Mark Houser, Director of Theatre

Audience Development Coordinator/Faculty
houser@dixie.edu
435-879-4384

Mark Houser is the new Audience Development Coordinator for the DSC Theatre Department. Mark earned a BS in Acting and Directing and a MFA in Arts Administration from Southern Utah University. He recently returned to the West from Pennsylvania where he served as a Director/Producer/Assoc. Producer for PBS, Penn State University, and Restek Corporation. He moonlights as a commercial photographer and non-profit business consultant. Mark serves as Founder/Volunteer Executive Director for the International League of Mentors, co-founded in 2008. Mark is also a 4th generation Meisner actor and has been successfully teaching students privately in the method for 13 years for stage and screen.

Mark's current adventures include: Production of a short Motion Picture The Duel, Production of a short motion picture Seraph and an exclusive photo/motion picture documentary cave exploration of Middle Earth in the Sierra Nevadas.

Brent Hanson, Theatre Department
hanson@dixie.edu
435-652-7792

Dr. Brent Hanson is currently Associate Dean of the Dixie State College Fine Arts Department. He earned Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees in design at the University of Utah. In 1993, he completed a Ph.D. in theatre and film at Brigham Young University. He has worked in the theatre department at Dixie State College for twenty-three years, directing and designing numerous productions. For the past several years he served as artistic director for the Hill Cumorah Pageant, one of the country’s largest outdoor dramas, which is staged each summer in upstate New York.

Dr. Hanson is also the playwright in residence for DSC Theatre's World Premiere Musical, Nathan Hale, which premiered this year on the Eccles Fine Arts Center Mainstage.

Varlo Davenport, Theatre Department
davenport@dixie.edu
435-652-7797

Varlo Davenport is the director of theatre at Dixie State College where he teaches, directs plays and serves as program administrator. He has appeared in over fifty stage and film projects and has also directed several plays, including some favorites at DSC, Jekyll and Hyde, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Almost, Maine. He is the author and performer of the award winning one-person show John Wesley Powell: The Last American Adventure. He also performs as Wilford Woodruff in the one-person show Wilford Woodruff: God's Fisherman. Varlo is a graduate of Southern Utah University and has an MFA in Acting from The Ohio State University.

Varlo is currently working on a project that will allow the Theatre Department to travel to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

Michael Harding, Theatre Department
harding@dixie.edu
435-652-7725

Michael Harding is currently an assistant professor of theatre at Dixie State College. He earned his BA in Theatre from the College of William & Mary and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from The University of Exeter in Devon, England. He teaches courses in several areas of theatre, including Acting, Directing, Script Analysis and Theatre History. Additionally, he coaches private acting lessons and directs several annual productions at Dixie State College. Mr. Harding also works as a professional actor at various theatres around the US. He is the author of two plays: the experimental research-based The Rise of James VI and = (or, for the math-impaired, Equals).

Brent Innes, Technical Director/Designer
innes@dixie.edu
435-652-7890

Brent Innes is the new technical director at Dixie State College. He teaches courses in stage craft, lighting design, scenic design, sound design, and stage management. Brent also designs several of the annual productions at Dixie State College, and regularly does professional lighting design work in Hawaii, Wyoming, and Idaho. A graduate of Utah State University where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Lighting Design and a Master of Fine Arts (2007)in Theatre Technology and Design. Brent was awarded the Barbizon Award of light design UST for his work on Macbeth.