Faculty/Staff Bios
Joe Aldridge
(Entertainment Engineering)
joe.aldridge@unlv.edu
Joe has been at UNLV since 1974, serving as technical director since 1984. Aldridge's undergraduate work was done at Texas Tech and his graduate work at UNLV. He has been a member of IATSE Local 720 since 1975, working in most of the major hotels and casinos. He currently serves as a trustee for the Nevada Resort Association/IATSE Local 720 Training Trust. Aldridge has also served as third vice president of IATSE Local 720 and freelances in lighting design and event coordination for local conventions. Aldridge has been active in USITT since 1985, serving as a panelist, delivering papers, and giving workshops at several conferences. He was conference chair of the 1995 USITT conference in Las Vegas and has been on the annual conference committee since then. Aldridge has also served two terms as director-at-large on the USITT Board of Directors and he currently serves as vice president for special operations, where he is in charge of the Stage Expo Conference decorators and special exhibits.
Robert Benedetti
(Directing)
robert.benedetti@unlv.edu
Robert is a multiple Emmy and Peabody Award-winning film producer and distinguished teacher of acting and directing, who received his Ph.D from Northwestern University. Benedetti was an early member of Chicago's Second City Theatre, and has taught acting for more than 30 years at schools including Carnegie-Mellon University, The National Theatre School of Canada, and the University of California. He has directed at many regional theatres, including the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre and the Melbourne Theatre Company, and at various Shakespeare festivals. As president of Ted Danson's Anasazi Productions at Paramount Studios, he has won Emmys for producing Miss Evers' Boys and A Lesson Before Dying for HBO. Benedetti has written six books on acting and film production, including The Actor at Work, (9th edition), The Actor in You (3rd edition), and Action! Acting for Film and Television. He was chairman of theatre at York University in Toronto, head of the acting program at the Yale School of Drama, and dean of theater at the California Institute of the Arts. In 2005 he received the Lifetime Career Achievement Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Robert Brewer
(NCT Artistic Director, Graduate Coordinator)
robert.brewer@unlv.edu
Robert began his professional career as the youngest member of the faculty of the Juilliard School of Drama under the direction of John Houseman. He spent six years with the New York Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp working in script development. He served as artistic director for four years for the Maine Opera Company, directing more than 12 productions. Brewer has worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Stage-West, Arizona Theatre Company, Dartmouth Repertory Theatre and New Dramatists. Among his directing credits is the celebrated production of Death in Venice for the San Francisco Opera. Recently, Brewer was chosen to serve on the National Endowment for the Arts Opera-Musical Theatre panel. He received his training at the University of Illinois and Penn State University.
Nate Bynum
(Head, Acting for the Camera)
joe.bynum@unlv.edu
Nate is a member of the Screen Actors Guild(SAG) and holds eligible membership in the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists(AFTRA). He has taught at Mississippi State University and in the University of Arkansas school system. While teaching a wide range of courses at the university level (acting, directing, and dramatic literature), Bynum continues his professional acting career. He has performed at the Lyceum Theatre in Missouri, the American Stage in Florida, and the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. Television and movie credits include: The Rainmaker; The People vs. Larry Flynt; My Dog Skip; Walker, Texas Ranger; Promised Land; In the Heat of the Night; Young Indiana Jones; Queen; and I'll Fly Away. Additionally, Bynum has appeared in a number of regional and national commercials. He credits his greatest production to date as the creation of two lovely little daughters.
Glenn Casale
(Head, Directing)
glenn.casale@unlv.edu
Glenn directed the 1999 Tony Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby. He recently directed a new production of Dragapella, which was nominated for Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards for Best Production. For Reprise! he has directed The Threepenny Opera starring Patrick Cassidy and Theodore Bikel, Fiorella! starring Tony Danza, and Anything Goes starring Rachel York and Brent Barrett. His first LA production was Wrestlers with George Clooney and Mark Harmon. Casale has mounted revivals of The Queen of the Stardust Ballroom with Tyne Daly and Charles Durning and Company with Patrick Cassidy and Carol Burnett. He has also directed The Wayans Brothers Show for Warner Brother TV and The Faculty starring Meredith Baxter for ABC. Casale received his master's degree from UNLV.
