Faculty

Alan Patrick Kenny

Alan Patrick Kenny joined the Department of Theatre and Dance at UW Stevens Point in the fall of 2012 as Assistant Professor of Theatre & Dance.  Alan is currently completing his thesis production towards a Master's in Fine Arts in Theatre Directing from the prestigious program at UCLA. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Alan did his undergraduate work at New York University, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance - Music Theatre in 2004.

At age 20, while attending NYU, he started a no-budget summer theatre company in his hometown called New Stage Collective. The company exploded with growth, and as the Producing Artistic Director, Alan transformed the company from an itinerant nomadic summer troupe to a professional non-profit organization with a permanent, rehabbed performance space and a $250,000 operating budget.  During his tenure, he led New Stage through 7 seasons, 32 productions, 22 regional premieres, 21 production awards, and 53 award nominations. Favorite productions include Jerry Springer: The Opera, The Goat, BUG, Sunday in the Park with George, Caroline or Change, See What I Wanna See, Equus, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, BENT, and The History Boys.

Alan also has a professional career as a musical theatre pianist, music director and conductor. He conducted the North America Tour of Smokey Joe's Cafe, played piano for a year aboard Holland America Line ships, and has music directed over 15 professional regional productions, including UCLA Professor Jeremy Mann's 2011 production of The Music Man at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

While at UCLA, he immersed himself in the worlds of classical theatre, Shakespeare, opera, and new play development. Alan assisted Tony Award winner Robert Falls on the acclaimed world premiere of Beth Henley's The Jacksonian at the Geffen Playhouse, and also assisted Professor Michael McLain on his Hamlet. At UCLA, he directed the Pulitzer Prize contender Middletown by Will Eno, and also staged Monteverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda for Opera UCLA. Additionally, he continued to work professionally while at UCLA at the esteemed Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, both as a music director on Adding Machine: The Musical, and made his LA professional directing debut there on a hit production of Joe Orton's farce What the Butler Saw, which received a twice-extended run.