Actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, director, and playwright Alex Kanter had a plan, and Indian River State College was nowhere on it. Four years ago, he was director of performance management at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey, producing concerts with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Then came COVID, and the plan changed dramatically.
“So much happened during the height of the pandemic,” he says. “For me it created a fork in the road, an opportunity to come back to doing what I love, which is teaching. I’ve always erred on the side of following your passion.”
“You never know where out of left field that’s going to come, but I was open enough and my life changed immediately,” adds the Vero Beach resident, who, as master theater instructor, delights in introducing IRSC students to a world that can alter preconceived notions and open the door to possibilities.
“I feel one of our jobs as educators is to tap into students’ wells of experience,” Kanter says. “There are so many different shutters blocking their view; our job is to open those shutters and make students fall in love with the arts and theater, to pull them in.