Our Alumni

Casey Duke, 2022 M.F.A. in Lighting Design
Staff Lighting Designer for The Lighting Design Group, New York City, New York

Casey is a lighting designer, assistant, and programmer. She received her M.F.A. in Lighting Design from Virginia Tech in 2022, and her B.A. in Theatre from the Mississippi University for Women in 2014. For the past 11 years, Casey has worked in theatres and theme park entertainment such as the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Goodspeed Musicals, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg; post-graduate school, she has worked primarily in television, assisting designers on programs like Good Morning America and New Years Rockin’ Eve, and most recently acting as a full-time Lighting Director at Bloomberg TV.

Recent design credits include Working (LaGuardia Community College); Waiting in the Wings (JJ Spotlight Productions); Men on Boats, The Wolves, and Balm in Gilead (Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts), and Newsies (Lees-McRae Summer Theatre).

Casey is a recipient of Barbizon’s Jonathan Resnick Lighting Design Award (2021), and was awarded third place in the graduate division of SETC’s 2020 Design Competition for her Lighting Design of Balm in Gilead.

Casey currently resides in New York City and works as a staff Lighting Designer for The Lighting Design Group.

Dylan Bomgardner, 2018 M.F.A. in Lighting Design
Sales Representative for Group 1440 (entertainment lighting), Dallas, Texas

From Boston Massachusetts, Dylan Bomgardner is an award-winning lighting designer in the fields of theatrical, architectural, and event lighting. With over a decade and a half of production lighting experience, he is still enthralled by the beauty and majesty of light.

“It’s quite peculiar, I have spent my whole life harnessing and controlling light, but yet still find myself perplexed and mesmerized by the nature of light.”

Dylan is also a strong believer in arts advocacy and arts education. He is passionate about educating the next generation of lighting professionals, while also preserving and advancing the craft.

Christian Specht, 2017 M.F.A. in Lighting Design
Freelance Lighting Designer and Clinical Assistant Professor of Lighting, Penn State, University Park, Pennsylvania

Lighting design credits (selected):Off-Broadway credits: Do Re Mi (J2 Spotlight Musical Theatre Company, AMT Theatre), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Ruth Stage, Theatre St. Clements), Lonestar (Ruth Stage,Theatre Row); Gypsy, Guys and Dolls, Ragtime, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Hello Dolly, Brightstar, Cabaret (SSTI); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spongebob the Musical, Spamalot, 5 Guys Named Moe, Mahailia: the Gospel Musical (Peach State Summer Theatre); Engineers Not Found,(Honest Accomplice Theatre); Duets of Difference (Creative Traffic Flow); A Christmas Carol (Penn State University); Glen Campbell, The Manhattan Transfer, Mandy Patinkin: Dress Casual, Ann Hampton Callaway (Angelina Arts Alliance); Freaky Friday/ALD, Around the World in 80 Days/ ALD (Alley Theatre); Titanic The Musical/ALD (Signature Theatre), Ain't Too Proud: The Temptations Musical/ Intern (Kennedy Center). Hemsley Lighting Mentorship 2016.

Steve Williams, 2015 M.F.A. in Lighting Design
Steve held an internship with Thinkwell GroupinBurbank, CA. There, he designed theme-based lighting for amusement parks such as Disney, WB Studios, and Disney Dubai. 

Following graduate school, he was a professional programmer for the Network Productions Tour of Hairspray and the Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory Theatre, as well as award-winning designers John Ambrosone and Paul Miller.

Currently, Steve is an Account Executive at 4Wall Boston.  He also designs lighting for theatres at the Community College of Rhode Island and Canton HS Drama Club, as well as several other local colleges, high schools, and dance schools.

Kevin Frazier, 2012 M.F.A. in Lighting Design
Associate Professor of Design, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Selected credits include Merrimack Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Stoneham Theatre, The Peterborough Players, Creede Repertory Theatre, Burning Coal, Actors Express, Syncrhonicity, Fabrefaction, Aurora Theatre, 7 Stages, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, The Warehouse Theatre, The Distracted Globe Theatre Company, Glow Lyric Theatre, Centre Stage SC, SC Children's Theatre, and the NY and DC Fringe Festivals. Educational credits include Case Western Reserve University, Lehigh University, The Gainesville Theatre Alliance, Furman University, and Wake Forest University.  International credits include Teatri Metropol (Tirana, Albania).  In his free time, Kevin enjoys exploring the intersection of storytelling and design through interactive media, graphic novels, video games, and occasionally generative AI.