Rayme Cornell
(Acting,Voice & Speech, Voice-Over)
rayme.cornell@unlv.edu
Rayme has recently joined the Faculty of UNLV. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio and Actors Equity Association. Rayme received her B.A. from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and her MFA in Acting from the University of Missouri Kansas City in association with the Missouri Repertory Theatre. She is the host of the national award winning PBS show Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy. She has worked on television, Off Broadway and with some of the nations most prestigious Regional Theatres including, The Old Globe, The Alley, Crossroads, ATC, The Vinyard, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Primary Stages, The O'Neill, Missouri Rep., Unicorn Theatre and with New York's famous Acting Company. Rayme is also known for her extensive voice-over work representing such products as L'Oreal, Ford, Dunkin Donuts, Cingular, Singulair, Lifetime, WE, Oxygen Network, USA Network, MTV, VH1, BET, ESPN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Republican and Democratic Candidates and many more. Rayme splits her time between working in New York and teaching and working in Las Vegas. Her greatest role to date is that of being Brick's Mom.
KC Davis
(Playwriting)
kc.davis@unlv.edu
KC is the author of numerous plays that have been seen around the country, with commissions from A Contemporary Theatre, South Coast Repertory and Greenbrier Valley Theatre. As a dramaturg, he has workshopped many new plays at the Sundance Institute, Midwest PlayLabs, The Playwrights Center and WordBridge, and also dramaturged the premiere of Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Eureka Theatre. He has an MFA from the University of Washington.
Jeff Fiala
(Scenic Design)
jeff.fiala@unlv.edu
Jeff taught and designed at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for 20 years before coming to Las Vegas. He has also designed sets for Middleburg College, Stage West, The Roundabout Theatre, Provincetown Playhouse and the Mt. Holyoke Art Gallery. Fiala was art director for the PBS production of Heartbreak House. He also does graphic design and illustration and has a very active interest in photography.
Brackley Frayer
(Lighting Design, Head of Design)
brackley.frayer@unlv.edu
Brackley has taught at Dartmouth College, West Virginia University, and the University of Florida. Regional design credits include work with Seven Stages-Atlanta, the Hippodrome Theatre, The Texas Shakespeare Festival, The New York Lyric Opera Company, Texas Opera Theatre, Players Theatre Columbus and the Las Vegas Dance Company Opus. Frayer has designed for all of the Swamp Gravy productions, with performances in Colquitt, GA, the Cultural Olympiad in Atlanta, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Pieced Together and Cross Tides at the Yoder Barn Theater in Newport News, VA. He is a member of United Scenic Artists- Local 829. Frayer earned an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Clarence Gilyard
(Associate Professor of Theater and Film)
clarence.gilyard@unlv.edu
Clarence Gilyard earned his BA in theater arts from California State University, Dominguez Hills and his MFA from Southern Methodist University. As an actor, director, and producer, Clarence has worked in television and film for over 25 years. After working 13 years straight as the costar or two successful television series; Matlock and Walker, Texas Ranger, he took a professional sabbatical and earned his MFA in theater performance. He now teaches acting and works professionally not only in television and film but the theater.
Philip E. Hacker
(Scene Shop Supervisor)
Philip E. Hacker is a former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger. Upon separation from the service, Hacker pursued studies in Technical Design and Production at the University of New Mexico and the Yale University School of Drama. He taught at CalArts for six years before pursuing a career working in the special effects, themed construction and entertainment industries both here and abroad. He has been married to Shannon Sumpter for 22 years.
Scott Hansen
(Technical Director)
Scott began his career with UNLV in the fall of 2006. He teaches Production Planning, Theater Safety and Health, Structural Design for the Stage and Technical Theater I and II. Professionally, Scott has worked with the Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Music Theater of Wichita, Playmakers Repertory Theater, The Denver Center, Village Theater, Peoria Civic Center, and several other smaller organizations. Prior to UNLV, he was Faculty Technical Director for seven years at Kansas State University. Scott holds a BA in Design and Technical Theater from the University of Northern Iowa and an MFA in Technical Design and Production from the Yale School of Drama.
Katrina Hertfelder
(Costume Shop Manager)
katrina.hertfelder@unlv.edu
Katrina taught for three years at the University of Texas at El Paso and returns to Las Vegas as an alumnus of the MFA program in Costume Design. Her work has been seen at the Telluride Repertory Theatre, Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts, UNLV, and the University of Texas, El Paso.
Doug Hill
(Senior Theatre)
doug.hill@unlv.edu
Doug returns to UNLV after working as the literary assistant with Arizona Theatre Company for two years. He has also worked professionally in the Tucson area as an actor and dramaturg and has been a playwriting award coordinator and reader for several national competitions. Hill holds an MFA in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in playwriting from UNLV.
Phil Hubbard
(Head, Performance)
philip.hubbard@unlv.edu
Phil teaches acting, period styles and speech. He is an experienced professional actor with regional credits that include the Tony Award-winning Utah and Oregon Shakespeare Festivals, PCPA/Solvang Theatrefest, The Muny Opera of St. Louis, Dallas Summer Musicals, Cabrillo Stage and the Nevada Conservatory Theatre. Hubbard is a member of Actor's Equity Association and VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers of America) and has studied at the Professional Actor Training Program at Southern Methodist University.
