Quick Details
Save the Dates for our Victorian Horrors theater program where deathly tales written by well-known but long-gone authors are read by acclaimed local actors in a one hour program. In 2026 we will host Victorian Horrors over two weekends (Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays) starting October 15.
Event Tickets
$ 35.27
Meet This Season’s Actors!
Julia Elstun Payne has performed in and coordinated the talent for Victorian Horrors since its first season over thirty years ago. She served for three years as Artistic Director for Christian Youth Theatre, worked on staff in the Education Department at the Arvada Center for six years, and has taught theatre, directed, and performed throughout the Metro area. You may also have seen her in commercials and industrial videos. Julia also works locally as an audio describer.
David Payne has appeared in almost every year of Victorian Horrors’ long run beginning with reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He has served as director, producer, actor, playwright, and teacher throughout the region since 1980. His work has spanned the Arvada Center, Town Hall Arts Center, Colorado Renaissance Festival, PHAMALy, and The Aurora Fox. He was the theatre instructor at the Logan School for Creative Learning for twenty-five years, technical director for Community College of Aurora, Mizel Arts and Culture Center, a theatre teacher at Grandview High School, and is currently the Technical Director for Lakewood High School.
Casey Andree is delighted to return to Victorian Horrors! He has acted around the Denver theatre community for a decade, including four seasons at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, many shows with BETC, and credits with Miners Alley, Town Hall Arts Center, and Cherry Creek Theatre, among others. He loves horror fiction and builds online learning experiences after a decade as a math educator in Denver Public Schools.
A Colorado native (born in Fort Morgan), Jim Hunt has worked in area theatres, as an actor and director, for over fifty-five years. He is an artistic company member at Curious Theatre, as well as an ensemble member at BETC (Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company). Favorite recent roles include Reverend Tooker in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (DCPA Theatre Company), Fred in Downstate (Curious Theatre Company), Aslaksen in An Enemy of the People (BETC), Mr. Oldfield in The Minutes (Curious Theatre Company), and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Miners Alley Playhouse). Jim appears often in Stories on Stage and haunts the Molly Brown House & Museum at Halloween, usually portraying HG Wells during Victorian Horrors, an event he co-created with David and Julie Payne over thirty years ago. For eleven years, he directed the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Henry Awards Ceremony and in 2013 received their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Trina Magness has been haunting the Molly Brown House since the late 1990s, beginning her tenure playing Mary Shelley reading from Frankenstein. While Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper remain her favorite works to bring to life in the house, she is thrilled to portray the legend herself, Mrs. Margaret Brown, for the very first time. Notable Denver theater credits include Spirits to Enforce (The Intoxicator/Dale Clark), Failure: A Love Story (Gertrude Fail — Westword Best Supporting Actress in a Drama), and Macbeth (First Witch — Denver Post Ovation Award for Best Ensemble). Offstage, Trina inspires the next generation of performers full-time as a drama teacher at Ranch View Middle School.
John Wittbrodt is thrilled to be back for another year of Victorian Horrors at the Molly Brown House. John is a local actor and musician who has been active in and around Denver since graduating from CU Boulder in 2016. He loves coming back each fall to share Edgar Allan Poe’s weird and whimsical work in the treasured time capsule of the Molly Brown House. Should you run into him after the show or elsewhere, he loves pepperoni pizza.