Meet our Core Team Members
Mallory Vance
Executive Director & Founder
She began penning her first stories almost as soon as she could write and wrote her first parody, to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, when she was seven. Her love of theater took only slightly longer to develop, coming on full force when her third grade teacher did a unit on plays. Rather than picking one for her group to perform Mallory wrote a show for her and her friends, and that was that. She filled notebook after notebook and then document after document with stories and scripts and song lyrics. She convinced--or in the case of her younger brother, coerced--her friends and family into performing her shows, singing songs, and shooting short films. In the early days Mallory was even in some of her productions, but she was never quite happy in the limelight. Then in 2009, at a Harry Potter fan conference in San Francisco, Mallory met Lena Gabrielle. Together they decided to write a full length musical adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Final Battle, and Mallory's passion for directing, was born. She founded Phoenix Tears Productions with Ginger Potter in 2014.
The rest, as they say, is history.
MEGAN MARKHAM
Artistic Director
Megan has been involved with Phoenix Tears since before the phoenix cried. In 2009 she auditioned for Mallory and Lena Gabrielle’s musical The Final Battle and was cast as Young Lily Evans. In the over ten years since then, they have graduated high school & college and been in over 15 productions with Phoenix Tears. She has written multiple shows with the company including The Witches, Stardust Kingdom, Infected, and Camp Alkeridge & has co-written The War, Fictional First Dates, and Patron’s Pick for Murder. Megan has a bachelors degree in Film and Art History from the University of Central Florida and they are passionate about being part of innovative “weird theater” including audio dramas and devised zoom shows.
Mary Hosford
Production Manager
She became involved with Phoenix Tears during their first official production, Marian: Lost in Fiction at LeakyCon 2014, her first ever convention. Having gone to Stephens College in Columbia, MO for a degree in Technical Theatre, she figured, what the hell, and that she'd much rather be working a show during the convention than just attending, and boy was she ever right. Fates turned in her favor when just a few months after LeakyCon she got a job as a Theatre Technician at Disney's Hollywood Studios and moved down to Orlando from her home state of Vermont--reuniting her once more with many of the Phoenix Tears crew. In the realm of theatre, Mary would consider herself a Jack of All Trades, although much of her experience is focused around lighting having worked as the Master Electrician for the Des Moines Metro Opera and Northern Stage. She has also spent time with the Utah Shakespeare Festival as an Audio Technician as well as the Tour Technical Director for their Educational Tour. Her passion in theatre, however, lies within the realm of Production Management so she is very pleased to be able to stretch that muscle and build those skills among friends with Phoenix Tears Productions. Solving problems and making things work despite the odds is her specialty--The Show Must Go On.
AMANDA Markham
Technical Director
They got heavily involved in the daily operations of Phoenix Tears in 2015 when the company produced its first “immersive audio drama”. She has been the designer of most of Phoenix Tear’s immersive audio dramas including The Witches, Horror in Headphones, The War, and Infected. She also designs audio for the company’s plays and musicals regularly. Outside of Phoenix Tears Productions, Amanda has worked at the Orlando Repertory theater since 2017 and currently is the Director of Production Technology there. They have been a venue tech for Orlando Fringe and won coveted awards like “Fringe Mini Crush” for her performance in a rabbit suit. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida for Game Design and occasionally puts on her acting shoes for roles like Ginny Weasley (Fan Fiction Theater) and Lyanna Mormont (Game of Tones).