Columbus Bios

Event Organizer David Chabira Director of Show Support Cirque du Soleil - Resident Shows Division

David’s fascination with the circus began at age 14 when he landed his first job selling popcorn and cotton candy at the Arab Shrine Temple Circus in his hometown of Topeka, Kansas. After High School he literally ran away and joined the circus working first as a clown and later as an aerial artist. While performing the death defying high act; The Pirates of the Sky, he met his future wife Christine, a seventh generation circus performer. During their yearlong engagement, David designed and fabricated a brand new aerial spectacular to perform with his young bride. This act was an instant sensation and the duo toured extensively with circuses worldwide for the next seven years.

In 1990 David retired the act and settled with his wife and two young sons in Christine’s hometown of Sarasota, Florida. During this hiatus from the entertainment industry, David opened three restaurants in Florida but continued to design circus rigging and equipment, and take stagehand calls from IATSE Local 412.

With sawdust in his veins the desire to return to show business was just too strong. In 1997, David applied for a rigging position with Cirque du Soleil for their new production at Disney World. When the company discovered that David was not only a rigger but an avid scuba diver, he was offered a position at Cirque’s upcoming Aquatic Spectacular O at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

In January of 1998 David relocated his family across country to begin the arduous creation period for O as the Assistant Head of Rigging. In November of 1998, just days after the new show opened, he was promoted to Head of Rigging, a position he held for over nine years. In September of 2007, David was promoted to Technical Director for O.

In May of 2013 David accepted the position of Director of Show Support. His team oversees purchasing, training and systems support for all permanent Cirque du Soleil resident shows.

Chris Kortum Head of Lighting Cirque du Soleil – KA MGM Grand

Chris Kortum graduated from the University of California San Diego where he earned his Master’s Degree in Lighting Design. During his time there he enjoyed working on university productions and was lucky enough to be part of the technical team on La Jolla Playhouse productions of The Who’s Tommy and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. A short trip to Las Vegas turned into an 8 year stint at EFX at the MGM Grand. Chris Has worked on Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity, BeLIEve, and KA where he is Head of Lighting currently. Chris also has been involved with Electrical Safety for Cirque du Soleil and has done training for many of the resident shows. Chris Is an ETCP certified technician.

Stacey Myers General Stage Manager Cirque du Soleil – KA MGM Grand

Stacey is a native Texan whose interest in the arts started at an early age as she comes from a musical family. She has been involved in entertainment, in one form or another, since middle school. In college she studied all levels music and was involved in the Radio, Television and Film department. Stacey has been with Cirque du Soleil for over 13 years. She initially joined Alegria in Biloxi as a technician. Later Stacey went on tour with Alegria as a Stage Manager for almost 4 years during which time she became the General Stage Manager, visiting such places as Australia, Canada, and Singapore and opened the market in Mexico. Stacey is now the General Stage Manager for our resident show KÀ at the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel. She was involved with the creation of KÀ from 2004 and happily continues to face the challenges of one of our largest shows.

Alana Clapp

Sandra Fox Head of Wardrobe, Makeup & Wigs Cirque du Soleil – LOVE The Mirage

Sandra grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and was highly influenced in her career choice by the variety of theatrical productions available to see in the city and surrounding areas. She attended Northern Illinois University, completing a BA in Theater Design and Technology, with an emphasis on costumes.

Before leaving school, Sandra was working three days a week at The Lyric Opera of Chicago; a job she enjoyed for four years. During off-season, Sandra spent time as a first hand at The Goodman Theater in Chicago. She also enjoyed working many different productions as a Wardrobe Attendant with the local union. During one season at The Goodman, Sandra was asked if she would consider becoming the Wardrobe Supervisor for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She accepted, establishing a costume shop for the company, and touring internationally for seven years.

After 9/11, Sandra considered a career change. While working Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and spending time checking out Pharmacy programs at Chicago universities, Sandra were approached by Cirque du Soleil to interview for a touring show. One month later, she traveled around the world to Singapore to become Head of Wardrobe on Alegria.

