Venus Theatre

DIRECTORS

Lynn Sharp Spears  (ZELDA AT THE OASIS)

Lynn Sharp Spears is delighted to be directing the world premiere Zelda at the Oasis, which she sees as a uniquely colored portrait of a talent derailed. Drawing from her extensive palette of dramatic expertise, Ms. Spears addresses the unique challenges and benefits of directing and designing for the intimate configuration of the Venus Theatre.

Lynn is a seasoned professional performer, director, teacher and designer who has collaborated with The Kennedy Center, The National Theater, Studio Theater, Source Theater, Washington Shakespeare Company,  Atlas Theater,  Olney Theater, Toby’s, Networks and Troika National Touring Companies. Her film and television work in set design, costuming, casting and makeup include The Learning Channel, Discovery, National Geographic and more.

Ms. Sharp Spears' theatrical involvement covers the spectrum of innovative small productions to famous plays. From acting a lead role in WSC’s well-received The Cherry Orchard to being Production Designer for the World Premiere of Song of Eddie (considered for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize), she thrives on bringing the creative process to audiences. 

Utilizing her abilities to foster creativity in young people, she served as Artistic Director of Adventure Theater 2002-2003 season and Drama Department Director for Georgetown Prep from 2003-2007. This will be her 7^th year coordinating Summer Theater Experience in the DC metro area, a camp for young actors age 12-17 designed to build their performance and design skills, enabling each camper to find their own unique voice.

Visitors to The National Zoo walked through the whimsically enchanting entrance to the Pollinarium designed, painted and sculpted by this eclectic artist. Commissioned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to paint a portrait of Archbishop Wood, Ms. Sharp Spears’ masks are on permanent exhibit at Penn State University. Her artwork is in private collections in the United States, Canada and Australia.  For more information visit; www.lynnsharpspears.com

Deborah Randall  (IN THE GOLDFISH BOWL)

(VENUS FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR)

Venus Theatre was incorporated and declared a 501c3 nonprofit organization in 2000.  Deborah Randall began the work of Venus six years prior.  Known as "Venus Envy" she led female improvisational players through games that entertained the temporary residents at the House of Ruth as well as Take Back the Night Marchers.  Stemming out of her work with Michelle Washingtons' SHE Co, Deb cultivated her talents for directing, producing, performing, and writing.

Deb has produced all of the works at Venus over the past ten years and directed many of them as well.  These include:  Daughters of Molly Maguire, The Voice Inside the Vessel, A Little Rebellion Now, Bad Girls Festivals 1, 2, and 3, Heartfriends Musicals for Children (Juanita the Walrus Goes on a Shopping Spree, Boogsnot and the Disco Dancing Meltdown of the Snows, Fiona the Fish and the Magical Carwash), Measure for Measure, Ugly Ducklings (Curve Magazine Play of the year 2004, nominated for the American Theatre Critics Award), Cigarettes and Moby Dick (Curve Magazine Play of the Year Award 2005), Not Such Stuff, Homokay’s Medea, Why’d Ya Make Me Wear This, Joe, and Helen of Sparta.  In addition Deb has directed close to one hundred play readings with Venus Theatre’s wRighting Woman Reading Series.  Randall has toured four solo performances:  ‘Til It Hurts and Molly Daughter (both written by Randall), All She Cares About is the Yankees (John Ford Noonan), and How She Played the Game (Cynthia Cooper).

Deb has staged works in unconventional spaces such as: LayFayette Square Park (to entertain the Peace Marchers with Suffrage Plays), DCAC, 1401 Playbill Cafe, Joe's Movement Emporium, 14K Cabaret, The Collective:  Unconscious, Broome Corner Studios, The SWEBO Festival, the Little Patuxent River, The Sidewalk in front of the MLK Library, Gunston Arts Center (Innovator's Series), Bookstores, The Warehouse Theatre Black Box, the Warehouse Theatre, The Warehouse Theatre Attic, and the Warehouse Next Door.

The Venus Theatre Play Shack marks the most permanent space the company has ever seen.  Deb, along with a fleet of volunteers, has transformed the long-known Chinese Restaurant at 21 C Street into a performance studio space.

Deb's "Molly Daughter" is published in "Anthracite!  An Anthology of Pennsylvania Coal Region Plays" Philip Mosley, Editor.  Published by University of Scranton Press and distributed by Chicago University Press.  Professor Mosley presented an essay about Randall's process at a meeting of professors in Austria.

It is Deb's goal to guide Venus into a self-sustaining business that pays (predominantly female) artists a living wage to do the work they were born to do.  It is her hope that a community of artists and art-lovers will develop through this exploration.  In this journey she hopes to incubate new work, resurrect brilliant out-of-print work, and courageously stage risk-taking edgy work.  All the while celebrating creativity through workshops of nurturance and outreach to attain growth.