Michael Lugering
(Performance)
michael.lugering@unlv.edu
Michael has studied voice with Kristin Linklater and the Roy Hart Theatre Group. His vocal training is complemented by awareness training in both the Feldenkrais Method and Alexander Technique. Lugering has also taught acting/voice/movement at Duke University where he co-produced the World Premiere's Playwriting Festival. His directing credits include Hot'l Baltimore, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Minnesota Moon, Stuck and Henry V and serves as vocal coach for most of the productions at UNLV. Lugering is member of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association) and he has a graduate degree in directing from the University of Utah.
Linda McCollum
(Company Manager)
linda.mccollum@unlv.edu
Linda is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Humboldt State University. She joined UNLV in 1986 as business manager/publicist and teaches theater history. McCollum is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, the United States Fencing Coaches Association, and the International Academy of Arms.
Ann McDonough
(Director, Senior Theatre)
ann.mcdonough@unlv.edu
Ann holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the University of Minnesota and heads the leading Senior Adult Theatre program in the country. Her recent publications include The Golden Stage: Dramatic Activities For Older Adults and New Monologues for Mature Actors.
Charles O'Connor
(Chair)
charles.oconnor@unlv.edu
Charles is a specialist in computer simulation and design for virtual reality environments. As an art director in television he received a CableACE Award for Outstanding Art Direction for Mother Goose Rock'n'Rhyme. He has designed extensively at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and was resident assistant designer at the Mark Taper Forum. O'Connor's television credits include My Two Dads, Small Wonder, and Shelly Duvall's Tall Tales. He has also worked as a consulting designer for Disneyland. Other theatrical credits include Music Theatre of Wichita, Nebraska Repertory Theatre, Omaha Theatre Company, Omaha Playhouse and the Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles. Prior to UNLV, O'Connor taught at the University of Nebraska where he served as director of film and new media production, head of the theatre design program and interim chair of the department of theatre arts. He is a member of the Art Directors Guild IATSE 876 and USA 829.
Judith Ryerson
(Costume Design)
judy.ryerson@unlv.edu
Judith comes to UNLV after 14 years as a designer and faculty member at PCPA Theatrefest. Credits there include Peter Pan, Crazy for You, The Little Foxes, Stand Up Tragedy, Scrooge! The 1940's Radio Hour, Romeo and Juliet, The Secret Garden, Gypsy, Arcadia, Tommy, A Flea In Her Ear Cabaret, Robin Hood, The Music Man, Boy Gets Girl, Enter The Guardsman, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Prior to working at PCPA, Ryerson designed and implemented a costume program and production studio for USIU in San Diego. She received applause for the costume design of A Man Without a World in Variety International, a Garland award for costume design of PCPA's A Midsummer Night's Dream and an award scholarship to study with Patricia Zipprodt. Ryerson has designed costumes for the operas Susannah, Julius Caesar and Naughty Marietta for the Utah Festival Opera. She has an MFA from the University of Utah and a BFA from West Virginia University.
Shannon J. Sumpter
(Production Manager, Undergraduate Coordinator)
shannon.sumpter@unlv.edu
Shannon worked for 10 years as an Equity stage manager before turning to teaching. She stage managed Off-Off Broadway, in LORT at theatres including the Yale Rep, Indiana Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and ART as well as theme park venues at Universal Studios in Hollywood and Magic Mountain. Sumpter has also stage managed opera and dance. Before coming to Las Vegas, she taught for several years at the California Institute of the Arts. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Michael Tylo
(Professor with Acting for the Camera)
michael.tylo@unlv.edu
Michael Tylo comes to UNLV after a 30+ year career as a professional actor, director and producer. Classically trained and after receiving his MFA in acting from Wayne State University, he has worked on Broadway, television, and film. His stage credits include seasons at The Long Wharf Theatre, The Alley Theatre, The Missouri Repertory, and The Meadowbrook Theatre as well as performing at The Roundabout Theatre and The Louise Lortel Theatre both in New York City. He worked with many well known directors such as Edward Gilbert, Douglas Seale, Terry Kilburn, John Reich, Cyril Ritchard, and Richard Chamberlain. His night time television credits include Lonesome Dove with Robert Duval, Gabriel's Fire with James Earl Jones, and as the Alcalde in The New Adventures of Zorro. Other credits include feature roles on Murder She Wrote, Even Stevens, and Perry Mason. He worked 18 years on daytime television on Guiding Light, All My Children, General Hospital, and The Young and Restless; all contract roles. A former student of Uta Hagen, he currently studies with Ivana Chubbuck in Los Angles.