Leigh Anne Adams

Job Title

  • Assistant Professor Theatre, adjunct
    Music and Theatre, College of Arts and Sciences

Highlight

Leigh Anne Adams, Assist Professor of Theatre: directs plays, teaches acting, improvisation, directing, theatre appreciation, college writing and research. She is an Academic Counselor in the AESC Office, and an Early Alert Academic Coordinator with BEACON.

Started at Bethel

2007

Education

  • University of Kentucky - B.A. in Theatre, Speech, English Education, 1981
  • University of Kentucky - M.A. in Theatre, 1983
  • University of North Carolina@Greensboro - M.F.A. in Directing, 1985

Biography

Leigh Anne Adams is Assistant Professor (adj) of Theatre at Bethel University where she directs plays, teaches acting, improvisation, directing, theatre appreciation, writing and research. She is also an Academic Counselor in the AESC Office and an Early Alert Academic Coordinator with BEACON. She holds a M.A. in Theatre from the University of Kentucky and a M.F.A. in Directing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where her scholarship focused on the works of South African playwright Athol Fugard and the dramatic works of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and on the works of American playwright A.R. Gurney and the social order in American society.

Productions highlights include: Boesman And Lena, Steel Magnolias, Stage Door, Harvey, All’s Well That Ends Well, Anne Of Green Gables, 12 Angry Jurors, I Hate Hamlet, The Dining Room, A Kind of Alaska, Beyond Therapy, Swan Song, Shakespeare Unbound, Another Antigone, Hughie, I Hate Hamlet, Enchanted April, Suor Angelica (opera), and Cendrillon (opera).

Her work as Director of Original and Devised pieces include: Tears of God, A Matter of Perspective, The Actor and the Assassin. Dramaturgical work includes: Hedda, How to Achieve in Business with a Phantom on The Roof, Little Orphan Fanny Get Your Gun When U’re–in-Town, Great Expectations, and Sure-Locked at Home-The Quarantine Caper.

She was the Performance Company Director for CLIMB Theatre for a decade where she directed over 30 original plays, and intergenerational, cross cultural video series for Minnesota’s Southeast Asian communities.  She taught and worked: St Hugh’s School, Grantham, England; Buck’s Rock, Danbury, CT; Lake Placid Center For The Arts, NY; Parkway Playhouse, Burnsville, NC; Enterprise Théâtre Company, Saranac Lake, NY; Actor’s Theatre of Lexington Ky; Stephen Foster Story, Bardstown Ky, and Masquer’s Theatre Co, MN. She served as an Acting-Inclusion Coach for the University of MN Autism Program, as a Coach and Adjudicator for MN Regional and State History Day, and an Adjudicator for MN and KY Speech Leagues. Along with her husband Brent Adams, she served in drama ministry for various churches in Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

 

Courses Taught

  • Acting for Stage And Screen
  • Directing for Theatre
  • Inquiry Seminar: Yes…And!”: IMPROVing Your Life
  • Introduction to Creative Arts
  • College Writing and Research
  • Introduction to Liberal Arts
  • Introduction to Life at Bethel

Presentations

Southeast Theatre Conference (SETC) "Actor Training"
                                                                "Theatre for Young People"
                                                                "Development New Scripts/Devising New Work"

American Alliance for Theatre and Educators (AATE): Ouch and Owie: CLIMB Theatre

Certificates and Licenses

Secondary Education Certification

Professional Organizations, Committees, and Boards

American Alliance for Theatre and Educators (AATE) 
Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC)
Southeast Theatre Conference (SETC)
Site Counsel for St Paul Public Schools
Parent Advisory Council St Paul Public Schools

Areas of expertise

Directing established plays. Passionate about bringing devised and original works to the stage. Actor Training and Improvisation.