Stage Guild Continues 40th Season With ACCUSED!

Accused! – the third play in Patricia Milton's The Victorian Ladies Detective trilogy (which also included The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective and Escape from the Asylum) - will continue The Washington Stage Guild's 40th Season of Determination. Accused! includes returning performers from the two previous plays in the series, Maddie Baylor, Steven Carpenter, Jen Furlong and Laura Giannarelli, along with Ta'Neesha Murphy, making her WSG debut, directed by Victorian Ladies trilogy director Morgan Duncan. Performances run November 20 to December 14, 2025, with four Pay-What-You-Can previews November 20-22 at the Washington Stage Guild's home, The Undercroft Theatre in the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Opening/Press performance is Sunday, November 23 at 2:30pm.

[While Patricia Milton's Accused! is the final play in a trilogy, the play stands alone for audiences to enjoy regardless of whether they've seen the prior two works. Washington Stage Guild is planning to have Pay-What-You-Can readings of The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective and Escape from the Asylum during the run of Accused! – more details to follow.]

The Victorian Ladies ARE BACK – and yes, there's another murder. The tenacious Detective Collective, sisters Loveday and Valeria, with American actress Katie, take on a new murder case to sleuth. Soon, the clues lead them into a dangerous web of anarchists and religious fanatics, immigrants being scapegoated, and ultimately Katie accused as the prime suspect. It's their most daring caper yet! Welcoming back Stage Guild's Escape from the Asylum cast (plus one new addition) and director. Area Premiere.

Patricia Milton is Resident Playwright at Central Works Theater in Berkeley, Ca, and her plays have been produced around the world. Her productions at Central Works include Bamboozled (Outstanding Production, East Bay, and Outstanding Ensemble, Theatre Bay Area), Hearts of Palm, Reduction in Force, The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective (BroadwayWorld Critics Choice "Best of Maine" 2022, at The Public Theater), Escape from the Asylum (Outstanding Production, 2022, SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle), and Accused!. Enemies: Foreign and Domestic (Central Works) was awarded Outstanding World Premiere Play by Theatre Bay Area. Her audio plays are Bystanders (Central Works) and The Law of Attraction (New Conservatory Theater Center, San Francisco). Without Mercy was commissioned and produced by Off-Broadway West. Her comedy Believers was produced in San Francisco (Wily West Productions) and in Istanbul, Turkey.

The cast of Accused! includes returning performers from both The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective and Escape from the Asylum, Maddie Baylor, Steven Carpenter, Jen Furlong, Laura Giannarelli, as well as Ta'Neesha Murphy, making her WSG debut.

Maddie Baylor made her D.C. theatre debut in last season's Escape From the Asylum. She is a recent graduate of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she earned a degree in both English literature and theatre. At her alma mater, she found many opportunities to take to the stage in shows such as Julius Caesar, Pride and Prejudice, The Play That Goes Wrong, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical, and Twelfth Night. When Maddie is not working onstage, she is immersing herself in other positions within the theatre world. Most recently, she worked at Ford's Theatre as the script supervisor for their production of The American Five. Maddie is excited to be returning to the Washington Stage Guild for their final installment of the Victorian Ladies trilogy! WSG Associate Artistic Director Steven Carpenter performed most recently in last season's Escape from the Asylum, and the season prior in The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective. Also with WSG, Ben Butler, Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, Bloomsday, Hard Times, Pygmalion, and The Philanderer (Helen Hayes Award nomination) along with numerous others. His directing credits include this season's The One Good Thing, as well as Faithless, An Unbuilt Life, Major Barbara, Sam & Dede, Resolving Hedda, Red Herring, Opus, and The Underpants, among others. Other area productions include God of Carnage at Compass Rose, The Cripple of Inishmaan at 1st Stage, The Price and ART at Bay Theatre, Barrymore, Hysteria, and Trumbo for Rep Stage, and The Chosen at Theater J. He received a Helen Hayes nomination for his production of Thief River at Theatre Alliance and was a recipient of the Mary Goldwater Award for Directing. A third Helen Hayes nomination came for providing the onstage sound effects for the Guild's It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Jen Furlong is delighted to return to WSG to reprise the role of Loveday in the Victorian Ladies play series. Prior to the VLDC, her previous credits include An Enemy of the People at Greenbriar Valley Theatre opposite Stuart Margolin and plays at Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre, Rep Stage, Everyman Theatre, Theatre IV, Arena Stage, Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre and American Century Theatre and Circus Millennia. Jen is the author of the bestselling YA supernatural adventures Hidden City and Tattooed Angel, the middle grade series Meredith's World and picture book Mrs. Cheesely Loves Cheese. She co-wrote the yet-to-premiere theatrical circus Circus of Night with Neil Gaiman. Laura Giannarelli (Valeria Hunter) is excited to return to the world of these intrepid Victorian lady detectives, having played Valeria in both The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective! and last season's Escape from the Asylum. A founding member of the company, Laura has appeared in more than 40 Stage Guild productions over the past three decades, beginning with Chekhov in Yalta in our inaugural season. She has also acted with many other area theatres over the years: Baltimore's Everyman Theatre, Olney Theatre, The Kennedy Center (Theatre for Young Audiences), GALA Hispanic Theatre, Theater J, Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre, Wayside Theatre in Virginia and Annapolis Shakespeare Company, among others. She also directs and helmed last season's Shaw's Shorts and the 2023-24 season opener, Dorothy's Dictionary by E.M. Lewis, among others. A narrator since 1979 for the Library of Congress' “Talking Books for the Blind” Program, Laura has recorded over 1400 books. She received an Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award from American Foundation for the Blind, and a Mary Goldwater award for her acting from DC's Theatre Lobby. Ta'Neesha Murphy is a Washington D.C. native and SUNY Purchase BFA Acting Alumni. She is excited to be joining the Victorian Ladies trilogy with its twists and turns. Ta'Neesha has been a cast member in the world premiere of Cullud Wattah at The Public as the understudy for Reesee and Plum, as well as originated the role of Marlene in Theatre Rows showcase of Gas. With a past TV credit on Random Acts of Flyness (recurring/HBO) and an upcoming feature film credit in Angie by Mirta Desir. Accused is Ta'Neesha's DC theatre debut, an exciting moment as a DC native.

Accused! is directed by Morgan Duncan, a frequent collaborator with Stage Guild, recently seen in Shaw's Shorts. Morgan Duncan has done 20 shows with the Washington Stage Guild since The Marriage of Figaro in 1988 through Shaw's Shorts in 2024 as an actor and directing Escape from the Asylum and The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective over the last two seasons. He holds a BFA from Howard University and has performed regionally at theaters like the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. Locally, he has performed at Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Round House Theater, Everyman Theatre, and others. He was a long-time member of the Capitol Steps.