Deanne Farinha Eldridge
After many years of directing and performing in a variety of venues while starting a family and raising her 4 children, she founded FreeFall Stage (then known as THE Actor’s Workshop) in 2001. For the first 5 years the company focused on teaching and training high school students and producing 2 productions per year, before becoming a full time company in 2006.
Deedee has a passion for the art of theatre, to produce quality, often thought provoking, productions with a eye to excellence. She cannot settle with mediocre, and to that end is always on the cutting edge of training in the industry, whether teaching her classes to children and youth, or adults – and even with each of her adults casts in one way or another. Deedee enjoys the freedom to take risks — as in the 2014 production, She Has a Name, to raise awareness for the blight of human trafficking in our nation and around the world — which her low rent has afforded her to do. While she yearns for a place FreeFall can call their own, Deedee is grateful to do what she loves and meet and work with so many talented people living in the Sacramento region wherever we can produce “Theatre with a Spirit of Excellence.”
Emma Eldridge
Emma Eldridge has been working with FreeFall Stage since its inception in September 2002. She is recent graduate of California State University of Sacramento, with a B.S. in Business Administration. She plans to continue applying her degree to furthering the theatre’s growth and development in the years to come. She currently operates as FreeFall’s Chief Marketing Officer, Web Master, Administrator, and House Manager. In addition, she oversees all customer service relations, which includes managing the “house” during productions, as well as cast member relations and stage manager training.
On the stage, she has enjoyed playing a wide variety of characters (having appeared in 31 productions with FreeFall Stage and nominated for 2 Elly Awards), which include Harriet Smith in Emma, Slumtrimpet in Screwtape (a role she has reprised three times), Glinda in FreeFall Stage’s Original Musical of The Emerald City of Oz, The White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, Mabel Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, and Jo March in Little Women.
She is very proud to have directed FreeFall Stage’s 2014 production of the anti–trafficking drama She Has a Name (which is now on tour-2015-throughout California). She is honored to be a part of such a vital production that is spreading awareness and inspiring people to join the fight to end human trafficking in our lifetime. She thanks Mira Sorvino for her work in producing the mini series Human Trafficking, which exposed Emma for the first time to the realities of human trafficking; Break Free Run for everything they have done in regards to ending human trafficking and for the inspiration they have been to her, her family, the FreeFall Stage family, and the cast of She Has a Name.
Tana Colburn
Christopher Battles
Hannah Muldery
Hannah Muldery serves as our resident set artist and set design consultant. She holds her degree in Art/Illustration from the California State University of Sacramento and has illustrated a couple of published children’s books.
She is the founder and owner of Blue Egg Adventures, an art company specializing in pet portraits and original art prints. Her dream is to write and illustrate her own stories. Follow her Facebook and/or Instagram for updates & samples of her amazing work and/or see her Etsy Page to have your own Hannah Muldery original!
Tom Colburn
Craig Riley
In June of 2010, Craig made his debut with FreeFall Stage (it was called “Integral Theater Company” at the time) in the play, “Screwtape”. Several other productions followed, including a reprise of his role in “Screwtape”, as the titular demon himself. More productions led to more participation in the production process, so Craig started to assist with set building, prop procurement, etc. At the end of 2014 he took the relationship to next level, accepting an invitation to join the Board of Directors, where he hopes to contribute meaningfully to this excellent company for some time to come.