Spooky Action Theater continues its 20th anniversary season with the world premiere of Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show, a rock musical about the potency of speaking truth to power, the relationship between good and evil, and the freedom of the spirit in an unfree world. Based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s Russian classic The Master and Margarita, Professor Woland‘s creative team includes Michael Pemberton (Music & Lyrics), Andrea Pemberton (Lyrics), Jesse Rasmussen (Book Co-Writer), and Elizabeth Dinkova (Book Co-Writer). The production is directed by Spooky Action Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova and music-directed by Marika Countouris with a cast that features Marika Countouris, Jeremy Allen Crawford, Oliver Dyer, Camilo Linares, Stephen Russell Murray, Fran Tapia, Jordyn Taylor, and Danny Santiago.
ABOUT THE PLAY
Written during the darkest days of Stalin’s reign, and banned for decades, Bulgakov’s “Funny, devilish, brilliant satire” (Publishers Weekly) The Master and Margarita became a literary phenomenon with a cult following. In this new musical loosely inspired by it, a band of dissident rock musicians (or perhaps the demonic retinue of Satan himself) visit 1930s Moscow to expose social climbers, bureaucrats, and profiteers. The Master—an idealistic writer working on a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate—is silenced and detained in an asylum. Margarita, his collaborator and lover, embarks on a journey through heaven and hell to save him and his manuscript.
This fantastical, wildly comedic political satire celebrates love that defies all odds, the interplay of good and evil, and the freedom of the spirit in an unfree world. This rock musical channels the resistance of artists in totalitarian states across the globe.
Spooky Action’s Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova shares, “This wild fantasia brimming with humor, heart, and hope, is the most ambitious show we have ever produced. It features an electric score by New York composer Michael Pemberton and a full cast of actor-musicians who will accompany themselves live under the music direction of Marika Countouris. As you get swept up in the antics of this band of demons and rebels, I hope you are reminded of the power of love, in all its forms: the only force in the world that conquers hate, defies death, and nourishes the seeds of a brighter future.”
Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show was developed in partnership with Quinnipiac University’s Theater Program, where the show received a developmental workshop production in the fall of 2024.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Elizabeth Dinkova (Director/Book Co-Writer), Spooky Action Theater’s artistic director, is a Bulgarian director, adaptor, and collaborative creator who explores alternative realities at the intersection of theater, film, and music in pursuit of communal transformation. In 2021-22, she was an Associate Artistic Director of 7 Stages Theatre, Atlanta’s hub for boundary-pushing international theater. She is an alum of the Alliance Theatre’s Artistic Leadership fellowship, the Studio Theatre’s Artistic Apprenticeship, and a recent graduate from the MFA Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, where she served as a Co-Artistic Director of the Yale Summer Cabaret and received the Julian Milton Kaufman prize for Directing. Recent projects include Richard Strauss’s opera Salome with Heartbeat Opera (NYC), Spooky Action’s Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres, Sonnets for an Old Century and workshop of Syrena, Hamlet, and Coriolanus at Shakespeare in the Woods, Rage, a play with music inspired by Stephen King’s eponymous novel, the visual album TIT, inspired by Titus Andronicus and co-written with Jesse Rasmussen, at the NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival, The Seagull at Serenbe Playhouse, and the opera Orfeo ed Euridice at Bel Cantanti Opera Company. Elizabeth has taught acting, directing, devising, and musical theater at the Toronto Metropolitan University, University of California Riverside, Quinnipiac University, and Queens College CUNY.
The CREATIVE TEAM includes Michael Pemberton (Music & Lyrics), Andrea Pemberton (Lyrics), Jesse Rasmussen (Book Co-Writer), Elizabeth Dinkova (Book Co-Writer).
