115. Abigail Adams and Marcia Saunders at People's Light

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Abigail Adams has been associated with People’s Light for 50 years as an actor, playwright, and director. As an Associate Artistic Director to the company’s co-founder Danny Fruchter, she established the New Voices Ensemble at People’s Light in 1990. She was Co-Artistic Director of the company (with Stephen Novelli) in the years 1993-1997, became Artistic Director in 1997, and was named Executive Artistic Director from 2013-2022.

Over this entire period Abbey has directed more than sixty plays at People’s Light, including Our Town, The Matchmaker, The Cherry Orchard, The Rainmaker, The Trip to Bountiful, Nathan the Wise - plus Morning’s at Seven and In the Blood (both of which wond Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play). Abbey served for ten years on the faculty of Swarthmore College and has also taught Alexander Technique at New York University, Bryn Mawr College, Carnegie Mellon University, and The Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. More recently at People's Light she has directed such plays as Birthday Candles, Off By One, The Children, Lettie and The Vinegar Tree.

Marcia Saunders has been a company member at PLTC from 1976, performing roles in almost a hundred productions - including Cora in Mornings at Seven, Nancy in Grand Horizons, Hazel in The Children, Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own, Mrs. Jennings in Sense and Sensibility, Stella in Stella and Lou, Mrs. Bennet in Pride & Prejudice, Dotty in Noises Off, Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.

She received Barrymore nominations for many of these roles, but it was playing Claire in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance that garnered Marcia a 2002 Best Supporting Actress award. She also won an Emmy Award for TEACHER TV on The Discovery Channel.

Marcia made her directorial debut with Steel Magnolias at Candlelight Theater in Delaware, and performed in The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at the Atlantic Theatre Co. in New York. Locally, she has also worked at the Wilma, the Arden Theatre, Two Rivers Theater, and at Quintessence Theater. She is married to the director and stage fight choreographer Charles Conwell.