melissa was awarded the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship at the New Group in New York City. She also served as the SDCF Observe for Patricia McGregor’s Lights Out: Nat King Cole at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. She was also a finalist for the Drama League’s Stage Director Fellowship in 2022, as well as a finalist for The National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Directing Residency in 2023. Melissa is an Associate Member of the SDC. 

KATE HAMILL

(Playwright) is an actor & playwright. Kate has been one of the most-produced playwrights nationwide for the last 7 years, from 2017-current season. Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year, 2017; Einhorn Award, 2023. Plays include Pride & Prejudice - Primary Stages / HVSF (originated role of Lizzy; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Sense & Sensibility at Bedlam (originated role of Marianne; winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; nominee, Drama League Award); Vanity Fair at the Pearl (originated Becky; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Mansfield Park at Northlight, Little Women at Primary Stages & the Jungle, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. #2B at KCRep, The Little Fellow at Cygnet Theatre, Emma at the Guthrie. Other plays include Scrooge for Senate; The Piper (O’Neill Finalist, PlayPenn Fellowship), In the Mines (Sundance Finalist); and The Odyssey. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, at A.R.T., the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, The Alley, Folger, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, A.C.T., Actors Theater of Louisville, Denver Center, & many others. World Premieres in 2024: The Scarlet Letter at Two River, The Light & The Dark at Chautauqua Theater Company and more TBA. www.kate-hamill.com

JO WINIARSKI §

(Scenic Designer) Off-Broadway credits include The Fears, HYPROV, Accidentally Brave, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, and Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Regional design credits include Guthrie Theater; Arizona Theatre Company; Utah Shakespeare Festival (over 40 shows); The Old Globe; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Dallas Theater Center; and Geva Theatre Center. Additional credits include Wishes for Disney Cruise Line. Jo was the art director on Late Night with Seth Meyers (episodes 1-844) and received an Emmy nomination for art direction for A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All.

DR. NYROBI N. MOSS

(Costume Designer; Goddess Complex Costumes & Styling, LLC.) Dracula marks Nyrobi’s 2nd engagement at VSC. In 2019 Nyrobi designed Detroit 67. Her 2024 design credits include Aint’ Misbehavin (Orlando Shakespeare Theater), Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and Wild With Happy (Horizon Theatre), True North and What Are You? (7 Stages Theatre), Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters (Synchronicity Theatre), The Wash (Synchronicity Theatre & Impact Theatre Atlanta), and The Color Purple (Aurora Theatre). Nyrobi’s design work has appeared in live theatre on stages regionally, nationally, and internationally, and extends to TV and film. A multi-award-winning designer, Nyrobi won Outstanding Costume Design in a Play for Eclipsed (Synchronicity Theatre-2017) and Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery (Horizon Theatre-2010). Her other award nominations include Outstanding Costume Design in a Play for: The Wash (Synchronicity Theatre & Impact Theatre Atlanta -2024) and Designing Women 2020 (Horizon Theatre-2023); Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical for: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Horizon Theatre-2024), Bright Star (Georgia Ensemble Theatre-2023), Five Guys Named Moe (Theatrical Outfit - 2019), The Color Purple (Actors’ Express-2018), and Blackberry Daze (Horizon Theatre- 2018); Outstanding Design Team TYA for Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters (Synchronicity Theatre-2023) and Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (Synchronicity Theatre-2019). IG/FB: @GoddessComplexCostumes; IG: @DrNyrobi

KATHY PERKINS §

(Lighting Designer) has designed lighting for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatres such as American Conservatory Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory, St. Louis Black Repertory, Alliance, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Baltimore Center Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, New Federal Theatre, Mark Taper, Yale Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Syracuse Stage, Two River Theatre, People’s Light, and Playmakers Repertory Company.  As a scholar, she is the editor of seven anthologies focusing on women both nationally and internationally.  She is a senior editor of the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. Kathy has traveled to nearly fifty countries as both designer and lecturer and is the recipient of numerous research and design awards, including Ford Foundation, Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Henry Hewes Design Award and an NAACP Image Award.  In 2021 she received the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Distinguished Achievement Award for both Education and Lighting Design. In 2007 she was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. She received her BFA from Howard University and her M.F.A. from the University of Michigan Kathy is faculty Emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

