Anne Mcalexander
Anne is currently serving in her fourth year as Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre and Directing at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She teaches musical theatre technique, acting, directing and advanced dance technique classes, coaches musical theatre voice, and directs and choreographs departmental productions, including Into the Woods, Pippin, Holiday Inn Merrily We Roll Along, Seussical, and most recently, Romeo and Juliet. In her first semester at NWU, Anne conceived and directed a new-works cabaret, called Fresh Voices, that brought composers from NYC, Chicago, and LA together with NWU students to highlight new musical theatre works. This project led to a partnership and commission of a new musical for Wesleyan’s theatre department with composer Kailey Marshall, which premiered in February 2023.
After completing her M.F.A. in Directing at Ohio University, Anne spent a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at University of Kentucky teaching musical theatre acting technique, musical theatre and jazz dance, and directing and choreographing the fall production of Cabaret. While at Ohio University, Anne directed and choreographed Cabaret, and directed Failure: A Love Story, Stop Kiss, and the world premiers of Vessel and Stitched With a Sickle and a Hammer. A native Texan, Anne received her B.F.A. in Musical theatre performance from SUNY Fredonia.
Anne has served as Associate Artistic Director at Summer Repertory Theatre Festival in Northern California, directing and choreographing shows including West Side Story, Clybourne Park, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Tartuffe, Jeffrey Hatcher’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, andForever Plaid. Choreography credits with SRT include Chicago, Merrily We Roll Along, South Pacific, La Cage Aux Folles, 9 to 5, The Wedding Singer, Hairspray, The Full Monty, and Mame. In SRT’s final season, Anne returned to California (along with four NWU BFA students) where she directed Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky and choreographed Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Other directing and choreography credits include Parade (Boston University), Ragtime (Fiddlehead Theatre, Boston), Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ragtime and Swing! (Belmont University, TN), Damn Yankees (SUNY Fredonia), 110 in the Shade (Hardin Simmons University) Pippin, Kiss Me Kate, and The Drowsy Chaperone. Anne has taught as the choral and theater instructor at Tuxedo Park School in Tuxedo Park, New York, worked in several New York City area schools as a teaching artist with Wingspan Arts, and has choreographed at various high schools in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Anne is has previously been the head of theatre department at French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts where she oversaw all theatrical aspects of over 72 productions a summer and organized and oversaw dozens of theatre classes for hundreds of students of all levels. In the summer of 2020, Anne spearheaded, oversaw, and taught several classes for French Woods Online. Anne has also been the head of dance at FWF and has directed and choreographed dozens of productions at French Woods. Performance credits include A Chorus Line (Cassie), Sweet Charity (Charity), Beauty and the Beast, Guys and Dolls, and Chicago.
Anne is currently continuing to grow her skills in theatrical intimacy direction. She has completed workshops with both TIE (Theatrical Intimacy Educators) and IDC (Intimacy Directors and Coordinators), and completed IDC’s Consent-Forward Artist program. Anne has been accepted into the level 3 training with IDC and is working towards certification as an Intimacy Director.