Anne Mcalexander
Anne just completed her first year at Central Michigan University, where she is an Assistant Professor of Theatre specializing in Musical Theatre. Since joining the faculty at CMU, she has spearheaded musical theatre recruitment efforts, overseen the MT program, taught classes in Acting, Musical Theatre Technique and History, and Jazz Dance, and directed and choreographed Young Frankenstein, Lizzie, and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.
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, and Forever 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 to direct Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky and choreograph Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Before joining the faculty of CMU, Anne served as Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre and Directing at Nebraska Wesleyan University. While there, she taught musical theatre technique, acting, directing and advanced dance technique classes, coached musical theatre voice, and directed and choreographed departmental productions, including Into the Woods, Pippin, Holiday Inn Merrily We Roll Along, Seussical, and 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.
Other directing and choreography credits include Ragtime (Fiddlehead Theatre, Boston), Parade (Boston University), 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 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 is currently working towards certification with IDC.