About Alexis Milligan
Alexis Milligan is an acclaimed actor, movement specialist and director with several awards and nominations to her name. Acting credits include: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson (Festival Antigonish); Any Given Moment (Ship’s Company Theatre/Theatre New Brunswick); 8 Seasons with Two Planks and a Passion Theatre (notably Roselind/As You Like It - Merritt Award Nominee; 937; Beowulf - Merritt Award Nominee); Associate Artist with Theatre Gargantua; 7 international tours with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. Film/TV credits include: Sullivan’s Crossing (CTV); Some Things Won’t Sleep (Foglight Productions - ACTRA Award Nominee); Hot Wheels (Mattel); Addison (KidsCBC); Seed (City TV - ACTRA Award Nominee). Alexis was also principal puppeteer on You & Me, and The Mighty Jungle (KidsCBC - Gemini Best Pre-School Production).
Alongside her performance work Alexis is a noted artistic collaborator and has created choreography and movement for many theatre companies around the world. Currently in her eighth season as Movement Director at The Shaw Festival, selected credits include: Witness for the Prosecution; One Man, Two Guvnors; The House That Will Not Stand; The Game of Love and Chance, Desire Under the Elms; Sex (by Mae West), The Glass Menagerie, and Saint Joan. Alexis was also the movement director for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Othello, and was the movement and puppetry director for the sold out run of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Stratford Festival, as well as En Julefortelling (A Christmas Carol) with the National Theatre of Norway in Bergen.
Alongside her artistic work, Alexis has developed “The Theatre of Medicine”, in partnership with the Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons - an accredited program which teaches strategies for human connection through the performing arts. She has also developed several arts-based knowledge translation and exchange productions including collaborations with Dalhousie University’s School of Nursing (The PEACE Project: Palliative Education through Art Communication and Engagement), The Association of Nova Scotia Museums (Touchstones: Canada 150), and It’s A Girl! created with gender consultant Michelle Raine.
Alexis holds a diploma in Classical Performance from George Brown College, a diploma in university teaching from Renaissance College/UNB, and a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from The University of New Brunswick, in which she combined the performing arts, curriculum development, communications and neuroscience. The focus of her research was the development of her concept of whole-person communication and her program “Speaking in Silence”.
Currently, Alexis sits on the steering committee for the Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity as well as The Atlantic Centre for Creativity where she hosts the “Finding Creativity” podcast. She is past chair of Theatre Nova Scotia and past vice-chair for The Nova Scotia Talent Trust. She has been on the peer assessment selection committee for The Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Nova Scotia, and Arts Newfoundland, as well as several student scholarship juries including the Nova Scotia Talent Trust and the Pat Richard’s Choreographic Award.
Alexis is a much sought after teacher and educator for her unique approach to knowledge sharing and learning. She is a recurring guest faculty member of The European Association of UrologyTalentIncubator program, the Verbier Festival music academy, the CareerAdvancement Program for classical musicians, the Dalhousie University School of Nursing, the School of Nursing UNB/St.John, and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Classical Studio.