Kenneth Laeger (Kel), retired on August 1, 2022, after 18 years as an Assistant and then Associate Professor in the University of Montevallo Theatre Department.  Besides teaching technical theatre classes, he was UM Theatre Department’s scenic and lighting designer.  Over the years, Kel compiled 53 scenic and 48 lighting designs and worked with 10 different UM directors.  It is difficult to narrow down the favorites so rather than list them all, below are some of the more memorable productions and the UM directors he worked with:

David Callaghan: Parade (S), To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (S), High Fidelity (S/L), Carrie (L)
Marcus Lane: The Weir (S), The Thugs (S/L), Scapin (S/L), Priscilla Queen of the Desert (S/L)
Michael Walker: A New Brain (S/L), Much Ado About Nothing (S), The Last Days of Judas
Iscariot (S)
Bart Pitchford: Anonymous (S)
Chalethia Williams: Stick Fly (S/L)

Former UM Theatre Directors

Vladimir Rovinsky: The Seagull (S/L), X-ing (S/L)
Tammy Killian: Heartbreak House (S/L), 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress (S/L), Dead City (S/L)
Marla Dean: Iphigenia and Other Daughters (S/L)
Jean Marie Collins: Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 (S/L)
Chan Harris: The Good Person of Szechwan (S/L)

Upon retirement, Kel traded theatrical production for genealogy production.  He currently is the director of the FamilySearch Center of the LDS Church in Vestavia Hills.  He is also on the board of The Alabama Genealogical Society for records preservation and he is the website coordinator for The Birmingham African American Genealogy Group, Inc. (baaggroup.org).