Sandra enjoyed touring with Cirque, but was looking forward to settling down after touring for so many years. So, she accepted a position as Assistant Head of Wardrobe for KA. This gave her the opportunity to work a creation with Cirque du Soleil, learn about corporate theater, and supervise a large crew. When Cirque du Soleil announced it would be creating a new show at the Mirage, she applied to be Head of Wardrobe.

The Beatles LOVE has been her home since creation, and continues to be a challenge and a joy to Sandra every day.

Randy Handley Head of Wardrobe, Makeup & Wigs Cirque du Soleil – MJ One Mandalay Bay

Randy is in his eighth year with Cirque du Soleil and is Head of Wardrobe on Michael Jackson ONE at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Randy has worked on 3 other Cirque du Soleil shows Corteo, Banana Shpeel, and Zarkana at Radio City Music Hall. Randy holds a BFA in Costume Design and Technology from Millikin University as well as a MFA in Costume Production from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Randy has also worked with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Playmakers Repertory Company, Carolina Ballet, Hartford Stage Company NETworks, Million Dollar Quartet, Ke$ha, Madonna, Leona Lewis, and One Night for One Drop.

JanNelle Rivers Head of Props Cirque du Soleil – KA MGM Grand

Before moving to Las Vegas in 2004 to work on the creation of KÀ, JanNelle lived in Biloxi, MS for 17 years and was introduced to Cirque du Soleil when Alegria came to the Beau Rivage in 1999. She was a self-employed faux finish artist working in many homes across the Mississippi Gulf Coast. [And thanks to Katrina a lot of her work doesn’t exist anymore.]

Her theater background consisted mainly of community and children’s theater work as a lighting technician, then designer; set painter, decorator, and designer; prop maker and finder; stage manager; bookkeeper; grant writer; administrative director; and technical director—all as a volunteer.

She joined the technical department of Alegria and was there until the show left in October of 2000. She rejoined Cirque as a Props Technician for the creation of KA in 2004 and became the Head of the Props & Puppets department in 2008.

Nancy Mallette Senior Manager, Occupational Health and Safety Cirque du Soleil - Resident Shows Division

Nancy Mallette is the Senior Manager for Occupational Health and Safety for Cirque du Soleil responsible for Health and Safety oversight of the 9 United States based productions. She has been with Cirque du Soleil for 19 years principally as their Senior Operations Production Manager. She has managed such productions as "Mystère", "Zumanity" and was the Creation Production Manager for Criss Angel's "Believe". Prior to joining Cirque du Soleil in 1996, Ms. Mallette held the position of Director of Production at the largest multi venue production facility in Canada; the National Arts Center. She has been involved in the field of live entertainment in positions ranging from Production Stage Manager, Technical Direction and Festival Logistics Coordination. Ms. Mallette possesses an array of experience in the field of arts management including: dance, orchestra, opera, theatre, Kabuki, Commedia dell'arte, outdoor festivals, circus arts, film, TV and Rock 'n' Roll. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications and a second Bachelor of Arts in Film. She is a creative writer, meditator, Buddhist and dedicated to the cause that more women need to take leadership roles in the field of entertainment.

Gemma Guy VP Business Development TAIT

Having trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK, Gemma Guy has been involved in the theatre entertainment industry for more than 18 years. She has had extensive experience managing technical departments both onboard Carnival cruise ships and as technical coordinator in Carnival Corporation’s Miami headquarters. Gemma joined Stage Technologies as a Sales Manager in June 2006, enjoying two years in their London headquarters before being appointed VP Business Development in 2012. She is based out of the Las Vegas office.

