Meet our Creative Team
Kari Kitts
Artistic Director
Kari is an actor and writer and has been performing since she was a child and even as the leader of The Waltzing Mice she knew the best place to be was onstage making people smile. She spent summers as a girl working in the Rose Center Summer Players mounting full scale musicals with a youth cast in a single month. She attended Milligan College where she performed in such shows as Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet (Player Queen) and The Lady and the Tiger(Barbaric Princess). She graduated from Emory & Henry College with a B.A. in Theatre. Shows while at Emory & Henry included Touch (Serena), Translations (Sara), The Actor’s Nightmare (Ellen) and The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Sunny). Kari apprenticed for two summers at Barter Theatre and performed in The Sword and the Stone, Just So Stories, The Frog Prince with The Barter Players and on the Mainstage in Eleanor: An American Love Story. Kari loves improv and has trained with The Second City. In the past year Kari has appeared several virtual productions outside of VRTC including It’s a Wonderful Life (Ruth Darkin Bailey) with Fauquier Community Players, It’s a Wonderful Life (Mary Hatch Bailey)with Bakersfield Community Theatre, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (March Hare) with Sterling Playmakers and Virtually Ever After (The Girl) with Gallery Players. As a blogger at The He Said She Said Expeirence she’s enjoyed covering the arts, events and interviewing Olympic athletes and performers. Kari lives in Northern Virginia and loves Taylor Swift. Her biggest passion is being the artistic director for VRTC and creating shows with amazing company members.
Mitchell Macdonald
Mitchell most recently graced the stage as the Narrator for Sterling Playmakers’ production of Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. He has also maintained a regular presence with the Playmakers’ Virtual Play Reading project over the past year – taking on roles including Shrek in Shrek: The Musical, Mr. Lawton in Defamation and Torvald in A Doll’s House. Mitchell additionally has served in several production roles with the Reston Community Players, most recently as Stage Manager for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder and Sound Board Operator for Time Stands Still. He attended the University of Mary Washington, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Theatre under the tutelage of Gregg Stull and Helen Housley. Born in Chantilly and currently living in Herndon, he is a proud Northern Virginia resident.
Fred Cremer
Fred Cremer has had a lifelong love of both music and theatre, begun at a young age by trips with his grandmother to see melodrama theatre productions and Christmas performances of The Nutcracker ballet. After being a part of orchestras, bands, and choirs throughout school, he went on to study vocal music at UC Santa Barbara, where he got the chance to perform in two operas (La Bohėme and Don Giovanni) with Opera Santa Barbara. After college, he joined his church’s Chancel Choir as well as Highest Rung and Carillons of Praise, both handbell choirs. Past theatre credits include Camelot (Sir Sagramore), A Christmas Carol (Bob Cratchit), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (St. Aphrodisius), Jekyll & Hyde (Sir Archibald Proops), The Music Man (Oliver Hix), and Man of La Mancha (Dr. Carrasco). He has also been involved in two prior virtual productions in the last year, Dracula! (Jonathan Harker) and It’s a Wonderful Life (Potter, Mr. Gower, Ernie). When Fred is not performing, he is a pastry chef, and eagerly trying to find new flavors of cheesecake to try out.
Jason Dollar
Jason’s love for acting began at the age of six when he was cast as City Father of Munchkinland in the North of the River stage production of The Wizard of Oz. His passion for acting eventually led him to pursuing a Bachelors in Theater. He graduated from Actors, Models, Talent for Christ in the summer of 2015, a yearlong intensive acting and modeling program where individuals showcase their talents to casting agents and representatives from talent agencies. It was through this program that Jason learned such skills as the business side of acting, modeling, improvisation, scene analysis, and even stand-up comedy. Jason has also worked with a master acting coach in a Hollywood audition bootcamp. Some of Jason’s notable achievements include receiving Command Performance at a fine arts competition for a humanvideo solo and humanvideo group; Ham and Rye scholarship recipient from the faculty at Cal State Bakersfield; an Irene Ryan nominee for acting and stage management; and one of four individuals out of 750 performers to receive a trip stipend to Regent University at AMTC Summer Shine 2015. His favorite roles include Prince Humperdink in The Princess Bride, Mr Green in Clue, He in The Lovliest Afternoon of the Year, Andrew in I Knew Him, Jack the Ripper in Premeditated, Fred Gailey in Miracle on 34th Street. When Jason isn’t acting it can be assumed that he is listening to 80s music, watching movies or playing board games with his wife and three children.
