Concerts may draw the crowds, but Executive Director Cyrus Pace says the Academy Center of the Arts’ greatest work happens beyond the stage.

By: Megan Williams | Photo Credits: Ashlee Glen, Deborah Ware Photography, and Academy Center of the Arts

In an age increasingly shaped by algorithms, artificial intelligence, and digital experiences, places where people gather to create something tangible—or simply experience something together—feel more valuable than ever. It’s in this nuanced time, when we find ourselves scrolling our social media and questioning what is or isn’t real, that the arts community stands like a beacon of creativity and perhaps even a bit of resistance. And the Academy Center of the Arts is thinking carefully about how to sustain those experiences.

“The work of the arts is to bridge the gap between what we believe can change lives through experience and what the market currently believes it can support,” explained Cyrus Pace, the Academy Center of the Arts’ new Executive Director. Pace joined the performing arts center in early 2026, following 15 years at the Jefferson Center in nearby Roanoke.

Academy Center of the Arts Executive Director, Cyrus Pace (Photo by Ashlee Glen)

The Academy has had a long history in the Lynchburg community. First opened in 1905, the Academy (then called the Academy of Music) boasted clear sightlines and pristine acoustics—features that attracted touring acts from around the country. Today, the same can be said. The historic Academy theatre reopened in 2018, 60 years after its closure in 1958, to an extraordinary performance by legendary R&B and gospel singer, Mavis Staples. And the memorable acts have only continued. Since its reopening, locals and tourists alike have witnessed Old Crow Medicine Show, Ben Folds, Iam Tongi, The Temptations, The War and Treaty, and so many more. But Pace is quick to point out that concerts are only one piece of the Academy.

“It’s not unusual for a performing arts center like ours for the most visible thing to be the concert side of the business,” he said. “Everything from Old Crow Medicine Show or Amy Grant to touring versions of Broadway shows are more popular in every market, so they get more visibility.”

On any given day, whether the historic theatre is housing a live performance or not, artists and aspiring creatives move through the Academy’s doors. Some are learning pottery, painting, or drawing. Others are dropping off children for Academy Youth Theatre. Still others browse the rotating gallery beside the historic theatre. Beyond its downtown campus, the Academy is even extending its reach through Academy in Motion, a mobile arts initiative designed to bring creative opportunities to people who might otherwise never walk through its doors (meet the man behind the “Art Bus” on page 28).

But if you were to ask Pace, who is a lifelong jazz musician and arts leader, what it takes to sustain such a broad-reaching organization, the answer may be more pragmatic than poetic.

“All of the nonprofit arts sector exists under the tax code for education,” explained Pace, who approaches the arts with an economist’s appreciation. “I don’t see what we do as any different—it’s all about giving access to the community to experiences they wouldn’t otherwise attend.”

Ask Pace why access matters, and he will begin with budgets and strategic plans. But ask him about it again, and he will unequivocally tell you that it’s about the people.

It’s an easy distinction to miss.

While audiences often associate the Academy with headline concerts and touring productions, Pace sees every facet of the organization—from performances to classes—as part of the same educational mission.

The goal isn’t simply entertainment, it’s creating opportunities for people to discover something they might not otherwise encounter.

Pace’s perspective is shaped by an unusual career path. Before leading nonprofit arts organizations, he earned a master’s degree in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music and spent time working on Wall Street before eventually leaving New York, as he puts it, “to figure out how to make the world around [him] better.” Today, alongside leading the Academy, he teaches arts administration and nonprofit leadership at Virginia Tech—a combination that helps explain why he speaks about creativity and economics with equal fluency.

“The finance gig was really administrative,” he said. “I worked on the trade desk supporting traders and analysts. All of the work that I have done is ultimately administrative—you’re figuring out how to get the right information to the right people.”

When Pace left New York, he landed in arts education.

Ask Pace why access matters, and he will begin with budgets and strategic plans. But ask him about it again, and he will unequivocally tell you that it’s about the people.

“I had a really good band director in high school who gave me opportunities to play a lot of gigs early in life—I did my first gig when I was 15,” he recalled. “Secondly and equally important, the dad of a friend of mine was a jazz record and book collector. He found out that I liked music and started to gift me a treasure trove of records and CDs on the history of jazz and the important players. The inherent mentorship that happens when there are older people who care about things that are beautiful and want to make sure other people care about those things and that they stick around—it’s invaluable. Our job is to ensure people have that type of access to the arts.”

