Underneath the Lintel

In this gripping ghost story an eccentric librarian discovers a weather-beaten book in a return bin ⁠—⁠ 113 years overdue. Sparked by a message left in its margins, they embark on a magical quest that takes them around the world and 2,000 years into the past. With astonishing twists and turns, Underneath the Lintel draws us into an unforgettable odyssey.

Written by Emmy-award-winning playwright Glen Berger, Underneath the Lintel ran for more than 450 performances off Broadway, has received several Best Play awards, has been translated into eight languages, and has received more than 200 productions—including ours.

About Our Production

Underneath the Lintel was performed May 10-12 and 17-19, 2024, at 7 pm, at Silk Moth Stage, in Rockingham County, VA. Prior to the show, there was an hour of live music and picnics; weather permitting, we shared a fire afterward.

UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL (FEMALE VERSION) was produced by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC (www.broadwayplaypublishing.com)

Musicians:

May 10, 11, 17, and 18, we will have music by Shannon Dove.
May 12 and 19, we will have music by the Melichenko Family.

Special Events:

On May 11, we had a Parents’ Night Out and Zach Elder, of the Massanutten Regional Library, did library card sign-ups.
Our May 12 performance was a special night to celebrate library workers. We wanted to honor all the people who make the library function—not just the friendly faces at the circulation desk, but the folks in IT, the custodians, the repairs department, etc. Library workers could sign up for a ticket discount and entry into a drawing for a gift basket.
Our May 19 performance included ASL interpretation by Melissa Nguyen and Russian interpretation by Elias Seidel.

Content note: This play has a small amount of strong language.

Curious about the background of Underneath the Lintel? Check out our dramaturgical resources for context on some of the historical details (warning: Contains spoilers!).

Performance photography

Thanks to Tiffany Showalter Photography for capturing these images!

Special thanks to:

Davey White and Staunton Books
Carol Creager at Grafton Library, Mary Baldwin University
Bridgewater College Theater
Nancy Heisey
Tina Beachy
Church World Service
Brad Lehman
George Auerbach
Zach Elder and the Massanutten Regional Library
Eastern Mennonite University Theatre
Nienke Padberg
All of our 2024 donors!

Creative Team:

Diana Black

Diana Black (Librarian) is an educator, writer, and artist. At Staunton Public Library, her original puppet plays earned the Virginia Public Libraries Directors Association’s award for Outstanding Children’s Programming. After teaching critical thinking and writing at James Madison University, she held acting and storytelling classes at Silver Line Theatre Exchange. She is a certified Emotional Intelligence Trainer through the Daniel Goleman Institute.

A strong believer in the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (the directive to repair the world however possible), Diana has served on the boards of numerous nonprofits in the region, including Cat’s Cradle, the ARROW Project, and Project GROWS. In 2022, she co-founded the six-person ensemble Shenandoah Cabaret, using money from ticket sales to create the Performing Arts Enrichment Fund. Administered by the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge, the scholarship benefits middle and high school students.

Diana studied voice with soprano Fleta Hylton at the Levine School of Music and with Peggy Kriha Dye (General Dir., Virginia Opera) at Kenyon College in Ohio. Over twenty years on the stage, she has played wide-ranging roles including Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd), April (Company), Sarah (Vinegar Hill), and Luisa (The Fantasticks). She has directed (Five Women Wearing the Same Dress; Pride@Prejudice by Daniel Kramer) and produced (Something’s Afoot; Songs From the Stage), and serves as dramaturg for Shenandoah Cabaret. A visual as well as performing artist, Diana displays her paintings at local businesses (currently, Cosette Cafe).

Upcoming: Staged reading of Justin Guidroz’s The Last Bus; dramaturgy for Cabaret at Shenanarts; singing and dramaturgy for The Cemetery Club; an adaptation of Kafka’s Amerika with The Off Center; A New World of Song with Shenandoah Cabaret at BRCC’s Hunger Symposium.

Aili Huber

Aili Huber (Director) is the founder and artistic director of Silk Moth Stage. She directed her first production over 30 years ago, and has been directing professionally for nearly 20.

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, and is the creator of Take5, a framework for developing spaces of radical welcome in theater workplaces.

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 Give Us Good (2022) and Wonder of Our Stage (2023) at Silk Moth Stage.

Aili is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and the Shakespeare Theater Association, and a member of Directors Gathering, and is certified in Mental Health First Aid.

Makayla Baker

MaKayla Baker Paxton (Props Designer) holds a BA in Theatre from Eastern Mennonite University and is a candidate for University of Idaho’s MFA in Performance Studies. She has costume designed for Eastern Mennonite University and Friendly City Players. Previous work includes Folger Theatre, American Shakespeare Center as the Wardrobe Manager, and Frontier Culture Museum as a Costumed Interpreter working intimately with historic costumes. This is her first time props designing, but it is tickling all of her passions for history and crafting. Currently, she loves her job as a Youth Services Specialist at Massanutten Regional Library. Originally from West Virginia, she resides in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband, son, and two dogs (one big and one little).

Shannon Dove

Shannon Dove (musician) is a native of the Shenandoah Valley, growing up in Rockingham County and attending Broadway High School and JMU before leaving the area on walkabout. After traveling in and living and working in a number of other states (and at least one whole other country) for a number of years, Shannon returned to The Valley for a visit and immediately (and without any prior information or knowledge) found himself deeply involved in a design and build project that, at ultimate completion, became a new, upcycled Theatre/Production Facility/Art Gallery complex at Eastern Mennonite University, where Shannon currently works as Technical Director/Scenic Artist in residence, a position he also currently holds concurrently at Bridgewater College. Shannon also appears onstage as a performer every once in a while both at EMU and at The Court Square Theater. Shannon is also an avid musician and songwriter who has played almost innumerable engagements both right around Rockingham County and elsewhere with his outstanding bandmates in the Irish/Appalachian band Shen Fine and in the contemporary Acoustic Americana band Franklin County. Shannon is housemate and accidental companion to several cats, a few of whom seem to appreciate his company and keeping more than do some others.

The Melichenko Family

The Melichenko Family (musicians) are Ukrainian musicians who lived in Belarus until the Russian invasion of Ukraine made life there untenable. They have lived in the Shenandoah Valley since 2022. Prior to emigrating, Tatiana and Serhiy worked as arts instructors. Serhiy performed with the Belarusian State Philharmonic. Their children, Vlad and Anastasiia, are accomplished musicians as well.

Since they came to Harrisonburg, the Melichenko Family has performed in concerts around the area to raise money for other Ukrainian immigrants navigating the US immigration system.