Ben Gasper Integrator TAIT

An Alumni of Pennsylvania State University, Ben has been working in the field of automated rigging for over 10 years. Starting out in college building small tracking and counter weight assist systems, he moved to Cirque du Soleil’s production of O, at the Bellagio Theater in Las Vegas. During his time with O Ben performed regular maintenance on O’s 120 axes showroom, half of which were under water, as well as extensive automation upgrades to the entire showroom. In 2011 Ben took over as Assistant Head of Automation for O. In his new role Ben was able to streamline maintenance procedures and finish the integration of new systems to bring O’s automation system up to current industry standards. In his current role as an automated and high performance rigging integrator, Ben travels the world for new tours primarily focusing on performing flying. This challenging field is incredibly excited at more and more high profile artists want to fly.

Dave Carmack Instructor Columbus McKinnon

David Carmack, CM-ET Entertainment Certification Trainer. Dave is a 36 year veteran of CM and has served many roles during his tenure. His experiences range from 20 years of actual manufacturing and production of the Lodestar, Engineering Research and Development Lab Technician and Product Engineer before becoming the Entertainment Trainer. Dave has taught classes on 6 of the 7 continents.

Michael Braico

Martin Carrillo Sound Designer/Composer Meyer Sound

Martin Carrillo is an award winning Sound Designer and Composer with credits spanning 4 continents and across various Arts & Entertainment media and venues. Audio designs for Live venues include Hong Kong Disneyland's Festival of the Lion King, and Lotte World's Dragons in Seoul. Television credits include Current TV's SuperNews! and the Main Title theme for Vanguard investigative reports. Theatrical credits include Eric Whitacre's world premiere production of Paradise Lost, and Pig Iron Theater's Tragedy of Joan of Arc (American Theatre 2000) Martin lives in Los Angeles California and manages Heardrum Worldwide Audio, a shop and studio for Film, Television, Attraction, and Theatrical Audio services.

David Vincent Meyer Sound

Leonard Miller Vice President of Sales Lex Products

Leonard Miller – Leonard graduated with Honors in Scenography degree from the Theatre Department of Concordia University in Montreal where he also began his relationship with Cirque working on La Grand Tour, their first creative effort in 1984. Since then Leonard has sailed the seas installing and operating lighting and audio systems in the cruise ship industry, worked as a lighting and show tech for Disney, Universal and Busch Gardens, served as Construction Manager for Paramount Parks/Viacom highlighted by working on several major Star Trek projects, was a Regional Operations Manager for Kohler Generator and a Sales Manager for Barbizon Lighting. For the past 12 years Leonard was first a Regional Sales Manager and then the National Sales Manager for Philips Vari-Lite/Strand before joining Lex Products as Vice President of Sales this past summer. Leonard also teaches and serves on the board of directors of the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas (SILV), and has been a director-at-large for USITT.

Steve Gilbard Theatrical Concepts

Michael Pilotte Theatrical Concepts

Bobby Harrell Product Specialist Philips Entertainment

Bobby is Philips Entertainment’s Product Specialist and Console Development Team Member. As a Lighting Designer, Associate Designer and Programmer, Bobby Harrell has enjoyed Broadway productions of Spring Awakening (Broadway, National Tour, London), Enron, The Iceman Cometh, The History Boys, Wild Party, Medea, Jane Eyre, Ragtime, Two and Only, The Year of Magical Thinking, Vincent in Brixton, Private Lives, Tale of Two Cities, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, The Seagull, The Seafarer and Cabaret. As well as productions with Lincoln Center Festival, San Francisco Opera, The Bolshoi Ballet, Pilobolus, Geffen Playhouse, Resident Ensemble Players, The Moscow Ballet, Ft. Worth Opera and Ft. Worth Ballet and many more.

Charlie Hulme Midwest Regional Sales Manager Philips Entertainment

Charlie Hulme is a 30 year veteran of the entertainment industry, with experience in professional sound reinforcement, AV systems integration, concert lighting, automated lighting manufacturing, and networked lighting control systems. He is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, the Audio Engineering Society, has received ANSI accreditation as a Certified Technology Specialist (CTS), and holds LC certification from the National Council on Qualifications for the Lighting Professions.