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October 30, 2025 14 mins

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

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:01):
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors
Podcast, the place where localbusinesses and neighbors come
together.
I'm your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG
Neighbors Podcast, where weshare the stories of our
favorite local brands.
I have a special guest joiningme today.
I'd like to introduce you toMalanna Henderson.
She is the owner of aperforming arts company called
Somewhere in Time Productions.
Malanna, welcome to thepodcast.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, I'm excited to learn more about you and about
your business.
So let's start there.
Share with the listeners alittle bit about Somewhere in
Time Productions.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, it's a performing arts company, uh,
501c3 and nonprofit.
Um, I incorporated it lastyear.
And our mission is to produceoriginal plays by local
playwrights.
So as a playwright myself, umit was difficult to get anyone

(01:12):
to well, they read my plays.
They said they liked them, butthey only did revivals.
So it was difficult for me toget my plays produced.
Um, I I got one play producedhere.
It won first place uh in a playum one act festival with stage
door productions.

(01:33):
And so I decided to start myown company.
I said I'm sure I'm not theonly one in this position, and
that's what I did.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I love that.
I love that you took controland you decided, you know what?
I'm gonna take matters into myown hands.
I'm gonna start something on myown.
I love that.
That's awesome! Congratulationson that.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
So tell me, um, and I also love that you keep it
local and that you're youhighlight local playwrights and
provide opportunities for otherlocals.
So that's uh your girl after myown heart, because I'm all
about uh all things local herein Fredericksburg.
So I absolutely love that.
And I understand that you havea um play coming up.
So tell us all about it.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, it's called The History Lesson, and I was
inspired to write it.
Um, I wrote a book severalyears ago, and it I was inspired
by one chapter in the book uhcalled Love Will Find a Way.
And I'll just read a littlesynopsis here that I have on my
flyer.
Uh, kidnapped, yes, kidnappedinto slavery, Frank Turner,

(02:41):
Esquire, defies the law byteaching an enslaved woman to
read while resisting the growingattraction between them.
Will love triumph or will thedanger of discovery doom the
promise of romance?
Written by a local playwrightand founder of Somewhere in Time
Productions, Elena Henderson,the history lesson brings a

(03:03):
unique theater experience toFredericksburg, inviting the
audience onto the stage andtransporting them to the 1860s,
Richmond, Virginia, and into thecabins of Frank Turner and
Hattie Rose in a three-quarterround viewing.
This look uh into the interiorlives of enslaved people, not

(03:25):
just through the lens of theiroppression and struggle, but
through their love, intellect,and determination, gives us a
refreshing and heartfelt lookinto our shared history and
culture.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I'm intrigued.
That sounds very interesting.
Tell us where where is it gonnabe?
How can you go see it?
Tell us all the details.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
All right, so it's going to be performed at John J.
White Educational CultureCenter.
That's 7565 uh Courthouse Road.
And um performance is November8th and 9th, and then 15th and
16th.
So Saturday performance is at6:30, and Sunday performance is

(04:13):
at Mine that starts at 3.
So we're very excited about it.
And I've got tremendous actors.
Um, Ashley Janes, she was lastseen uh at the Riverside Theater
in Um To Kill a Mockingbird.
Um, and Gladys Perkins, sheworked 15 years with Kenmore.

(04:35):
They do a lot of skits overthere, and the other two actors,
um, three rather are new to me.
But uh I've seen one in, I'veseen two in previous
productions, and uh one fellow,um uh William Wilson.
He performed uh in Two TrainsRunning and Singing in the Rain

(04:58):
with uh the director for ourshow, uh Deborah Harris.
Uh we also have anotherdirector, Brie St.
Aubens.
She also is a set designer, andit was it was really amazing
how she came in contact with us.
She contacted me throughFacebook when she was performing
at um, oh, what is the name ofthat theater?

(05:21):
Uh Stage Door Production.
She was in Wait Until Dark.
And she contacted me and shesaid she wanted to be a stage
manager.
So I said, Oh well.
So Debbie and I went to see herperform, and she was excellent.
And then she joined us um thefollowing Monday.
So very exciting.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You've uh gathered uh some great talent for this,
it's impressive.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
And how do you um how do you get tickets?
Do you have to get tickets inadvance or can you just arrive?

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well, we do prefer it.
Um, yeah, tickets um uh on theflyer, there's a QR code, but
you can also visit our website,which is somewhere in
timeproductions.org.
Uh, and you can contact us umby email, somewhere in time
productions 21 at gmail.

(06:15):
So we're always looking forplaywrights.
So a shout out to anyone outthere who is writing a play or
finished a play and it's justsitting in their drawer.
I know a lady who told me shehad three plays in the garage,
musicals no less.
So waiting to hear, yes.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Amazing.
This is such a greatopportunity that you are
providing to uh the locals here.
So that's it's reallyimpressive what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Thank you.
Yeah.
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Tell me a little bit, yeah.
I I can tell.
I I can feel that.
And tell me about yourbackground.
I want to learn more about you.
How did you get into this?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Well, um, when I moved to New York, uh I always
enjoyed writing.
So I wrote this little shortstory, and I read somewhere that
Tennessee Williams wrote ashort story uh that turned into
uh cat on a hot tin roof.
And so um I said, oh no, it wasa streetcar named Desire,
that's what it was.

