We bring theatre to you! A technically equipped mobile stage that transports engaging and innovative professional theatre to audiences anywhere. We perform in a variety of settings including private events, school yards, public parks, and more. Our performances are geared for all ages.
Mark is a freelance theatre director and the Proprietor / Director of the Virginia Theatre Machine. He was a lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance at William & Mary from 2011-2022. He served as the Artistic Director at The Perishable Theatre in Providence, RI from 1990 to 2005. During this time, Perishable Theatre was at the forefront of introducing new voices to the American Theatre, and became nationally recognized as an incubator for the development of new plays. At Perishable, Mark produced and/or presented over 140 productions. This body of work ranged from new plays to classics and included performance art, puppetry and dance. During his tenure, he also oversaw seven on-going performance series that included: The International Women’s Playwriting Festival; The Providence Puppetry Festival; and The Multimedia and Performance Art Festival. In addition to his directorial work at Perishable, Mark brought Perishable Theatre’s world premiere production of Only In America, by Providence playwright Aishah Rahman, to both the Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC and the National Black Theater Festival in North Carolina, and directed the 1999 production of A Christmas Carol at the Trinity Repertory Company.
Mark has also served on grant panels for Theater Communications Group, Theatre Communications Group/ National Endowment for the Arts Residency Program for Playwrights, The New England Foundation for the Arts, Virginia Commission for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. He was a board member of both the National New Play Network and Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts, as well as a member of the Steering Committee for the Arts and Business Council of RI. In Rhode Island Mark taught at The Rhode Island School of Design and served as guest dramaturg for the Brown University Graduate Playwriting program.
The Mayor of Providence proclaimed June 20, 2005 “Mark J. Lerman” day and presented Mark the Key to the City in “gratitude for his integrity-laden loyalty to high art, committed art, and to serving our community”.
Here in Virginia Mark has directed A Single Prayer (world premiere), An Oak Tree, and Maple and Vine at Firehouse Theatre in Richmond, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Virginia Shakespeare Festival, and The Gift of the Magi (world premiere) at Virginia Premiere Theatre. Mark has an MFA in performance pedagogy from VCU, a conservatory degree from the Trinity Rep Conservatory, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jeremy Woodward designs settings, scenery, props, puppetry, and all manner of large and unusual objects; usually for feature films, television shows, advertisements, and live theater, but also a variety of commercial, non-profit, and governmental clients.
Feature films he has designed which have been particularly noticed include Sound of Metal, Thoroughbreds, and Antebellum. Films he has designed have been seen at Sundance, at TIFF, and been nominated for Best Picture at the 93rd Academy Awards.
A long, long, time ago, Jeremy matriculated at Rhode Island School of Design to study architecture. This was after an earlier couple years spent at Wesleyan University studying natural science and writing. During his time at RISD he also began to work with a performance troupe performing screwball mystery rock and roll shows wearing giant, loud and smelly, foam-rubber mask and puppet costumes. Thus began a turn away from pursuing a respectable profession, and by the time he was graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts, and a Bachelor’s of Architecture, Jeremy had transitioned into using his design education and experience and impulses to build a career configuring form, color, texture, sequence, and structure in the service of narrative storytelling.
Whenever he is not away working on a movie or some other adventure, Jeremy can be found enjoying the company of his wife Caroline, and daughters Ruby and June, at their home in Winchester, Massachusetts, or in their little cabin, deep in the north woods of Maine.
After studying theater and music at Hunter College in NYC, Bart took that education and started work as a cabinetmaker. Go figure. Then he started working as a sound designer part time. Scrapped all that and went to school to study sound for TV and film and got a job at one of the east coast’s best and biggest audio post production studios, Sync Sound. Scrapped that and built a bunch more cabinets. After all the kitchens had all their cabinets, he jumped into sound design full time. Over the past twenty years, Bart has designed sound on Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theaters around the country, for film, radio, and, most recently, audio drama podcasts. Give Me Away; The Unknown 9: Out of Sight; Steal the Stars; Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors; God of Obsidian are all available for streaming if you’re into that kinda thing.
