Teresa is excited to be marking her 51st show in the Mill Mountain Theatre pit! Other theatre work includes Hollins University Theatre Department and Columbia, South Carolina's Town Theatre and Workshop Theatre where her very first show was Sweeney Todd. Teresa has been playing woodwinds since age 12, and was a member of the Dennis Reaser Orchestra, Roanoke Jazz Orchestra, founder of Star City Swing for the Salem Jazz Festival, and is in the Sway Katz Big Band. She performs regularly for area churches and special occasions, and has performed extensively around Southwest VA including concerts with Gladys Knight, The Temptations, Shirley Jones and Maureen McGovern. Teresa teaches woodwinds at Hollins University and Roanoke College, and taught at Bluefield University from 2009-2019. She also teaches woodwinds and her husband Steve teaches brass at Hedrick Music Studios. They own Hedrick Music, Inc., which publishes the Band Fundamentals Book Series.

Ginger Poole is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association and an Associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union. She has studied, taught, choreographed, and performed throughout the U.S. She has worked in GA, HI, FL, MS, SC and VA with, Theatre in the Square, The Alliance City Series, Theatre Gael, Synchronicity Performance Group-GA, Mill Mountain Theatre-VA and SC Children’s Theatre. Originally from Atlanta, she has worked with the N.F.L. and The Atlanta Falcons as their director and choreographer and The Atlanta Opera. Prior to coming to Mill Mountain Theatre, she was based out of North Carolina where she has worked with Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina, in over 25 productions. She was a part of the Education program at Flat Rock Playhouse for 5 years where she taught for their Apprentice Companies and their Conservatory Program in Acting, Dance, and Musical Theatre. Ginger has taught at The University of Southern Mississippi, Western Carolina University, William Carey College, Mississippi University for Women, and currently teaches at Hollins University. With Ginger’s strong background in dance she finds herself not only acting and dancing on stage but also directing the choreography and classroom skills for her students. Ginger holds her M.F.A. in Acting Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and continues to teach acting and dance.  She has worked with students that range in age from kindergarten through professionals.

Ginger has worked in commercials, voice-overs, film, stage, and the classroom, and was profiled in the book FIRESTARTERS as “the actor”.

Ginger serves on the following Board of Directors: South Eastern Theatre Conference (SETC Secretary, Second Term), Junior League of the Roanoke Valley (Past President and Current Nominating Committee, Second Term), Burton Performing Arts Advisory Board, The Roanoke City Public Schools Education Foundation, and she has served on the Review Panel for theVirginia Commission for the Arts. She was the recipient of the DePaul’s Women of Achievement Award in the Arts in 2013 and was named the 2016 Kendig Award recipient for Individual Artist. Ginger is also a guest host with WSLS, the NBC affiliate, Daytime Blue Ridge television show, and is the host of the new Mill Mountain Theatre Podcast, Meet Me at Mill Mountain. She is very proud to be a member of the Mill Mountain Theatre team and looks forward to its continued growth, success, and artistic influence in the region.

Katharine Quinn is delighted to return to Mill Mountain Theatre! Katharine is a theater artist based in New York City. Favorite credits: Tootsie (Broadway), Hercules (The Public), Legally Blonde, The Lodger, James and the Giant Peach (Northern Stage), Cabaret (Dallas Theater Center), Newsies, Mamma Mia (Tuacahn), White Christmas, 42nd Street, Always Andrews (Mill Mountain Theatre). Awards and Nominations: Goodspeed Observership, SDCF Traube Fellowship, Best Choreography Nominee (Newsies) BroadwayWorld Dallas, Best of Theatre 2018 (Mamma Mia!) OnStage, Fred, Gene, and Louise Kelly Tap Award. Katharine is also a full-time voice actor (www.voicedbykate.com) and runs an AirBnb in the Catskills (@quinnhollowhunter). MA Arts Administration, UK College of Arts and Sciences. BFA Theatre Directing, SMU.

Dan Pardo is a freelance music director, pianist, educator, and arranger, based in NYC. He is so happy to revisit Fun Home, after conducting a memorable run of the piece at the Weston Playhouse, in 2018. Broadway: Amazing Grace (Nederlander Theatre). Off-Broadway: I Spy a Spy, The Office: A Musical Parody, Rothschild and Sons, and Skippyjon Jones: Snow What? Regional favorites include Company at the Barrington Stage (starring Aaron Tveit), How to Succeed at The 5th Avenue Theatre (Seattle), and Alice at Yale School of Drama. Dan was also on the resident music staff at Goodspeed for several seasons. In 2019, Dan music-directed his first TV project, the Emmy-nominated variety special, John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch, for Netflix. As an educator, Dan teaches regularly for Harlem School of the Arts. You can also see him play at several piano bars and cabaret venues throughout the city.

Kailey Absher is a local Virginian, growing up nearby in the New River Valley. She is a graduate of Radford University, where she earned her BS in Theatre with an emphasis on Stage Management, as well as minors in English and Communications. Past SM Credits at MMT include recently: The Cake, A Christmas Story, Million Dollar Quartet, and Tomás and the Library Lady. Kailey has worked as part of the intern company for The Rev (Formally Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival) and well as two seasons of outdoor theatre.