SARTJE PICKETT §

(Sound Designer) is a composer & sound designer for theater, film and interactive storytelling. Pickett is the co-founder of the sound design collective District 5 Sound, which specializes in sound design for immersive and interactive storytelling environments. Her work in this area has provided opportunities to develop skills in coding, embedded electronics, and spatialized audio through ambisonic capture, processing, and delivery. Performance has been a lifelong passion, and she continues to develop projects that incorporate live elements culminating in performance-driven responsive design. Some national theater credits include -  Virginia Stage Company: Three Musketeers; American Players Theater: Much Ado About Nothing, Dancing at Lughnasa, Proof, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labours Lost, Cyrano, Mary’s Wedding & Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Milwaukee Rep & Kansas City Rep: Nina Simone: Four Women; The Guthrie: Twelfth Night, The Great Leap; Indiana Repertory: Shakespeare’s Will; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Richard III; Trinity Rep: Ms. Homes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2b; Yale Repertory Theater: Hamlet, Death of a Salesman & A Delicate Balance. Bricolage Production Company: DODO, Welcome to Here, Immersive Encounters: The Ascendants; City Theater: Cry it Out; Pittsburgh Public: A Christmas Story.

JOZ VAMMER

(Fight & Intimacy Director) is delighted to be making a Virginia Stage Company debut. A movement artist of many disciplines, Joz has choreographed dance, theatre, acro, circus, and combat, for youth, adult, and disability performances. Favorite credits include Peter and the Starcatcher (University of San Diego), Once Upon a Mattress (North Coast Youth Theatre), Romeo et Juliet (Opera Western Reserve), Babel (Convergences Collective), Glowworm (Aerial Arts), The Mountain (Circle Theatre), The Little Prince (Give Me Shelter). Joz also teaches aerial and vinyasa yoga, physical clowning, restorative movement, and movement process workshops and classes, with an artistic and scientific approach. AEA/SAG, MFA Old Globe. www.jozvam.com

ERIN EDELSTEIN*

(Production Stage Manager) is excited to be making their stage management debut at Virginia Stage Company. Other credits include Always… Patsy Cline and The Speckled Band at The Walnut Street Theatre and A Number at People’s Light. She has traveled to NYC and throughout Pennsylvania working and living her theatre dreams. She would like to thank her family and everyone involved in this wonderful production.

TOM QUAINTANCE

(Producing Artistic Director) is in his seventh season with Virginia Stage Company. At the Wells, Tom has directed The Three Musketeers, Henry V, Every Brilliant Thing, A Merry Little Christmas Carol, Pride and Prejudice, The Santaland Diaries, and Matilda The Musical. Regionally Tom directed Twelfth Night at the Guthrie Theater, and as an Associate Artist at PlayMakers Repertory Company he directed An Enemy of the People, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and The Little Prince. As Artistic Director of Cape Fear Regional Theatre (CFRT), Tom produced over 35 plays and directed many others, including the World Premiere of Downrange: Voices from the Homefront, a play based on interviews with military spouses from Fort Bragg. As the founder of FreightTrain Shakespeare in Los Angeles, he earned a Drama-Logue Award for his direction of Pericles. Other Los Angeles credits range from King Lear to The Devil With Boobs. A member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Tom is a graduate of Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) with a B.A. in Theatre and Economics, and the University of California, San Diego MFA directing program, where he was the assistant director on the original production of The Who’s Tommy. Tom and his wife Wallis are the proud parents of Mireille Julia and Annika Christine

JEFF RYDER

(Managing Director) has been Managing Director of Virginia Stage Company since March 2022. Prior to coming to VSC, Jeff served in several roles at Cleveland Play House from 2013 to 2022. Jeff holds a Master of Public Administration Degree from the Levin College at Cleveland State University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University. At Levin, Jeff was inducted into Nu Lambda Mu, the international honor society for the study of nonprofit management and philanthropy. Jeff also holds a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion for HR Professionals from Cornell University. He has served on the boards of the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank, Theatre Forward, the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club. In Cleveland, Jeff was honored to be a part of the Cleveland Leadership Center’s Advanced Leadership Institute and the Cleveland Foundation’s Foundations for Philanthropy Program. Jeff has also been a stage manager at several theatres including Talespinner Children’s Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Berkshire Theatre Festival.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

§  Member of United Scenic Artists, local USA-829 of the IATSE