Page 35 - The Hunt - Fall 2024

I like to present plays that start a conversation or make people feel good.
—Matt Silva,
Delaware Theatre Company
students who were professional actors elsewhere,” says Ernst, who frequently leases out his mellifluous voice for voiceover work.
When the calls from UD came in 2008, Ernst waited a few more years for the sake of his children’s schooling, then returned to Newark with his wife, Sandy, also a professional actor, who currently serves as associate producing artistic director at UD. Heflin, meanwhile, quickly decided to change companies. “Most REPs were doing eight shows
a week and working year-around,” she says. “I had a 3-year-old daughter, and UD was doing five shows a week following the school schedule. We also have holidays off.”
While no two stories are alike, Heflin’s and Ernst’s acting sojourns are generally similar to those of other professional performers, directors and administrators who form the backbone of the Brandywine Valley region’s three primary regional theater companies—careers that, in their early days, crisscrossed the country as jobs became available and career advancements beckoned.
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