Alexis Kulani Woodard (she/her) is a Director and Adaptor, proud Spelman College Alumna and former Spelman Leadership Fellow at the Alliance Theatre. She is a 2024 Princess Grace Award Winner in Theatre and the Associate Artistic Director of Compagnia de' Colombari.

Alexis believes in theatremaking as an incubator to create the (seemingly) impossible — personal freedom, social liberation, and true community. She believes in theatre as a space to escape into — a playground to dream and conjure other worlds. Alexis believes in the artists’ responsibility to heal and transcend the divisions we were born into, create community and thereby destroy isolation.

She uses the transformative power of theatre to create empathy and challenge the social boundaries we place around others and ourselves. As an investigator of New Work and a partner to playwrights, Alexis uses her deep curiosity and process driven ethos to invite audiences into the rich complexity and diversity of our contemporary times.

Select Directing Credits include: The Dark Lady (Synchronicity Theatre), Metamorphoses, SORT, Moe’s a D*ck, Stray Dogs, Measure for Measure (Yale Drama), Every Brilliant Thing (Yale Cabaret), Hamlet (The TINY Theater Company, Alliance Theatre: Guest Artist Series); HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments and Do You Love the Dark?  (Alliance Theatre). Her work on HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments earned the production six Suzi Bass Award Nominations, including Best Direction, and a win for Outstanding Social Justice Production. She also directed Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, which was shown at the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale Bucharest” and other venues around Romania.

As a Spelman Leadership Fellow at the Alliance Theatre, Alexis served as the Co-Artistic Director of The Alliance’s inaugural 2020–21 Digital Season, where she produced Laugh Track, BackStage Atlanta, Spotlight Studio, and From the Ashes. Alexis also directed From the Ashes, an original adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 which was created in collaboration with the Alliance’s Teen Ensemble. 

She has worked with directors Liz Diamond, Tamilla Woodard, Laurie Woolery, Hana Sharif, Leora Morris, and Khalia Davis. Associate directing credits include A Christmas Carol: The Live Radio Play, Working (Alliance Theatre), and the world premiere tri-production of Dream Hou$e (Alliance Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage). She also has served as assistant director for Escaped Alone (Yale Repertory Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), and A Kids Play About Racism (Bay Area Children’s Theatre). Upcoming: The Notebook, First National Tour (Assistant Director). MFA: David Geffen School of Drama at Yale