Patty Hardee is the Artistic Director of a small theater based in a rural Virginia county in the Blue Ridge foothills about 65 miles west of Washington DC. In the early 1980s she began attending stand-up open mics in DC and honed her comedy into a one-woman show, "The New Wave Woman is Flying Scared" which she performed in DC, Baltimore and New Smyrna Beach, Florida. This launched her into sketch comedy and improvisational murder mysteries. She was a member of The Source Theater company in DC. And was a long-time company member of Murder Upon Request. After moving to Rappahannock County, Virginia, in the mid-2000s to help her husband establish a vineyard, she joined the Rappahannock Assn for Arts and Community theatre. She has appeared in Proof, Uncle Vanya, Arcadia, The Dining Room, A Christmas Carol, Annie, and You Can't Take it with You. She has directed The Good Doctor; The Odd Couple; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Animal Farm; Harvey, and numerous children's productions. She studied acting at the Studio Theater and Shakespeare Theater Company in DC and with Eric Morris in LA and New York. She studied improv with Sylvia Toone, Gary Jacobs, Arena Stage, and ComedySportz in DC.