Theatre Staff

Jonathan Meier

Director of Theatre
Director - Fall Play, Chicago Shakespeare Slam, Winter Play, Spring Musical

Mr. Meier has been the Director of Theatre at MHS since the fall of 2004. During that time, Mundelein Theatre has produced over 100 shows. He has personally directed over 50 of those shows, including the World High School Premiere of TRUST, by David Schwimmer and Andy Bellin, which was selected to perform at the Illinois High School Theatre Festival. Meier teaches Introduction to Theatre, Beginning Acting, Theatre Studio (Advanced Acting), as well as Technical Theatre. He also teaches Speech, Film as Literature and Mythology. Meier grew up in the St. Louis area and attended Southeast Missouri State University. After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Speech and Theatre Education, he moved to Chicago to pursue a career as a professional actor. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Acting from The Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University (now known as The Theatre School). He worked for several years as an actor in Chicago, doing stage work, commercials and industrial films. In addition to acting, he has had the good fortune to work as a theatre technician, having served as a scene carpenter, lighting technician, sound technician, technical director and stage manager. A temporary office job led him to a career in the financial services industry. He spent 18 years in the banking field. In 2016 he completed a Masters in Directing at the Chicago Conservatory of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He lives in Palatine with his wife, Jill and has three crazy kids (Gracie, Sophie and Holden). Other passions include golf and St. Louis Cardinal baseball. Meier is a member of the Illinois Theatre Association (formerly on the Board of Directors), Northern Illinois Theatre Educators and the Educational Theatre Association. In 2019 he received the Illinois Theatre Association’s Award of Honor for his contributions to the ITA and to theatre in Illinois, and in 2023 he was named the inaugural recipient of the Award of Excellence in Education from the District 120 Board of Education.

Sara Gunther

Lighting Designer

Ms. Gunther has been designing the lights for the high school productions since the fall of 2004. She’s happy to be given the opportunity to design for her alma mater and enjoys working with each new group of students.

Ms. Gunther attended the University of New Hampshire and earned a B.A. in Theatre and a B.S. in Marine & Freshwater Biology. While at the university she was the president of the student run theatre group, Mask & Dagger and a Teacher’s Assistant for the Tech Theatre classes. She returned to school and earned a M.A. in Visual & Media Arts from Emerson College with a concentration in Fictional Narrative.

David Mork

Scene Painting Specialist

Mr. Mork worked at MHS from 2004-2021 as an art teacher and a department chair. It has been his pleasure to work with Mr. Meier since the very beginning, as they both started at MHS at the same time. Mr. Mork is now a dean at a local private school. He is very proud to still serve MHS as the Paint and Design Specialist, since there aren’t many programs on the level of Mundelein Theatre. He lives in Island Lake with his wife Jodi and their two sons, Sean and Jesse.

Mark Landuyt

Director - Group Interpretation

Mr. Landuyt has been an English teacher at Mundelein High School since 2012. Additionally, he began in 2014 directing Group Interpretation, an IHSA performing arts event, for Mundelein Theatre. In 2016, Mark began co-directing the Battle of the Bard (now the Shakespeare Slam), a Shakespeare “poetry-slam-style” event coordinated by Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. He also serves as an advisor during the Student Directed One Act Plays.

In high school, Mark was very involved in not only Group Interp but Speech team and theatre as well. He attended college at Saint Xavier University in Chicago and received a B.A in Secondary Education-English. More recently, Mark has earned a Masters in Reading Education through Olivet Nazarene University. As an undergraduate, he regularly coached for the Alan B. Shepard Speech team and assisted with their performing arts productions. While student teaching and working as a tutor at Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, he was an assistant coach for the Speech team. During his collegiate years, Mark also wrote and acted with a sketch comedy troupe, Girls Field Hockey, performing with other sketch comedy groups throughout the Chicago South Suburbs.

Working with the students of Mundelein Theatre has been such a rewarding experience. Being a witness to the hard work and commitment synonymous with Mundelein Theatre is nothing short of inspiring. He cannot wait to see what the future will bring to Mundelein. Mark lives in Vernon Hills with his wife Jenny and their wonderful children, Madelyn and Hudson.

Jeff Harding

Director - New Faces Production
Technical Director - Selected shows

Mr. Harding has had the privilege of spending his entire professional life teaching high school mathematics. He started in 1988 and joined the MHS staff in the fall of 1999. Mr. Harding lives in Wauconda with his wife Monica and is the proud father of four daughters.

He grew up in Roscoe, Illinois and then attended Illinois State University. He has taught at Boylan Catholic High School, Hononegah High School, and Round Lake High School before coming aboard at MHS. During his time teaching, he has obtained his Masters Degree in Education from National Louis University. He is an avid reader who reads in excess of one hundred books each year.

Mr. Harding is a member of two local community theatre groups, the Kirk Players here in Mundelein and PM&L Theatre in Antioch. He has had the thrill of performing on the stage a number of times with his most notable roles being Colonel Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men, Bill Sykes in Oliver, and Henry Saunders in Lend Me a Tenor.

