Written by Loela Dickey

Alex Higgin-Houser is a visiting assistant theatre professor as well as a director, librettist, and theatre-maker. He is currently overseeing the student-directed “One Act Play Festival.” In an interview with Alex, I asked him about his education, career, and experience overseeing the festival.

Alex began participating in theatre as a kid, but never seriously considered it as a career until he was working toward a biology degree as an undergraduate at Carleton College. While studying abroad in Berlin, he was tasked with the assignment of staging Goethe’s Faust. He says, “pages and pages later, I looked back at the experience of creating what was really a director’s game plan, and realized that for the first time, pouring so much time and so much of myself into something hadn’t felt like work.” He mentions that he has a Faust tattoo on his arm for this reason. Alex completed his degree in biology but took every theatre class he could, writing his thesis on the neuroscience of artistic creativity.

Alex later joined the NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. While at Tisch, Alex began teaching and fell in love with it. He says, “I’m a better artist because I teach, without question.” Since then, he’s worked with students at The New Studio on Broadway, Elon University, University of Chicago, and Whitman College. In addition to teaching, Alex has been involved in several theatre festivals. He co-created the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, and produced in several Fringe Festivals as well as the New York Musical Theatre Festival – so it was a no-brainer for him to take a guiding role in the production of Whitman’s “One Act Play Festival.”

This isn’t Alex’s first time working with Whitman students. In 2022, Alex was the guest director of Whitman’s production of bare: a pop opera. I asked Alex to share a bit about his process for starting new projects and how his approach to the “One Act Play Festival” differed from his approach to bare. Alex says that, for any project, he starts by asking: “why this, why now, why here?” In the case of bare, he explains, students wanted to create “an unabashedly queer theatre experience, to dive into a kind of musical theatre they hadn’t done before, and to explore the tension of queer life (closeted and out) in religious environments.” The objective of the “One Act Play Festival,” is a bit different. Alex explains that the production of the festival, which is supported by a generous endowment from Physics Professor Emeritus Craig Gunsul, is intended to “emulate what new work development looks like in today’s theatre landscape.” The plays in the festival are based on scripts written by students in the fall course, THDN-330 Playwrighting/Writing Performance, taught by Alex. Students in this course were invited to submit scripts, which they workshopped in class, to a student jury. The jury chose three scripts which were then produced entirely by students – student directors, designers, stage managers, actors, and technicians.

When I asked Alex about his experience with Whitman students, he was all praise. He says, “from the incredible student playwrights…to the student directors, who are throwing their whole artistic selves into this process; to the designers, who are tackling projects far larger in scope than they’ve dealt with before with grace and ingenuity; to the actors, who are taking up the challenge of not only playing characters, but creating and discovering who they are; to the technicians whose dedication and perseverance make this all possible; Whitman theatre students are the real deal.” I also asked Alex what his favorite aspect of the festival has been so far. In response, he says, “seeing these pieces that started life as one-page show proposals just a few months ago become full-on pieces of drama…boy, that’s an experience to treasure.”

To experience the result of a months-long process conducted by students and guided by Alex, come see the “One Act Play Festival” continuing through May 5th! Tickets can be bought online or day-of at the Harper Joy Theatre box office.