Villanova’s Graduate Theatre Alumni Share Spotlight at Philadelphia Fringe Festival

Villanova Theatre alumni took center stage across Philadelphia this year as writers, creators, directors, performers and producers in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, bringing bold new work to audiences while continuing projects and collaborations that, for several of them, began during their time in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

For Rachel O’Hanlon-Rodrigues ’17 MA, the festival holds a special place in their artistic journey.

“I moved to Philly years ago because I fell in love with the Fringe Festival and the incredible artist community here,” they said.

The annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival features more than 1,000 performances by national, international and Philadelphia-based artists of all disciplines, according to its website. For one month, they fill the public and private spaces across the city for audiences of more than 40,000 people.

This year, there were nearly 20 Villanovans, past and present, who participated.

O’Hanlon-Rodrigues’s production, The Untitled Court Show (pictured at right; photo credit: Rachael Warriner), marked her second full solo performance, giving her a chance to experiment, connect with audiences and gather feedback as the piece continues to grow.

That spirit of experimentation, O’Hanlon-Rodrigues said, was nurtured at Villanova.

“I don’t know if I could create the work I do without the skills, curiosities and critical lens Villanova helped me to refine,” they said. “Villanova was a space where I learned to trust myself enough to try something new.”

That Villanova connection could also be seen in Hrotsvitha Hremixes, which reunited Casey Berner ’16 CLAS, ’18 MA and Alison Hyde Pascale ’23 MA.

Berner, co-founder of Mopped Stage Productions, took on the producer’s role for the first time, drawing on skills developed through Villanova’s Theatre MA and its Nonprofit Management graduate certificate program.

“Mopped Stage tries to bridge the gap between scholarship on theatre and making of theatre,” Berner said, “[which is] something I think Villanova’s MA does very well.”

For Pascale, the production came directly out of her Villanova experience. She first encountered 10th-century playwright Hrotsvitha in a dramaturgy course before adapting her work for a student production in 2023.

That introduction later helped shape Pascale’s doctoral research at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she now studies female monastic performance in the Middle Ages. This year, she returned to Hrotsvitha for Fringe alongside Berner and Villanova Professor and Associate Artistic Director Chelsea Philips, PhD.

“So, things have come full circle,” Pascale said.

Sydney Marie Hughes ’25 MA experienced a similar full-circle moment with The Suppliants (pictured below), an adaptation of Aeschylus’ tragedy through Appalachian and Southern storytelling traditions. The production began as Hughes’ directing thesis at Villanova before growing into an independent Fringe production. She also won Villanova’s Graduate Research Prize for the work.

“Villanova gave me the opportunity to tie everything I was doing together: my academic classes, the ‘lab work’ of the rehearsal room and my thesis project,” Hughes said.

Together, the productions showcased more than Villanova alumni talent. They showed how ideas, relationships and creative risks first developed on campus can continue to evolve on stages throughout Philadelphia.

The following is a list of Villanovans who participated in this year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival, as provided by the Department of Theatre and Studio Art:

• Sydney Hughes ’25 MA; Alex Thurtle ’26 MA; Grace Acquilano ’25 MA; Lucy Horton ’26 MA; Justin Badoyen ’26 MA); Susan Betten ’26 MA; Jeff Hunsicker ’26 MA (The Suppliants)
• Effie Kammer ’19 MA; Kevin Esmond ’17 MA (The Melon’s Cry)
• Gauri Mangala ’27 MA (Private Dick: A Genoir)
• Hannah Gold, Acting Professor (The Holy Fool and The Groundhog)
• Rachel O’Hanlon-Rodrigues ’17 MA (The Untitled Court Show)
• Mary Anne Carlson Morgan ’70 MA (Armed Hostilities)
• Jim Hawkins ’15 MA (Bodhi’s Guide to History)
• Savannah Reich (2026 Sue Winge playwright) (The Groundhog)
• Elise D’Avella ’17 MA; Christen Mandracchia ’15 MA (Bully Prep)
• Alison Hyde-Pascale ’23 MA; Casey Berner ’16 CLAS, ’18 MA, Taylor Molt MA '23, Sloane Stuart ’23 MA (Hrotsvitha Hremixes)