FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #75 A Community Theater Company Dares To Tell Original Stories
What happens when a playwright hears “we only do revivals” one time too many? We sit down with Malanna Henderson, founder of Somewhere in Time Productions, to trace how a single no became a stage for yes—yes to original scripts, yes to local talent, and yes to stories that pull you in close. Malanna opens the door to The History Lesson, a gripping new play set in 1860s Richmond where a lawyer secretly teaches an enslaved woman to read, and a forbidden connection grows in the shadow of the law.
We dig into the company’s mission as a Fredericksburg 501(c)(3) dedicated to producing new work by local playwrights. Malanna shares the creative choices behind an intimate three-quarter round staging that places the audience inside a handcrafted cabin set, and she spotlights a cast that blends Riverside Theater veterans with compelling new voices. Along the way, we explore her journey from a short story to an award-winning one-act, graduate training in playwriting, and a series of historical vignettes on military service, women’s suffrage in Virginia, and the Lovings’ landmark case—proving that local theater can be both educational and electric.
If you’re a writer with a script in a drawer, this conversation is your sign. Malanna explains how to submit, why the company champions fresh voices, and how production “problems” become creative adventures that bring communities together. For theater lovers, you’ll get all the essentials: dates, venue, ticket options, and why this show rewards early seats and curious minds. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves live theater, and leave a review telling us which moment from The History Lesson you can’t wait to experience.
Malanna Henderson
Somewhere in Time Productions
somewhereintimeproductions.org
somewhereintimeproductions21@gmail.com
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. I'm your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. I'd like to introduce you to Malanna Henderson. She is the owner of a performing arts company called Somewhere in Time Productions. Malanna, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm excited to learn more about you and about your business. So let's start there. Share with the listeners a little bit about Somewhere in Time Productions.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a performing arts company, uh, 501c3 and nonprofit. Um, I incorporated it last year. And our mission is to produce original plays by local playwrights. So as a playwright myself, um it was difficult to get anyone to well, they read my plays. They said they liked them, but they only did revivals. So it was difficult for me to get my plays produced. Um, I I got one play produced here. It won first place uh in a play um one act festival with stage door productions. And so I decided to start my own company. I said I'm sure I'm not the only one in this position, and that's what I did.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that you took control and you decided, you know what? I'm gonna take matters into my own hands. I'm gonna start something on my own. I love that. That's awesome! Congratulations on that.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:So tell me, um, and I also love that you keep it local and that you're you highlight local playwrights and provide opportunities for other locals. So that's uh your girl after my own heart, because I'm all about uh all things local here in Fredericksburg. So I absolutely love that. And I understand that you have a um play coming up. So tell us all about it.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's called The History Lesson, and I was inspired to write it. Um, I wrote a book several years ago, and it I was inspired by one chapter in the book uh called Love Will Find a Way. And I'll just read a little synopsis here that I have on my flyer. Uh, kidnapped, yes, kidnapped into slavery, Frank Turner, Esquire, defies the law by teaching an enslaved woman to read while resisting the growing attraction between them. Will love triumph or will the danger of discovery doom the promise of romance? Written by a local playwright and founder of Somewhere in Time Productions, Elena Henderson, the history lesson brings a unique theater experience to Fredericksburg, inviting the audience onto the stage and transporting them to the 1860s, Richmond, Virginia, and into the cabins of Frank Turner and Hattie Rose in a three-quarter round viewing. This look uh into the interior lives of enslaved people, not just through the lens of their oppression and struggle, but through their love, intellect, and determination, gives us a refreshing and heartfelt look into our shared history and culture.
Speaker 2:I'm intrigued. That sounds very interesting. Tell us where where is it gonna be? How can you go see it? Tell us all the details.
Speaker 1:All right, so it's going to be performed at John J. White Educational Culture Center. That's 7565 uh Courthouse Road. And um performance is November 8th and 9th, and then 15th and 16th. So Saturday performance is at 6:30, and Sunday performance is at Mine that starts at 3. So we're very excited about it. And I've got tremendous actors. Um, Ashley Janes, she was last seen uh at the Riverside Theater in Um To Kill a Mockingbird. Um, and Gladys Perkins, she worked 15 years with Kenmore. They do a lot of skits over there, and the other two actors, um, three rather are new to me. But uh I've seen one in, I've seen two in previous productions, and uh one fellow, um uh William Wilson. He performed uh in Two Trains Running and Singing in the Rain with uh the director for our show, uh Deborah Harris. Uh we also have another director, Brie St. Aubens. She also is a set designer, and it was it was really amazing how she came in contact with us. She contacted me through Facebook when she was performing at um, oh, what is the name of that theater? Uh Stage Door Production. She was in Wait Until Dark. And she contacted me and she said she wanted to be a stage manager. So I said, Oh well. So Debbie and I went to see her perform, and she was excellent. And then she joined us um the following Monday. So very exciting.
Speaker 2:You've uh gathered uh some great talent for this, it's impressive.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And how do you um how do you get tickets? Do you have to get tickets in advance or can you just arrive?