While being an avid follower of the theatre at MHS his entire career, he became actively involved in the winter of 2015 when he was the Associate Director of The Odd Couple. He has also directed the first ever New Faces Production, The Election, and worked with the understudy cast of Picnic.

John Stowers

Set Designer
Master Carpenter/Technical Director

Mr. Stowers came to MHS in January 2006 as a Business Ed teacher. An eclectic individual, he is also endorsed to teach Family and Consumer Science, Special Education, History and Theatre. Prior to his time at MHS, he worked in business, manufacturing, marketing, at a sawmill, in restaurants and in professional theatre. He served as Master Carpenter at New State Theatre in Jackson, MS and at The American Stage in St Petersburg, FL. He's been the Assistant Technical Director for Pima Community College Center for the Arts in Tucson, AZ and at Shryock Auditorium in Carbondale, IL.

In his spare time, he dabbles at the banjo, has a black belt in HaeDong Gumdo, and has written 5 mediocre zombie novels. He lives in an undisclosed location somewhere in the woods in southern Wisconsin.

Hayley Johnson

Associate Director - Group Interpretation

Mrs. Johnson grew up in Mundelein and joined the Mundelein High School staff in 2017. She is a 2011 graduate of Mundelein High School and Mundelein Theatre. In her time at MHS, Hayley performed in several roles in musicals including The Pajama Game, Fiddler on the Roof, Footloose, and Once on this Island. She also served in technical roles such as set crew, assistant director, sound, and choreography. She is excited to work with the current MHS students and give back to a program that meant so much to her.

Besides math and theatre, Mrs. Johnson loves singing, puzzles, and escape rooms. Hayley lives in Lake Villa with her husband Henry and son Westley.

Jill Reznick Meier

Associate Director - Chicago Shakespeare Slam

Mrs. Meier recently portrayed the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the Mundelein Summer Theatre production of The Lion in Winter. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Theatre from the University of Minnesota. She worked as an actress in Minneapolis and Chicago, and toured in the world premier musical, Plain Hearts. She was a founding member of the Different Drummer Music Theatre, where she met her future husband and current Mundelein Theatre director. She has recently retired after a 38-year career at Goldman Sachs & Company. She has been a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Board of Directors since 2008.

Musical Staff

Cory Thompson

Vocal Director

Mrs. Thompson is a 2002 and 2005 graduate of Northwestern University with an undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance and a Masters in Music Education. Since the age of 10, Mrs. Thompson has been singing, dancing, and performing on stage in over 40 productions, first in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and later with Northwestern’s premiere a capella group, Melodious Thunk. She’s sung the National Anthem at Wrigley Field since 2006, as well as at several American Cancer Society National Medal of Honor Ceremonies across the country. At these events, she has had the opportunity to sing for former President George H.W. Bush, Duke basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, and other leading political and scientific figures.

Mrs. Thompson’s has been at Mundelein High School since fall of 2006, where she is the director of Honors Master Singers, Honors Master Singers, Bella Voce, Sound, and Reverb. She also teaches AP Music Theory when the course runs, and does vocal direction for the Spring Musical. Mrs. Thompson is also the Executive Artistic Director of Red Rose Children’s Choir of Lake County, where she is directs their Master Singers and Bella Rosa choirs. In addition to her singing and teaching engagements, Mrs. Thompson and her husband have run thirteen marathons for the American Cancer Society, raising over $100,000 in the process. Mrs. Thompson lives in the northern suburbs with her husband and three children: Emma, Ava, and Jack.

Jerald Shelato

Pit Orchestra Director

Mr. Shelato is one of the Directors of Bands at Mundelein High School, where he directs the Honors Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and Jazz Orchestra and teaches Beginning and Intermediate Guitar classes. He also co-directs the Marching Mustangs and the MHS Pep Band

Before coming to Mundelein High School, Mr. Shelato taught in the Champaign and Urbana school districts in Illinois. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has performed as a conductor, tuba player, or guitarist with numerous ensembles and artists, including Wayne Shorter, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, the Illinois Jazz Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company, the Danville Symphony Orchestra, and the avant-jazz group Ear Doctor. He is a proud resident of Mundelein.

Annie Snow

Choreographer

Annie Snow is a Chicago based teaching artist and choreographer and is honored to be a part of the Mundelein Theatre Family. Annie received her BA in dance from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and holds a Master’s Degree in dance/movement therapy and counseling from Columbia College Chicago. Annie enjoys her time both on the stage and off with career highlights including concert dance, musical theatre, and improv. Her work off stage includes choreography for both adult and youth performers with various companies including Big Noise Theatre, Citadel, Highland Park Players and most recently, Little Noise Theatre. She has choreographed for the Studio 83 Dance Company since 2014, where her routines have earned both Regional and National accolades.