Lee Mikeska Gardner (PLAY NICE!)

has been a director/actress/educator working in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area and nationally for over 20 years.   Her directing career spans from classical to contemporary works and plays in development.  As an Artistic Associate for Woolly Mammoth for 10 years, Lee has directed Fat Men In Skirts, Life During Wartime (Helen Hayes nomination for Direction), The Gene Pool, Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (Helen Hayes nomination for Direction), Watbanaland, Stop Kiss, The Chinese Art of Placement, Fuddy Meers, and After Ashley (Helen Hayes nomination for Direction) and performed in Birth and After Birth.  

Other noted directing credits include such varied productions as The Cocktail Party for Washington Stage Guild, which earned a Theatre Lobby Award for Outstanding Production, The Butterfingers Angel…, Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) (named 2007 Outstanding Production by the Baltimore City Paper), Stones in His Pocket and Three Tall Women for Rep Stage; Bad Dates at Olney Theatre; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for The Keegan Theatre (Washington, D.C. and Ireland), Poe and All That Jazz, for Charter Theatre,  Machinal for American Century Theatre, Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie for The Kennedy Center; the world premiere of Learning Curves,  Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Nights Dream,Deathwatch (co produced with ATW), and the critically acclaimed Equus at WSC, the all-male Les Liaisons Dangerouse and The Owl and the Pussycat for ATW. 

As an actress, Lee is a recipient of a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress for A House in the Country with Charter Theatre and three additional nominations for acting for A Taste of Fire (Charter Theatre), Stanley (Potomac Theatre Project), and Patient A (Freedom Stage).  She most recently played Luisa in A Shayna Maidel at Rep Stage, Nina in Brooklyn Boy at Olney Theatre,  Fran in Charter Theatre’s Short Order Stories and Hettie in WSC’s Two-Headed (a role she originated at the Shenandoah Playwright’s Retreat). Other favorite roles include Susanna in Of A Sunday Morning for Charter Theatre, Tovah in Dreams in a Golden County for the Kennedy Center, Elizabeth in The Crucible for Keegan Theatre and Andrea in Tabletops for Round House Theatre. 

Lee served as Managing/Producing Director for Washington Shakespeare Company for 6 years, and with Artistic Director Christopher Henley, guided them through a stabilization program after they nearly closed their doors in 2000.   During Lee’s 10 years with Woolly Mammoth she served as a Resident Director, Assistant to the Artistic Director and founded the Woolly Mammoth Theatre School.  She was Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director for the Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat for 6 years and currently serves an Artistic Associate with Charter Theatre.  Lee served as Interim Managing Director for Actors’ Theatre of Washington on a volunteer basis and as the Managing Director at Rep Stage in Columbia, MD, which is the professional theatre in residence at Howard Community College.  As a Strategic Consultant Lee has work with Washington Shakespeare Company, Susan Woodward Notkins Architects, Rep Stage, Ganymede Arts (formerly known as Actors’ Theatre of Washington) and Imagination Stage.

Lee has also worked at learning institutions across the country including George Mason University (her alma mater,)University of Maryland – College Park, UVA – Charlottesville, Montgomery College – Rockville, Middlebury College, UNLV and University of Vermont.  Lee is currently working on her M.F.A. in Acting at Catholic University in the Professional Track Program.

Catherine Tripp  (LOOKING FOR THE PONY)

Catherine Tripp holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). She has worked with a number of companies around town, including Dog and Pony, DC and Active Cultures. She was also the assistant director for VIGILS, by Noah Haidle, at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Last summer she was an Associate Producer of Rorschach Theatre’s Rorschach Theatre in Exile ‘08.  And coming up next- Dog and Pony DC’s SEPARATED AT BIRTH.

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PLAYWRIGHTS

Patricia H. Lin (ZELDA AT THE OASIS)

Patricia H. Lin (P.H. Lin) grew up in Washington, D.C. She raised her family in Bethesda, and Rockville, MD. During her “DC-MD Years,” Pat was a member of the Playwrights Forum. Locally, she had work produced by the Source Theatre Festival, The Baltimore Playwrights Festival, The Center Theatre Co. of Fairfax, VA, and Horizons Theatre. Since moving to New York, Pat has been produced and/or presented by Women’s Project & Productions, The Lark Play Development Center, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Nomad Theater Company, and Diverse City Theater Co… all of which are located in NYC.

