ABOUT ME
Lexanne Leonard is a writer, actor, and teacher. A graduate of Loretto Heights College Theatre Department, she has performed for over thirty years in community theatres in the Denver Metro area and with Merry-Andrew Afoot children' theatre company.
Her MA in Education from Regis Jesuit University led her to the classroom. But after teaching for many years, Ms. Leonard has once again found her passion for the stage. After joining the Ecumenical Catholic Communion and through her exploration of Celtic Christianity and its high regard of the bard and poet, she has discovered her ministry working through writing and the theatre arts in her community to bring the Word alive.
At a Church of the Holy Family, ECC, Ms. Leonard served as Artist-In Residence. She used her talents to develop liturgy and homilies through the monologues she performs; with the youth group exploring and presenting their understandings of the gospel and sacraments; and in partnership with Fr. Scott Jenkins of the Celtic Way writing prayers, choral readings, and designing church environment for monthly Celtic Celebrations. She also enjoys offering writing workshops with all ages to explore the Spirit within and discover the luminous voice inside everyone.
A graduate of the Catholic Biblical School, her passion is researching, writing, and performing monologues that give voice to women of the New Testament. These are voices she feels have been ignored or diminished over the centuries. Of Ms. Leonard's piece, The Magdalene, it has been said, "This is living theater at its finest and packs a Biblical punch! Churches need to see this and reflect together on the rich layers of meaning..."
Other pieces Ms. Leonard offers for performance include The Woman With the Flow of Blood, and in the fall of 2106, Royal Purple, the Syrophonecian Woman.
Ms. Leonard's theatre work has been published along side of other noted playwrights such as Christopher Durang and Moises Kaufman, in several additions of Audition Monologues for Young Women, complied by Gerald Lee Ratliff. She is a Fellow of the Denver Writing Project and a graduate of the Colorado Writing Project.
Her first book of poetry, Filters, has been called, "...at times provoking and yet other times feels like a gentle companion who appears out of nowhere matching time and place providentially. There is a beautiful journey hidden within these pages…"
Unfolding, An Advent Journey, is her Advent devotional of poetry and prayers was commissioned by A Church of the Holy Family, ECC and is available on Amazon.com.
Her poetry is featured in Tanya Runyon's How to Write A Poem. Two of her poems will also appear in Casual, an upcoming e-book for National Poetry Month 2016, published by TS Poetry Press.