樱花动漫

Michael Curtis Johnson, Department Chair
Associate Professor, Film Production

 

Johnson's film Savage Youth was selected for the Venice International Film Festival's Biennale College Cinema program and had its premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival. It screened at the Atlanta Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival. His first feature film Hunky Dory won jury awards at the Slamdance, Atlanta, Nashville, Naples, BendFilm, San Francisco Indie, and American Film Festival. His feature films and shorts have been screened and won awards at over 100 international film festivals. He was awarded a fellowship to the Harris Manchester College Summer Intensive at Oxford University for his upcoming feature film project. He was chosen for the Berlin International Film Festival's Berlinale Talents program. Johnson is a Narrative Features Programming Captain for the Slamdance Film Festival and has been a co-director of the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival for 10 years. He is an alumnus of the directing program at the American Film Institute Conservatory.

Lucas Skjaret, Assistant Professor, Theatre

 

 

 

 

 

Lucas Skjaret is a stage director, dramaturg, producer, and theatre scholar whose work centers on ensemble-driven storytelling, new play development, and reimagined classics. He is an Assistant Professor of Cinematic Arts and Theatre at the 樱花动漫 and previously served as Assistant Professor and Theatre Program Director at Concord University. Lucas holds an M.F.A. in Directing from Baylor University and a B.A. in Theatre Arts and Scandinavian Studies from the University of North Dakota. He studied at the University of Oslo, conducting research at the Ibsen Centre and collaborating with Teater Neuf. He has trained at the Stella Adler Studio (NYC), Directors Lab North (Toronto), the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive (DC), and Ghost River Theatre’s Devising Intensive (Calgary). As Artistic Director of Market Garden Theatre in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Lucas led productions of contemporary plays and founded the Fresh Roots Festival, a new works event supporting local playwrights. Recent productions include: Circle Mirror Transformation, Another Revolution, Three Sisters, My Barking Dog, Peter/Wendy, and tick, tick…BOOM! He is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). His research explores new work development, global theatre practices, Theatre for Young Audiences, and rural arts practices. He has presented at ATHE, CDC, SETC, and HERC, and serves as Junior Co-Chair of the Playwriting Symposium at the Mid-America Theatre Conference. His writing appears in Theatre Topics, Texas Theatre Journal, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and others. Lucas integrates both artistic and academic practice into a unified approach to performance and scholarship. www.lucasskjaret.com

Nora Stone, Assistant Professor
Film Production

 

 

 

Nora Stone is a film scholar and filmmaker. Her monograph, How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960 - 2022, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. She has published work in Film Quarterly, Media Industries Journal, and Historical Journal of Film and Television, among others. Her short narrative film Lakebed won the Mitchell-West Women in Film Award at the Lindsey Film Festival and screened at numerous venues around Alabama. Her short doc-hybrid film Dear Esther was featured on the Los Angeles Review of Books and played at the Maryland Film Festival, Better Cities Film Festival, and Festival Film a Architektura in Prague. She holds an MA and PhD in film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Suzanne Reese-Mills, Assistant Professor,
Theatre 

 

 

 

Suzanne Reese-Mills is a Florence native who received her training and early professional experience in the Northeast before returning home to invest in the Shoals artistic community. In her work with both vocalists and actors, she specializes in Voice and Speech exploration, guiding performers to discover their natural voices and examine US and world dialects. Suzanne received her Master of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory and spent five years working with Boston area theatres as a performer and dialect coach. She also has a BS in Psychology from UNA with a minor in Music. In addition to teaching at UNA, Suzanne currently oversees and teaches for the Ritz School of Performing Arts and directs for the Ritz Theatre in Sheffield.