Playing Banquo and Macduff in Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s

Riot Grrrls: Macbeth

The women of Taffety Punk began the Riot Grrrls theatre project as an an activist reaction to the lack of gender parity on DC stages. These all-female productions are a celebration of the strength of women in theatre. Women receive the same training as their male counterparts — including how to fight with swords and daggers — only to be relegated to one or two scenes in most classical plays.

We are so done with that.

Coaching voice and dialects for Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s production of

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Directed by Ben Lambert

Mischief and trickery abound in this small Appalachian community, so when the charismatic Falstaff arrives, his corrupt and greedy antics are no match for the people of Windsor. After attempting to seduce two wealthy women, he faces a series of misfortune and mishaps, all orchestrated by the merry wives.

Playing the Steward in the staged reading of the new English translation of

Immanuel Kant

By Thomas Bernhard, Translated by Douglas Robertson, Directed by Drew Lichtenberg

The Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Goethe Institut, and Johns Hopkins University collaborate to present the North American premiere of Immanuel Kant, an early-career masterwork by Thomas Bernhard, the great provocateur of post-World War II German theater and literature. Meet Immanuel Kant. He’s depressed and going blind. He’s traveling on a steamship somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, near the same iceberg that sank the Titanic. And he’s accompanied by a parrot that repeats everything he says. In a world where there is no firm ground, what is reality and what is philosophy? Presented in honor of the 300th anniversary of Immanuel Kant’s birth during the “Kant and the World Today” conference of the North American Kant Society.

John Proctor Is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower

Directed by Teresa Spencer

In rural Georgia at the height of the #MeToo movement, a high school English class is studying the classic of the American “Red Scare”, The Crucible. Against a backdrop of Lorde, Lizzo, and witch hunts, the half-century-old play suddenly feels a little too close for comfort. Heroes come crashing down and young people find their voices in this new comedy about power, sex, scandal, and who gets to tell the story. Presented by the Department of Theatre Arts and featuring a cast of Towson University’s undergraduate students.

Coaching voice and dialects for Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s world premiere production of the new play

La Salpêtrière

By Kelsey Mesa, Directed by Danielle Drakes

A 19th century hospital, La Salpêtrière, became famous as a center for the treatment of hysteria. Women were sometimes treated in demonstrations that were open to the public. Noted “treatments” included hypnosis and punching women in the uterus. Kelsey Mesa's play follows a new inmate patient from her mysterious arrival in the hospital through the many absurd practices by its doctors, to her ultimate fight to reclaim her life.

Coaching a dozen different British, American, and European accents for Constellation Theatre Company’s production of

Incognito

By Nick Payne, Directed by Allison Arkell Stockman

A fascinating, transatlantic mystery that spans the 20th century, interweaving three stories and 20 characters, played by an ensemble of four actors. A scientist obsesses about dissecting Albert Einstein’s brain in search of physical clues to explain his brilliant mind. A musician suffers a seizure and forgets everything except his love for his devoted fiancée. A neuropsychologist struggles with her past, while experiencing her first romance with another woman. This compelling drama will touch your heart and captivate your mind.

Playing Mistress Quickly and Alice in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s

Henry V

Directed by Alec Wild

King Henry V has just ascended to the throne, but before he can rule a nation—let alone conquer another—he must prove himself as a leader of men. Armed with some of the most powerful speeches in the Bard’s arsenal, Henry and his “band of brothers” will overcome overwhelming odds. Don’t miss this compelling take on Shakespeare’s great tale of leadership, war, and storytelling.

The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe: A Concert Reading

Directed by Teresa Spencer

The students of Towson University are back on stage in a Concert Reading repertory presented by the Department of Theatre Arts.

A girls indoor soccer team meets on the pitch Saturday mornings for pre-game warmups. As they stretch and drill, they wrestle with conflicts large and small, from the fallout of the Khmer Rouge to which of them will start centerfield to menstruation, sex, and love. A finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe is a coming of age story that tackles the pressures of growing up in Gen Z and celebrates the resiliency, wisdom, and humor of girls on the cusp of adulthood.

Coaching the dialects and accents for Constellation Theatre Company’s production of

The 39 Steps

By Patrick Barlow
Directed by Nick Olcott

A cast of four actors embodies over 150 characters in this fast-paced and riotously funny remix of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller film. In 1930s London, the dashing Richard Hannay starts his evening at the theatre and ends it mistakenly accused of murder. Caught in a maze of espionage, near-death escapes, and flirtatious entanglements, our hero careens across Britain in search of a plausible alibi and the true identity of the killer. This two-time Tony- and Drama Desk Award-winning whodunit is both utterly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining as it lovingly spoofs the iconic cinematic tropes of film noir.

