Theatre Director
CLAY WHEELER is excited to be teaching at his Alma Mater (PSHS Class of 2004)! This is Clay's second year as Theatre Director at Plano Senior High School, but he's been a theatre director in Plano ISD since 2011. He teaches Theatre 1, 2, 3 & 4 and Theatre Productions 3 & 4. Last year's UIL OAP production of Fire in the Hole earned numerous awards and advanced to the Area-level Contest, which PSHS had not done since 2013. Last year's production of Urinetown also earned nominations for the Broadway Dallas High School Musical Theatre Awards.
Mr. Wheeler began his teaching career at Haggard Middle School, where he spent three years teaching theatre and speech. He then spent five years running an award-winning and nationally recognized Theatre Department & Speech Team at Schimelpfenig Middle School. Under his tenure, the SMS theatre department placed four consecutive years at UIL One-Act Play Competition, and the Speech Team won a National Award of Excellence in Speech as well as back-to-back City Championships. Most recently, he served as the Theatre and Technical Theatre Director at Vines High School. In his two years at Vines High School, the theatre department earned the top award at the PISD High School One-Act Play Competition both times!
Clay earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from Baylor University in 2008. While at Baylor, he focused in Acting, Directing & Playwriting.
When not at school, Clay is an actor and improviser and has appeared in productions with WaterTower Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Theatre Three, Stage West and Kitchen Dog Theater, among others, and is the recipient of multiple DFW Critics Forum Awards. He is also a voice actor for Funimation where he's been featured on dozens of projects, including My Hero Academia, FairyTail, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul, Black Clover and many others.
Clay is a Plano native and attended Plano schools from K-12th grade, graduating from Plano Senior High School in 2004. Clay lives in Princeton, Tx and is the proud husband of Jennifer and father of Winnie, Ginny and a new baby, coming in December 2022!
Technical Theatre Director
LAURA MCNARY is excited to return to Plano Senior High Theatre as the Technical Director for a second year. Previously, Laura served as the Technical Director at Creekview High School from 2003-2012 and Lewisville High School from 2012-2020. In 2020, she moved to Plano ISD where she was the Director of Frankford Middle School Theatre.
Laura grew up in the Midwest and was involved in music, theatre, speech and visual arts from a young age and through high school. She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received a BFA in Theatre Design, Development, Technology, and Management with an emphasis in Scenic Design. After working as a Scenic Artist/Designer and Stage Manager for various theatres and summer programs, she moved to Texas where she saw that theatre classes were prominent in public education. Remembering her original dream to be a teacher, she earned her theatre teacher certification in 2002 from the University of North Texas.
During her time in education, she has supported students for UIL competitions in One Act Play and Theatrical Design with numerous state appearances and placings in both contests. Laura has lived in Plano for 17 years with her husband Chris and son Evan.