Faculty & Staff

Amanda Simmons, Producer and Director of Theatre Arts
Ms. Simmons is overjoyed to become part of the faculty at New Albany High School as the Director of Theatre Arts. She is a graduate of Morehead State University with her B.A. in Theatre, and M.A. in Communications, and she is currently pursuing a second M.A. in Roosevelt University's Theatre Directing Intensive program. Simmons has been a theatre educator for the past twenty years. Highlights include taking two student productions to the International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland with the American High School Theatre Festival, developing new works with Actors Theatre of Louisville and local playwrights, and touring Theatre for Young Audience school tours. Additionally, she has collaborated on theatre programming with staff and students at Down Syndrome of Louisville and Kentucky Autism Training Center. She has also served Stage One Family Theatre, Actors Theatre, and Kentucky Performing Arts in a variety of artistic, educational, and administrative roles. Go, Bulldogs!

Crit Fisher, Resident Lighting & Sound Designer

Crit Fisher is excited to work with the creative team and incredible students at New Albany High School since 2014. Crit has over 30 years of theatrical experience regionally as an actor, director, and designer. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Theatre. Before New Albany Crit spent many years as Technical Director/Designer for Charlestown High School Theatre and Louisville Collegiate School. His regional theatre credits include: TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana, Clarksville Little Theatre, Derby Dinner Playhouse, and Bunbury Theatre to name a few.

Crit has had some very memorable productions over these years. Some of his favorites include: SHREK: The Musical, The Laramie Project, Bright Star, Les Miserables, The Addams Family and The Baltimore Waltz, for which he received a nomination for a Barbizon Award for Theatrical Design Excellence.

Crit has enjoyed working with some very creative and talented young adults, which included his daughter who is now the Operations Manager and sports broadcaster for WICR at the University of Indianapolis.

Crit is an active member of the Educational Theatre Association as an adjudicator and has been a guest artist at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska and most recently Bloomington, Indiana.

Robert Upton, Technical Theatre Teacher and Director

Born in Georgia, Bob has been involved in theatre since high school. Bob worked in Technical Theatre for the majority of this time in the capacity of Carpenter, Master Carpenter, Shop Foreman, ATD, TD, Designer, Teacher and Director. Bob has worked regional theatre and summer stock theatre starting in the mid 80’s in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Kentucky. Bob began his teaching career in 1996 at North Georgia University/Brenau College. Later in 2004, he began teaching at the high school level and has only taken time off from teaching long enough to attend graduate school in Oregon at Southern Oregon University.

Bob is married to Allison Upton, and has two children who are off adulting on their own. He is Thrilled to now be a part of the dynamic and award winning program that is New Albany Theatre Arts and looks forward to helping aspiring tech students learn the craft and create great theatre work while here. “Let’s build some art.