In his first few months in his role, Pace has approached the task of ensuring people have access to the arts with an artist’s precision and an analyst’s acumen. Rather than delving right into strategies that worked during his tenure at the Jefferson Center or relying on lessons taught in his arts leadership classes, Pace has paused—he’s assessed what is working today and what can be improved upon tomorrow.

“Right now, I’m getting responses to a board and staff survey and a survey is going out to the community to ask a pivotal question—what programs do you want?” he explained. “We want to be celebrated for serving the community and for reflecting their interests. And we want to be clear on the micro and macro realities of doing that—what the market tells us about supply and demand. For example, we may want to book an artist four times a year but the market may not support that four times a year.”

Pace says the Academy is planning a three-to-five-year strategic plan that will be flexible and adaptable.

“The organization is well-positioned in terms of asset structure and quality of its spaces to continue to increase and expand what we do well,” he said. “If I had to crystal ball anything, I would say the next few years will encompass improvement, expansion, and prioritization.”

Whether that growth comes through larger touring productions, expanded youth programming, additional visual arts offerings, or initiatives like Academy in Motion, Pace hopes the Academy will continue doing what it has done for generations: create opportunities for people to discover something that changes them.

Ace of Arts

Multitalented Artist and Art Educator Stephen Kissel Adds Distinct Character(s) to Local Art Scene

By: Jeremy Angione / Photos by: Ashlee Glen

Aliens, robots, and monsters are now familiar downtown residents to anyone who has seen Stephen Kissel’s quirky sci-fi murals at the City Auditorium on Main Street.

Kissel is a lifelong cartoonist and illustrator. Although he grew up in New York, he spent much of his life in Virginia and managed to get deeply connected with the Central Virginia arts community.

“I’ve always felt like it was really welcoming here.

It’s just really easy to connect with people,” Kissel said.

Kissel says that he knew from a young age that he wanted to be an artist, just as soon as he realized it was an option for a career.

“It’s a part of my identity,” he asserted.

Despite possessing such a distinct illustration style, Kissel has found homes for each of his characters and creations in freelance work, comics, zines, and murals. Frequent guests of Super Rad Arcade Bar may notice a gang of cartoonish cryptids that he created as defacto mascots of the business.

Kissel considers his day job to be the many hats he wears at the Academy Center of the Arts, including his primary role as the director of outreach. His role supports Academy in Motion, a mobile art program that brings arts and education to community members—young and old—who would otherwise not have access to those resources.

“It’s fun to take the bus into communities that don’t have art programs. We found a lot of our needs are in Lynchburg, but also in the counties around us,” Kissel stated.

Kissel’s style is reminiscent of art styles that would’ve fit right in beside all your favorite newspaper comic strips. He even cites Garfield and Peanuts as early inspirations. “I’ve kind of unintentionally found a niche that people seem to know me for,” he said.

After seeing his artwork and meeting him, it becomes apparent that Kissel quite literally wears his artistic inspirations on his sleeves. His arms are covered in a patchwork of tattoos of his favorite cartoons, manga, niche pop culture references, and a bagel.

According to Kissel, Akira Toriyama, renowned author and artist of Dragon Ball, is a continuing source of inspiration for his work and the feelings he hopes to evoke in anyone seeing his art.

“I’ve always wanted my art to give people some joy,” Kissel said.

From murals to children’s books, Kissel has made his unique style as versatile as it can be. “I’ve gotten to do a lot of things that I’ve wanted,” he noted. He says that he’d like to venture into animation as a new medium for his art but that he isn’t sure he has the patience to be an animator.

Despite his work as an educator, freelance artist, and author, Kissel’s newest and perhaps most challenging role is as a new father. Kissel expressed that he hopes that he and his wife can share all the cartoons, movies, and media that they loved as kids with their child.

A huge thank you to Stephen Kissel for designing and illustrating this issue’s cover! To learn more about him and his work, visit stephenkissel.com.

One Local Author’s Tale

By: Charlotte Farley  |  Photos By: Ashlee Glen

On a cozy afternoon, Eliana Lessa Marcilio curls up with her youngest granddaughter to read chapter 11 of Drops of Joy. Somewhere in the middle of a particularly tender passage, the little girl reaches over and laces her fingers through Eliana’s, giving her hand an extra squeeze just as the words on the page swell with emotion. For Eliana, it’s the perfect picture of what she hopes her book will do in the world.

