Cast & Crew

Thomas Beheler (Wild One) is so happy to be joining such an incredibly talented cast. He is currently a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park and is double majoring in Theatre and Linguistics. Favorite roles include Scapino (Scapino), George (Stop Kiss), and Algernon (The Importance of Being Earnest). Thomas also enjoys acting in short films and the All Puns Intended improvization troupe at Anne Arundel Community College. Thomas will also soon be featured in the upcoming indie film Vampires: Rise of the Fallen and also the principal character for an episode on the upcoming Investigation Discovery Channel T.V. show Evil Twins. After the show, you can also catch him in the one act play festival, Bits n' Pieces at the Colonial Players Theater in Annapolis. Thomas wants to thank everyone involved in giving him this opportunity and his family and friends for all their support.

Sara Bickler (Queen) appeared as Gertrude in Hamlet: Reframed at the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival. She has also appeared in staged readings of King Leir and Fairy Tale with Grain of Sand Theatre, and Worse: or the Unfinished Play with Artists' Bloc. Other recent credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor and Four Dry Tongues. She performed in both Equilibrium and things I wrote before my first kiss at the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival. Sara is a 2009 graduate of The Theatre Lab's Honors Conservatory.

Erin Gallalee (Grewl) is excited to be performing with Grain of Sand for the first time! She is returning to Fringe for the 3rd time, having performed with Victorian Lyric Opera Company in Foggerty's Fairy in 2011 and The Rebellious Players in 2008 in The Bacchae. She was most recently seen in The Woman in Black at The Little Theatre of Alexandria and Dead Man's Cell Phone with Silver Spring Stage. She has also performed with Zemfira Stage, Elden Street Players, Port City Players, Vienna Theatre Company, Prince William Little Theatre, Potomac Theatre Company, Tapestry Theatre and Castaways Repertory Theatre and has worked as a tour guide for Historic Strolls and Alexandria Colonial Tours. Special thanks to Christine for letting her play!

Shaina Higgins (Lucy) previously appeared at the 2008 Capital Fringe Fest in the world premier cast of Suzanne Winland’s Metro: In the State of Mind and is thrilled to return with Grain of Sand Theatre. Previous credits include The Mousetrap (Casewell), Rumors (Claire Ganz), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Pistol), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Mrs. Bixby) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena). Shaina holds a BFA from East Carolina University, where she also achieved her stage combat certification in unarmed combat and rapier and dagger. She extends her deepest thanks, as ever, to John Shearin and to Jill Matarelli Carlson.

Pamela H. Leahigh (Ensemble/Narrator) is a local actor/playwright and a graduate of The Theatre Lab Honors Conservatory. She is excited to work with Grain of Sand again this summer for Fringe after performing in last year's Hamlet: Reframed. Past appearances at Fringe include The Lazy Bitch Theatre Troupe's Things I wrote before my first kiss (which she wrote and directed) and Home Free. Her plays have been seen at the Kennedy Center Page to Stage Playwright Slam and Theatre Lab's Dramathon. Special thanks to her boss for giving her the days off to do this.

Carl Brandt Long (Billy/Fight Director) is excited to return to Fringe as an actor, after directing Grain of Sand's previous award-winning Fringe production of Hamlet: Reframed in 2011. He appeared in Macbeth and Equilibrium during the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival, and has performed with local companies including Constellation Theatre Company, WSC Avant Bard, and Madcap Players. An Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors since 2008, Carl has choreographed fights for over twenty other productions in the DC area, working with groups that include Georgetown Theatre Company and The Theatre Lab. He is a proud founder of and the resident fight director for Grain of Sand Theatre.

Chris Niebling (Bug) is all at the same time thrilled, proud, and a bit nauseated to be making his debut both with Grain of Sand, and at the Capital Fringe Festival in one of the most twisted shows he's ever known. Chris is an Artistic Associate for Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) and The Inkwell, a graduate of Oberlin College, and a recognized Advanced Actor/Combatant and member of The Society for American Fight Directors. He has worked as an actor, director, fight choreographer, or combination thereof at numerous regional theatres incluing: CSC, Red Eye Gravy, Journeyman Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Solas Nua, Washington Shakespeare Company, The Hatchery Festival, Catalyst Theatre Company, Rep Stage, Carroll Community College, and Alvernia College. Much love to Val for everything, especially putting up with him.

John Stange (Saul) was born to be your mean, unkempt uncle. He's been playing terrorists, violent schizophrenics, and fratricidal usurpers for the past year. Like ya do. You might lately have seen him as Stepan in WSC Avant Bard's Les Justes, Walpurg in Ambassador Theater's The Madman and the Nun, or Claudius in either of Grain of Sand Theatre's Hamlet: Reframed or its mead-soaked cousin, Hamlet at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. John is a loyal graduate of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts' Honors Conservatory, 2009.

Matthew Ward (Bart) is a graduate of Millsaps college and hails from Memphis, TN. He is a Synetic company member and can be seen in Synetic's Home of the Soldier. He is glad to be a part of the Fringe festival again as well as work with Grain of Sand Theatre for the first time!

Stephen Cedars (Playwright) is a writer, director and teacher originally from south Louisiana. His work has been produced in New York City at spaces including the Brick Theatre, the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator and chashama, and he has co-produced the Southside Summer Fiesta and Traveling Halloween Festival, community performance festivals funded through the Brooklyn Arts Council. His plays have also been produced in Oregon, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., and his work has been published by Original Works Publishing. He earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, where he won the John Golden Playwriting Prize.

Batya Feldman (Stage Manager) is very excited to be participating in her first Capital Fringe Festival with Grain of Sand Theatre. She graduated last May from Pitzer College (Claremont, CA) and has since worked in DC-area theatre, producing Theater J’s Voices from a Changing Middle East reading series and inaugural Locally Grown festival; assisting the Managing Director and development department at Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre; reading scripts for Arena Stage’s literary office; and assisting director Eleanor Holdridge on Double Indemnity at Roundhouse Theater. Previously, she interned at The Marrow Foundation and La Jolla Playhouse. Upcoming projects include Laura Zam’s Married Sex. Batya is thrilled to be the 2012-2013 Professional Management Intern at CenterStage.

Christine Lange (Director) Artistic Director of Grain of Sand Theatre. She was last seen onstage as a chorus member in Socrates the Lover at Capital Fringe. Other recent productions include Frankenstein (Elizabeth), The Fairy Tale (director, staged reading, Grain of Sand Theatre), Four Dry Tongues (director, Madcap Winter Carnival), The Underpants (Louise), Oleanna (Carol), The Bacchae (director, 3rd Annual Capital Fringe Festival), An O. Henry Christmas (director), The Ghost Sonata (director), Anne of the Thousand Days (director), A Christmas Carol (co-director), The Taming of the Shrew (Bianca), and Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio/Apothecary).