In addition to DC, MD, and VA, Pat’s work has been seen in theaters or Festivals in MI, IL, NC, OH, PA, KY and CA. An excerpt from this play, ZELDA AT THE OASIS, has appeared as part of an International Women’s Playwriting Conference in Greece.

Pat has won the Dayton (Ohio) Playhouse’s National Playwriting Competition. She is a recipient of George Mason University’s Mary Roberts Rinehart Award. She holds an MFA in Theater Arts from the Catholic University of America, and is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Kay Rhoads (IN THE GOLDFISH BOWL)

Kay Rhoads is a native Iowan who has spent her professional life as an administrator of programs and services at the state women’s prison and much of her writing reflects the challenges and struggles of women who have not had the encouragement or opportunity develop a vision of their potential. Kay has had productions and readings throughout the US, a reading at the Women Playwrights International conference in Athens, GR and is published by play publishing companies, anthologies and in many literary journals. Recent productions include, “A Simple Matter of Fear”, selected for the Iowa Playwright Award and produced by Tallgrass Theatre in West Des Moines, selected for the New Born Festival, MTWorks in NYC where it won the Audience Favorite Award, “Prison of Lost Souls” produced by Playwrights 517 Lexington, KY, and “In the Goldfish Bowl” produced as Readers Theatre by The Players Theatre, Williamsburg, VA.  Kay has also written and produced short screenplays, accepted and screened at film festivals in the US, and recently had a staged reading of her feature length screenplay, “The One-Legged Man”, in Des Moines.

Robin Rice Lichtig  (PLAY NICE!)

ROBIN RICE LICHTIG is the author of over 40 plays, seen from Florida to Alaska, Amsterdam to South Africa to Mongolia.  Her subject matter is often concerned with the environment, imagination, and the need for individuals to realize their potential. Full-length plays: LOLA AND THE PLANET OF GLORIOUS DIVERSITY, SUKI LIVINGSTON OPENS LIKE A PARACHUTE, EMBRACING THE UNDERTOAD, PLAY NICE!, THE POWER OF BIRDS, FRONTIER, MUSIC OF THE SPHERES, HUMANS REMAIN, WOMEN w/o WALLS, NECESSARY GEOGRAPHY, SEARCHING FOR A NEW SUN.

Publishers: Samuel French (Bakers), Dramatic, Smith + Kraus, Brooklyn, JAC. Honors include: Mazumdar, Goshen Peace Play, Shiner, Karamu, Perishable, Drury, Kernodle, New Millennium. Finalist: O'Neill, Smith Prize, Reverie, Chambers, Phoenix. Residencies: The Lark, Cleveland Public Theatre, The Phoenix Theatre (AZ), Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Sarah Lawrence College. Producers include: in New York - New Georges, 3Graces, Six Figures, Emerging Artists, Chashama, HERE, Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, TADA!, OneHeart, Manhattan Theatre Source, Pulse, Groove Mama Ink. Others - State Theatre of Mongolia, Finborough (London), NJ Rep., Teatro del Pueblo (Minneapolis), MadLab (Columbus), Bailiwick (Chicago), Bloomington Playwrights (IN), BareBones (NC), Mile Square Theatre (NJ), Alleyway (Buffalo), Stockyards (Chicago), Two Trees (Vancouver), Mae West Fest (Seattle), Texas A&M (at Kennedy Center), Inspirato (Toronto), various fringe festivals. Member: League of Professional Theatre Women, Dramatists Guild, Manhattan Oracles, ICWP, LMDA.

Robin's most recent major challenge was teaching playwriting to non-English-speaking natives in Mongolia.

For upcoming gigs and synopses of available scripts: www.dramamama.net .

ANDREA LEPCIO  (LOOKING FOR THE PONY)

Andrea’s plays have been produced and developed at Chashama, HERE, The Lady Cavaliers, Lark Play Development Center, Manhattan Theatre Source, New Shoe, Raw Impressions, Shalimar Productions, Three Chicks, Titans Theatre, Vital Theatre, Williamsburg Art Nexus, and Women's Project in NY, and at Bloody Unicorn, Hangar Theatre, Provincetown Theatre Company, Synchronicity Performance Group and Trustus Theatre, regionally.  She is a member of America-in-Play, BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Librettist Workshop, New Shoe, New Perspective’s Women’s Work Lab, Three Chicks Theatre, and is a New Georges Affiliated Artist.  She is an alumna of the Lark’s Playwrights’ Workshop and the Women’s Project Playwrights’ Lab.  Her screenplay, A September Spring, won the Sloan Foundation Dramatic Writing Award.  A two-time finalist for the Heideman Award, her short plays and monologues have been published in Plays and Playwrights 2003, Estrogenius, lichen and by Smith & Kraus in 60 Seconds to Shine:  221 One-Minute Monologues for Men and Best Ten Minute Plays with 3 or more characters of 2006. 