“I like to say, ‘Let’s make it rain joy,’” she explained. It’s a phrase her grandchildren know by heart. In fact, that’s exactly how Drops of Joy began: as a simple, made‑up bedtime story that turned into a treasured family ritual.

Long ago, Brazilian‑born Eliana was a little girl with ink in her veins. She comes from four generations of writers; one relative even held a chair at the prestigious Brazilian Academy of Letters. When she was 10 years old, her grandfather gave her what she still calls a cherished gift: He invited her to “write with the pen of your heart.” Those words shaped her understanding of writing not as performance, but as honest expression.

As an adult, Eliana carried that love of language into a career in education. Regardless of age, she saw again and again how powerful it is when a child is invited to find and use his or her own voice.

While visiting her grandchildren several years ago, Eliana began spinning a very simple story at bedtime, and the kids loved it. When the visit ended and they didn’t want to let the story go, Eliana started recording voice memos they could play when they weren’t together. The story, and the practice around it, became their “family treasure.”

In Drops of Joy, readers meet Lila, a young girl whose rainy‑night dream of mysterious raindrops bringing sudden joy refuses to fade when she wakes. Determined to brighten her family’s routine, she and her best friend Olivia slowly draw others into the adventure, from a kind art teacher and her speedy puppy to a grumpy park regular and a cheerful grocer. As Olivia’s brilliant idea finally brings Lila’s dream to life, joy begins to spread from one heart to another, until it feels as if “drops of joy” are raining over the whole town. The story, Eliana notes, “doesn’t really have an end.” Every time someone notices and shares a new drop of joy, the story continues.

Before long, Eliana’s story escaped the confines of bedtime as her grandchildren started doing what the story suggested in real life, such as leaving small notes, gestures, and “drops” of kindness and encouragement in their homes. Their parents saw just how real and powerful this little practice could be. 

That was when Eliana began to sense that what started as a family tradition might be something to bring to a bigger audience. She spent all of 2025 tweaking, editing, and guiding Drops of Joy through production before its release in February 2026.

As a publisher myself, I know bringing a book to life is no small task, but Eliana is quick to point out she didn’t do it alone. “During the editing phases, my grandchildren helped me!” she said with a laugh. They were collaborators, offering ideas for the story, weighing in on the cover, and making sure the language sounded the way kids actually talk. Her grandchildren are now ages 7 to 13, but they still see Drops of Joy as their story, not only their grandmother’s.

Eliana is quick to point out that this is far more than a children’s story, since it can speak to just about anyone. Then there are the literal “drops” tucked within the pages: shapes kids can trace, cut out, and pass along to someone they love. Over time, those little tokens have taken on a life of their own. Adults who have read the book tell Eliana that they, too, are leaving drops for each other, handing them to friends who need encouragement.

Eliana also created an educator’s guide to accompany Drops of Joy, offering teachers ideas for weaving joy‑spotting, reflective questions, and expressive writing into classroom routines. It’s all an extension of her belief in helping children learn to articulate what’s inside them. She talks about the power of giving kids tools and permission to express whatever is in their hearts—whether light or heavy—and connecting those feelings to words on a page.

If you spend any time with Eliana, the book’s focus becomes easier to understand. She is brimming with warmth and hospitality, and joy just seems to radiate from her. She describes herself as “a woman of deep faith,” and that faith feels rooted and real. You sit with her, and her happiness feels contagious.

When she looks at her grandchildren, Eliana sees not just co‑authors, but gifts.

“First of all, I simply love them,” she said. “It is clear to me that each one has their own delightful personality. I treasure that. I treasure them, each the way that they are.” Being a grandmother, she added, “is a gift of joy. They bring life to us. Grandchildren are one of the best things in the world.”

Eliana hopes the effect lingers long after readers close the book. 

“Not just a day,” she said, “but the days ahead—if they become more aware of joy and choose to share it, it will last.” 

There’s already talk, at least in her imagination, that this could someday become a series. But for now, the choice to focus on joy was spontaneous and deeply personal. 

“Joy is something to share,” she said. “The more we have, the more we can give away. Sometimes one drop makes a difference.”  

Returning to the Creek

Nearly five years after Lynchburg Living first profiled author Leah Weiss, the Virginia writer is inviting readers back to the Appalachian world that first captured their imaginations.

