Maegan directs What the Constitution Means to Me, a co-production between Furman University and Lean Ensemble Theater, playing October 17—November 10, 2024.
Maegan will appear as Anne Hathaway in Talene Monahon's Jane Anger at The Warehouse Theatre, directed by Anne Kelly Tromsness and playing January 31—February 16, 2025.
Maegan McNerney Azar began her theatre career when she was 9 years
old as an orphan in the musical Annie. Since then, she has participated
in community, educational, and professional theatre in states across the
country. Currently, she is the Professor of Acting and
Directing at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
A native Floridian, Maegan grew up on Matlacha, a small
fishing island on the Southwest Gulf Coast. After graduating with
Salutatorian honors from Mariner High School, Maegan moved to Johnson
City, Tennessee, to attend East Tennessee State University. A member of
the University Honors Scholar program (now the Honors College), Maegan
also played on the university’s NCAA Division I Atlantic Sun Conference
Volleyball team. Her theatre hobby soon turned toward career goal when
she decided to switch majors from Biology to Theatre in her third term
at ETSU. Studying under Pat Cronin, Maegan worked tirelessly to become a
well-rounded theatre artist — not just an actor — by studying design,
theatre history, and stage management in addition to her primary acting
classes. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Theatre in 2003
with summa cum laude honors while earning the Bud Frank Award for
Excellence and the Outstanding Student in Theatre award.
From Tennessee, she traveled to Alabama where she was
heavily pursued for the Masters Program in Acting Pedagogy at the
University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Under the tutelage of Ed Williams,
Peder Melhuse, Tiza Garland, and Seth Panitch, this program uniquely
melded her passion for acting and her passion for teaching. The
Department of Theatre and Dance afforded her the opportunity to
emphasize in theatre movement, through which she studied stage combat,
period styles, jazz, ballet, mask work, and Laban, while maintaining a
full schedule of acting in university productions, teaching a full
semester load, studying musical theatre, voice, and directing. She
earned the Marian Gallaway Award for Distinguished Graduate Acting
during her second year, and in 2006, she graduated with a Master of Fine
Arts in Acting Pedagogy.
Maegan began her career in the professional theatre by
gaining experience in summer stock outdoor theatre venues in North
Carolina and Ohio. She has since worked for SummerTide Theatre, Seaside
Repertory Theatre, California Theatre Center, Centre Stage South
Carolina, The Warehouse Theatre, and Lean Ensemble Theater as both actor and teacher. She has
been a proud member of the Southeastern Theatre Conference since 2001, and is a member of Actor's Equity.
She has also studied with Hamilton Camp at the Paul Sills’ Wisconsin
Theatre Game Center, Ballroom Dancing at the Fred Astaire Studios in
Santa Clara, California, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement
Studies in New York, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Shakespeare
Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo,
Italy. Through professional experience and development, Maegan continues
her training for a constantly changing theatre world.
In 2006, Maegan was appointed as the Education Director
at California Theatre Center. In this position, her mission to instill a
life-long appreciation for the arts in our young people took root. For
CTC, Maegan not only developed every piece of eduction material, but she
also worked as an actor and director for the company’s professional
productions. CTC’s Theatre Conservatory, Internship Program, Great
Spring Musical, Youth Professional Acting, and Outreach Programs serve
thousands of students in California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. In
2007, Maegan also had the opportunity to design curriculum for
second-language English students that was then presented on the
first-ever American youth theatre tour to China. Maegan’s Conservatory
students have gone on to attend top theatre schools such as University
of Southern California, American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and
Carnegie Mellon.
Currently, Maegan is the Professor of Acting
& Directing and Chair of Theatre Arts at Furman University,
a Past President of the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s Executive Committee,
and a Past President of the South Carolina Theatre Association. Through
her courses at Furman, Maegan attempts to engage individual growth
through theatre as a professional art form. In so doing, she hopes that
students will carry their appreciation of theatre beyond the university
grounds to a wider world in need of exploring the human spirit.