the Firehouse Team

Leadership

Nathaniel Shaw
PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Nathaniel Shaw is the Producing Artistic Director for the Firehouse Theatre. He was the Founding Artistic Director for The New Theatre, served as Artistic Director for Virginia Repertory Theatre, and was the founding Artistic Director for The Active Theater (NYC). He was the inaugural New Play Development Director for Glass Half Full Productions, Tony and Olivier Award Winning Producers of Betrayal and was an Associate Choreographer for Once, supervising both the Broadway production and the First National Tour.

Richmond directing credits include the world premiere of Memories of Overdevelopment and the US premiere of The Barber Of Moville at Firehouse (Richmond Theatre Community Circle Award for Outstanding Original Work), Peter and the Starcatcher, the world premiere of The End of War (winner of 4 RTCC Awards), the world premiere of River Ditty (in collaboration with Glass Half Full Productions), In The Heights starring Arielle Jacobs with Choreography by Karla Garcia (winner of 5 RTCC Awards including Best Direction), West Side Story (RTCC Award for Best Musical), The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, The 39 Steps, and Once (Co-Produced with The Fulton Theatre).
Contact Nathaniel at nathaniel@firehousetheatre.org

Our Staff

Katrinah Carol Lewis
Associate Artistic Director

Katrinah is a multifaceted theatre artist dedicated to creating compelling, activating theatre in service of a more empathetic world. She is the former artistic director of museum theatre for Colonial Williamsburg and former associate artistic director of TheatreLAB. Katrinah is an associate faculty member at SPARC, a regular featured vocalist at Unity of Richmond and has been a devoted theatre maker in Richmond, Virginia for over 20 years onstage and off. She’s been nominated for 16 acting and directing awards by the Richmond Theatre Community Circle and is extremely grateful to do the work of her heart.

Todd LaBelle
Director of Production/Producer of Resident Programming

Todd has been working with Firehouse Theatre for the past eight seasons. He received his degree in Directing and Production Management from UArts in Philadelphia. He has worked with many regional companies in a variety of places for a few decades as well as two summers training with the SITI Co. He has worked in a variety of roles on over 150 productions. He has had the privilege of working with companies such as The Lantern Theatre, Walnut Theatre, Lyric Stage, BCKSeat Prod, Theatre Revolution, and The Virginia Opera. As a theatre maker, Todd has functioned as a producer, director, scenic, lighting, and sound designer, actor, clown, and prop. Some past credits include Rock and Roll Fantasy, The Goodbye Girl, Songs from Bedlam, Melancholy Echo, The Bookfinder, Windshield Poems (dir), Ghost Quartet, Private Lives, Julie Monster, Angels in America, Water by the Spoonful (designer).

Emily Vial
Technical Director/Production Coordinator

Emily has been with Firehouse Theatre for last four years with favorite productions including Gabriel, War in Pieces, and Peter and the Starcatcher. She has worked with RVABaroque on the production of their new Opera Julie, Monster, for the VA Arts Fringe Festival in Norfolk, and with Virginia Musical Theatre on their production of La Cage Aux Folles. She earned her degree in Theatre from Virginia Wesleyan University in 2018 with focus in Theatre Production, and returned to Richmond to join the Firehouse team where she now serves as Technical Director.

Allison Polson
Communications Manager

Allison is a multi-faceted marketing professional with a passion for accessibility in the arts. After graduating from Emerson College in Boston with a Dean's Scholarship and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Administration, she went on to work in the Marketing departments for such theatre companies as Actors Theatre of Louisville and Virginia Repertory Theatre. Additionally, she is currently pursuing an American Sign Language Interpretation Associate of Applied Sciences degree from J. Sargeant Reynolds, and expects to graduate May 2025.

Grace Brown LaBelle
Production Associate/AV Supervisor

Grace has been an active member of the RVA theatre and dance scenes for the past 7 seasons as a sound designer, director, and stage manager. They hold an Associates of Fine Arts in Technical Theatre from Brightpoint Community College and they are the A/V Supervisor at Firehouse Theatre, as well as a regular collaborator for the touring company of Aura Curi-Atlas Physical Theatre and West End Academy of Dance. Some favorite productions they’ve worked on at Firehouse include Stupid Kid (Season 27/2019), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Season 28/2020), Ghost Quartet (Season 29/2022), Berta Berta (Season 30/2023), and more recently Peter and The Starcatcher (Season 31/2024).

Amy Messer
Controller/Director of Finance & Administration:
Richmond Performing Arts Alliance