Looking for the Pony is a NEA Outstanding New American Play finalist. It was presented in a "Rolling World Premiere" at Vital Theatre Company directed by Stephan Golux in New York City and Synchronicity Performance Group directed by Lisa Rothé in Atlanta in 2009.  Also in 2009, The GoldSad Mad Glad Bad was presented by New Perspectives as part of the Off the Page Series directed by Melissa Maxwell.  Me You Us Them was read as part of the undergroundzero festival at P.S. 122 directed by Zach Morris.  Andrea was also a contributing writer to Stealing Glances by America in Play at Tribeca Performing Arts Center.   The Immediacy Project, an ensemble-created dance film with Zach Morris and Third Rail Projects, is in post production.  with book by Andrea Lepcio and Philip Yosowitz and music/lyrics by Philip Yosowitz was presented by the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at the Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston. 

The original one-act version of Looking for the Pony, directed by Brooke O’Harra, was presented by Vital Theatre and appeared in numerous festivals.  Manhattan Theatre Source presented a new production in Estrogenius directed by Barbara Gulan.  Martin Denton published it in Plays and Playwrights 2003.  A ten-minute version of the play was a finalist for the Heideman Award. The full length version was developed with support from Vital Theatre, Women’s Project, Manhattan Theatre Source and the Dramatists Guild Fellows program. 

One Nation Under was originally produced by At Hand Theatre Company.  A second production was presented by Three Chicks Theatre.  One Nation Under was developed at the Lark Play Development Center in Arthur Kopit’s workshop and with director Stephanie Gilman.  A work in progress reading of The Ballad of Rom and Jules,TheBronx Casket Co presented at The Beckett and Chashama by Hinton Battle Theatre Laboratory (songs by D.D. Verni, direction/choreography by Hinton Battle).  A 45-minute version was presented at The American Living Room at HERE and selected for the Best of the American Living Room.  Eclipse was presented as part of the Titans Theatre and was short-listed for the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival PlayLab.  Hook & Eye won the Trustus Playwrights Festival where it was produced and was a semi-finalist for the O'Neill Conference and finalist for Reva Shiner Contest at Bloomington Playwrights Project.  Bottom of Nine,Uncle Bob.  a boi-meets-girl gender-bending love/death musical with lyrics by Cheryl L. Davis and music by Mary Feinsinger was presented by NewShoe.  “A Peddler’s Tale: Buttons, Guts & Bluetooth” was presented by Women’s Project and arts>World Financial Center directed by Kim Wield.  With D.D. Verni, she conceived of the goth-rock musical semi-finalist for the O'Neill, was developed at Rattlestick and read at Women's Project with Nate Corddry directed by Matt August. It was also read at Broadway Theater Institute with Nate Corddry and at the Carnegie Mellon Summer New Plays Project.  She was a Playwright in Residence at the Hangar Theatre Lab in 1999.  Andrea was a founder of the Mint Theatre Company where she produced the World Premiere of Austin Pendleton’s Uncle Bob. 

Andrea is the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program Director.  She is also a visiting faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University in the School of Drama.  She is a member of the Dramatist Guild, League of Professional Theater Woman, New York Theatre Experience Advisory Committee, and Open Meadows Foundation Community Board.  M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing, Carnegie Mellon University.  M.B.A. UC, Berkeley. B.A. Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic.

Our Business

Uses theatre as a the means to bring  humanities into Prince Georges County. It is our mission to set flight to the voices of women and children with theatre for a lifetime.  In doing this, we believe that audiences will leave Venus Theatre somehow transformed.  Hopefully, with laughter and a light-hearted feeling.  We want all people to have permission to express opposing views.  In theatre, tension creates dynamic work.  We want to share that feeling of tolerance, mutual respect, and create a friendly environment of expression where it's okay to have differing opinions and thought.

Who We Are

Deb Randall, Founder

In addition to running Venus and all of its programming Deb is also a Theatre Educator for the Helen Hayes Legacy Project.  Deb hopes to make Venus an artistic home for many.  She loves directing and producing the work at Venus.  She values the HUNDREDS of artists who have contributed their great talents to the mission and looks forward to seeing it all grow.

Alan Scott, Musical Director

 A private guitar instructor, composer, guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, Alan has given Venus a unique sound.  The Heartfriends process consists of Alan creating the music, playing every instrument, singing every song, and recording the entire thing.  Alan then goes into the Shack and Directs the actors musically.  Post-production work means Alan records the vocalists over top of all that he has done.  Alan looks forward to wide distribution of really fun compositions.