The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our February 2026 Sourcebook issue.
Kylee Márquez-Downie in the Virginia Repertory Theatre production of “Waitress” (Photo courtesy Kylee Marquez-Downie)
Choosing a career onstage isn’t an easy path, but for many, it’s a calling. Richmond is fortunate in that it has a blend of arts schools, regional theaters and larger stages, making it a vital hub for cultivating live performance. Here are three locals who have dedicated themselves to the craft.
Kylee Márquez-Downie: ‘The Feral Ingenue’
An actor’s life for her: “I didn’t think it would be sustainable for me to be an actor, to make a life of it. But every career test I’ve taken puts me in some kind of performance or entertainment role. So at least I seem to be going in the right direction.”
The past year’s been a busy one for Márquez-Downie. She went from Virginia Repertory Theatre’s production of the pie diner musical “Waitress” as Dawn, to 5th Wall Theatre’s wildly dark “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” portraying the charismatic Pipe, the ringleader of a group of private schoolgirls celebrating Colombian narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar. And then, she was back to VA Rep flying above the stage in “A Christmas Carol,” as the Ghost of Christmas Past. She considers herself a “mover with personality,” rather than a dancer — although after one “Christmas Carol” performance, an enthusiastic audience member asked if she was the “ballerina.”
“I was flattered,” she says with a laugh. Her great-grandmother performed and taught ballet in Amsterdam during World War II, going by the stage name of “Lucky Bakker Stoop.” “I wish I could’ve taken a class — but apparently she was very strict,” Márquez-Downie says.
She grew up, to 5 feet, 4 inches tall, with a stutter. Life upon the stage called her in the fourth grade, performing in an after-school program, “Fakespeare Theatre.” Performance helped her overcome the speech impediment. Andy Shaw, her high school theater teacher, cast her as Miss Dorothy in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” His encouragement proved important. Márquez-Downie was accustomed to emphatic direction, Shaw instead asked, ‘What do you want to do?’ The pair remain in touch to this day. She recently asked him to review one of her audition tapes.
Márquez-Downie’s parents supported her career decisions, and she credits how her “5-foot Venezuelan mother raised me to never back down, no matter the size of the adversary.”
She earned a BFA in acting from Virginia Commonwealth University, and she credits teacher David Emerson Toney for his supportive confidence when hers faltered; he dubbed her “the feral ingenue” for the energy she brings to roles.
Márquez-Downie has gained critical attention here, earning a Richmond Theatre Community Circle (Artsie) best supporting actor award for “Waitress.” She was also nominated with the ensembles for 5th Wall’s “H*tler’s Tasters” and Richmond Shakespeare’s “The School for Lies.”
The 5-foot-4 actor may be small in stature, but she’s mighty onstage.
TeDarryl Perry in “Something Rotten!” during the Dogwood Dell Festival of Arts (Photo courtesy TeDarryl Perry)
Tedarryl Perry: That Kid Can Sing
An actor’s life for them: “Theater saved my life, to be honest. I, from Petersburg, was exposed to the beauty of theater that allows the connection to people who are not like you and may not have the same perspective as yours all the time, and you can touch them in a way emotionally; and I had the opportunity to go to a high school for the arts. If I’m ever blessed to be financially well-off in this business, I’ll support theater arts education.”
For Perry’s pre-K graduation at J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School, now Pleasants Lane, they sang Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All.” That experience led them to performing at church, and the positive reactions caused Perry to think, “Maybe I’m supposed to be in front of people in some way.”
Their supportive parents knew their course wasn’t into athletics. “Fortunately, I was a cute, chubby kid,” they wryly recall, and in the ’90s, Perry modeled for JCPenney and Junior Achievement.
In sixth grade, they attended a performance of “Fame” at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology. In the cast: future Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton. Perry went in and, they say, the mentoring instructors brought out their talent. “Back then, there weren’t many roles for short, fat, left of center, Black, queer character actors,” Perry says. Introductions to musical theater history, Shakespeare and the classics shaped them, as did teacher Morrie Piersol, who cast Perry in the male lead of the dark comedy “Reckless,” “a show I love and want to someday direct,” Perry says. “Morrie took a gamble on me and has come to every show of mine since.”
At Virginia State University, Perry earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and drama and a master’s degree in media management. Perry served as an intern at the former Sycamore Rouge Theatre and learned about theater mechanics from director KB Saine. They now teach speech and public presentation at VSU, Virginia Commonwealth University and Brightpoint Community College.
Perry’s professional theater experience began a decade ago at Richmond Triangle Players starring in “Corpus Christi,” a modern retelling of Jesus and the disciples through a queer lens. Perry was Simon, a singer, which suited them well.
