Bio & Resume
As a director, Traci has helmed nearly seventy productions; among them are Cyrano de Bergerac, The Dazzle, Sunday in the Park with George, Eurydice, Urinetown, Metamorphoses, Fiddler on the Roof, The Christians, Marjorie Prime, Crimes of the Heart, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also continues to perform as an actress; these roles have included Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Viola in Twelfth Night, Mariane in Tartuffe, Andromache in The Trojan Women, the Mother in Blood Wedding, and Clytemnestra in Iphigenia 2.0.
Traci is an associate member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.
Traci Ledford is a freelance director, educator, and actress based in Nashville, Tennessee, who received her Master of Fine Arts in Directing as well as her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Directing and Design from Baylor University. In the interim between the two degrees, Traci served as the Education and Outreach Intern at the Dallas Theater Center before devoting nine years to teaching theatre in the public school systems of Texas and North Carolina. After receiving her MFA, she began work at East Texas Baptist University where she served as Department Chair for eight of her ten years there. Most recently, she joined the faculty at Belmont University, where she will be the program director for the BFA Directing students.
Select Directing Credits
Professional Work
at Festival Theatre - St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon
Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson (Pandemic Outdoor Staged Reading)
Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley
at Colorado Shakespeare Festival - Boulder, Colorado
Cymbeline by William Shakespeare (Assistant Director)
at WaterTower Theatre - Addison, Texas
The Traveling Lady by Horton Foote (Assistant Director)
at Horton by the Stream Theatre - Elka Park, New York
The Actor by Horton Foote (Assistant Director)
at Dallas Theater Center’s Teen/Children’s Theatre - Dallas, Texas
The Ugly Duckling by A. A. Milne
Higher Education
at Belmont University - Nashville, Tennessee
Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson
at Kilgore College - Kilgore, Texas
Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon
at East Texas Baptist University - Marshall, Texas
Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison
The Christians by Lucas Hnath
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick
Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman
The Heiress by Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz
Urinetown by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann
The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan
Pride and Prejudice by Jon Jory from the novel by Jane Austen
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl
Lend Me a Tenor by Ken Ludwig
Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello
The Dazzle by Richard Greenberg
Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht
Tartuffe by Molière
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
Graduate School - Baylor University, Waco, TX
Full Length Season Productions
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Moon Over the Brewery by Bruce Graham
The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute (Assistant Director)
Baylor Abroad - Pavé d’Orsay - Paris, France (Staged Readings)
Subterranean Homesick Blues, Again by Dennis Reardon
Baylor Workshop Performances (Assignments Performed for the Department)
Doña Rosita, the Spinster by Federico García Lorca
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Frank Wildhorn and Nan Knighton
The Problem by A. R. Gurney
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
The Trojan Women by Euripides
The Grimm Truth by Beki Baker, Traci Ledford, & Amber McGinnis (Co-Director)
Fifteen Minutes (Diagnostic Scene)
Community Theatre
at Garland Civic Theatre secondSTAGE - Garland, Texas
The Voice of the Prairie by John Olive
Relatively Annoying (New Play Workshop)
Public Education
at Valle Crucis School (Watauga County Schools) - Valle Crucis, NC
Night of the Pterodactyls by Julian Wiles
at Mabel School (Watauga County Schools) - Zionville, NC
The Adventures of Nate the Great by Pamela Sterling
at Garland High School (International Baccalaureate Program) - Garland, Texas
Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer
Charlotte’s Web by Joseph Robinette
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
at Austin Academy (Gifted and Talented Middle Magnet School) - Garland, Texas
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Clumsy Custard Horror Show by William Gleason
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Joseph Robinette
The Three Musketeers by Peter Raby
My Son Is Crazy but Promising by Tim Kelly
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Who Walks in the Dark by Tim Kelly
Remember My Name by Joanna Halpert Kraus
Tom Jones by David Rogers
The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie
The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Rumors by Neil Simon
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Education and Training
DEGREES
Baylor University (2009)
Master of Fine Arts, Directing
Responsibilities:
Box Office Assistant
Research Assistant
Teaching Assistant
Assistant Director of Season Production
Director of Season Productions
Teacher of Record
Texas A&M University – Commerce (1998)
Teaching Certification – Secondary Theatre Arts
Baylor University (1995)
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Directing and Design
Summa Cum Laude
Requirements also completed for the Performance Degree. Baylor University will not award two degrees in the same department.
INTERNSHIPS
Assistant Directing Internship (2016)
Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Boulder, Colorado.
Cymbeline (Jim Helsinger, Director)
Education & Outreach Internship (1995-1996)
Dallas Theater Center, Dallas, Texas.
Responsibilities:
Instructor of Youth Classes
Director of Children’s Show
Team Member for Project Discovery (Student Audiences for Season Shows)
Crew Member for Season Shows
CONTINUING EDUCATION AND WORKSHOPS
Intimacy Choreography Workshops
Theatrical Intimacy Education Digital Workshop: Best Practices (Summer 2022).
Playwriting Workshops
Discussion based workshops led by Horton Foote (Fall 2006), Tina Howe (Fall 2007), Arthur Giron (Summer 2007), and Craig Wright (Spring 2010).
Texas Educational Theatre Association UIL One-Act Play Adjudicators Workshops
Lecture based workshops led by TETA State-Level Adjudicators (Winter 2007 and Winter 2011).