Her newest novel, The Creek, the Crone, and the Crow, returns to the fictional community of Baines Creek, North Carolina, a place longtime readers will recognize from Weiss’s previous novels If the Creek Don’t Rise and All the Little Hopes. While the new release stands on its own, it also serves as a homecoming of sorts, revisiting familiar landscapes and beloved characters while exploring new mysteries hidden deep within the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Set during the summer of 1980, the story follows Kate Shaw, a schoolteacher who has spent a decade in Baines Creek but remains skeptical of the folklore and superstitions that shape the community. Her practical worldview is challenged when Birdie Rocas—a reclusive local woman often described as a witch—dies and leaves Kate an unusual inheritance: a collection of illuminated manuscripts, journals, and a mysterious Book of Truths that traces a lineage stretching back centuries to Scotland.

At the same time, Lydia Brown arrives in Appalachia carrying grief of her own. Once gifted with psychic visions, Lydia lost her abilities after the death of her parents and has come searching for Birdie in hopes of finding answers. Instead, she finds herself drawn into Birdie’s unfinished story and an unlikely partnership with Kate.

Together, the two women begin unraveling secrets hidden among forgotten graveyards, underground passageways, and mountain legends. What emerges is both a mystery and a meditation on grief, resilience, and the bonds that connect women across generations.

Weiss has long been celebrated for her ability to capture the complexity of Appalachian life without relying on stereotypes. Her stories are steeped in folklore and regional history, yet grounded in deeply human experiences. In The Creek, the Crone, and the Crow, she once again blends magical elements with emotional realism, creating a world where ghosts and legends feel as natural as the mountain landscapes they inhabit.

The novel also reflects Weiss’s enduring fascination with the stories communities tell themselves—and the truths buried beneath them. As Baines Creek struggles against decline, the characters confront questions about legacy, belonging, and what should be preserved when the past refuses to stay silent.

For readers who discovered Weiss through her earlier novels, the return to Baines Creek offers a welcome reunion. For newcomers, The Creek, the Crone, and the Crow provides an atmospheric introduction to a writer whose work continues to illuminate the beauty, hardship, and enduring mysteries of Appalachia.  

Every time I go to a concert, I notice the feeling of anticipation that builds as you get closer to the start of the show.

By: Charlotte Farley / Photos By: Becky Lambert Photography, Courtesy Of Seven Hills Chamber

That moment feels especially charged when it happens inside the historic Lynchburg Museum, where people registered to vote where they got married, and where the fate of defendants on trial for murder hung in the air.

On most days, the building feels quiet, with pieces of its past on display: artifacts, photographs, and other fragments of lives that once moved through the same streets we do. But in August, the Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival will open its summer concert series inside the museum’s main hall: the former courtroom of an 1855 building designed for voices to carry. 

Opening night will layer a Louis Armstrong tribute for trumpet and string quartet, Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, and newly unearthed music by Lynchburg-connected composers into a single evening.

“We have the concerts in what used to be the courtroom,” said museum director Ted Delaney. “We put the performers on the judge’s platform. And if you think about it, the building was designed for that—a group of people gathered to listen to something happening at the front of the room.”

He thinks about it a lot. “It lends itself so naturally to music,” he added. “Having live music performed in that space, to me, is one of the best uses of our very beautiful historic structure.”

Music that Lives in the Room

The Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival is heading into its sixth season this summer.
If you’re a music aficionado, that might bring a spark of excitement. On the other hand, you might hear the words “chamber music” and immediately picture old-world royalty having a private concert, seeing it as formal and untouchable—and you won’t be alone there. (Back in the day, I thought chamber music meant Gregorian chanting monks!)

In reality, chamber music simply means a small group of musicians playing together—often one player to a part—in spaces where you can hear and see every detail. It’s music built for conversation: between instruments, between performers, and, if it’s working, between the people onstage and the people listening. 

Seven Hills Chamber Music delivers a stunning Bach Brandenburg Concerto. And yes, there’s a sense of intimacy inherent to this genre with its smaller ensembles, closer quarters, and music that asks you to lean in. But Seven Hills is just as committed to contemporary work and performing (and sometimes commissioning) pieces by living composers. I still think about last season’s performance of Stir Crazy by Carlos Simon and the way the flute and violin captured, through sound, what so many of us were experiencing during that time.

More than a Venue: A Partner

For festival co-founder and Lynchburg native Dudley Raine IV, the museum concert started simply: try something different. “We had been playing in a lot of churches, and we wanted to find a space that felt a little less expected. The museum seemed like a great place to try it. We try to use Lynchburg’s history to build a theme,” Raine said, “to tell stories that might have been forgotten.” 

Working with Delaney, “he found a whole trove of pieces in the archives and we found pieces and composers I never would have known about otherwise.”