The PRODUCTION TEAM includes Abigail Copeland (Scenic Design/Properties), Mike Durst and Helen Garcia-Alton (Lighting Design), Alec Green (Sound Design/Engineer), Herin Kaputkin (Costume Design), Luis Garcia (Projections Design), Marika Countouris (Music Director), Emma Jaster (Choreographer), Daniel Interiano (Sound Mixer), Lauren Janoschka (Associate Music Director), Maria Mills (Stage Manager), Troy Johnson (Assistant Stage Manager), and Zoe Tompkins (Technical Director).
The CAST features Marika Countouris, Jeremy Allen Crawford, Oliver Dyer, Camilo Linares, Stephen Russell Murray, Danny Santiago, Fran Tapia, and Jordyn Taylor.
Marika Countouris (Music Director & Hella/Frieda) is a musician, educator, and performer in the DC area. She holds a BM in Musical Theatre from The Catholic University of America and serves as Vocal Instructor & Area Accompanist for Howard University’s BFA Musical Theatre Program. Some of her credits include: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: A Strange Loop (pre – Broadway run); Signature Theatre: Private Jones, Passing Strange, The Color Purple; Arena Stage: Ride the Cyclone; Ford’s Theatre: Grace; Olney Theatre Center: AD16;
Jeremy Allen Crawford (Behemoth) is excited to be making his Spooky Action debut! Recent credits include Prayer for the French Republic (Theater J), American Psycho (Monumental Theatre Co.), Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales, Junie B. Jones (Adventure Theatre MTC), Rent (Iron Crow Theatre), Shakespeare in Love (Keegan Theatre), Little Women, Lucky Stiff (NextStop Theatre), Atlantis, Goldilocks, Treasure Quest (English Musicals Korea).
Oliver Dyer (Koroviev), making his acting debut at Spooky Action, is a musician in the DC and Baltimore area currently completing his BM in Jazz/Commercial Performance on guitar from Towson University. Some of his credits as an instrumentalist and vocalist include Rent; Passing Strange; Private Jones; Hair; Hotter Than July: A Tribute to Stevie Wonder; Soul Divas; Disco Fever (Signature Theatre); Olney Outdoors: Joni Mitchell; Olney Outdoors: Reba McEntire/Dolly Parton (Olney Theatre Center); Godspell (Great Lakes Center for the Arts). He also can be seen performing with a variety of bands/artists such as Krapf, Dupont Brass, Kyaira, and Scrumptious.
Camilo Linares (Master/Pilate) is a Colombian-born artist returning to Spooky Action after performing in last season’s Frontieres Sans Frontieres. Some of his other credits include The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Las Hermanas Palacios, Picasso, La Tía Julia y el escribidor, La vida es sueño at GALA Hispanic Theatre (company member); Laughs in Spanish and Mojada at 1st Stage; The Day You Begin at The Kennedy Center; Theory at Mosaic Theater Company; Òyeme, the Beautiful at Imagination Stage and Fun Home at Studio Theatre. Off stage, he dabbles with instruments, cameras and loves inspiring others. He is also the vocalist in DC salsa band Orquesta Manplesa.
Stephen Russell Murray (Ivan/Matthew) is thrilled to be back at Spooky Action Theatre, last appearing in Maple & Vine. Other recent credits include: Petite Rouge, A Year With Frog & Toad (Imagination Stage), American Psycho (Monumental Theatre Company), Sing Down the Moon (Adventure Theatre), Private Jones, Which Way to the Stage (Signature Theatre), A Delicate Ship (4615 Theatre Co.), Seussical, Chicago, American Idiot, What We’re Up Against, Spring Awakening (The Keegan Theatre), Kinky Boots, The Music Man, (Olney Theatre Center), Rhinoceros! (Pointless Theatre Co.), and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, The Way of the World (Folger Theatre).
Danny Santiago (Azazello/Berlioz) is a DC-based actor/musician whose credits include On Your Feet! (2nd national tour/GALA Hispanic Theatre), A Charlie Brown Christmas (National Tour), Urinetown (Off Broadway), and Surfacing (DC Fringe).
