Human Museum – Program

From electronic folk opera to anti-corporate immigrant improvised punk, Rachel Austin plays with her vocal tone to create wonky, left-of-centre songs in live performances. She rarely comes from the obvious perspective, by turns cajoling her way into the heart. Austin is a voice teacher, songwriter, Butoh practitioner, and performance artist and has toured and recorded throughout Europe and North America. From folk opera to anti-corporate immigrant improvised punk, she creates left-of-centre songs in live performance. Her absurdist theatrical performances critique white female identities and obsession with power. Her work has been featured with film and dance companies, with whom she has been lucky enough to win a Capital Emmy and Isadora Duncan Dance Awards.

Having supported musicians such as Florence + the Machine, Fatoumata Diawara, Duke Special, and Rodrigo y Gabriela, Austin has performed with Kronos Quartet, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and Molissa Fenley. She holds an MFA in Performance+Performance Studies from Pratt Institute.

Diana Black is delighted to return to Silk Moth Stage, having played the Librarian in Underneath the Lintel. Diana is an Associate Artist with both Eunoia Theatre and The Off Center. An actor, singer, director, and dramaturg, she is co-founder of the acclaimed musical ensemble Shenandoah Cabaret. Recent projects include Decision Height, Show Them Who You Are (Eunoia), and Degenerate (The Off Center). Upcoming: Heart and Music: Shenandoah Cabaret (November 2026). 

Thank you to Dave, Aili, Fleta, and Larry for making it possible for me to work here while being a mom to Jason and Rosie. I love and am so grateful to you all.

Miyoko Conley is an Asian American playwright, games writer, and independent scholar. Works include Human Museum (Helen Hayes Award Nominated for Best New Outstanding Play, Rorschach Theatre); End of the World Place (developed with Copious Love Productions and SCRiB LAB); and Starship Dance Party (developed with the New Play Reading series at UC Berkeley). Her plays have been presented at or developed with various theatres and organizations, including La Jolla Playhouse, Playwrights Foundation, Rorschach Theatre, Hugo House, Copious Love, SCRiB LAB, UC Berkeley, Second Generation Productions (2g), and New York University. Miyoko’s plays have been honored by The Helen Hayes Awards, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Second Generation Productions (2g). While not all her plays involve robots, many of them do, and she often writes about people living, evolving, and performing with technology.

Sonja is delighted to make her debut with Silk Moth Stage. Recent credits include “Baaba” in Around the Snake Turn and “Ida B. Wells-Barnett” in It’s My Party! at Pipeline Playwrights, and “Lady in Yellow” in For Colored Girls at 2nd Star Productions. Behind the scenes, she has served as Assistant Director/ASM for What the Constitution Means to Me at Reston Community Players, Stage Manager for Once on This Island at City of Fairfax Theater Company, and Producer for Legally Blonde at 2nd Star Productions. Sonja thanks her village for their constant support and encouragement.

Making his Silk Moth debut, Ethan Eldred is a designer, composer, and technologist and Lecturing Fellow in Theatre Design at Duke University, where recent designs include Vera Stark, The Liar, and Six Characters. He was also the Associate Sound and Video Designer for La Jolla Playhouse’s 2022 premier and subsequent national tour of Is It Thursday Yet? by Jenn Freeman and Sonya Tayeh. Ethan has served as an audio/video supervisor, engineer, or production manager at Jacob’s Pillow, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Shenandoah Valley Music Festival, Williams College’s ’62 Center, James Madison University’s Forbes Center, and Totem Pole Playhouse. Connect with Ethan at BardSound.com

Rachel E. Herrick is a costume designer based out of the Shenandoah Valley. She has an MFA in Theatre Arts from the University of Idaho. She is currently teaching at James Madison University and designing costumes for various theatres around the area.

Aili Huber has been directing for over 25 years, working primarily with very old and very new texts. She holds an MFA from Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, and her work is heavily influenced by their focus on audience connection. She is the co-author, with Toby Malone, of Cutting Plays for Performance, from Routledge Press.

Aili created Take5, a framework for developing spaces of radical welcome in theater workplaces, and convened the first Radical Welcome symposium in the spring of 2025.

Favorite directing credits include Sperm Donor Wanted (2020) with Slow Your Role Theater Co., Romeo and Juliet (2012), The Duchess of Malfi (2016), Antony and Cleopatra (2018), and Richard III (2019) with Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (2023) at Bridgewater College, Merry Wives of Windsor (2022) at Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and the world premieres of Give Us Good (2022), Wonder of Our Stage (2023) and The Wanting Forest (2025) at Silk Moth Stage.

Aili is the founder and artistic director of Silk Moth Stage.

MaryBeth is an actor and theater manager based in Bridgewater, VA. She recieved her B.S. in Psychology and Theatre from Bridgewater College. You might’ve seen her as the director of Every Brilliant Thing at at Silk Moth. Some notable roles she’s had are “Chorus” in Medea with Eunoia Theatre, “Georgia” in Private with North End Productions, and “Letter Writer” in Tiny Beautiful Things with Friendly City Players. MaryBeth is excited to be performing at Silk Moth this go around!

Kasey Lohr is a Broadway native who has been performing in musicals and plays since elementary school. When she’s not working, she can be found going to concerts, volunteering with local roller derby team, the Rocktown Rollers, or performing with groups like Powerhouse Playwrights (and now) Silk Moth Stage.

Dr. Angelica Perez-Johnston (she/ella) serves as the Associate Dean for Engagement & Belonging at Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts. With more than a decade of work centered on intentional support of marginalized communities through a lens of equity and shared knowledge creation, she was drawn to the work of Mental Health Coordination to work towards creation of theater spaces that prioritize the wellbeing of cast, crew and guests. Dr. APJ earned her Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in Mental Health from Edinboro University and her Doctorate in Public Administration from West Chester University. She is a certified clinical Trauma specialist and working towards completion of her certification for mental health coordination. Honoring her many identities, she approaches the work of equity, well being and belonging utilizing shared learning and her clinical experience and education to find the “entry points” to conversations and create spaces of engagement and welcoming.

Pete Sheldon is a theatre artist currently based in the Shenandoah Valley. He earned his MLITT and MFA in Shakespeare in Performance from Mary Baldwin University. His previous credits include Frederick Shakespeare, Mortal Fools Collective, and American Shakespeare Center. Gratitude to the cast & crew, his family and friends for their unwavering support! Enjoy!