Theatre Arts Alumni

Caitlin Bruggeman Causey

Jenny Crawford Nylsa Dunbar Timothy Ellis Sam Gambino Ali Grieb D.J. Grooms Laura Hennesy

Julia Jones Scottie Knollin

Ryan McWhorter Whittney Millsap

Anna Carroll Sims

Joseph Thomas

Katie Betts ('96)
Kaie got married Sept. 19, 2009, and was also in the World premier of Strange Gods, with Ottawa, Canada's Goya Theatre playing the lead role of Laura in May of 2010.

Susanna Liveakos Brent ('99)
Susanna, her husband, Lester, and daughter, Zelda, recently moved to Meredith, New Hampshire, where Susanna serves as the managing director of the Winnepesaukee Playhouse just named the "Theatre on the Rise" in the 2013 NH Magazine.

Sarah Conner-Brown ('03)
Sarah of San Jose, CA, is an executive assistant at the Arabian Shakespeare Festival in San Francisco. She and her husband, Will, worked on the American premiere of the Kuwaiti play, A Message, the first domestic production for ASF. The festival performs internationally to encourage cultural awareness and tolerance through the timeless themes found in Shakespeare's work.

Caitlin Bruggeman Causey ('07 ) recently relocated to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with her husband Hunter, a water resources engineer. She has been busy enjoying the outdoors, volunteering in her new community, and doing advertising and social media for Colorado Animal Rescue in Glenwood Springs. Previously, Caitlin worked as an intern at Actor's Express in Atlanta, where she had the opportunity to assistant direct The Last Five Years and understudy the one-woman show When Something Wonderful Ends in the theater's 20th anniversary season. She also appeared in Large Animal Games, an intern showcase production written by Atlanta playwright, Steve Yockey.

Jenny Crawford ('11)
Jenny received dual BA degrees in Music and Theatre Performance. She recently moved back to her hometown of Canton, OH with her husband, Nick Nelson, (also a LaGrange alum) after living in Nashville for 2 years. Jenny is currently signed with Pro Model and Talent Management and just filmed a commercial for Cleveland Metro Health. While living in Tennessee, she appeared in two episodes of ABC's hit show "Nashville". Her next endeavor will be filming for the Lifetime movie "With This Ring". Some of her favorite roles include Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde", Amneris in "Aida", Alice Stiles in "Our House", and Solange in "The Maids".

Nylsa Dunbar ('00)
Is currently working with the Ankle and Foot Centers of Georgia as their Marketing Representative, providing marketing measures for all 21 locations of the practice. She works every school term with Southside Church in Peachtree City, where she plays "Sam" a Clubhouse Kid in their monthly production of KidStuff a super fun and energetic ministry program geared towards teaching the kids important life lessons. She is also soon to be married to Toby Smallwood, Class of 97' this fall.

Mary Duttweiler ('11) served as the properties master at the Papermill Summer Theatre, (2013).

Timothy Ellis
University of Central Florida, MFA; LaGrange College, BA

As an actor, Timothy has appeared on Broadway (Annie Get Your Gun), National Tours (Show Boat, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), a European tour (Evita), the stages of regional theaters across the nation (including Goodspeed Opera House, Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Seaside Music Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse and Arvada Center for the Performing, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre and Orlando Repertory Theatre), and as a singer aboard cruise ships.

As director or choreographer, his work has been seen in productions of Beehive, Peter Pan, Cinderella, West Side Story, Rocky Horror Show, Debbie Does Dallas, The Magical Adventures of Merlin, How I Became a Pirate, Pulp! and Oklahoma. He has also served as fight choreographer for The Magical Adventures of Merlin and fight captain for Les Miserables. Tim also directed and choreographed for IBEX Puppetry in Orlando, FL.

After earning an MFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Central Florida, he served as an Adjunct then Visiting Assistant Professor at UCF. There, he taught acting, voice and dance; assisted with the Dance Minor program; choreographed for musicals and dance concerts; and was nominated for Extraordinary Professor by Campus Advisory Board.

Timothy is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.

He appeared on LaGrange College stages in the late '80's in productions of Once Upon a Mattress, Scapino, Robber Bridegroom, Twelfth Night, The Browning Version, Agamemnon, Cinderella and The Odd Couple.

Beckett Finn (formerly known as Brandon Johnson) ('03)
Beckett is in graduate school at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill pursuing an MFA in Technical Direction.

Sam Gambino ('10)
Samis a 4 year resident of Brooklyn, NY. Since leaving LaGrange she has graduated from New York University with a Masters in Educational Theatre and was the founding Performing Arts teacher for Harlem Prep Elementary in East Harlem, NY. She is starting a new path in education by taking on the role of 1st grade teacher and 2nd time graduate student! She currently works for Leadership Prep in Brownsville, NY and will be starting her 2nd Masters degree in Early Childhood Education in the Fall at Relay Graduate School of Education.

Ali Grieb ('09)
Ali premiered her one-woman show/cabaret, Sin Stops Here, at Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre in NYC in August. She is a regular performer at the famous Joe's Pub Cabaret at the Public Theater in New York City. Off-Broadway credits: Press #93 for Kosher Jewish Girls in Krakow and A Night in Vegas, which was reviewed by New York newspapers and websites. Ali is also an alum of the band Alien Surfer Babes. Ali returned as a guest artist for the grand opening of the renovated Price Theater in the fall of 2013.

D.J. Grooms ('13)
D.J. was most recently featured in The Music Man and as Fred Casely in Chicago at the Legacy Theater in Tyrone, GA. He spent two summers at Canyon Texas as a featured dancer in the Texas Outdoor Musical Drama. D.J. is a guest artist for the 2014 fall production of A Chorus Line serving as Assistant Choreographer/Dance Captain and as a member of the cast.

