One Small Splash for Women: WitchDuck Opens May 8th!!

Photo credit: Pixelstrike Creative

By Liv Wilson 

It’s 1706 in Norfolk, Virginia and Grace Sherwood is about to become the last woman to be ducked in North America. Roughly three hundred and fifteen years later, playwright Eva DeVirgilis is driving down I-64 when she sees a sign for Witchduck Road. Ever the curious soul, DeVirgilis does her research and discovers that “witchducking” was the practice of tying women up and throwing them into the water to test if they were witches. The last woman to be ducked in Virginia and North America was Grace Sherwood in 1706, in the Lynnhaven River, about nine miles from Eva’s home. Thus, the birth of WitchDuck. 

Shortly after Eva’s driving discovery, she began the year-long Pipeline New Works Fellowship through Cadence, under the mentorship of David Lindsay-Abaire. DeVirgilis pitched the idea and dove into research on early American history in the Tidewater area. WitchDuck brings this history to the surface combined with raucous, dark comedy and deep subversion, exposing the absurdity of power structures, while asking the audience to feel the costs of those structures. 

After the Pipeline Fellowship, DeVirgilis continued to work on the piece at Cadence’s first writer’s retreat held in the spring of 2025. And the world kept giving the play new relevance. Last fall, WitchDuck had a Pop-Up premiere co-produced by Firehouse and Cadence, where the piece was united with its director, Rebecca Wahls. Wahls describes, “The play expand[ing] and contract[ing] as Eva explored the balance of comedy and gut-punch that makes up WitchDuck.” The Pop-Up was the first opportunity to stage scenes without scripts in actors' hands, a pivotal experience in the development of a new work in progress. The play continued to change, adapt, and evolve. 

I asked Rebecca and Eva how the events of the last two years have informed this production of WitchDuck. Wahls notes that disturbing revelations and necessary reckonings of the last few years “keep reinforcing the importance of this play, which features eight woman, non-binary, and/or trans performers saying honest, sometimes scary, and mostly hilarious things live in public.” In the play, we see many of the characters become aware of their own indoctrination as the action progresses. Some rebel, and some don't. 

DeVirgilis states, “None of this is new. Powerful men who are drawn to young girls and threatened by women who have power. Systems that turn women against each other.

Women not being believed. Retaliation for speaking up. The pressure to be smaller, quieter. Women compromising themselves to stay in proximity to power, only to be used and dismissed. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. The systems that once labeled women as “witches” didn’t disappear, they just evolved.” 

Eva DeVirgilis (Playwright) / Role: Barry Mather) 
Photo Credit: Kate Styles Photography 

Cadence and Firehouse are bringing a new cast together to present the world premiere of WitchDuck opening May 8th. Actor Anna Sosa, who plays the role of Grace Sherwood, describes reading WitchDuck like, “experiencing dawn for the first time and then being consumed by it all at once.” I asked Anna what it’s like to step into the character of Grace, the last convicted witch. Anna shared her experience navigating what it means to be Filipina American. 

“Acknowledging my feelings on that complex subject surfaces thoughts that we are healers, we are connectors, we carry home with us wherever we go. I had to face the uncomfortable realization of just how much of my life I’ve been made to feel like those parts of me are weaknesses, and therefore I was disconnected to parts of myself. Those elements are, in fact, a source of power. Some might call it witchy or divine… To me, it’s simply the truth. And this is largely where I get to approach Grace Sherwood from. It is clear that we’re meeting Grace when she has to confront these kinds of questions, too.” 

WitchDuck is deeply rooted in the history of the Commonwealth and many of the women involved in telling this story are connected to lasting memories of this place. Rebecca Wahls grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia and like many, has passed the statue of Grace Sherwood in Virginia Beach more times than she could count without ever knowing her story. Rebecca notes, “They didn't exactly put it in an easily accessible location, which really tracks, doesn't it?” 

Anna Sosa was born and raised in Norfolk, where she still lives now with her husband. Sosa recalls thinking the names were very random as a kid, before “realizing we are still connected to our history in very tangible ways.” She reflects, “There are names and faces and whole lives connected to that street called Witchduck Road, the road I take to get to my favorite garden center. Or how about Sherwood Forest Elementary, where my little sister went to school. Those lives shape the land we live on today.” 

Anna Sousa (Grace Sherwood) 

Eva DeVirgilis grew up in Pennsylvania hearing about Plymouth Rock up North, but since moving to the area during the pandemic, has been exposed to much more Virginia history, from Indigenous communities being displaced by the arrival of Christopher Newport to the White Lion bringing the first enslaved Africans to these shores. DeVirgilis notes, “All of these things happened on the soil on which I wrote this play. We’re steeped in history here, much of it unresolved. I can’t reckon with all of it in an hour and a half on stage, but I do feel a responsibility to bring a new voice and perspective to stories that have been told, and too often forgotten.” 

Okay, so, this play sounds pretty cool. Comedy, witches, history. But who is it for? The short answer: pretty much everybody. Eva says, “I wrote this for anyone who’s ever felt silenced or othered… I want it to be a total party, with people dressing in their witchiest best. I want people to laugh, but I also want that laugh to catch in their throat a little. I want people to feel seen… [and] leave entertained, but also asking harder questions about power, voice, and who gets believed.” Eva adds, “And I hope it reminds us that we don’t have to turn on each other, that the real work is to reach toward one another and build community.” 

Wahls shares her dream, “to see how this play would be received by an audience of women and those of other marginalized genders regardless of political views. I am curious as to whether that experience would incite, heal, or both.” Finally, Sosa notes, “WitchDuck is for the friends, loved ones, frenemies, and actual Feminists in your life. And yes, I am looking at you, my fellow Virginians. This is for anyone who has wanted to dance in the forest in the moonlight, but can’t get to one or could do without the bugs. Or bears.”

Rebecca Wahls (Director) 
Photo credit: DJ Corey

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to laugh with my whole belly and dance in the forest under the moonlight.WitchDuck, written by Eva DeVirgilis, directed by Rebecca Wahls, runs May 8–24, 2026 (preview night on the 7th) at The Carol Piersol Stage at Firehouse Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.