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)

Eileen is a co-founder and Resident Artist with Virago Theatre Company, and she performed the roles of Polly Peachum in Threepenny Opera and Cunegonde in Candide with Virago.  She is also a Board Member.  A native of Washington, D.C., she has been an active opera and concert singer in the Bay Area for fifteen years.  She was heard recently in concerts with the Pacific Youth Orchestra, the East Bay Opera League and Berkeley Opera, and she sings at Caffe Venezia on New Year's Eve.  She has performed the roles of Musetta in La Boheme, Frasquita in Carmen, Therese/Tiresia in Les Mamelles de Tiresias, and Annina in La Traviata with Bay Area companies.  She has also been a member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus for several years, and is a former member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, where she performed solos in Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and Handel's Messiah.  She was a soloist on the Chorus' CD Voices 2000, performing an excerpt from Candide.  Eileen recorded a solo CD with pianist Jim Meredith titled Silver and Gold:  American Songs and Arias.  Other concert solo highlights include Mahler Fourth Symphony, Haydn Theresienmesse, Poulenc Gloria with conductor Michael Morgan, and Respighi Laud to the Nativity.  She has performed with Frederica von Stade on several occasions for schools and charities.  Eileen was a winner of the NATS Art Song competition and the San Francisco Conservatory's American Art Song competition.  She teaches singing in Alameda.

TRACEY RHYS (Information Manager)

Tracey began working with Virago two weeks after moving to the Bay Area in early 2007, and became a company member later that year.  She has worked with theatres in Wisconsin, New York, and the Bay Area, primarily as an actor.  Favorite roles include Bawd in Pericles, Cassie in Rumors, and Helen in Baby with the Bathwater.  She wrote and performed radio comedy sketches that appeared on NPR stations around the U.S., on the CD Not for Broadcast. Tracey received her Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre from Pomona College.  She has studied at Oxford University and holds a Masters Degree in Theatre Studies from Cornell University.  Tracey has also worked for over 20 years in the field of technology and technology training, and she has a broad knowledge of software, hardware, and computer networks, as well as of the industries in which she has worked: finance, insurance, and legal.

HILMA KARGOLL (Resident Stage Manager)

Hilma is delighted to be a part of Virago Theatre Company’s cutting edge productions.  She has managed Virago’s Ayn Rand, A Bed of My Own, Mankind’s Last Hope, Candide, and The Hermit Bird.  She was the set designer and builder for Virago’s Dream of a Common Language.  After having been backstage building sets from cardboard and wrangling 50 children in twice yearly elementary school plays, then graduating to high school set design and construction, it’s been a pleasure for her to work with adult professional actors, directors and crew members.  She is passionate about nurturing, organizing, explaining, reminding, reminding again and feeding the actors and crew during rehearsals and performances.