Laura Hennesy ('12)
Laura is a past company member of the CAP 21 musical theatre summer intensive training.

Julia Jones ('09)
Julia is living and working as an actor in Atlanta. Julia Jones currently acts and designs out of Atlanta, GA. She is a cast member at Village Theatre and is thrilled to be a part of such a talented group of improvisers. She is currently collaborating on a one woman show and all female cast with Allison Summers from Second City. Julia recently was filmed as the lead female in King of Prussia's music video, "I'll Dance with You" - featuring Mike Mills from R.E.M. When not performing, Julia works all over the world designing for large scale events. She recently was a part of Catalyst Week with the Downtown Project in Las Vegas and got to collaborate with some of the country's greatest leaders, including CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh, Co CEO of Whole Foods Walter Robb, Michael Trainer of the Global Citizen Festival, Dan Adams of the Higher Purpose Project, Marc Coppola of the Valhalla Movement, and many more. Julia is the lead designer for the Higher Purpose Project and creates all the welcome dinners and design elements for each summit. She is excited to be living a life of art, passion, and community and looks forward to many more adventures.

Scottie Knollin ('07)
Scottie teaches English, Spanish and Drama at an Atlanta-area private school. He is also a working filmmaker/actor. In the past year he has worked in front of and behind the scenes on projects such as The Walking Dead, Due Date, Life As We Know It, The Big Year, The Vampire Diaries, as well as his directorial debut with the short film The Right Point of View. He runs the entertainment website, AllTheHitsSoFar.com and produces and original YouTube series.

Valerie Longshore-Sargent
Valerie  Longshore-Sargent has been teaching theatre at Harris County High School for the past nine years and was named Teacher of the Year for the 2013-14 school year. At HCHS, she has directed numerous shows including most recently Curtains and Moon Over Buffalo. Under her direction, students have earned the highest honors at the GHSA One Act Competition, Georgia Thespian Conference and International Thespian Festival. She is pleased that so many of her students have gone on to pursue careers in theatre and film (including LC).  Although work keeps her busy, she still lives in LaGrange and maintains an active relationship with the theater community there. She has been involved in many area theater productions, including director of Lafayette Theatre Company's The Drowsy Chaperone. She also serves on the Lafayette Society for Performing Arts theater advisory committee and is finishing her thesis for her master's degree in theatre education at Columbus State University. 

Ryan McWhorter ('00)
Ryan is a resident director at the Lafayette Theatre Company in downtown LaGrange. Most recently he directed Romeo and Juliet. Other directing credits include The Odd Couple, Wait Until Dark and Stuart Little.

Joanna Meyer ('13) is attending graduate school at The University of Georgia pursuing Masters in English and Theatre Arts.

Whittney Millsap ('07)
Whitney lives and works in Atlanta, GA. She is a member of Dad's Garage Improv company and is a member of Automatic Improv.

Bobbi Leigh Mullins (Stansky)
Bobbi is teaching first grade in Ellijay, Ga., and is the wife of a minister. She has two children and two step-children.

Mr. Tracy Nunnally
Tracy has worked in professional theatre since the late 1980's. He is the owner and president of Hall Associates Flying Effects, the president of the North American Association of Flying Effects Directors (N.A.A.F.E.D.), and an active member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.) and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT). Mr. Nunnally specializes in all aspects of rigging, motion control, pyrotechnics, special effects, and scenery construction, and has designed and executed an extremely diverse range of systems and effects for clients all over the world. Through his company, Mr. Nunnally provides flying effects for over 200 productions per year, including numerous productions of Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, Angles in America, Seussical the Musical, and A Christmas Carol. Specific credits include the Broadway production of Curtains, the original Asian tour of Peter Pan, the Broadway Asia production of SpongeBob SquarePants, and original native-language productions of Peter Pan in Mexico City, Mexico, and Oslo, Norway. Mr. Nunnally is also a tenured professor and the Technical Director of the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance, in DeKalb, Illinois. He uses the resources of his company to expose his students to professional environments, and uses the educational setting to further the development of innovative and unique special effects. Please visit http://www.niu.edu/theatre/ for more information about this unique theatre technology program.

Chris Rumery ('00)
Chris moved to New York to get her MFA in costume design at Tisch NYU. She now lives in Brooklyn freelancing. This spring Chris spent 4 months in Taiwan designing for parades and just opened a show called Bedbugs!!! the musical.

Anna Carroll Sims ('11)
Ann spent a summer studying at the Stella Adler Academy.

Joseph Thomas ('12)
Joseph is in his second year of graduate school at the New School (home of the Actor's Studio) in New York City.

Eria Vali ('99) is the Director of the Gilmer High School Theatre Depart in Ellijay, GA. She is currently in production for A Midsummer Night's Dream which they will also be performing for the One Act Play festival at GTC as well as for Region One Act Play Competition.

Tom Waddington
Tom is a field service engineer for Television Production Service in Atlanta. The company's primary focus is design, integration and installation of large production lighting systems for television studios including Fox Sports, Telemundo, and WUPN. Tom most recently worked on a relight of the Atlanta Falcons Sunday morning set.

Katie Westbrook ('06)
Katie is the Choral Director at LaGrange High School.

Chris Wiley ('06)
Chris is a company member of Atlantis Playmakers based out of Billerica, MA. He is currently performing in a stage combat show called FIGHT VI: Return of the Jed-Pie, going to the New England Fringe Festival. He is also a part-time swordsmanship instructor at "GuardUp" working with weapons from foam swords to foils. He is also a background actor in Boston area movies. He was an extra in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but claims, "Not my most glamorous moment but a lot of fun nonetheless."