That was three years ago. Since then, the relationship has grown from “a concert in a cool building” into a partnership with its own rhythm.  

Festival co-founder Nicole Brancato helps shape the arc of each concert so the music, the space, and the stories all feel like they’re in conversation with one another. One past program drew on the story of Blind Billy and Tom Perkins, a local 19th-century fife-and-fiddle duo. To echo their sound inside the old courtroom, Seven Hills chose works for modern instruments carrying forward the rhythms that once floated over these same hills.

“It’s been really interesting to see the exhibits when we’re there and to start learning about Lynchburg’s history in a deeper way—especially the music,” he said. 

Over time, that curiosity has started to shape the concerts themselves. That curiosity led to more research, more local names, and an expanded program, this year supported in part by a Virginia Humanities grant. 

The Exchange of Energy

And then there’s the part no one can plan for: the energy the audience brings to the show.

“The last piece we did last year was [by] Kathleen O’Moore,” Raine said. “We gave the audience the music and had them sing along. It was incredible. Just this shared energy—everyone in the room participating. That was one of those moments where you think, ‘This is why we’re doing this.’”

For Delaney, that shift matters.

“Our mission is to connect people to local history,” he said. “But not everyone comes to a museum for that. Some people need a different way in.” 

Music, it turns out, can be that way in. 

“If someone comes for the performance, and that’s what brings them into this building, then they’re also encountering history,” he said.

A space once used for judgment, record, and decision-making is now holding something less about what was decided, and more about what can still be felt. “To have live music in that space,” Delaney said, “after everything that’s happened there—it’s really special.”

He hopes people walk back out onto Monument Terrace with a different sense of the city they just looked down on. “I want people to be so impressed that such beautiful music was composed here and that such talented composers lived here, walked the streets we do, lived in the same places we live, and work and go to school,” he said. “So many people discount Lynchburg and think, ‘Nobody of any note lived here, nothing important happened here,’ but I see the opposite. This concert is just one small way to have people see what we see.”

It helps that the music itself is anything but small. About half of the festival’s roster has roots in Virginia, and all of them bring serious credentials with them—players who have performed with major orchestras and ballet companies, on Broadway stages and at Carnegie Hall, with institutions like the Juilliard School and the New York Philharmonic, on HBO and Netflix, and at venues around the world. Some are voting members of the Recording Academy, some are Yamaha artists, and all are chamber musicians in the truest sense: collaborators who know how to listen as intensely as they play. When they gather in Lynchburg, the room is holding world-class artistry and hometown memory at the same time.

“I just couldn’t believe how good the music was,” Delaney said, remembering his first experience with this chamber music festival. “And thinking, this came from Lynchburg. Not from Europe or New York. From here.” 

On August 12, the room will decide again what it’s going to be. And if you’re there, sitting in that brief, electric pause before the first note, you’ll feel it happen.  

Pour Baker: Where Science Meets the Joy of Homemade Baking

Photos By: Ashlee Glen

In Cammy Jones’ kitchen, baking is equal parts creativity and chemistry.

A community pharmacist by training, Jones is the founder of Pour Baker, a Lynchburg-based small-batch baking mix brand designed to make homemade baking simpler without sacrificing quality. Her signature just-add-milk, shake-and-pour bottles streamline the baking process, taking home bakers from pantry to oven in minutes.

The idea began, like many good food ideas do, at home.

“As a pharmacist, I’ve always been drawn to precision, problem-solving, and creating something that truly helps people,” she explained. “Pour Baker started in my own kitchen when I realized that so many families wanted to bake but didn’t have the time or confidence to measure out multiple ingredients. I kept thinking, ‘What if it could be as simple as adding milk?’”

The moment the concept became something more happened when she began sharing the mixes at farmers markets across Virginia.

“When I would set up at farmers markets across Virginia, customers started asking for more flavors and telling me how easy it felt. I realized this wasn’t just a shortcut—it was a solution,” Jones said. “That’s when Pour Baker became more than an idea; it became a mission.”

Jones’ background in pharmacy shapes nearly every aspect of the brand. Developing a baking mix,
she explains, closely mirrors the process of compounding medication.

“Compounding medication and developing a baking mix are more similar than people realize,” she said. “Both require precision, balance, and understanding how ingredients interact chemically. In pharmacy, a small change in formulation can affect stability or effectiveness. In baking, the same is true. Moisture content, leavening ratios, and sugar balance all matter.”