Wellspring is a new sci-fi thriller podcast that questions how much we can know about our past, how much we know about each other, and how much we can possibly know about the universe.

New episodes released on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Walterhoope.com, Anchor, Breaker, and RadioPublic every Monday from October 14 to November 18, 2019.

Written by Teresa Spencer, William Vaughan & David Mavricos

Featuring Darnell Pierre Benjamin, Audrey Bertaux, Billy Chace, Jeremy Dubin, Kimberly Gilbert, Candice Handy, Jennifer Joplin, & Allyson West

Music by Dylan Oseas

Playing Cassio and choreographing the violence in Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s

Riot Grrrls: Othello

The women of Taffety Punk began the Riot Grrrls theatre project as an an activist reaction to the lack of gender parity on DC stages. These all-female productions are a celebration of the strength of women in theatre. Women receive the same training as their male counterparts — including how to fight with swords and daggers — only to be relegated to one or two scenes in most classical plays.

We are so done with that.

Playing Ismene and Eurydike in Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s

Antigonick & The Fragments of Sappho

The original hero of silenced women, Antigone, stands against tyranny and injustice through her words and deeds. In this new telling of Sophokles' classic tale, poet and translator Anne Carson presents an Antigone both inspiring and contemporary. With rich poetic language driving the action, Taffety Punk presents this epic story with an ensemble of actors, dancers, and musicians. 

Directed by company member Kelsey Mesa

Featuring Lilian Oben as Antigone, with company members Dan Crane and Esther Williamson, and guest artists Danny Puente Cackley, Louis E. Davis, Katie Murphy, Rachel Felstein, Teresa Spencer

Playing Julia and coaching the dialects and accents in NextStop Theatre Company's

Fallen Angels

Noel Coward’s smash hit comedy about the rivalry between two housewives awaiting the arrival of their exotic former lover. 

Julia’s and Jane’s husbands go out of town for a golf trip the same weekend Maurice is coming to visit—both ladies had their last fling before marriage with the suave Maurice. Dramatizing female sexual desire and frustration, the first performances in 1925 outraged critics and was labeled “shocking and obscene.”

Natella in Constellation Theatre Company's

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

by Bertolt Brecht
in an English translation by Alistair Beaton
directed by Allison Arkell Stockman
with Live Music by Tom Teasley

Caught in a social revolution, a young servant girl named Grusha promises her heart to a soldier on his way into battle. Soon the city is aflame and Grusha risks everything and becomes a refugee to save an abandoned baby. She must tiptoe across a precarious rope bridge strung across a gaping chasm in order to escape the enemy. In this corrupt and violent world, Grusha relies on compassion and perseverance to begin her own family. Brecht's epic adventure tale features vivid characters, high stakes scenarios and live music.

Tracy in Still Life with Rocket at Theater Alliance

Created and conceived by Mollye Maxner

"With Etta’s death rapidly approaching, her grown children return home, reviving the wild, reckless, and brutal games of their youth. When long-buried secrets are resurrected, the games become battles that threaten to tear the family apart. A raucous new performance event that blends theater, dance, and art installation, Still Life with Rocket delves into the fragmenting mind of a dying matriarch and the strength of the family she created."

Alice in Mnemonic with Theater Alliance

Devised by Complicité, Directed by Colin Hovde, Movement by Dody DiSanto

"The human story is the story of migration. Through potent physicality, inventive design, and striking visuals, Mnemonic reminds us of our interconnectedness in a world where people are still moving, whether by choice or circumstance. Theater Alliance's production will update the piece with American touchstones and 21st century technology, to highlight the universality and timelessness of the quest to learn where we are from and where we are going."

Assistant Director of The Trojan Women with Taffety Punk's Riot Grrrls.

Written by Euripides, Translated by Edith Hamilton, Directed by Kelsey Mesa

"More than all the works in classical literature, this play is the first form of anti-war activism. Euripides' unique script focuses not on the heroes of war but on their victims. These are the people who are too often lost, even now, in our coverage of war. Even in times of peace, they walk among us privately enduring their loss and devastation. The Riot Grrrls, ever provocative theatre makers, choose this play to ask if we are willing to engage with the dispossessed."