Cast
PATRICIA ALLI
(Anna Campbell) is honored to be performing on VSC’s stage for the first time. She most recently played the role of Mom in Passing Strange which received the Richmond Artsie Award for Best Ensemble, with Firehouse Theatre. Some of her other credits include: Jacosta in Oedipus, with Firehouse Theatre, Hillary in Hillary and Clinton and Ann in Bill W. and Dr. Bob with HATTheatre, Player Queen, Marcellus and Gravedigger 2, in Hamlet, with Quill Theatre and for WCVE, Nurse in 5th Wall’s production of The Lyons, Queen Eleanor in Richmond Shakespear’s King John and Alma in Henley Street Theatre’s production of Yellowman. Patricia has also lent her talents to HATTheatre as costume designer for Popcorn Falls and Jewtopia, choreographer for Why do Fools Fall in Love and as an instructor for several youth and theatre classes.
MIKAYLA LASHAE Bartholomew
(Precious “Pete”) Is a Norfolk native is a Tony Award winning advocate & award winning stage/film actor & activist based in LA & NYC. In addition to starring as Tunde Price, the eldest of five and well loved sister to Venus and Serena Williams, in the Academy Award winning film King Richard (Warner Bros) Mikayla is a two time NAACP Image Award Nominee. She is among those in the Broadway Advocacy Coalition honored with a Special Tony Award in 2020 for their work combating racism within and beyond the theatre industry. Other credits/upcoming projects include Grace (2023), The Bottoms with Jon Bernthal, Dear Mama (Film Independent, SXSW, NAACP Image Award Nominee, Best Actress CFF) The Niceties (RTCC Award Winner), Pure (HBOMax), The Great Khan (World Premiere), WET (Playwrights Realms) Bayano (National Black Theatre), A Doll’s House: Part 2 (Maltz Jupiter Theatre) and much more. As a long-standing artist, facilitator, and organizer at BAC and Columbia Law, Mikayla has worked with Broadway companies such as Tina, The Lion King, & Girl from North Country. She is also a long standing Artist Ambassador for the NYCLU. This in addition to working with carceral systems to prioritize community restoration, fight education inequity, aid in voting rights, immigration and more. Inspired by her parents, little sister Mya, and the generations of women that helped to raise her, Mikayla considers it a great privilege to be a Black woman afforded the opportunity to use storytelling as a means for social good. It is an honor to come home to Norfolk to give back to the community that built her (shoutout Tanners Creek Elementary, Ruffner Middle, and Granby High). This VCU alum holds a BFA in Theatre, minors in pre-nursing and GSEX, and is repped by Barney Slobodin, Matt DelPiano, and Jessica Coleman of Calvary Management. www.mikaylabartholomew.com
TERI BROWN
(Betty Samson) - Honored to make her Virginia Stage Company debut! Regional theatre credits include: The African Company Presents Richard III (Sarah) with The Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota, Doubt (Mrs. Miller) with the Public Theatre in Maine, Dutch Kings (Jocelyn) with Brave New World Rep in Brooklyn, NY, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream (Juliet, Titania) with the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Mattie) with the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The themes and truths explored Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous are particularly meaningful to me as I navigate a return to the theater world after a 20-year absence! As I do so, I am upheld and sustained by the love of my husband and children, who offer me undying encouragement and support on this journey. I am thankful!
BETHANY MAYO
(Kate Hughes) is an actor and teaching artist from Des Moines, IA. She has come to Norfolk by way of Kansas City, Pensacola, and Baltimore. Her favorite acting credits include Elise in The Miser/Classic Theater of Maryland, The Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Fells Point Corner Theater, and The Narrator in Virginia Stage Company’s touring production of Every Brilliant Thing. She holds a BA in Musical Theater from William Woods University and a MA in Theater Education from The Catholic University of America. She is a founding member of the Black Classical Acting Ensemble at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. She is a Teaching Artist at Governor's School for the Arts and the sitting Director of Education at Virginia Stage Company. When not teaching or acting, she sews and takes ballroom dancing lessons.
Creative Team
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Ph.D.
(Director) Professor of Acting and Directing Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Co-Artistic Director & Founder of The Conciliation Lab, a non-profit social justice theatre company www.theconciliationlab.org . Dr.T is a playwright, director, actor, poet, and writer. She has appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Broadway production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the rainbow is enuf” performing in both the 1st national and international touring companies. Her television, film, industrial, voice over and commercial credits are extensive. Favorite directing projects include uncle tom:deconstructed for The Conciliation Project www.theconciliationproject.org, Passing Strange for Firehouse Theatre, The Niceties for The Conciliation LAB, and Fences for the Virginia Rep all to critical acclaim. Favorite academic directing projects include: Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry for the University of Richmond at the Modlin Center, Eclipsed by Danai Gurira and Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage both for Theatre VCU. Fun fact: She’s featured voice talent for the video game HALO. She’s a featured scholar in Black Acting Methods: critical approaches, a best seller on Amazon. Her chapter “The Conciliation Project as a Social Experiment: Behind the Mask of Uncle Tom-ism and the Performance of Blackness” was featured in an anthology titled, African American Arts, Activism, Aesthetics and Futurity, edited by Dr. Sharrell D. Luckett. Dr.T has been a columnist for Urban Views Weekly for the past decade, her column and other articles, presentations and workshops can be found at www.coveringtheground.com .