(07:19):
So I had this short story, andthere was this library that had
uh writing contests in thecategories of poetry, fiction,
and playwriting.
And uh I said, Well, I'm gonnatry to turn this short story
into play.
I did that, submitted it, and Iwon first place for the
unpublished play category.

(07:40):
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, uhI have a master's in creative
writing, concentration ofplaywriting, and um exciting to
do that.
So and when I came here toFredericksburg, I did a Black

(08:01):
History program at my church,and then the following year, a
person from the um Friends ofthe Wilderness battlefield
contacted me to do a series ofplays, vignettes really, for
Black History Month.
Uh, and it was three differentum churches.
So the patrons would go to allthree churches to see all of the

(08:24):
stories.
So there were three stories.
The next year, 2019, we didfour, uh, concentrate on the
military service.
I did one on the RevolutionaryWar, Civil War, World War I, and
World War II.
And we found a man or who hadbeen in World War II.

unknown (08:43):
So wow.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, I built a play around him.
So that was uh that wasinteresting.
And then the next year wewanted to do uh a women's
history month.
I did three plays for that, uhlittle short plays.
One was about the um suffragemovement in Richmond, Virginia.
Um, Kate Waller Barrett was init, Janetta Fitzhugh, uh Real

(09:07):
People that lived, you know, inFredericksburg or um Virginia.
I did another one called UmLove on Trial about Mildred and
Richard Loving, um, the casethat uh ended um segregation and
marriage.
And then the other one was uhcalled Um Going Home, about a

(09:29):
young lady who dressed as a manand she fought in the Civil War,
was wounded at the wilderness,yeah, battlefield.
So amazing.
Didn't get a chance to putthose on because COVID stopped
everything.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Oh goodness, yes, but I think um fun.
Um and it's so interesting, youknow, to be able to share other
stories uh in a creative way.
I imagine you just get so muchsatisfaction out of that.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I do, and I you know, I feel that I'm teaching people
also about characters,important characters in the
past, certain things like youknow, women's right to vote and
all that.
So this uh that play is how itstarted.
You know, people with differentmovements um all across the

(10:23):
United States, they wereseparatist, you know, allowing
for the right to vote.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love it.
You get to bring history alive.
I love it.
Very cool.
So, what is something that youwish the listeners knew about
your upcoming play?

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh, I want them to come see it.
So we have local um actors init.
Uh, the set is reallyinteresting.
Um, Bree has created this umslave cabin uh made of wood and
everything.
It's it's really interesting.

(11:08):
Um, even the problems we havewith production are interesting.
You have a situation, you don'tknow how to solve it.
You talk to your um colleagues,you know, and one will say, Oh,
I found this for free, orborrowed this from a friend or
something.
So each one is kind of like anadventure.
Uh, the first play that I firsttwo plays we put on um were

(11:33):
like the premiere of Somewherein Time Productions, uh young
lady Kara uh Haddon, she um isshe recently graduated from
George Mason University.
She had two comedies, and so weum put those on at St.
George's Church.
Um, two of our actors, it'sthree, there were three parts,

(11:57):
um, two short plays, so we hadthe same actors in both plays.
Uh, we had two um verywell-known actors, and the same
week they left.
And I said, Oh my god, what arewe gonna do?
It's almost like a romance, youknow, you have the dark moment
when everything seemed like it'sgonna fall apart.

(12:17):
And so that weekend I had aRiverside writers meeting, um
vice president of that.
And so I said, the first twoyoung, attractive men that
walked through the door, I'mgonna ask them if they would be
in the way.
And so we had a break and thenwent over and asked these two
guys that came together.

(12:38):
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 andgot two more.
Now these young men had neveracted before.
One said he was alwaysinterested, but he never uh did
anything about it.
Uh, but they were very good,one especially.

(12:59):
So they did really well.
Very happy like that.
Yes.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
I love that.
I love how you approach aproblem and call it an
adventure.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
It is, it really is.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
You clearly really enjoy the process.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
I do, I do.
I enjoy it so much.
I I love writing.
Uh, I did some acting a littlebit.
I did some directing, not thatmuch interest in directing, but
I love um seeing the work uhdevelop.
Uh it's very interesting to seean actor who doesn't know the
lines, doesn't know too muchabout the character, and the

(13:41):
more they rehearse, you see thecharacter really blossoming, uh
maturing, you know, from astranger, I guess, to the actor,
becoming someone that they theycan that they um pretend to be,
whatever you want to say.
They become their character.
So that's uh interestingprocess.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What fun.
What fun.
Awesome.
Well, Malanna, thank you somuch for joining me on the
podcast.
Uh, is there anything elseyou'd like the listeners to
know?

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Just come see the play.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Awesome.
I will put in the show notesall the details on how to get
tickets and the location and uhyour contact information.
And uh I hope everyone goes andum watches the play.
I'm excited to to see it andhear all about uh the praise.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yes, um, I can't wait to see it.
Thank you so much for havingme.
Really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
You're welcome.

Speaker (14:44):
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to theFredericksburg Neighbors
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to FXBGNeighborsPodcast.com.
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