Her scientific training informs the reliability of the product.

“My science background makes me meticulous about texture, consistency, and repeatability,” Jones continued. “Every bottle of Pour Baker is designed to perform the same way every time. That reliability is very much rooted in my training.”

Still, while science provides structure, emotion remains central to the experience of baking.

“To me, convenience should never replace connection. It should make space for it,” she said. “By simplifying the prep work, we allow families to focus on what really matters: being together and sharing stories. The warmth isn’t in measuring flour, it’s in pulling muffins out of the oven and gathering around the table. Pour Baker removes stress but keeps the joy.”

That philosophy extends to the ingredient list itself.

“As someone in healthcare, I’m very aware of what we put into our bodies,” she said. “I didn’t want to create a product filled with fillers or ingredients you can’t pronounce. Clean, recognizable ingredients were non-negotiable because trust matters.”

New flavors emerge through a blend of science, seasonality, and customer feedback.

“Science ensures the formula works,” Jones stated. “Seasonality inspires flavor profiles. But honestly, customer feedback is huge. When people tell me what they want to bake for their families, I listen.”

At its heart, Jones says, the brand is about confidence.

“Approachable baking means removing intimidation without removing quality,” she said. “It means a mom baking with her kids after work. It means a busy professional bringing homemade muffins to a gathering. It means feeling capable. Approachable baking is about accessibility, not shortcuts.”

She credits Lynchburg’s support for helping Pour Baker grow beyond its earliest stages.

“The support has been overwhelming in the best way,” Jones smiled. “People don’t just buy the product, they share it, post about it, and tell their friends. The community has shaped Pour Baker by encouraging me to dream bigger. What started as a local idea now feels like something with real staying power because Lynchburg believed in it first.”

Looking ahead, Jones sees expansion on the horizon.

“I’m excited about expanding both our product line and our reach,” she said. “There are new flavors in development and opportunities for local collaborations that align with our values. Long term, I see Pour Baker growing into a household name for simple, clean, joy-filled baking.

We’re just getting started.”

And for anyone still hesitant to bake?

“If you can shake, pour, and bake, you can do this,” she mused. “And the confidence that comes from that first successful batch? That’s everything.”  

To order and learn more visit pourbaker.shop and connect with Pour Baker on Instagram at @pourbaker.

Perfecting Pottery: Local artist creates masterpieces, builds community in Lynchburg

By: Christian Shields | Photos By: Ashlee Glen

Through her love for pottery and people, Lynchburg artist Alexandra Milhous creates incredible ceramic pieces and educates others how to do the same.

Milhous began her pottery journey years ago as a student at Virginia Tech, where she took a couple ceramics classes while studying interior and industrial design.

After moving back to Lynchburg, she continued to study the medium and eventually purchased a kiln and other pottery equipment. Since then, she has opened a pottery studio, Firebrick Pottery, on Main Street, and has continued to improve her craft. She creates various mugs, vases, bowls, pots, and more.

“What I first fell in love with about pottery is the creative options are endless,” she said. “I could spend the next 20 to 30 years of my life exploring one technique in pottery and still not fully explore everything that is possible with that one technique.”

As a new potter, Milhous often found herself following a rigid structure with calculated stylistic decisions. Now, she takes a much more organic approach to her craft, comparing her fluid style changes to the adaptability of an octopus.

“I don’t want to fall into manufacturing the same thing over and over again, where you lose that handmade feel,” she said. “What I love about pottery, or anything else handmade, is as you use it, you are creating a connection with the artist who made it.”

As a result of these rapid style changes, Milhous hopes to never completely duplicate a single piece. In doing so, she allows each piece to remain unique and special.

“If you buy a store-bought manufactured bowl, your hands are probably the first human hands that have touched that bowl taking it out of the packaging.

There’s no uniqueness and not a lot of thought or care put into the making of it. It’s just a bowl. When you buy a bowl from a potter, especially a local potter in your community, they put thought and time into the bowl. They express themselves through it,” she said, joking that drinking from a handmade mug was equivalent to “drinking a page of someone’s diary.”

Through teaching weekly workshops at Firebrick, Milhous hopes to share her passion for pottery with others, helping them realize the incredible mental and physical benefits of crafting with clay.

“I’ve found a lot of joy in watching other people go through the same discovery process that I went through when first learning pottery. The magic of it. You are literally playing in mud and then you make something cool out of mud. Then you fire it, and it turns into permanent glossy ceramic. It’s a magical feeling the first time you can see a piece you made come out of the kiln and unless that piece gets smashed, it’s going to outlive you.”