Speaker 1:Well, we do prefer it. Um, yeah, tickets um uh on the flyer, there's a QR code, but you can also visit our website, which is somewhere in timeproductions.org. Uh, and you can contact us um by email, somewhere in time productions 21 at gmail. So we're always looking for playwrights. So a shout out to anyone out there who is writing a play or finished a play and it's just sitting in their drawer. I know a lady who told me she had three plays in the garage, musicals no less. So waiting to hear, yes.
Speaker 2:Amazing. This is such a great opportunity that you are providing to uh the locals here. So that's it's really impressive what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Tell me a little bit, yeah. I I can tell. I I can feel that. And tell me about your background. I want to learn more about you. How did you get into this?
Speaker 1:Well, um, when I moved to New York, uh I always enjoyed writing. So I wrote this little short story, and I read somewhere that Tennessee Williams wrote a short story uh that turned into uh cat on a hot tin roof. And so um I said, oh no, it was a streetcar named Desire, that's what it was. So I had this short story, and there was this library that had uh writing contests in the categories of poetry, fiction, and playwriting. And uh I said, Well, I'm gonna try to turn this short story into play. I did that, submitted it, and I won first place for the unpublished play category. So I was very excited. I said, well, maybe I should, you know, delve into this a little further. So I um registered at CUNY, uh I have a master's in creative writing, concentration of playwriting, and um exciting to do that. So and when I came here to Fredericksburg, I did a Black History program at my church, and then the following year, a person from the um Friends of the Wilderness battlefield contacted me to do a series of plays, vignettes really, for Black History Month. Uh, and it was three different um churches. So the patrons would go to all three churches to see all of the stories. So there were three stories. The next year, 2019, we did four, uh, concentrate on the military service. I did one on the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, and World War II. And we found a man or who had been in World War II.
unknown:So wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I built a play around him. So that was uh that was interesting. And then the next year we wanted to do uh a women's history month. I did three plays for that, uh little short plays. One was about the um suffrage movement in Richmond, Virginia. Um, Kate Waller Barrett was in it, Janetta Fitzhugh, uh Real People that lived, you know, in Fredericksburg or um Virginia. I did another one called Um Love on Trial about Mildred and Richard Loving, um, the case that uh ended um segregation and marriage. And then the other one was uh called Um Going Home, about a young lady who dressed as a man and she fought in the Civil War, was wounded at the wilderness, yeah, battlefield. So amazing. Didn't get a chance to put those on because COVID stopped everything.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, yes, but I think um fun. Um and it's so interesting, you know, to be able to share other stories uh in a creative way. I imagine you just get so much satisfaction out of that.
Speaker 1:I do, and I you know, I feel that I'm teaching people also about characters, important characters in the past, certain things like you know, women's right to vote and all that. So this uh that play is how it started. You know, people with different movements um all across the United States, they were separatist, you know, allowing for the right to vote.
Speaker 2:I love it. You get to bring history alive. I love it. Very cool. So, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about your upcoming play?
Speaker 1:Oh, I want them to come see it. So we have local um actors in it. Uh, the set is really interesting. Um, Bree has created this um slave cabin uh made of wood and everything. It's it's really interesting. Um, even the problems we have with production are interesting. You have a situation, you don't know how to solve it. You talk to your um colleagues, you know, and one will say, Oh, I found this for free, or borrowed this from a friend or something. So each one is kind of like an adventure. Uh, the first play that I first two plays we put on um were like the premiere of Somewhere in Time Productions, uh young lady Kara uh Haddon, she um is she recently graduated from George Mason University. She had two comedies, and so we um put those on at St. George's Church. Um, two of our actors, it's three, there were three parts, um, two short plays, so we had the same actors in both plays. Uh, we had two um very well-known actors, and the same week they left. And I said, Oh my god, what are we gonna do? It's almost like a romance, you know, you have the dark moment when everything seemed like it's gonna fall apart. And so that weekend I had a Riverside writers meeting, um vice president of that. And so I said, the first two young, attractive men that walked through the door, I'm gonna ask them if they would be in the way. And so we had a break and then went over and asked these two guys that came together. And I said, Would you audition? And they said yes. They both said yes. And I was like, wow. So we lost two on Wednesday and got two more. Now these young men had never acted before. One said he was always interested, but he never uh did anything about it. Uh, but they were very good, one especially. So they did really well. Very happy like that. Yes.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love how you approach a problem and call it an adventure.
Speaker 1:It is, it really is.
Speaker 2:You clearly really enjoy the process.
Speaker 1:I do, I do. I enjoy it so much. I I love writing. Uh, I did some acting a little bit. I did some directing, not that much interest in directing, but I love um seeing the work uh develop. Uh it's very interesting to see an actor who doesn't know the lines, doesn't know too much about the character, and the more they rehearse, you see the character really blossoming, uh maturing, you know, from a stranger, I guess, to the actor, becoming someone that they they can that they um pretend to be, whatever you want to say. They become their character. So that's uh interesting process.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. What fun. What fun. Awesome. Well, Malanna, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. Uh, is there anything else you'd like the listeners to know?
Speaker 1:Just come see the play.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I will put in the show notes all the details on how to get tickets and the location and uh your contact information. And uh I hope everyone goes and um watches the play. I'm excited to to see it and hear all about uh the praise.
Speaker 1:Yes, um, I can't wait to see it. Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:You're welcome.
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.