Board of Directors

2020/21 Board of Directors

Joseph Sorge, Artistic Director
Joe first joined VLOC in February 1996, when he went on stage as Count Raoul de St. Brioche in The Merry Widow. He is responsible for starting the September concert series, bringing rarely performed works to the Fitzgerald stage, such as Mlle. Modiste, The Desert Song, Naughty Marietta, The Grand Duke, and John Philip Sousa’s operettas Desirée, El Capitan, The American Maid, and The Charlatan . He has also broadened the repertoire of VLOC in its fully staged productions outside the standard Gilbert & Sullivan canon by introducing works by Offenbach (La Belle Helene, La Vie Parisienne), Strauss (The Gypsy Baron), and Donizetti (The Elixir of Love). In 2011, Maestro Sorge was awarded “Best Conductor” for The Mikado at The Gettysburg International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival. On December 23, 2012, Maestro Sorge took the podium as a guest conductor at the annual Messiah Sing-Along at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Joe has now conducted all 13 existing Gilbert & Sullivan operettas ... many more than once.

Helen Aberger, President
Helen is a resident of Rockville, MD by way of Miami, FL, originally from Pennington, NJ. She graduated from University of Miami's Frost School of Music with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and a minor in English, her principal instrument being oboe. She has been a fundraiser for non-profit arts organizations including Florida Grand Opera, Studio Theatre, Washington Performing Arts and currently works as Development Operations Manager for Round House Theatre. Helen first engaged with VLOC in Summer 2013 and has since been an assistant director, choreographer, chorus member, and most recently stage directed Princess Ida. See her work at www.helenabergerdirector.com.

Bill Rogers, Vice President
Bill spent 24 years as a commissioned officer in the Coast Guard and has extensive experience at sea performing law enforcement, search and rescue, and military operations. When not underway, he had leadership roles in strategic planning, human resources management and organizational process assessment. Since retiring in 2008, he has worked as a defense contractor. He has appeared in every VLOC production since The Yeomen of the Guard in 2014 and has led set construction, load, and strike since 2015. Previously, he spent 7 years volunteering with the Musical Theater Center as a set builder and production run crew and has sung in 10 different church choirs since 1978 (the Coast Guard kept moving him).

Blair Eig, Treasurer
Blair has been performing with VLOC for over 20 years and served as the company’s president for the past 10 years. Blair has led VLOC in the development of its strategic plan under which the company has significantly expanded its repertoire and community outreach. Other VLOC accomplishments during this time have been the merger with The Forgotten Opera Company and development of a firmer financial base. It’s been an incredible group effort and he’s been honored to be on the ride. Outside of performing, building sets and his VLOC board work, Blair does have a family - a wonderful 40-year marriage, three great children and three grandchildren- and a job - chief medical officer for Holy Cross Health. He has a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a masters of business administration from American University.

Jane Maryott, Secretary
Jane joined VLOC in 2005 and has served on the Board as Member at Large and as Secretary for several years. During her time with VLOC she has, in addition to performing, choreographed, painted sets, managed props for many shows (and sometimes all of the above), valeted a teddy bear and generally done whatever needs to be done to – literally - get the show on the road. She would like to see the company continue to produce high quality productions and grow new audiences over and above our traditional constituency.

Rishabh Bajekal
Rishabh has been performing in some capacity or the other since his big break in the first grade as the titular Christopher Columbus in Christopher Columbus Gets His First Compass. Rishabh made his VLOC debut in 2016 as Thaddeus in The Bohemian Girl. Since then he has also appeared as Nanki-Poo in The Mikado and Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow. Recently, Rishabh took on the role of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar with Little Theatre of Alexandria. When he is not performing, Rishabh works as an analyst for a local bank, which is a fancy way of saying he makes slides with a variety of charts and graphs. On a serious note, he is thrilled to use his passion for music and his business background to strengthen the VLOC Board.

Bonnie Barrows
Bonnie has played violin since the fifth grade, sung in choirs and served as a cantor in area churches for over 30 years, and played as a member of concert and pit orchestras (including Damascus Theatre Company, Potomac Theatre Company, Rockville Music Theatre, and Har Shalom Players) for almost as long. She has had the pleasure of playing as part of VLOC's orchestra since around 1986. Over the past several years, she has provided support as a musical director (including composing and arranging music) and assistant director for several local community theater productions. She and her husband, Tom Jameson, are avid Halloween fans, build props from scratch, and set up a memorable yard display to entertain the ToTs (trick or treaters) every year.

Michael Beder
Michael Beder grew up in Montgomery County, graduating from Winston Churchill High School (where he got his first significant exposure to the theater). He returned to the D.C. area after college and soon entered Georgetown Law. More importantly, he joined the Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society, where he stage managed four shows, has worked as an ASM and/or on the lights crew for many more, and even performed a few times, in addition to serving a year as the group's Tech Director and two years as an alumni representative on the GG&SS board. With the encouragement of GG&SS members with VLOC experience, he tried out for VLOC's 2015 production of Ruddigore, was fortunate enough to be cast as one of the Sirs Despard, and has been delighted to continue performing with the company - and serving on the Board - since then. He remains a bit miffed that no one told him about VLOC in all the years he grew up in the area and has tried to spread the word, including through some of the videos available on VLOC's YouTube channel offering a peek behind the scenes of some of the company's recent productions. By day, he is a communications lawyer.

