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Alexandria Living Magazine
Mikayla Mulgrew, actress and producer of Mount Hideaway at 529 Kids Consign in Old Town Alexandria Sunday morning.
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Actress/producer Mikayla Mulgrew, actress Maria Jose Ovalle and director Brett Monk at 529 Kids Consign in Old Town Alexandria Sunday morning.
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Alexandria Living Magazine
Actress Maria Jose Ovalle gets makeup done by Elise Abdollahi of Salon DeZEN at 529 Kids Consign in Old Town Alexandria Sunday morning ahead of filming for Mount Hideaway.
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Mount Hideaway filmed Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign in Old Town Alexandria.
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Mount Hideaway director and editor Brett Monk Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign in Old Town Alexandria.
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Alexandria Living Magazine
Brett Monk, Maria Jose Ovalle and Mikayla Mulgrew at 529 Kids Consign in Old Town Alexandria Sunday morning.
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Cast and crew members at work Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign.
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Extras and crew members at work Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign.
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Twist Boutique's Kristen Moore, Maria Jose Ovalle and Mikayla Mulgrew Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign. Moore's boutique provided some items used on set.
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Twist Boutique's Kristen Moore, Salon DeZEN's Elise Abdollahi, actresses Maria Jose Ovalle and Mikayla Mulgrew, and Bold Town Branding's Kara Hill Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign.
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The Alexandria cast and crew of Mount Hideaway.
The cast and crew of the Amazon series Mount Hideaway took over 529 Kids Consign Sunday morning.
The shop in Old Town Alexandria was the set for part of the show’s official first season. Mount Hideaway will release its first episode in June on Amazon and on the show’s own website at mounthideaway.com.
“A beautiful young spy returns to her hometown and solves mysteries with the help of her homeschooled childhood friends. Mount Hideaway is a family-friendly murder mystery, with a similar tone to shows like Murder, She Wrote or shows on the Hallmark Mysteries Channel,” according to the show’s official description released by lead actress, producer and writer Mikayla Mulgrew.
Mulgrew is from Sterling. Director and editor Brett Monk lives in western Fairfax County.
“One of the reasons we really love shooting here in Old Town is that you’ve got this small-town neighborhood feeling, even though you’re in the thick of Northern Virginia,” Monk said Sunday morning at 529 Kids Consign. “We definitely hope to be shooting in more Old Town locations.”
Several members of the Old Town Boutique District were involved in shooting the first episode in Old Town Sunday, including 529 Kids Consign, which served as the film’s set; hair and makeup by Salon deZEN’s Elise Abdollahi; styling and wardrobe by Kristen Moore, owner of Twist Boutique; and business relations and marketing by Kara Hill, founder of Bold Town Branding*. Maria Jose Ovalle (Very Busy Mama blogger and the actress who is playing boutique owner Val Lornz in the show), film extras and the crew members are also from the area.
“In a lot of the rest of Northern Virginia, you don’t have this kind of neighborhood feel,” Monk said.
Other parts of the series will be filmed near Front Royal and elsewhere in the Shenandoah Valley. The production plans to return to Old Town Alexandria for additional shooting in June.
The production is entirely Virginia based, with local actors, sets, support staff and crew. “Our long-term goal is to establish a viable, sustainable film production environment in the Northern Virginia and Shenandoah Valley area by combining local talent with worldwide online distribution,” Mulgrew wrote in an email prior to Sunday’s shoot.
“We wanted to create an exciting show with action and mystery, but without the graphic violence, profanity, and sexual situations that many viewers don’t enjoy, and that the Hollywood system seems to insist upon,” according to Mulgrew.
The pilot episode of Mount Hideaway aired on Amazon Prime in 2017. The team collected feedback, reworked the show a bit, and is filming and producing the first full season this spring.
Mulgrew plays Bethany Shanholtz in the series. The backstory is that Bethany left her hometown after her friend Rose was killed while Bethany and her friends were investigating a local mystery. Bethany went to college, was recruited by the government and became a spy. After one of her missions didn’t go according to plan, Bethany took a leave of absence from work and returned to her family’s farm. Murders start happening in the town as soon as Bethany returns. The government presses her back into service, but is unable to give her official support—so, she turns to her childhood friends and creates her own detective team.
*Disclosure: Hill also works for Alexandria Living Magazine as strategic marketing director.
