Our Mission
The Realm Company exists to reimagine ballet for the modern era. We create and perform original works that fuse rigorous classical technique with contemporary themes, original live or recorded musical scores, and storytelling that speaks to the full complexity of adult human experience. Our company is proudly adult-focused - in our performers, our creative direction, and. our audience - ensuring an environment of artistic maturity and depth.
Our Vision
We envirion a world where ballet is not a relic of the past, but a living, breathing art form that dares to evolve. The Realm Company strives to be a leading voice in avant-garde movement, a home for fearless choreographers and composers, and an institution that elevates Los Angeles as a global center for innovative performing arts.
Meet the Board
Beth Broderick
Beth Broderick is a thirty -five year veteran of the stage and screen. She is known world-wide for her role as “Aunt Zelda” in the long running hit series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”. She has also appeared in over 47 Feature and Made for Television films, most recently in Hallmark’s “Holiday Mismatch” and NETFLIX “The Merry Gentlemen”. Beth has also performed on stages in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin.
Beth is widely recognized for her work as a philanthropist and community organizer. She co-founded MOMENTUM, a program for people with AIDS, in the mid-eighties and has worked with The Good Shepherd home for Women and Children for over 35 consecutive years. She is a dedicated supporter of the arts, lending her time and talent whenever possible to help nascent organizations achieve their dreams.
Beth is a prolific writer Her Column “Wit and Wisdom (bethbroderick.substack.com) has well over 5,000 subscribers. She Has also written for other publications including most notably The Huffington Post.
Beth is looking forward to serving as the President of the Board of Directors for The Realm Company. She has faith in their mission of making classical dance more accessible to a wide variety of audiences, young and old, from every economic strata, those who are new to dance as well as veteran aficionados. Beth is looking forward to helping this wildly talented team build a future that will bring their artistry to the forefront of dance in Los Angeles and beyond
Dean McVay
Dean McVay is an attorney and a partner with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith since 2003, in their San Bernardino office, where he practices civil litigation in the Healthcare Practice Group. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of La Verne College of Law in Ontario, California, where he has taught since 1996. Mr. McVay is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Psychology in 1987. He then graduated from Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1990 and moved to Southern California to begin the practice of law. He has been a resident of Upland, California, since 2000.
Dean has been a member of the Realm Board of Directors since 2024. He volunteers as a Board Member in several other California non-profit organizations. He served with the San Bernardino Symphony Board of Directors since 2004 and served as President of the Board from 2017 to 2022. He also serves as a board member of the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association (President, 2012-2013; Board Member 2009-present; Vice President 2023; President-Elect 2024 to present); San Bernardino County Museum Association (President 2017-18; Immediate Past President 2018-19; Vice President 2020-present); Association of California Symphony Orchestras (Board Member; Secretary; Vice President 2019-2021; Conference Chair 2022-2023); Dignity Health Inland Empire Foundation (Board Member and prior Vice-Chair); The Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino (Board Member 2018 to present); University of La Verne Senate (Senator for the College of Law 2020 to present); Ophelia’s Jump Productions (Board Member 2022 to 2024); Inland Valley Repertory Theater (Board Member 2022 to present); Kimberly Crest House and Gardens Board of Directors (Board Member 2022 – 2024; President of the Board 2024 to present); and Pride Bar Association of the Inland Empire (President, January 2025 to present).
His love of the Arts, Music, and the Performing Arts has motivated him to serve with various local non-profit Arts organizations as his way to “give back” to the community. In his free time, he is a patron of the Southern California Arts scene and rescues Cocker Spaniels with various local rescue organizations.
Liz Atherton
Dr. Anne L. Viricel has served as Executive Director of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra since September of 2013. She is responsible for all aspects of organizational sustainability and spends her days creating opportunities for accessibility, visibility, and philanthropy for the region’s longest running and most prestigious professional orchestra.
Since 2000, she has simultaneously worked as a professor at the University of Redlands School of Business and Society specializing in quantitative operations and strategy coursework, and serving as a thesis advisor for both graduate and undergraduate students.
Dr. Viricel was appointed to San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees in 2015, elected in 2016, and ran unopposed in 2020. In 2024, she retired, and was appointed as the District’s first Emeritus Trustee. In this role, her focus remains on increasing quality educational and life opportunities for the District’s over 14,000 students.
Dr. Viricel is also an author, having published dozens of academic and industry articles and having collaborated on the autobiography of educator and civil rights activist Dr. Margaret Hill.
In addition to her position on the Realm Board (where she is particularly happy to support dance having been dismissed from 2nd grade recreation department tap class for having lacked a proper level grace), she is a current board officer of the San Bernardino County Arts Connection and of the San Bernardino Valley Concert Association.
Liz Atherton is the Director of Finance for the David Bohnett Foundation, Baroda Ventures LLC, and Mr. Bohnett’s family office, managing financial operations since 2000.
A magna cum laude graduate of CSUN and CFP® professional, she is proud and excited to serve on the board of The Realm Company. Liz previously danced professionally with Ballet Met and Nevada Ballet Theater, and toured Europe with LA Opera. She remains passionate about the arts and values time with her family.
Gene Stone
Shannon Erdmann
Dr. Anne Viricel
A graduate of Stanford and Harvard, Gene Stone (www.genestone.com) is a former Peace Corps volunteer, journalist, and book, magazine, and newspaper editor for such companies as the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Harcourt Brace, and Simon & Schuster.
He has written more than a dozen books under his own name on a wide variety of subjects, and has also ghostwritten or co-written another thirty-five books for a very diverse lot of people, many of which have been national bestsellers. However, for the past fifteen years he has concentrated mainly on writing books (either under his own name, as a co-writer, or as a ghostwriter) about plant-based diets and their relationship to animal protection, health, and the environment.
Among these books are such titles as Forks Over Knives, 72 Reasons to Be Vegan, How Not to Die, Living the Farm Sanctuary Life, Rescue Dogs, Eat for the Planet, Mercy for Animals, The Awareness, The Engine 2 Diet, and Animalkind.
Ms. Shannon Erdmann, Managing Director at Apollo Global Management, has led the Business Purpose Loan and Structured CRE teams in the ABF business since 2020. With 20+ years experience, including Guggenheim Investments where she was head of the CMBS and ABS sector teams, and PIMCO London and Newport Beach where she worked in the structured products and generalist global portfolio management teams. Ms. Erdmann holds a Masters degree in Financial Engineering from U.C. Berkeley and a B.S. in Statistical Science from UC Santa Barbara.
Anne Watson
Marketing, Company Vision & Brand Consulting