Ross Capon
Ross is a native of Newton, Massachusetts. Music composition major at University of Illinois (Urbana/Champaign) but after a semester switched to international affairs (history major; economics, music minors). Led Rail Passengers Association from 1975-2014, now president emeritus. Since 2014, he was a Washington Representative for American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, VLOC pianist / string bassist. Completed orchestrations of overture, opening number, finales in Sousa's Chris and the Wonderful Lamp. From research at Library of Congress, recreated first ending in Bohemian Girl Act II finale, enabling VLOC to replicate intense beauty of Bonynge's recording. Created piano part for the "Godfrey" ending to Gondoliers overture. Did surtitles for Gypsy Baron.

Bob Gudauskas
Bob has been a resident of Rockville for over 10 years after moving from his hometown of Glastonbury, CT. Starting out as an auto salesperson just out of high school, Bob then focused on a career as an IT manager before finding the perfect fit as a sales executive for a tech company in Gaithersburg. Bob joined VLOC in 2017 with his first exposure to Gilbert and Sullivan in The Mikado, and has since performed in many more productions with the company.

Amanda Jones
Amanda has been involved with VLOC since 2013 when she joined the ensemble of Iolanthe. Since then she has been in 10 stage productions and has served on the board of directors for 5 years. She lives with her husband and daughter in North Bethesda, MD. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from The College of William and Mary. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Nursing from Johns Hopkins University. When not on stage, she works full time as a Nurse Practitioner at The National Institutes of Health, studying rare lung diseases.

Stevie Miller
Stevie was born and raised in Maryland, and has been acting and singing since her elementary school days. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from Bryn Mawr College as well as acting certificates from The William Esper Studio and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She joined VLOC in 2012 as a member of the ensemble in the Trial by Jury/The Sorcerer double bill. Her subsequent appearances with VLOC include Iolanthe, The Red Mill, The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Gondoliers. Her other local performances include Twelfth Night with Laurel Mill Playhouse, My Fair Lady with the Potomac Theatre Company, 55th Old Time Music Hall with The British Players, and various film and TV projects. She worked in banking and real estate in a former life but now teaches voice, piano, and drama, in addition to being a staff singer at Bethesda Presbyterian Church.

Joshua Milton
Josh has a BA from Harvard College with a degree in English and American Literature. A financial advisor and insurance agent, Josh has appeared in over 20 VLOC productions since 2010, most recently as Guron in Princess Ida. Previously he was the chair of VLOC's development and fundraising efforts. He currently serves on the Forgotten Opera Company Subcommittee. Josh has written many parody lyrics for VLOC, including co-writing the Major General's encore verse in the 2014 VLOC production of The Pirates of Penzance. Josh and his wife Suzanne have two children who love music, Sam and Anabel.

Deb Peetz
Deb lives in Arlington, Virginia and has been making the commute to Rockville, and various rehearsal locations in Maryland/DC, for 20+ years. Over the years she has enjoyed performing with VLOC in stage/concert/community outreach productions, building/painting sets, building costumes, and any other “duties as assigned.” Recent retirement means more time to devote to the things she enjoys most and one of these is VLOC, with a desire to learn and contribute more to grant writing, fundraising, and publicity. Education background in history, political science, sociology, psychology, and library science (BA, MA, MLS). The study of history, sociology, and psychology are what seems to make G&S so interesting! Latest work experience involved online searches and information gathering and dissemination for various US Navy related projects with policy and shipbuilding focus. I look forward to more and continued involvement with the Company.

Kent Woods
Kent lives in Silver Spring, MD and has been a member of VLOC since 1988. He previously served on the VLOC Board in the 1990's, and, for a couple of years in the mid-nineties, he was VLOC's President. He places great value on the community aspects of civic theater, and believes that VLOC has been very successful in building a community that welcomes new members while valuing the contributions of its many longtime members. He strongly supports the innovations that VLOC has made in recent years by expanding its range of repertoire (including new works), promoting its productions through social media, and more actively engaging in fundraising through donation campaigns and grant applications. As a retired Federal attorney, he has the time and energy to help VLOC build its reputation as a leading theater company in the DMV while continuing to maintain its community ideals.

Denise Young
Denise Young is a Washington DC native; attended the University of Maryland studying voice before stumbling into banking as a career. At present she is a branch office administrator for a branch of a national investment company. She has always pent her spare time performing and designing costumes for a variety of groups around the DC area but her theater home is VLOC. Denise’s introduction to VLOC was as a costumer and replacement Grisette in the 1996 production of The Merry Widow and has been involved in every show but two since – as costumer, producer, performer, even stage manager once.