LAURA LUNDY-PAINE (Artistic Director)

Laura is a founding member of Virago Theatre Company.  She directed the inaugural production of Threepenny Opera, the world premiere of Robert Hamm’s A Bed of My Own, and the 2008 acclaimed production of Candide. Other directing credits include the world premiere of Anatomy at The Next Stage, theoriginal musical Wink at Theatre Rhinoceros, Take Fountain and Joan the Temp at the San Francisco Stagelites One-Act Festival, Grace & Glorie at Ross Valley Players, Scotland Road at the Altarena Playhouse, Shivaree for Paula Productions, and Assistant Director on A Midsummer Night’s Dream at California Shakespeare Festival.  As an actor, Laura played Madeline Broadmore in the world premiere of It Falls ..  at Chabot College. Other roles include Mariana in Measure for Measure at Shakespeare at Stinson, Victoria Frankenstein in the San Francisco Fringe Festival production of Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, and Lee in Marvin's Room at Ross Valley Players. Other shows in regional theatre include Titantia/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Shakespeare in the Park, Rita in Educating Rita, Lucio in Measure for Measure , Enid/Succubus in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom at Theatre Paris, Phoebe in As You Like It, and Mary Boyle in Juno and the Paycock.  Laura received her training at Pomona College in Los Angeles and at a Conservatory Program with the staff of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London.

ANGELA DANT (Managing Director)

Angela is one of the founding members of Virago Theatre Company.  She has performed in several Virago productions - as Jiggy in Mankind’s Last Hope, as Creosote the Clown in The Death of Ayn Rand, as Mrs. Peachum in Three Penny Opera, as Clovis in Dream of a Common Language, and as Linda in The Hermit Bird.  Angela has also directed staged readings of The Edge and An Hour in Time for Virago’s New Play Reading Series.  Angela received her theatre training at Cal State East Bay, and has performed around the Bay Area and abroad since leaving college.  Some favorite Bay Area roles include Jessie in ‘night Mother, Susie in Wait Until Dark, Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, and Ismene in the U.S. premiere of Maria Lampadaridou’s Antigone.    An acting highlight for Angela was performing at the 1994 Edinburgh Theatre Festival in Beauty and the Beast  and The Commander of Ocaña.  Angela teaches Physical Theatre and Improvisation for Virago’s Theatre Conservatory, and has taught theatre classes for Alameda Children’s Musical Theatre, California Theatre Center with Will Huddleston, and various elementary and high schools in the Bay Area.

ROBERT LUNDY-PAINE (Resident Director)

Robert is an actor, director, puppeteer, playwright and a founding member of Virago Theatre Company.  As a puppeteer Robert toured throughout North America with Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre as Baba Yaga, Petrouchka, and was the Frog Narrator in the UNIMA citation-winning production of Jumping Mouse.  Robert’s acted with Portland Center Stage, Tygres Heart Shakespeare Co., Shakespeare in the Parks, San Jose Stage Co., Shakespeare at Stinson, Altarena Playhouse, The 450 Geary and many others.  Robert toured Florence, Italy with Shakespeare et Firenze in productions of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Robert’s spent many years teaching and directing young actors including Alameda Children's Musical Theatre’s Production of Peter Pan and wrote an original musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. In Portland, Oregon, Robert wrote and directed the original productions of Hayhurst in Cyberspace and The Dragon of Hayhurst using over 100 young actors.  Robert wrote and directed An Original Christmas Carol for the Altarena Playhouse and Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus for the 2001 San Francisco Fringe Festival. Robert directed Virago Theatre Company's production of Orphans, and the world premieres of John Byrd's The Death of Ayn Rand, and Dan Brodnitz and Jeff Green’s Mankind’s Last Hope.  Robert will direct Virago's spring 2010 production of La Boheme.

EILEEN MEREDITH (Resident Artist)

Soprano Eileen Meredith has been performing and teaching in the Bay Area and beyond for nearly two decades. This past spring she performed the role of Mimi in La Boheme in a sold-out run with Virago Theatre Company. A co-founder of Virago, she also played the role of Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and Cunegonde in Candide. The Company will perform La Traviata in April-May 2011 with Eileen starring as Violetta Valery. Recent concert venues include the Piedmont Piano Company and the Berkeley Piano Club. Eileen has performed with San Francisco Opera, Open Opera, Berkeley Opera, Goat Hall Productions, Pocket Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, and Sonoma City Opera. Her concert work includes solos at Davies Symphony Hall with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with whom she was a featured soloist on the CD Voices 1900/2000. Other concert highlights include solos with the Oakland Youth Orchestra (Mahler's Fourth Symphony), the UC Chamber Orchestra, and the Oakland Symphony Chorus. Eileen has sung with opera star Frederica von Stade on several occasions, and joined the Meistersinger Chorale in London, England in 2002. She sang for several Christmases with the Fulton Chorale at Yosemite National Park. Eileen teaches singing in Alameda, both privately and in groups, ages 7 through adult, and has provided musical direction for children's theater. Clips of her singing are available on YouTube

GARY QUINN (Technical Director/Resident Stage Manager)