“[Saunders] remains emotionally open and clear…
There’s no doubt she has that “It” factor.”
“Alanna Saunders, who is also Rapunzel,
shines as Little Red Riding Hood”
Alanna Saunders, videographer.
Written by: Marina Pires. Heartstrings Trio: Luke Wygodny, Marina Pires, Elias Wygodny. Featuring: Sam Quiggins (Cello) & Nyssa Duchow (Violin). Dancer / Storyteller: Jamal Shuriah.
MY STORY
Where to begin Alanna’s story? Maybe in the womb with her sister, scaring her mother senseless that she’d never be able to leave the house again with 3 baby boys already at home. Maybe when she was 4, singing with her siblings in choir, having her own harmony for the first time, fighting over who got to play the drum. Perhaps her first dance recital when she vividly remembers fighting with her sister about what the steps were, mid-recital. Her first instrument perhaps? The piano, then the clarinet, then tenor sax (the best of all the saxes).
She feels spoiled growing up in the pacific northwest, surrounded by greenery at all times, sheltered by her mother, supported endlessly by her siblings. Alanna has cultivated a love for the arts and music in an environment that allowed her to pursue her passions without resistance. Music always came first.
Alanna always loved school and academics, and in addition to a heavy academic load, was constantly busy, taking lessons on multiple instruments, on voice, playing competitive basketball for a good majority of time, and participating in over 30 different musicals at their local community theatre throughout childhood. When one honestly thinks about how little she slept in high school, it’s a wonder she made it.
By the time Alanna graduated she was so confused about what she wanted to do. All her siblings knew they wanted to pursue the arts in some way, and Alanna, forever a caretaker, felt both a pull and pressure to be a doctor, or something a little more useful to the family has a whole. But because she was unsure what she wanted to do, Alanna decided to start with what she knew she loved to do, and so followed her brothers all the way across the country to University of Miami to pursue a BFA in Musical Theatre.
The conservatory was part of a bigger school and so she was able to take pre-med courses, because of course med school as a BACK-UP plan made complete sense…eventually she came to her senses by junior year after a life-changing semester studying abroad at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London. She finished out a degree in musical theatre and immediately moved to New York to pursue acting, signing on with her current agents at Bloc within a week of the move, and going to her first open call to audition for Tiger Lily. The rest is history (or maybe just her resume).
Alanna currently lives in Manhattan pursuing a career in acting, most recently making her Broadway debut in the original Broadway cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. When not onstage, she works pursuing her other passion of fitness, as a fitness instructor, helping others to obtain goals of becoming their best self. If not onstage singing and/or pretending to be someone else? OR working out? Probably doing a puzzle. Maybe reading a romance novel. As a last resort: lying on the floor listening to music with her headphones on. Lover of all things soft.
