Amanda Morgan
Amanda Wansa Morgan
Coordinator of Musical Theatre
Associate Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies
Amanda Wansa Morgan is an Atlanta-based music director, composer, director, and actor who serves as Coordinator of Musical Theatre & Associate Professor at Kennesaw State University. At KSU, she teaches classes in musical theatre performance, voice, acting, and musical theatre history and literature. In recent years, she directed the KSU productions of The Spongebob Musical, Ragtime, Heathers, and A Man of No Importance and has music directed KSU productions of The Spitfire Grill, Thumbelina, and Bring It On. As a voice teacher, she specializes in training voices for Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) and all styles within the musical theatre realm. At KSU, she mentors students in musical theatre writing and composition through Musical Theatre Ensemble and other service projects. Amanda often coordinates the annual 24 Hour Play Festival and Musical Theatre Showcases.
Amanda has served on the faculty at The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and also as Director of Music Education at Charleston Stage, working as music director, director, sound designer, dialect coach, music arranger, and composer for various productions. Additionally, she has music directed at The Alliance Theatre, Six Flags Over Georgia, Atlanta Lyric Theater, Actor’s Express, Synchronicity Theater, Wallace Buice Theatre Company/Buicentennial Productions, Playhouse on the Square (TN), Post Playhouse (NE), and Osceola Center for the Arts (FL).
Favorite Music Direction credits include The Color Purple (2018 Suzi Bass Award for Music Direction, 2018 BroadwayWorld Award in Music Direction), Jesus Christ Superstar, Songs for a New World, Hairspray, Avenue Q, Always Patsy Cline, and The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee. As composer, her original musicals have been fully produced at Orlando Shakespeare Theatre & Charleston Stage. Amanda has an MFA in Acting from The University of Central Florida and undergraduate degrees in Music and Theatre from The Florida State University. She has also worked as a professional actor throughout the Southeast since 2001 in shows such as Urinetown (Pennywise), The 25th Annual…Bee (Rona Lisa Peretti), Love’s Labours Lost (Princess of France), and Tony & Tina’s Wedding (Tina).
Amanda has a Certificate of Figure Proficiency from Estill Voice Systems and she is an Executive Board member of the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance (MTEA), Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Dramatist’s Guild, and ASCAP.
Amanda is the author of book chapter “Women in CCM (Contemporary Commercial Music) in the Rowan & Littlefield book So You Want to Sing Music by Women. Her research and written scholarship centers around CCM voice pedagogy, integrative training, and women in music as performers, writers, and changemakers.
