Faculty

Cara Gargano

Cara Gargano is chair of the Department of Theatre, Film, Dance & Arts Management and professor of dance and theatre at LIU Post. A former dancer she studied at the New York School of Ballet under Richard Thomas and Barbara Fallis and later taught at the school; she has worked with US Terpsichore Co, the Empire State Ballet, Garden State Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre; her concert choreography for Cara Gargano Dance Co. has received warm reviews from The New York Times and has been presented in France, and Switzerland, as well as in the United States. As a stage director and choreographer, she has worked in theatre, opera, and musical comedy. She holds a Ph.D. in French language and literature from the City University Graduate Center and has published in both English and French in Modern Drama, Reliologiques, Dance Research Journal, Theatre Research International, and New Theatre Quarterly. She has provided chapters for several books including Mythes dans la littérature contemporaine d'expression française, Réécritures des mythes: utopie au feminine, Réécritures de Madeleine Monette, Anne-Marie Alonzo: Collection d'essais,and most recently, Hermes-Aphrodite Encounters. A member of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the National Association of Schools of Dance, the National Association of Schools of Theatre, the Modern Language Association, and the Society for Dance History Scholars, she is currently in her second term as President of the Congress on Research in Dance, and serves a choreography peer reviewer for the National Dance Association Promotion and Tenure Initiative.

Valerie Clayman-Pye

Valerie Clayman-Pye is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at LIU Post where she teaches acting and voice and speech. She holds a PhD in Performance Practice, Drama and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter, where she worked with Shakespeare¹s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also holds an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College. Valerie is a professional actor and director whose work has reached audiences in over twenty countries. As a voice and speech coach, Valerie has worked in theatre, film, and television coaching Academy, BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award nominees. The British Council recently named her a finalist for the Education UK Alumni Award for Professional Achievement. Her book, Unearthing Shakespeare: embodied performance and the Globe will be released by Routledge in 2017.

Maria Porter

Maria Porter is a full-time faculty member in the Theatre department. She has worked with Tadashi Suzuki and Anne Bogart both here and in Japan. She has incorporated this work into company training, making LIU Post one of the only undergraduate programs in the country to offer Suzuki training as part of its core curriculum. She holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from University of California, Berkley. Professor Porter conceived and directed Third Child, a performance based on the myth of Orestes, which performed at the International University Theatre Associations World Congress in Urbino, Italy. Acting credits include Barbara in Inky, Skriker in Skriker (KC/ACTF), the mother in Henry Fool and Piaf in Piaf.

Robert Wildman

Robert Wildman joined LIU Post in the fall of 2011 as Director of the Arts Management program after eight years at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) where he created the MFA program in Performing Arts Management. Prior to UNCSA, Robert spent seven years as Managing Director of Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT), the performance arm of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut. Robert joined CRT after a nine-year career in arts marketing in New Haven, at Yale Repertory Theatre/Yale School of Drama, and Long Wharf Theatre. Robert has also worked at the Mark Taper Forum and American Conservatory Theatre in his native California, and was Interim Manager of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. He has also taught in the Yale School of Drama’s MFA program in Theatre Administration, and the distance-learning M.A. program in Arts Administration at Goucher College. He has served on grantmaking panels for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, the Adam Foundation and the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County. He currently serves on the board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators and has served on the boards of the North Carolina Theatre Conference, the Adam Foundation, and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University.

David Hugo

David Hugo received a BFA in acting from Syracuse University and moved directly to NYC where he worked as an actor in regional theater, National tours, and on Broadway. He was last seen on Broadway playing the role of Grantaire in Les Miserables where he also had the honor of understudying Terrance Mann in the role of Javert. After twelve years working professionally, he returned to school to receive a master’s degree in theater in order to teach aspiring young actors. He received his master’s degree from LIU Post in 2006, where he had the distinct pleasure of studying under Maria Porter, Benjamin Moore, and Cara Gargano. He is thrilled to be able to start his teaching career among such inspiring professors and artists.

Jon Fraser

In 1983, playwright/director Jon Fraser was driving to Montauk to begin an Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship in playwriting. Along the way, nature called, and the next possible exit said “Southampton College.” He took the exit, and wandered into what looked like a theatre, in search of a rest room. He got caught by a man who turned out to be the Director of Humanities, and two weeks later, began teaching his first course in theatre as an adjunct at Southampton. Within two years, he was asked to take over the then ailing student radio station, since after his graduation from Columbia University, he had worked as a writer for WCBS-TV News. With radio and theatre assignments, he became a full-time faculty member in 1985. He proposed, and LIU created, the affiliation with Public Radio, and the station flourished into what is now the LIU radio network. Several years later, he became the Division Director for Arts & Media at Southampton. He completed his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In 1996, he transferred to LIU Post, first as Assistant Dean for the School of Visual & Performing Arts, then becoming Associate Dean the next year, and became Acting Dean of the school upon the retirement of Dean Emeritus Lynn Croton. He then became Senior Associate Dean before returning to the faculty in 2008. At Post, he has taught courses in acting, directing and playwriting, and film. He has been active in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, holding the national office of Treasurer of the organization for two terms. His most recent publication is a series of biographical essays in The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy, published by The University of Michigan Press in 2005. He continues to write plays and screenplays, and is a member of Circle East Theatre Company in New York City.