The performance scheduled for Thurs, March 9 has been cancelled. Please call the box office at for ticket exchanges and more information. 

Taking Measure fuses the world and characters of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure into a young woman’s struggle through contemporary academia to explore today’s Me Too movement and Cancel Culture in a surprisingly nuanced way.

DESIGN TEAM
Sarah Norris……………………………………………….Director
Chris Hanna………………………………………….Playwright
Rachel Elder………………………………..Stage Manager
Dasia Gregg………………………………………………Scenic & Projections Designer
Akin Ritchie…………………………… Lighting Designer
Meredith Magoun…………….. Costume Designer
Kara McCormick……… Asst. Costume Designer
Steven Allegretto …………………….Sound Designer
Suzanne Finnerty……………Asst. Stage Manager

CAST
Felicia Fields…………………………………………………….Kim
Julian Stetkevych*…………………………………………….Gil
Ann Heywood…………………………………….. Miss Dash
Peyton Creasey ……………………………………………..Nick
Mahala Lepsch………………………………………………Ashe
Andrew Bryce*…………………. Ensemble / Angelo
Destiny Deater………………… Ensemble / Isabella
Ash O’Leary………………………….. Ensemble / Diana
Dai Poole……………………. Ensemble / Dramaturg
Wain Richardson……………. Ensemble / Claudio
Ashlee Rey………………….Ensemble / Kia / Title XI

Recording Yourself at Home: From starting your own podcast to recording your own music, learn the art of recording and editing professional audio from home with this new workshop from Theatre Sound Designer and Mixing/Mastering Engineer, Steven Allegretto.

About the Artist: Steven Allegretto

Steven Allegretto wears many hats when it comes to dealing with sound and audio production. He began his career producing music at home, which led to him being formally trained in the art of recording at Full Sail University. After graduating school, Steven became a Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Engineer at a local recording studio. He was then introduced to the world of the performing arts where he developed several skills including micing a wide array of instruments, creating sound effects, and mixing sound for live concerts and events. This led to Steven eventually becoming a Theatre Sound Designer for large-scale musicals and stage plays. Throughout all of this, he has had a passion for teaching, and sharing his knowledge with all who will receive it. Having developed and taught courses with the Governor’s School for the Arts and the College of William & Mary, Steven’s plan is to make his classes more accessible to the world by doing workshops, and developing an online curriculum focusing on theatre sound.

Steven greatly appreciates you for being in attendance at the Recording at Home workshop, and he hopes it will benefit you in your quest of achieving your own sound. Steven would also like to especially thank Zeiders American Dream Theater for giving him the platform and opportunity to be here with you all.

Free with Z artist membership; $10 suggested donation for non-members

Artist Member Events: The Z Artists and local art-lovers are invited to this series of interactive workshops, Master Classes, and social hours aimed at cultivating creativity and community! Your creative spark starts here! BECOME A Z ARTIST HERE

by Jennie Brown
Directed by Patrick Mullins, Asst. Director: Leila Stephanie

Can truth prevail in the teaching of history to school children? Sixty-five years apart, two Select Committees of the Virginia Textbook Commission face this question. In 1955, a committee member challenges misinformation in a proposed Virginia history manuscript for elementary students. Fellow members are reluctant to stir up unrest in communities of color, and with the state commission. In a 2020 meeting, one member protests the racial equity embraced in a new manuscript of a middle-school text. The chair tries to protect the committee’s work while grappling with intimations of unrest and potential violence.
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The Proteus New Plays Festival showcases community-driven staged readings of 4 scripts that have been developed in the Z Playwrights Lab or by Z Artist Members. The staged readings give the playwrights an opportunity to work with a director and a volunteer cast to see their script “on its feet” for the first time, and add the most crucial element to developing a play, The Audience!

Each reading is presented twice during the 2 weeks of Proteus Festival. Audiences are given the opportunity to rate the plays via a survey focused on the elements writing an engaging script and story. Ratings are averaged to select the PNPF Audience Favorite. The Audience Favorite receives a workshop production 2-week run in November, as the second Curtain Up! New Plays Series play of the 23-24 season.

Peace of Still by Sherilynn Cherry

Directed by Leila Stephanie

Asst. Director: Maryanne Kiley

Bella, a Pullman maid in 1928 tries to find self-worth through an illicit workplace relationship but when that relationship ends she develops a toxic connection with the “magic” of a gun. Will this newfound sense of empowerment lead her on a downward spiral or be her path to finding her value from within?

The Proteus New Plays Festival showcases staged readings of 4 scripts that have been developed in the Z Playwrights Lab or by Z Artist Members. The staged readings give the playwrights an opportunity to work with a director and a volunteer cast to see their script “on its feet” for the first time, and add the most crucial element to developing a play, The Audience! Each reading is presented twice during Proteus Festival. Audiences have the opportunity to rate the plays via a survey focused on the elements of writing an engaging script and story. Ratings are averaged to select the PNPF Audience Favorite. The Audience Favorite receives a workshop production 2-week run in June, closing out our 24-25 Curtain Up! New Plays Series.

VIEW THE FULL PROTEUS LINEUP

NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY

David R. Goode Charitable Lead Annuity Trust
The Shubert Foundation
Clyde Santana and Valli Meeks
City of Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission

PROTEUS FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY

1PM: You Have to Hear What I Hear by Ernest A. White, Jr. – Directed by Patrick Mullins, Asst Director: Jackie Adonis
3PM: A World of Flaws by Frederick Silvers – Directed by Patrick Mullins, Asst Director: Jackie Adonis
6PM: Riding The Bubble Bus by Kendra Louka – Directed by Leila Stephanie, Asst. Director: Maryanne Kiley
8PM: Peace of Still by Sherilynn Cherry – Directed by Leila Stephanie, Asst. Director: Maryanne Kiley

The Proteus New Plays Festival showcases staged readings of 4 scripts that have been developed in the Z Playwrights Lab or by Z Artist Members. The staged readings give the playwrights an opportunity to work with a director and a volunteer cast to see their script “on its feet” for the first time, and add the most crucial element to developing a play, The Audience!

Each reading is presented twice during Proteus Festival. Audiences have the opportunity to rate the plays via a survey focused on the elements of writing an engaging script and story. Ratings are averaged to select the PNPF Audience Favorite. The Audience Favorite receives a workshop production 2-week run in June, closing out our 24-25 Curtain Up! New Plays Series.

VIEW THE FULL PROTEUS LINEUP

The Proteus New Plays Festival Audience has voted…and your votes are in! Your winner for the Proteus Audience Favorite Award is back for an extended 2-week run! The highest-rated play from the 2022 Festival returns in a full-scale production in our intimate Studio Theater, as part of the Curtain Up! New Plays Series. #TheaterStartsHere

“Likker Outta Control, Busting Arlena Cartwright” Story by Clyde Santana, Stage Play By Clyde Santana and Buddy White

Directed by Jason Kypros

A Harvard-educated, moonshine-selling Mayor of a small, rural southern township clashes with a recently reassigned ABC Agent Supervisor, a Northerner from the big city, while her crew plans a 100-year birthday party for Aunt Baby Sis Cartwright, the town’s matriarch who is an American Hero and known to make the best illegal Moonshine in the state, and the Agent’s hell-bent on busting her.