“RTP is my theater home,” Perry enthuses. “They raised me up and have been my family and given me strength, through these complex and beautiful shows.”
Perry’s most challenging role thus far came in 2024 at RTP in “One in Two.” The play’s premise is centered around the fact that 1 out of 2 Black gay men will at some point be diagnosed with HIV. It features three actors. The audience chooses by applause who will play the first character, and the script calls for the remaining two to decide their roles by Rock, Paper, Scissors. The three performers needed to learn the roles as a unit and be prepared to inhabit the characters at random. Perry describes, “It was exciting to tell this Black story with as much laughter as tears. I grew as an actor because the show encompassed so many things. I’ve been prepared by theater to jump in and do anything. It’s scary and beneficial.”
Grey Garrett performs “Over the Rainbow” during A Shockoe Sessions Live! Christmas! at The Hippodrome (Photo by Dave Parrish)
Grey Garrett: Judy Personified
An actor’s life for her: “Theatre Unlimited, in Powhatan, offered dance classes, but they also did plays, and they were doing a production of ‘Snow White,’ and I saw that, and I just thought, ‘I want to be Snow White. I want to be a princess. That’s what I want to do.’ And that changed the course of my whole life.”
Richmond audiences know Garrett now for an impressive array of acclaimed performances, such as the then-Quill Theatre’s 2017 “Lysistrata,” portraying singer-songwriter Carole King in the 2023 Virginia Repertory Theatre production of “Beautiful,” and the recent Firehouse Theatre show “A Distinct Society.” Her two performances as Judy Garland in Swift Creek Mill Theatre’s 2014 “Beyond the Rainbow” were followed in 2016 with the Richmond Triangle Players’ Peter Allen bio-musical, “The Boy from Oz,” which earned Garrett her first Artsie award. The accolade led to opportunities she’d never imagined.
Garrett relocated to New York at age 17 on a scholarship to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She spent a decade booking television and theater work and performing on cruise ships. Then she was confronted with a severe relapse of squamous cell carcinoma.
“I had skin cancer when I was 17, 23 and then when I was 26,” she relates in her strong voice. The reasons unclear, perhaps because she’s fair and redheaded. The carcinoma evolved on her face and in her nose. Garrett, without insurance in New York, received care from a physician who rebuilt her septum using grafts from her ears. After a while, she told him a bill never arrived. He replied, “Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
When she moved home to Richmond 15 years ago, Garrett believed her theater career was over.
She thought herself deformed from surgeries and scarring, and she resigned herself to selling insurance and doing voice-over work at In Your Ear Studios “through two amazing gals,” she enthuses, Rinny Wilson and Andrea Bucchelt.
But the cancer returned. Access Now, a Richmond nonprofit that provides care for specialty patients, connected Garrett to doctors Christine Rausch and Alan Burke. “They are godsends,” Garrett states. “And they’re the doctors that gave me my whole life back.”
She returned to theater with renewed full force. Garrett began lessons to improve her voice with Richmond-based bel canto soprano Sarah Walston. And her life experiences distilled into the powerful Garland performances. She studied hours of interviews and Garland’s shows. Audiences responded by sending flowers and little presents backstage. “I don’t think that had anything to do with me,” she muses. “It’s that aura of Judy Garland that people respond to.”
Garrett received invitations for Garland cabarets, but, Garrett says, she risked being pigeonholed. She chose to put Garland away for a while until the right opportunity came along. That recently came with an offer from former Richmond actor Brian Baez, who is now scouting for guest artists on cruise ships. Could Garrett create a Garland show? There’s no guarantee, not in entertainment nor in life.
She held a two-night fundraising show in January at RTP. The backing is needed to make such a production scalable, mobile and professional enough for the cruise industry and beyond. Garrett notes the various requirements: “I need projections, a really good wig, I got my costumes from ‘The Boy From Oz’ and I’m working out at the gym to make sure they still fit me the way they did back then.” In addition, there’s specific musical arrangements for a five-piece band and compensation. Should the ship idea not float, Garrett quips in Judy Garland fashion, “We’ll buy a tour bus and go to every assisted living facility on the East Coast.”
Like many others, she’s striving to achieve a sustainable work/life balance. If Garrett launches the oceangoing gig, her schedule will be more flexible (important, too, because she’s engaged). A guest entertainer is aboard for a few weeks to perhaps a month. She’d remain in Richmond, where she works long but rewarding days of voice-overs, teaching, rehearsals and attending voice lessons. “The quality of life here is fantastic, and we have amazing talent,” she extolls. “I’m privileged to be among them. I love our theater community.”