Kay graduated from Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, RI and worked with Perishable Theatre in Providence as a director and playwright (WOMEN IN A BOOK, ROADKILL LITERATURE, and several scripts for young audiences). She founded and directed (1992-1995) Perishable’s International Women’s Playwriting Festival that ran for 14 seasons, premiering over 37 plays by playwrights who went on to win national prizes and write for regional theater, television, film, and Broadway. She holds a BA/MA in Religious Studies from Brown University (1996) and a Ph.D. in Sociology (2002) from Brandeis University. She is a Professor of Sociology at William & Mary and has written several ethnographies: Sacred Divorce: Religion, Therapeutic Culture, and Ending Life Partnerships; Awesome Families: The Promise of Healing Relationships in the International Churches of Christ; and most recently (2021) with Oxford University Press, Walking the Way Together: How Families Connect on the Camino de Santiago. She collaborates with Mark Lerman on Virginia Theatre Machine productions, most recently co-writing/directing H&G, THE RIFT. Her play, A SINGLE PRAYER, premiered at Firehouse Theater in Richmond, Virginia (2022).
Kate Statelman is a composer inspired by movement, texture, color, and imagery. Her music blends technology and traditional instruments into unique sound palettes that incorporate orchestral, folk, and electronic influences. She is currently based in Richmond, Virginia, where she works as a freelance composer and sound designer. Since receiving her B.A. in Theatre from Hollins University in 2021, she has created original music for several theatre productions, including: A SINGLE PRAYER and FIRST RESPONSES: A FESTIVAL OF WORLD PREMIERES (Firehouse Theatre), and THE SKRIKER (Hollins University). In December 2022, she released her debut EP Character Studies, a collection of pieces written to evoke a sense of person and place within abstract instrumental worlds.
Mikaela Craft is a multidisciplinary artist with a love for all types of performing, from dancing, singing, and acting, to puppetry, contortionism, and playing the spoons. This love of the arts has taken them from the stage with Opera Carolina, to the York Theatre showcase in NYC, to Roe Hampton University in London, on a couple of cross-country tours, and now back to Richmond where they were born. You may have seen them most recently at the Firehouse Theatre as Delia in the world premiere of Gabriel or as Phoenix in Melancholy Echo. In addition to the stage, they are also a performer at Richmond's Camp Half-Blood.
Ed Whitacre has performed in the Tidewater Virginia theatre community for over 30 years in both community and professional theater venues, including the Virginia Shakespeare Festival (VSF), Panglossian Productions, RLR Productions, Wedgewood Renaissance, and The Firehouse Theatre. Ed performed as the Virginia Theater Machine's Master Thespian who, each year for 10 years, attempted to perform Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL in under 30 minutes. Some of his favorite roles include: The Common Man in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (Wedgewood Renaissance/VSF); Caesar in JULIUS CAESAR (VSF); Sweeney Todd in SWEENEY TODD (Panglossian Productions); Vladimir in WAITING FOR GODOT (RLR Productions); C.S. Lewis in FREUD'S LAST SESSION (RLR Productions/Panglossian Productions); Charlie in the premier production of A SINGLE PRAYER, by K. Jenkins (The Firehouse Theater).
Madison Hatfield is so excited to join the Virginia Theatre Machine! She was most recently seen in Richmond Triangle Player’s production of Head Over Heels as Pamela! She is a graduate of VCU with a BFA in Theatre Performance! Other credits include: Log Cabin (Myna) with Richmond Triangle Player Urinetown: the Musical (Hope) with TheatreLab, Kaly in Atlantis: A New Musical with Virginia Repertory Theatre, A Single Prayer (Clem) at Firehouse Theatre. When she’s not on stage she either voice acting in shows like ‘Lil Wild (Rara) or taking care of all the pups at Furr Kingdom Pet Resort! All love goes to her tiny dog, Pookie and her family.
Adam Turck (he/him) has been a resident Richmond actor for almost a decade. Highlights include HAND TO GOD (RTCC award winner) with TheatreLab, THE LARAMIE PROJECT and THE INHERITANCE (mid Atlantic premiere) with Richmond Triangle Players, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD and SCHOOL FOR LIES with Richmond Shakes, and ANIMAL CONTROL (world premiere) with Firehouse. Adam studied at the Moscow Art Theatre and also toured for 3 years with National Players; America’s longest running touring theatre company.