Fran Tapia (Woland/Editor/Stravinsky) is a Chilean performing artist and singer-songwriter and recently made her debuts with a number of DMV theaters, including 1st Stage (Laughs in Spanish), Scena Theater (Ajax), and Folger Theatre (Romeo & Juliet). She received the 2023 Helen Hayes Award and Broadway World Washington DC Award as Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Musical for On Your Feet! En español at GALA Hispanic Theater, and the 2023 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical for GALA’s Revoltosa. Other U.S. credits include Mummy in the Closet – Evita’s Return (GALA); In the Heights (PSF); the On Your Feet! 2nd Broadway National Tour, and On Your Feet!, En Español, and internationally, Cats and Tirana La Leyenda (Chile), Emergenz (Hamburg), and Rite of Spring (Hamburg, Marseille, Amsterdam, Santiago de Chile).
Jordyn Taylor (Margarita/Yeshua) is making her Spooky Action debut. Her credits include Adventure Theater MTC: She Persisted; Monumental Theatre Company: American Psycho; Arena Stage: Unknown Soldier; Adventure Theater MTC: Junie B. Jones; Signature Theater: Ragtime; Constellation Theatre Company: Once on This Island; Toby’s Dinner Theatre: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical. TV/Film: PBS: How Great Thou Art: A Sacred Celebration; plus Direction/Music Direction credits: NextStop Theatre: The Marvelous Wonderettes, Summer Theatre Adventures; Howard University: Heathers the Musical.
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Michael Pemberton (Music & Lyrics) is an award-winning actor, singer, and songwriter with a career that spans over 30 years in New York City and beyond with credits on over 50 television and film roles, and countless stage productions around the country and on Broadway. He started writing original lyrics and music in earnest when he moved to NYC in 1994. The city inspired many of his early songs, providing a rich display of humanity that compelled him to tell in song some of the stories he witnessed and experienced. The Michael Pemberton Band, formed in the late 90s, played in many of the top indie venues in NYC, including Joe’s Pub, The Bitter End, The Bottom Line, Club El Flamingo, CBGB’s Gallery. His song “Rollercoaster/ Carousel” was recorded and released by Actor/Singer Sara Ramirez and performed on a Ted Talk filmed at New York’s storied Town Hall. This is his first full-length rock musical.
Jesse Rasmussen (Book Co-Writer) is a writer, director and lyricist from Australia, currently based in Brooklyn and Maine. Jesse received her MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and has directed works by Jeremy O.Harris, Tori Sampson and Sarah Mantell at Ars Nova, PSNY, the Yale School of Drama and Yale Rep. Jesse is a founding member of LA based avant-garde opera company Four Larks and has collaborated with the company on numerous projects as writer, librettist and lyricist on operatic works staged at the Getty Villa, The Wallis Annenberg Center and The Malthouse Theatre (Australia). Current projects include: Medea In Exile, a contemporary adaptation of Medea by Australian playwright Tom Holloway and Dr. Emma Cole, with music director Lukas Papenfusscline, and a baroque pop cabaret based on the fiction of Anais Nin (Nin Descending a Staircase) with composer/co-creator Ellen Warkentine. Jesse is also a Co-Director & Co-writer for feature film project Syrena, supported by the Midnight Oil Collective/Tsai Center for Innovation at Yale.
Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show runs March 20 to April 13, 2025, at Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th St NW, Washington, DC, with performances Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2 pm. The performance runs approximately 2 hours with one intermission. The venue is currently not wheelchair accessible. All tickets are General Admission and range from Pay-What-You-Can to $55, with discounts available for seniors and students with ID. Purchase tickets online.
ABOUT SPOOKY ACTION THEATER
Spooky Action Theater is an award-winning small professional theater located near DC’s DuPont, U Street Corridor and Logan Circle neighborhoods. Founded in 2004, the company takes its name from a quantum mechanics phenomenon “spooky action at a distance” in which two particles become entangled such that a change in one is instantly mirrored by a change in the other, no matter the distance between them. Spooky Action produces work that creates this kind of deep connection between artists and audience.
