The Grown-Up

This project is made possible, in part, through a grant from Arts Council of the Valley.

Myles Curry

K Hankard

Training and education: Mary Baldwin University – MLITT and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance (Acting Concentration). Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UBC) – Improv and Sketch Comedy. Pace University – BA in Acting

Favorite roles: Automaton in Wonder of Our Stage at Silk Moth Stage. Joan in The Birth of Merlin at MBU. Tess in Almost Happy at The Kraine Theater.

Little me wanted to be: A cartoon character (which I later learned meant being a performer).

Patrick Hensley

Heidi Jablonski

Training and education: BA Liberal Arts: Peacebuilding, Theatre, Gender Studies at Eastern Mennonite University

Favorite roles: Amelia in Give Us Good (Silk Moth Stage) Letter Writer in Tiny Beautiful Things (Friendly City Players) Phoebe in As You Like It (EMU)

Little me wanted to be: Fashion designer

Rachel Louis

Training and education: BFA in Acting from Shenandoah Conservatory, MLITT and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University

Favorite roles: The Duchess in the Duchess of Malfi, Beatrice in Much Ado, Ruth in Blithe Spirit, Chava in Fiddler on the Roof

Little me wanted to be: A ballet teacher

Pete Sheldon

Training and education: Mlitt & MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University

Favorite roles: Henry VIII in Henry VIII for Meadowlark Shakepeare, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream both for Open Air Shakespeare NRV and Meadowlark Shakespeare, Boy 1 in Knight of the Burning Pestle for Meadowlark Shakespeare, Tybalt/Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet for Hoosier Shakes

Little me wanted to be: A comic book artist

Sarah Levine McClelland

Sarah Levine McClelland is an actor and acting coach who has performed Off-Broadway, in Great Britain, and regionally throughout the United States; most recently as the title role in Artemisia’s Intent here at Silk Moth Stage. Favorite roles include Celia in As You Like It (Valley Shakespeare Festival, CT), Lady Percy in Wars and Whores: The Henry IV Musical (Philly Fringe), Alison in Fun Home (4th Wall Theatre, NJ), Little Red Riding Hood in Into The Woods (Roxy Regional Theatre, TN), and Mina Harker in Dracula (The Old Rep, Birmingham). Originally from New York, she holds a BA in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and also completed the conservatory program at The Atlantic Acting School. She earned her MA with distinction from The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK where she had the privilege of working with Cicely Berry of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and on the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe. Locally, she’s worked as director with Friendly City Players and Mary Baldwin University, and is on the team of creative directors at Eunoia Theatre. Sarah is also a food content creator at wingredients.com. She makes her home in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband and their rescue pup, Henry.

Aili Huber

Aili Huber has been directing for 30 years, specializing in text-driven, audience-connected, actor-centered work. She holds an MFA from Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, and is the co-author, with Toby Malone, of Cutting Plays for Performance, published by Routledge Press. She also has developed Take 5, a framework to reduce trauma for theater workers.
Favorite directing credits include TJ Young’s Sperm Donor Wanted with Slow Your Role Theater Co., Pam
Mandigo’s Give Us Good with Silk Moth Stage, The Duchess of Malfi, Antony and Cleopatra, and Richard III with Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, and Merry Wives of Windsor at Quill Theatre.
Aili is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and the Shakespeare Theater Association, and a member of Directors Gathering. She’s certified in Mental Health First Aid.

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston is an actor and music director who has performed all over the country for theaters such as The American Shakespeare Center, Salt Lake Shakespeare, Black Dog Theatre Company, and The Egyptian Theatre Company. Roles that he has performed include Macbeth in Macbeth, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, Feste in Twelfth Night, Flamenio in The White Devil and many more. His music directing credits include the World Premiere of The Willard Suitcases, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Return to the Forbidden Planet, Peter and the Starcatcher, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, and several other titles. Chris received his MFA from Mary Baldwin University for Shakespeare & Performance.

The Hot Mamas

The Hot Mamas are an all-female singer-songwriter collective that is rapidly gaining interest around the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. With instrumentation ranging from toy piano, clarinet, banjo, accordion, ukulele, washboard, dueling kazoos to amazing harmonies, The Hot Mamas not only entertain and know how to have a good time but they also captivate audiences with their depth. Their writing styles range from jazzy to pop, from sea chanties to murder ballads, soulful blues to drinkin’-when-you’re-sad country tunes. The Hot Mamas are quirky and fun, profound and sincere and not to be missed!

Rachel Austin

Rachel Austin is a multidisciplinary vocalist, electronic composer, songwriter, and performance artist. Her work has an obsession with the sublime with impulses toward narrative, noise and computer interventions. Austin’s songs stretch the borders of indie folk and grungy jazz, reflecting the influences of both her childhood home in the mountains of Virginia and her nomadic homes in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has performed at the Irish National Concert Hall, Christchurch Cathedral, Centro de Cultura Digital, NIME, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Oxygen Festival, Big Air Festival, Waveley Labs, the MAC, Greenbelt Festival, OPA, Jazz in the Neighborhood, and on BBC Radio 1, Radio 4, BBC Radio Ulster, RTE 2, Radio Libertaire, and NPR. She holds a BA in Electronic Composition from Mills College and an MFA in performance+performance studies from Pratt Institute. Austin taught voice and performance at the Sonic Arts Research Center at Queen’s University Belfast.