Board of Directors
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ContactSue Gerrells
Executive Director
Sue Ellen Gerrells brings decades of experience to her position as ACT Executive Director. After serving as Business Manager for Theatre USA (USA-Mobile) and Executive Assistant to senior administrators at UCSD (CA), she traveled to Yokosuka, Japan working as PREVENT Program Manager and instructor for University of Maryland University College. For over thirty years, Sue Ellen has been actively involved as an actor/director in community, secondary, and college/university theater programs in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Sue Ellen lives in Alabaster, Alabama.
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ContactKatie Pearson
President
Raised in Pennsylvania, Katie Pearson has called Montgomery “home” for the past twenty-five years. During her time here she has been involved with community and university theatres. Katie has appeared in numerous productions and has designed and constructed costumes for several productions as well. She currently holds the position of Theatre Coordinator for Auburn Montgomery’s, Theatre AUM.
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ContactNeil David Seibel
Vice-President
Neil David Seibel recently joined the theatre faculty at Auburn Montgomery. As a member of Actors Equity his credits include Jonathon Larson’s JP Morgan Saves the Nation (Off-Broadway), the TV musical Passages: Lewis and Clark, contracts with the Denver Center, Arvada Center, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, The Alley Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and six seasons with Theatre Aspen. He continues to serve as a Co-Director of ALATetc: A LABORATORY FOR ACTOR TRAINING, experimental theater company in New York City.
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ContactChris Rich
Immediate Past President
Chris Rich is Technical Director, Designer for Troy University. His design work has received national recognition in lighting and sound and regional recognition for scene design from KCACTF. Within the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Chris is fortunate to chair the Keynote Emerging Artist of Promise Award and work with the future of theatre. Chris is the President of the Alabama Conference of Theatre for 2009 and enjoys working with the Walter F. Trumbauer State High School Theatre Fesitval.
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ContactElizabeth McCurry
Secretary
More information coming soon.
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ContactAmy Hockinson
Treasurer
Amy has been the Treasurer of the Alabama Conference of Theatre since 2007 and has enjoyed working with the Walter F. Trumbauer State High School Theatre Festival. Amy is currently teaching Theatre, Reading, Speech, and Debate at Mountain Brook Junior High School. She has a B.A. in Musical Theatre from Samford University and a M.A. of Ed. in English/Language Arts Education from U.A.B. She has taught theatre to children of all ages, from toddlers to college students. In addition to teaching, Amy has worked as a professional actress with Birmingham Children’s Theatre and has participated in a number of productions with local theatre companies around Birmingham.
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ContactMarcus Lane
College and University Division Chair
Marcus Lane (Assistant Professor of Theatre, University of Montevallo) Marcus currently teaches Movement, Stage Combat, Acting, and Directing. He came to UM from New York City, where he served as Coordinator of Theatre for City University of New York—Kingsborough. He received his MFA in Acting Pedagogy from the University of Alabama and his BA in Theatre from Louisiana Tech University. Over the years, Marcus has worked as an actor, fight choreographer, movement coach, and director. Recent directing credits include: HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, Scapin, High School Musical and MacBeth. Favorite acting credits include: Riff Raff in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, Mad Hatter in ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and Daniel Boone in BLUE JACKET. He is a member of Southeastern Theatre Conference, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Association for Theatre Movement Educators, Society of American Fight Directors and Actors Equity Association. In his free time, Marcus enjoys fishing, playing cards, SEC football, cooking and spending as much time as possible with his lovely wife, Jen and their finest collaboration yet, baby Dean.
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ContactRandall Blades
College and University Division Vice-Chair
Randy is an Associate Professor and the costume shop manager for the drama department of Jacksonville State University. Prior to joining JSU in 2006, he served on the faculty at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Randy has worked in a variety of theaters and shakespeare festivals around the country. He has an Master of Fine Arts in costume design from Penn State and a BA in drama from Jacksonville State.
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ContactJane Cornelius
Secondary Division Chair
Jane Cornelius currently stands as the Vice Chair of the Secondary Division of the Alabama Conference of Theatre, assisting Nancy Malone. She is Director of Theatre at Thompson High School in Alabaster, AL. In her two years as Director, her students have been honored with Best Actress at State Trumbauer for 2007 as well as numerous All-Star Casts. Her students have been accepted in theatre programs around the state.
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ContactT. Gary Weatherly
Secondary Division Vice-Chair
Gary Weatherly is currently a Teacher, Designer, Technical Director, and Manager of Mountain Brook High School’s Fine Arts Center. Before discovering the challenges of teaching in secondary school, Gary designed professionally over 300 productions in almost every state in the southeast for over 25 years. He worked as the resident designer for Birmingham Children’s Theatre, The State of Alabama Ballet and the Miss Alabama Pageant and worked for most of the Birmingham community and university theatres as a guest designer. He has a B.A. degree from University of North Carolina at Greensboro with emphasis in design and technology. Gary is finishing up his thesis to earn a M.S. in Theatre Education from Southern Oregon University. Since beginning his teaching career, Gary has been very involved with ACT, judging at Walter J. Trumbauer Festival and many of his students have won multiple awards in acting and technical events at the district and state competition. Gary also chairs the Polly Holliday Scholarship Award for the Southeastern Theatre Conference and serves on the Board of Directors for the DPTheatre Series in Birmingham.
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ContactClay Boyce
Community Theatre Chair
Clay Boyce works for the University of Alabama at Birmingham as a Information Systems Specialist III. He has been involved with theatre for over 30 years as an actor, director, producer, lighting designer, sound engineer, graphics designer and fight coordinator. He is the artistic director for Park Players in Birmingham and is the current president of the Birmingham Area Theatre Association (BATA). He’s proud to say that his daughter, Victoria is following in his footsteps! At 16, she has already appeared in 10 productions and was his assistant director for Park Players 2010 production of “Noises Off”! Clay lives in Warrior, AL.
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ContactKevin Garrett
Community Theatre Vice Chair
Kevin Garrett is a student at UAB, pursuing an Accounting major. He has been active in community theatre for over ten years. He has in the past served on the IBD of Intertel, the Executive Committee of Central Alabama Mensa and ACTA Theatre in Trussville. He currently sits on the Boards of Theatre Downtown, serving as Treasurer, and Terrific New Theatre. Kevin has also appeared in short and feature-length films. He has been married to Mary Anne Kane-Garrett for 23 years and resides in Center Point, Alabama.
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ContactMichael P. Howley
State Representative to SETC
MICHAEL P. HOWLEY, a faculty member at Alabama State University in Montgomery, is a sought-after respondent and adjudicator, having spent the past 42 years teaching English and Theatre in Alabama higher education. He is a regular and award winning respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival throughout the Southeast, is Alabama’s only member of the American Theatre Critics Association, has served as the Southeast’s coordinator of the National Critics Institute, and conducts workshops regularly for professional, university, community, and secondary school theatres. He has directed more than 200 plays in and outside Alabama, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Conference of Theatre and the Southeastern Theatre Conference.