Milhous currently sells her own products at Firebrick, but also sometimes advertises through her @ampotteryart and @firebrickpottery Instagram accounts.

By: Butch Maier / Photo above courtesy of Sutten Photography

Deathtrap, Ira Levin’s comedy-thriller play in two acts, was first staged in 1978. In January, the almost-a-half-century-old story felt new again. Plot twists drew gasps during a Saturday matinee performance of a Virginia Repertory Theatre production at Hanover Tavern, just north of Richmond. “Hanover is, honestly, one of the most charming little theaters I have ever sat in,” Virginia Rep artistic director Rick Hammerly said. “It’s only 150 seats, but you’re almost on the stage, so it’s very intimate, which is lovely.”

The sold-out crowd was as snug as a bug in a rug—or as a body on stage wrapped in a rug.

The brick production design matched the actual theater structure, adding to the atmosphere of audience members feeling like flies on a wall—with the show generating positive buzz during the intermission.

“There’s something about it that’s a little bit foolproof if you just do the script and put it up there, it’s gonna work,” said Virginia Rep actor Nathan Whitmer, who portrayed famous-but-struggling playwright Sidney Bruhl.

In Deathtrap, Sidney invites his student, Clifford Anderson (Axle Burtness), to his home to discuss Clifford’s new script, which Sidney recognizes as a potential hit. Sidney’s plans scare his wife, Myra Bruhl (McLean Fletcher), who tries to convince the two men to work together. Psychic neighbor Helga ten Dorp (Donna Marie Miller) also sees to it that she has plenty funny to say about the men’s interaction.

As Whitmer’s Sidney intensely shared his thoughts and plots aloud with a sharp tongue, Fletcher’s Myra deftly traversed a verbal tightrope between curtailing her husband’s evil intentions and enticing Burtness’s not-so-innocent Clifford to do a deal.

My favorite moment: Fletcher’s hilarious, never-ending yowl when a certain deed was done. Director Sidney Lumet’s movie Deathtrap, starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, and Dyan Cannon, premiered in 1982—also the first year my family got HBO. It played over and over. Multiple times a day. I watched it again and again.

So, I had looked forward to seeing how the play, directed at the Hanover by Paul Takacs, would play on a stage. Many in the audience were seeing the story play out anywhere for the first time.

“What’s tricky in this day in age is what is theater being looked at to do right now?” Hammerly said. “We’re dealing with economic hardships—I mean, the country is. We’re dealing with a lot of stress. Do people want to be challenged? Or do they need to escape and be entertained? And trying to ride that line.

“This is a show that you can escape for two hours, and you’re on the edge of your seat because it turns and twists so much. So, I wanted to do something that would do that—that would allow people to escape, to live in a different world for a while.”

The Deathtrap world was one room that kept attendees on edge with 20-plus weapons hanging on the center-stage wall, waiting to be grabbed at any time. The actors deftly handled numerous props throughout, and every time one held a weapon, attendees anticipated a sharp plot point.

“Theater is constantly trying to bring in a new audience, and by that, I mean a younger audience,” Hammerly said. “Theater audiences tend to be a little older, and what happens when they’re no longer going to the theater? We need that next generation constantly to be stepping up. So, you can do some old chestnuts, and I think it’s going to turn off some of the younger folks.

“With a show like this, because of the themes of greed and murder—the fact that it’s a thriller, and it also has some comic stuff, it’s really engaging that I think all ages can really respond to it.” Audience members of all ages responded enthusiastically…and shortly thereafter quizzically, wondering if there was a twist they missed. They engaged in a debate about whether one actor played two characters, since a person was missing at curtain call. (The answer: No. Someone was on the mend.)

If you missed Deathtrap, I encourage you to head over to the Hanover or the November Theatre for another Virginia Rep play.

Maybe you will discover a show—either new or new to you—that will pull the rug out from under you.

For more on the Virginia Repertory Theatre season, go to va-rep.org/2025-2026.

The Richmond Scene Needs to Be Seen

By: Butch Maier

Virginia Repertory Theatre actor McLean Fletcher has worked in the arts around the world but always comes back to Richmond. “I think it’s beautiful,” said Fletcher, who also is a filmmaker and a painter. “The walkability, the drivability, the climate, the tree-lined streets.

“I feel like Richmond is an oasis for me. I have an artistic community that challenges me in a positive way. “It’s big enough to find work but small enough that you can be heard.” No matter your voice.

