Meet Our Faculty

Michael Johnson

Michael Curtis Johnson, Department Chair
Assistant Professor, Film Production

256.765.5010
UNA Box 5260
2nd Floor, George S. Lindsey Theatre
 





Johnson's film Savage Youth was selected for the Venice International Film Festival's Biennale College Cinema program and had its premiere at the 2018 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. In all, his feature films and shorts have screened and won awards at over 75 international film festivals. He was chosen for IFP's Narrative Film Lab, US in Progress - Wroclaw, and the Berlin International Film Festival's Berlinale Talents program. He is an alumnus of the directing program at the American Film Institute Conservatory.

Keelie Sheridan

Keelie Sheridan, Assistant Professor
Cinematic Arts and Theatre

UNA Box 5260
2nd Floor, George S. Lindsey Theatre
 

 





Keelie Sheridan is a theatre & film-maker, choreographer and educator.  As a performer, she competed in the 2009 Irish Dance World Championships and has appeared in world premieres and reprised works by playwrights including Charles Mee, Ben Gassman, Paul Ketchum, Elizabeth Irwin and Mac Wellman. Keelie has been the Producing Artistic Director of NYC-based dance & physical theatre company The Ume Group since August 2016. With The Ume Group, Keelie directed 'by wing, fin, hoof or foot' (2017), a devised physical theatre piece about animal and human migration, for which she received a 2018 New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination for Outstanding Movement and Choreography. Keelie has co-produced several new works initiatives and festivals, including The Lab at Grace & St. Paul's, UNFIX NYC, The Terry Schreiber New Works Initiative and The Schreiber Shorts, and devised/ directed immersive installations and performance art pieces with Chashama NYC and Creative Time. She recently co-wrote and directed her first feature film, planet b234. Keelie holds a MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College and was a 2016 George J Mitchell Scholar, which enabled her to receive a MFA in Directing at Trinity College Dublin/ The Lir Academy. Keelie has taught acting and movement at Brooklyn College, City College of New York and the T Schreiber Studio. 

Bryan McHenry

Bryan McHenry, Assistant Professor
Film Production

256.765.5010
UNA Box 5260
2nd Floore, George S. Lindsey Theatre
 




 

Bryan McHenry is an award-winning filmmaker, educator, and performer whose work has screened in festivals around the world and in millions of US homes on Vibrant TV. He graduated from Columbia College, Chicago with a Master of Fine Arts in Directing and Screenwriting. His films explore the lives of gay men, family dynamics, and body self-image. He is also a classically trained musician with a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy and a Bachelor of Music in Secondary Instrumental Music Education from The University of Memphis. He taught film production for over 15 years in the Chicagoland and Milwaukee areas. He may also occasionally be found at less prestigious locales telling stories that are mostly true or bombing with new material in an attempt to build a solid 10 minutes.

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Amanda Perry, Adjunct Professor of
Theatre 

UNA Box 5260

 




 

Amanda Perry has been active in theater professionally, educationally and in community-driven efforts for the past 30+ years. She has been a founding member of two different community theater boards and served as Artistic Director for a small non-profit theatre. She has worked with playwrights of new works, as well as writing (and staging) some of her own. Her love of theatre is not restricted to just one area. She has directed, written/devised original pieces, written grants, produced, acted, stage managed, built sets, designed and constructed costumes, handled publicity, and managed front of the house. She received a Stanley Award for Best Actress in her role as Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie in 2019. 
 
She has been an adjunct instructor in theatre at UNA since 2018, where she teaches acting, theatre history, and dramatic literature and criticism. She was the producer of the inaugural One-Act Festival of New Works in 2021. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Memphis and is working toward an MA in writing.