JEFFREY HALES
(Scenic Designer) is overjoyed to have been invited to be a part of Virginia Stage Company’s production of Angry, Racious, & Shamelessly Gorgeous. He feels honored and privileged to have been able to participate in such a nuanced piece that delves and twists through the generational disconnects between younger and older people pertaining to the different outlooks on equality and social justice. He is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre with concentration in Scenic Design. Previous scenic design credits include the Dogwood Dell, Richmond City, production of The Addams Family, the Traveling Players Ensemble production of A Christmas Carol, The VCUarts Theatre production of James & the Giant Peach, the Traveling Players Ensemble production of Antigone, and the VCUarts Theatre production of Eclipsed, among many others. He would like to thank the amazing artistic team that he has joined with on this project for their amazing work and wonderful support throughout the entire production.
NIA SAFARR BANKS
(Costume Designer) is a Costume Designer from Richmond, Virginia. She graduated Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and she’s currently working on her Master of Fine Arts at Boston University. She was nominated for two Richmond Critic Award for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design in 2019 and 2022. Her credits include: Passover (American Shakespeare Center), Paradise Blue (Gloucester Stage Company), and August Willson’s The Piano Lesson (Barrymore Theatre, Broadway).”
AUSTIN HARBER
(Lighting Designer) is very excited and grateful to be working on his first show at Virginia Stage Company (VSC). They graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University— GO RAMS!— where they met some of their fellow designers. Notable works include the award-nominated shows A Christmas Kaddish and the Pink Unicorn. Both are from Richmond Triangle Players. Austin also ranked third at the 2020 Southeastern Theatre Conference's undergraduate lighting design competition. But they don't like to talk about it because it is a mouthful to say. Austin has been described as "shamelessly gorgeous," mainly by himself to the eye rolls of his friends. Outside of theatre, Austin works as a freelance copywriter, providing businesses with high-caliber marketing materials. See for yourself at AustinHarber.com. Austin would like to thank the cast and crew for giving him such a warm welcome to VSC. They hope to work with every on again real soon. Enjoy the show!
NICHOLAS SEAVER
(Sound Design) Is excited to design his first show at the Wells Theatre and for Virginia Stage Company. Nicholas graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019 receiving a BFA in Technical Theater. Recent design credits include Artsie Award Winning Sound Design Fences ( Virginia Repertory Theatre), In the Red and Brown Water, The Wolves, and Two Gentlemen of Verona ( TheatreVCU). He would like to thank his friends and family for all their love and support.
Emel Ertugrul
(Casting Director) officially joined the Virginia Stage Company team in 2017 but worked on various projects with the company well before. Her first casting adventure was the beautiful production Pride and Prejudice for Season 39. Since then it has been a goal to strengthen and cultivate VSC's relationship with professional local and out of town artists. Each season has provided new challenges and each production a new opportunity to find the perfect showcase of talent. Emel has most recently been seen performing in The Twelve Dates of Christmas on the Wells Stage and currently serves as the Operations Manager for VSC and the Producing Artistic Director for Core Theatre Ensemble.
EMILY ELLEN*
(Production Stage Manager) has been stage managing in-person (and virtually) for about seven years. After recently earning a BFA in Stage Management with minors in English and General Business, Emily has mostly moved into production management work for live events with a company based in Richmond. However, Emily is thrilled to be back in the theatre world, and on a Pearl Cleage piece no less! Emily's favorite theatre experiences center on works that ask hard questions about identity, amplify voices that are often suppressed, and feature gorgeous, human writing. Some of Emily's favorite pieces to work on were Intimate Apparel (PSM, VCU, dir. Dr. Tawyna Pettiford-Wates), a radio play version of Grand Concourse (PSM, Shafer Alliance Laboratory Theater, dir. Caroline Mae Woodson), and The Niceties (ASM, The Conciliation Project, dir. Dr. Tawyna Pettiford-Wates). Emily wants to thank you for supporting live theatre and hopes you walk away with a little something to mull over!
TOM QUAINTANCE
(Producing Artistic Director) is in his seventh season with Virginia Stage Company. At the Wells, Tom has directed 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.