Alex Hodges, Campus Carrier Arts & Living Editor
David Alford, a new faculty member in the Berry College Theatre Department, teaches Experiencing Theater. Photo by Caroline Jennings | Campus Carrier
Dr. Anna Filippo and the Berry College Theatre Department welcomed David Alford and Logan Reagan to Blackstone Hall as they kicked off the new year at Berry. There have been a few notable changes in the department’s recent history, including the addition of Sisters Theatre as a performance space. Now, with the addition of Alford and Logan, the department and its students are excited for this season.
According to Filippo, Alford, who is here as an artist in residence on a one-year appointment, is welcomed to the Berry theatre faculty from New York. With experience from The Juilliard School, he has taught in a college setting and has professionally acted in various shows of different types, including mainstream films with Robert Redford, a major television series called “Nashville” and a Broadway production of “The Little Foxes” in 2017.
In the current semester, Alford is teaching Experiencing Theatre, and in the following semester will possibly teach other acting classes, playwriting and, Filippo hopes, a class that coheres to his specialties and abilities as a professional actor. Filippo is excited to work with him at Berry, as she has known Alford since they got their undergraduate degrees together at Austin Peay State University. Filippo and Alford will be directing all shows put on by the department this year.
After a career as a professional actor on television and Broadway, David Alford (left), Berry’s new performance director, pursues teaching in the theatre department. Photo by Caroline Jennings | Campus Carrier
Logan Reagan joins the department staff as the technical director, which means that he will take charge over technical aspects of the theater such as set design, lighting and sound. Reagan has experience as the technical director at Missouri Southern State University, the scenic charge director at McLeod Summer Playhouse, properties master at Des Moines Metro Opera and the entertainment technician for Carnival Cruise Lines.
Reagan is excited about this year in the Theatre Department.
“Probably what I love most about my job with set design is that I have the chance to ‘make’ make-believe,” Reagan said.
He was impressed with the fact that the program is as large as it is relative to the size of the student body.
“With 100 people involved, it’s five percent of the students,” Reagan said.
Filippo is delighted to have Alford and Reagan in the department.
“What’s interesting is that we, here, in a smaller town in Georgia, have big talent like that,” Filippo said, “and that’s really such a good thing for the students.” Filippo stated that Alford and Reagan have already adapted to working well in the program and with the students.
Senior Harley Weiss is the office manager and the assistant to the director for the department. She confirmed Filippo’s words about Reagan and Alford, acknowledging that they have come bearing positive attitudes and the readiness for anything. Weiss said that she and others were “heartbroken” when Hannah Hammond and Seamus Bourne left the department last year. Now, however, Weiss and the other students are acclimating to the new space and to both Alford and Reagan.
“Their positive attitudes have had a huge impact on us as students,” Weiss said. “There are new, fresh ideas, points of view and perspectives being put into the theater, and I think it’s healthy.”