“It’s diverse and bigger than I think people think—broader,” Virginia Rep artistic director Rick Hammerly said. “There is everything. There is so much music.

A lot of live music, which is amazing. Actual art—painting, photography—it’s everywhere. And I think the theater scene here is really dynamic.

“D.C. has grown into a behemoth, in terms of theater. But here, there are a smaller number, but what I like is the diversity that there is. While we [Virginia Rep] are the largest theater in town, there is another theater that specializes in new plays, there’s another theater which is the gay theater, there is another that does Shakespeare.

“You have all these niches so that if you’re a Richmonder, all of your theater needs are met.”

VIRGINIA REPERTORY THEATRE

Virginia Rep, a regional professional theater headquartered in downtown Richmond, staged Deathtrap (see page 96) in December and January at the Hanover Tavern.

Deathtrap actor Nathan Whitmer and his wife, actor Emelie Faith Thompson, moved to Richmond from Northern Virginia to upsize their home as well as to “hop on the elevator as it’s on its way up” while the Richmond arts scene reaches greater heights.

“We chose this community because we knew that we could come in and keep doing the art we wanted to do and hopefully grow with this community,” Whitmer said. “There’s a bunch of driven artists here—not just in the theater but in the visual arts. We have done a lot of film projects down here over the last eight years, whether it’s commercials or short narratives, so we’ve been down to Richmond a lot, and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know the arts scene down here. We want to help to grow that.”

Upcoming Virginia Rep shows include:
• Primary Trust, March 5-29, at Theatre Gym in the November Theatre complex
• The Cottage, March 27-April 26, at Hanover Tavern
• The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, April 11-May 3, part of the Jessie Bogese Family Series at the November Theatre
Website: va-rep.org

RICHMOND SHAKESPEARE

Fletcher will portray Lady Macbeth in Richmond Shakepeare’s March 27-April 18 run of Macbeth at Dominion Energy Center’s Gottwald Playhouse.
Website: richmondshakespeare.org

THE BYRD THEATRE (photo above)

I had never been to the Byrd.

I have longed to have one of my movies shown in that sensational cinema location, but I have yet to make something grand enough that makes it Byrd-worthy.

In the meantime, a few hundred other audience members and I gathered to see someone else’s Byrd-worthy pic: Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park…a movie I had neglected to see in a theater the first time around.

I know, I know. Why? I was a college graduate when it premiered in 1993. I was “too cool” to go see a dinosaur movie. I admit my mistake. Sure, I had watched it dozens of times in the past three decades, and it was impressive every time I saw it on TV, but at the Byrd in January, it was magnificent.
The creatures were enormous.

The action was incredible. And the laughs! Every joke played. What a wonderful time was had by all. Well, except for those who were eaten.
Website: byrdtheatre.org

VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts bills itself as a world-class art museum with hometown hospitality.

Case in point: The VMFA displayed a collection of more than 50,000 works of art from almost every major world culture, welcomed indie filmmakers for the James River Short Films Showcase, and hosted an elegant private wedding reception—all in one weekend.

The top prizes in the short film competition went to Richmond’s Jeremy Drummond for Monument, the Texas duo Adam Dietrich and Elliott Gilbert for J.J., Richmond’s Nathan Conrad Piskator for Computer Blue, and D.C.’s Justin Lamb for Work From Home.
Websites: vmfa.museum, jamesriverfilm.org

Richmond is crowded with theaters.

Here is a sampling of what you can see soon at several of them.

Compiled by Butch Maier / Photo By Sarah Ferguson | Richmond Ballet

March 5-29: Primary Trust, play, Virginia Rep, November Theatre

March 7: Up, 2009 movie, Byrd Theatre

March 19: Keep Shouting Sister: A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, concert, The Hippodrome

March 19-29: Moving Art Three: New Works, dance, Richmond Ballet, Leslie Cheek Theater, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

March 26-April 18: Macbeth, Richmond Shakespeare, Libby S. Gotwald Playhouse, Dominion Energy Center

March 27-April 26: The Cottage, play, Virginia Rep, Hanover Tavern

April 16: Alabama Shakes, concert, Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront

April 16-May 9: 5th Wall Theatre presents Wolf Play, play, The Basement, 300 E. Broad St.

April 18: Band Geek Date Night, concert, Richmond Symphony with JMU Marching Royal Dukes, Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center

May 1: Kathy Griffin, comedian, The National