Ryan Rilette

Artistic Director of Round House Theatre, RYAN RILETTE, joins us for this week's Take Ten from theatreWashington. Along with Jared Mezzocchi, Rilette is director of Round House's production of Simon Stephens' award-winning adaptation of Mark Haddon's 2003 bestseller, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The play follows its protagonist, a 15-year-old math genius who places somewhere on the autism spectrum, as he tries to solve the mystery of his neighbor's dead dog.

Shayla Lowe

Cleveland native Shayla Lowe has lived the the DC area for over 20 years and has impressed audiences in roles as diverse as jazz singer Shug Avery in her favorite musical, The Color Purple (Toby's Dinner Theatre), and the God-fearing Norma in Hands on a Hardbody (Keegan Theatre). Currently, Lowe can be seen onstage in NextStop Theatre Company's staging of Tim Minchin's Matilda the Musical, based on Roald Dahl's bestselling children's book about a precocious little girl with awful parents, an abusive headmistress, and special powers. Lowe plays Matilda's villainous mother, Mrs.

Playwright, director, teacher, and former artistic director AARON POSNER returns to Theater J to direct Edward Albee's 2001 play Occupant, focusing on sculptor Louise Nevelson's feminist and Jewish identity within the art world. Posner, a six-time Helen Hayes Award-winner, has directed plays in theaters across the country, and here in the D.C.-area he's been at the helm of scores of productions including his adaptation of Anton Chekov's The Seagull, Stupid Fucking Bird (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 2013), and Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly, the

Kerry McGee

KERRY MCGEE, artistic director and marketing director for We Happy Few, says she loves the "creative energy" she gets to apply to her work and that's never so apparent as in her current work, her production of Elizabeth Inchbald's 18th century play Lover's Vows. McGee adapted this "hilarious and thoughtful story of love, class, and doing the right thing," bringing in local indie band The North Country to "elevate" the mood of the work.

Zoe Walpole

DC native ZOE WALPOLE grew up going to the theater, but it wasn't until she saw a performance of Richard III at Shakespeare Theatre Company that anything really stuck out to her. She describes an actor scanning a line "differently than I would have expected, and it changed my whole understanding of what was happening in that scene." She says, "the idea that one sentence could change my perception... is very representative of the importance of theatre on a larger scale." Walpole studied at Studio Theatre's Acting Conservatory and has gone on to work with area theaters from The Klunch to 1st Stage.