Jessica Gaffney earned her Master of Fine Arts in costume and scenery design at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ms. Gaffney has designed costumes for over seventy-five theatrical productions, her work has been seen Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and in Regional Theatres across the country. Favorite Mill Mountain Theatre costume design credits include: Next to Normal and Disney’s The Little Mermaid Junior. In addition to theatrical design, Ms. Gaffney has designed costumes and scenery for several award winning film and video projects. Ms. Gaffney is the Chair of Theatre at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC.

Matt Shields is a native of Virginia. Having grown up in Loudoun County, he first moved to the region in 2013 to attend school at Radford University where he graduated with a BS in theatre. After working for a few other companies, Matt is happy to call MMT his artistic home. In the past few years Matt has served in a variety of jobs around Mill Mountain, including Props Master, Costumes Manager, Teaching Artist, Scenic Designer, and Company Manager. Matt is very happy to now be serving MMT as the Production Manager and is grateful to MMT for all the faith they have put in him over the years.

Erin Markham is a Roanoke native with a lifelong passion for the theatre. She graduated summa cum laude from Radford University with a B.S. in Theatre and an emphasis in stage management. Along with stage managing several productions and student projects at Radford, Erin worked as a Box Office Assistant and an Assistant to the Chair. In previous summers, Erin has worked with Christiansburg Dance Academy and the Virginia Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities. Her most recent work includes run crew for Mill Mountain Theatre’s A Christmas Story and guest artist stage manager for Radford University’s The Drowsy Chaperone. Erin is excited to be back at Mill Mountain this summer to assist in creating meaningful theatre in her hometown.

Bill is thrilled to be returning to Mill Mountain Theatre as the Lighting Designer for In the Heights. Bill is a native of Alfred, NY, where he received his Bachelor of the Arts in Theatre from Alfred University in 1988.  He continued training at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he earned his Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Technology in 1994.  Since 1996, Bill has been on faculty at Elon University in North Carolina where he serves as the Lighting Designer/Production Manager for the Performing Arts Department. Bill has been designing lights at Mill Mountain since the MMT production of Swing in 2014, with over 30 MMT Lighting design credits. In addition to his work at Mill Mountain Theatre, Bill has worked  throughout the United States for companies such as Cirque Du Soleil, I Weiss, Bungalow Scenic Studios and Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

With an MFA in Design from UNC-Greensboro, his credits include work at many theatre companies along the East coast such as Spoleto Festival USA, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Seaside Music Theatre, Flatrock Playhouse, and the Gainesville Theatre Alliance.  Locally, Jimmy designs for Opera Roanoke, Roanoke Children's Theatre, and Mill Mountain Theatre, where he worked as resident designer for its last nine seasons.  Some favorite designs over the years include scenery for Il Trovatore, The Flying Dutchman, The Adventures of Frog and Toad, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Seussical, and Grease, costumes for Hamlet, Beauty and the Beast, Joseph…Technicolor Dreamcoat, and lighting for Driving Miss Daisy, Wit, and Rapunzel, among many others. Despite years of working in a field he loves, Jimmy feels that his best productions to date are his children, Henry and Lily, Gracie and Frank.

Katie is a Roanoke-based freelance dramaturg and collaborator who focuses her work on community building, lesbian stories, and subversive classical adaptations. She graduated from Hollins University in 2020 with a degree in English Literature and Performance. She has worked as a dramaturg locally at Hollins University (Decision Height, The Revolutionists, Fun Home, and Winter Festival of New Works), and more broadly on productions at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Still Imminent Rep, and Belmont University.

Molly is an actor, choreographer, and director. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Radford University where she teaches in the acting sequence and directs on the main stage. Most recently she directed RU’s spring musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. A native of Virginia, Molly performed, choreographed, and acted as a text coach for many seasons with the Richmond Shakespeare Festival. Previous intimacy choreography includes productions of: The Tragedy of Macbeth, Wonder of the World, Next Fall, and as a consultant for numerous student-directed productions. Molly holds an M.F.A. in Classical Acting from The Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

J.T. has been playing drums at Mill Mountain since 2008. His favorite show was My Son Pinocchio which included his wife Rachel on piano and both kids, Kyle and Caroline, on stage. Early in his career J.T. performed in the country show at Kings Dominion and on the La Boheme cruise ship. Currently he plays with The Boogie Kings, a ragtime / dixieland group that has been together since 1986. He also plays with the 1st Baptist Roanoke orchestra, The Winds of the Blue Ridge, and the Let's Dance big band. J.T. is the owner of Sun Tan City and Buff City Soap, both supporters of Mill Mountain Theatre.

Savannah Woodruff was born and raised in Southern Pines, North Carolina, where she was encouraged to become involved in technical theatre in high school. Savannah is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and received a BFA in Technical Production. Prior to joining the Mill Mountain Theatre staff, she worked as a member of Weston Playhouse Theatre Company’s Intern Company. Savannah is grateful for the support of her family (and especially her cats) in her endeavors, and is thrilled to be able to continue working and growing with Mill Mountain Theatre.